Leadville CO - STR-2021-11

Saturday, 26 June

We woke up this morning with a plan to visit Leadville, CO, all of 70 miles away. The weather forecast called for off-and-on rain for the afternoon, so we weren't sure what we would do today. And we had no reservations for a place to stay on a Saturday night.

We set off around 10am and enjoyed a picturesque drive to Dillon, CO. We deviated from the route to drive the Dillon Dam road and see some of Dillon as we drove by. Just as we got on I-70, we saw the sign for tourist information at the next exit, so we jumped off.

The tourist information was in downtown Frisco, CO. We found the Main Street was blocked off for traffic, and a parking place for RVs only a block off Main Street.

Frisco was very busy. It is clearly a ski town in winter, and quite popular in summer. We gathered up some information for planning our activities for the next week, walked the main part of town, then continued on to Leadville.

We had scoped out the National Forest campgrounds on the east end of Turquoise Lake, located just outside of Leadville. All of the campgrounds that were reservable were booked. Several were first come-first served. We hoped that by arriving early in the day, our chances would be better. And Darrell surmised that with the rain forecast for the weekend, some campers might be no-shows or leave their site early as camping, especially tent camping, in the rain with low temperatures forecast for the 30s is not some people's idea of fun.

We started by checking out Matchless Campground, which was basically parking spots for campers around the perimeter of a large paved parking area near the boat ramp. We found several available parking spots, and the overflow lot was also available. We did note that cell signal was pretty bad as well. With that, we breathed a huge sigh of relief.

We drove to the next campground, the Silver Dollar Campground. As we drove through, it initially seemed like ever site was reserved. All of a sudden, we saw that site 3 was open. Located on the top of the hill, it was level, and had cell signal. A little challenging to back in, but Sprinty handled it just like the three-point U-turn a few weeks ago. Pinching ourselves, we quickly completed the paperwork at the iron ranger (self service checkin). $12/night with the Senior Pass for a level site in the woods, non-electric.

After we we had paid, we checked the back of the placard on the post and found that the site had been reserved for 24-28 June. Our anxiety got elevated slightly, but we figured if there was an issue, we could relocate to the parking lot. We asked the campers next door and they confirmed the family had left early. Wah-who!!! Semper Gumby!

We only paid for one night as two miles away is the Mount Massive Golf Course, which is also a Harvest Host. We re-checked the weather forecast, called the golf Course to make arrangements for tomorrow night and made a tee time for Monday.

One of the popular trails in Leadville is the Turquoise Lake Trail, an 11-mile moderately traffic out and back trail along the north side of the lake. In reviewing the information in AllTrails, we saw that there was a bit of an elevation gain at 2.5 miles and picked that as a turn-around point if the altitude did not get us sooner.

The review comments complained a lot about gnats, but it was a breezy day with temperature around 47 degrees, which likely helped keep the gnats at bay. We only saw gnats in any numbers near the turn around spot we had picked.

We surprised ourself at our ability to hike this trail at 9,900 feet elevation. Not only in doing it, but hiking it at our usual pace. On the outbound leg, we experienced a few minutes of drizzle.

On the way back, we had a mix precipitation shower, rain mixed in with small hail. At one point, we sought "shelter" under some conifer trees while we watched and listened to the hail. The hail hitting the surface of the lake made it sound like a waterfall. The hail, 3/16" to 1/8", started to accumulate.

Once it tapered off, we continued on the hike. Along the way, we stopped by one of the other campgrounds to use the facilities, and noted that there was another parking lot type of overflow with available sites for tonight. With about a mile left, we heard thunder in the distance. Despite having already hiked 4 miles at 9,900 feet elevation, our pace quickened to match our increased heart rate. As we neared the campground, we saw the rain was already falling at the other end of the lake. We made it back to camp just before the rain shower.

When we arrived back at camp, we asked the campers next door if they had hail - they said it had not hailed there. Our hail shower was only 2 miles away.

We were tired and pleased we completed the hike. We both turned in early. The Adle heat system in Sprinty did a fine job - the low temperature got to about 35 degrees. What a change from only a few days ago.

Sunday, 27 June

We both slept in later than we have been on this trip. With the temperatures in the 30s, we were in no hurry to get out and about. Our first activity was bike riding, so we decided to wait until it got to 50 degrees.

About 9:30, we relocated to a parking lot behind the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, CO, as a good place to park Sprinty and easy access to the bike, trail.

We rode the Mineral Belt Trail in a clockwise direction. With that, we climbed for the first 4.5 miles to an elevation of 10,604 feet, then mostly coasted for over 4.5 miles.

Our watches recorded 12 miles of riding and 786 feet of total climbing. Along the trail were a number of exhibits about the mining history.

At one point, we passed by the Matchless Mine. The Matchless Mine was purchased in 1879 by silver king Horace A.W. Tabor, the Matchless Mine at first looked like a dud. But it soon became one of the richest silver mines of the era, estimated to have produced $7.5 million. It helped make Horace Tabor the richest person in Colorado.

We also passed a sign about Mt Elbert, Colorado's highest peak at 14,433 feet. The sign was conveniently located such that Mt Elbert was framed between the trees on either side of the trail.

After the bike ride (during which Sprinty's solar fully charged the house batteries), we walked downtown Leadville, and picked a cafe with outdoor seating to have lunch. We then visited the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum. The museum was well done. Exhibits explained different types of mining and shared the mine history of Leadville. One of the exhibits told the riches to rags story of Horace Tabor and his second wife nicknamed Baby Doe.

Our "campsite" for the night is the Mt Massive Golf Course parking lot, located only two miles from where we spent last night. It is a Harvest Host.

After getting Sprinty settled and getting a break in the passing rain, Darrell went for a bike ride through the nearby National Forest dispersed camping area to see if there were spots available and the various folks using it. A key lesson from checking it out on the ebike was the benefit of scoping out dispersed camping by ebike before taking Sprinty down the dirt roads. In some places, the rain puddles were like ponds of unknown depth, better suited to high clearance vehicles. Scoping it out by bike ahead of time could prevent getting stuck, and make the drive in to a chosen site more pleasant and efficient.

Monday, 28 June

A chilly night - temperatures got down to 34 degrees. As the golf course is by one of the two main roads leading into/out of Leadville, we had some road noise, but quite tolerable.

Golf today was at Mt Massive Golf Course, which claims to be the highest golf course in North America. Readers may recall we played Furnace Creek Ranch Golf Course in Death Valley in February 2019, which claims to be the lowest golf course in the world. Now Sprinty wants to collect all the golf courses in between. 😉

We purposely made our tee time for 9:10AM to give the morning some time to warm up. With the sun out and almost no breeze, we changed plans and went off early.

We both struck the ball well, and we're flummoxed by how much further our shots were going at 9,600 feet elevation. Perhaps a good problem to have?

Darrell played the first nine holes well, and lead to the turn. On the 11th hole, the four-some we had been following, and waiting on, let us through. Darrell hit his tee shot on the blind par 3 hole to within 7 feet of the pin. Kris hit well, sailing over the green. Nothing like hitting good shots with an audience who just let you play through.

Kris played the back nine better, while Darrell struggled a bit. He still retained honors on the day.

We finished golf about noon, about an hour earlier than we expected. We headed south on US 24 for the rest of the days adventures. Deets in the next blog post.