Buena Vista, CO

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

I am heading out to a Men's weekend in Buena Vista, Colorado for a horse pack camping trip. We'll be riding up into the mountains for camping. I leave Friday and return on Wednesday.

If you have never been to Buena Vista, it is a typical small rural Colorado town on the Arkansas river. It is just gorgeous. It is at the foot of the 5 collegiate peaks, Mount Princeton, Colombia, Yale, Harvard and I can't remember the last one. There are a lot of 14,000 ft. peaks in the area.It is about 2 hours due west from Colorado Springs and 35 miles due south from Leadville, Co.

I hope to be able to share some pictures with you when I return.

To the best of my knowledge there aren't any timeshares in this immediate area.

[DebbieM Member Find all posts View Profile Close DebbieM]

You're in for a treat of fall colors!

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Yes, I did this same trip a couple of years ago and the aspens were golden and there were lots of other fall colors!

On one of the hikes up to a 14,000 ft. peak, one of the groups had a blizzard hit them when they were about 100 yards from the peak. They had to skidadle off that mountain really fast. Fortunately, I was across the valley with another one of our group on a mountain peak. We were watching the snow storm while sun bathing! There's nothing like standing on top of one of those mountains and looking down on the valleys.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Enjoy the trip and drive safely

Jya-Ning

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

Mike,

Have a great trip, it sounds awesome!

Avery

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

Bring back lots of memories to share!! shaggy

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Back with pictures

OK guys,

I had a wonderful trip. Flew to Denver and transported about 3 hours to Buena Vista, Co. to the Adventure Unlimited ranches. There were about 13 men who were there to do a 3 day horseback packing camp out. These were divided into 2 groups, the cowboys and us city slickers. We had 5 men and 2 staff in our group.

Personally, I had not seriously ridden a horse in about 40 years.

On Saturday the cowboys were to go on their 3 day 2 night camp out. Us city slickers were to do a 15 mile ride to some place up Mount Harvard called French Lick Creek. Well, when the roundup and saddling took took an extra hour, the weather had decided to rain and snow. All around us were 14,000 ft peaks which we could not see at all for the snow falling at their peaks.

We go and have a really fun ride in the snow. Down in the trees the wind was mild and the snow was light. We eventually rode about 6 miles up the trail and stopped for lunch. We had to find ice cold rocks to sit on to eat because of all of the snow. We were about 2 miles from French Lick Creek. We made a wonderful decision to return to the corral. Boy, I never knew that going down a mountain on a horse was much more work on your knees, legs, and butt than going up. We made it back fine, but a little sore. About 30 minutes after we got back, the cowboys returned, too much snow and too much danger for the group!

That night we went into Buena Vista to the Cottonwood hot springs and soaked for about an hour. That was the best $12.50 I ever spent. I had new life!

Sunday and Monday were our designated days for overnight camping. Sunday we rode to Cottonwood camp, about 2 hours to our camp site. From there we rode to a mountain lake called Kronoke Lake, about 4 miles up the mountain. This ride took about 2 1/2 hours up the mountain. Lots of snow and ice on the path. We got to forge a couple of small creeks and a large one about 50 ft across. As we rode higher and higher, the temperature got lower and lower. The ride was worth it. It is a beautiful mountain lake with crystal clear water. We made our ride back to camp in about 1 3/4 hours.

That night we split up our jobs: some setting up tents, some building the campfire for dinner, and some tending to and caring for the horses. By 7:00 p.m. we were eating our dinner. However, I was so thirsty that I wasn't hungry at all! Myself and a couple of other guys made a pineapple upside down cake in a dutch oven, which came out perfect. It was a great treat to go to bed on. The temperature got down to 20 to 25 degrees that night.

The next morning we cooked a grand breakfast of cowboy coffee (boiled coffee), homemade donuts cooked in the dutch oven, fried potatoes, and homemade egg mcmuffins. Cleanup of the camp included dispersing all of the horse waste and hay into the woods. It took about 2 hours to pack up camp and prepare the horses for our ride back to the ranches.

Our ride back to the ranches was back up the same ridge we had come down. But when we got to the top, we took another path around the side of a mountain to the other side of the valley. We probably rode only 5 or 6 miles back. Everyone, including the horses, was glad to get back. That meant more work, including cleaning the entire corral area of horse pucky.

It was a great experience. The pictures I have below are just some of the ones I took. Thanks for letting me share my trip with you.

http://mikeholmes.shutterfly.com/action/

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

man how'd I miss THIS!

Mike I didn't know you were doing a horse trek!! I woulda razzed you plenty!

Glad you had a good time even though you turned back.

Those pics are gorgeous.

Hoping you did OK with your mount. He has a small eye, which doesn't bode well...but reminds me of a very comfortable horse I rode about 10 years ago named Ranger.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Lawren,

What does the "small eye" mean? Red was good and steady, but pretty disinterested in me. It was like, how did I draw the black bean in having to go on this trip when all of my buddies get to stay out in the pasture?

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Mike, what very nice pictures you have and what a nice place to stay at. I put a comment on that photo-share web page but had to sign up so will give you my comment here.

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and a picture of you too. It is nice to put a face to someone who is posting here. I always like that.