Another prairie afternoon. 09/02/23

[dirt dame 559]

Kim texted me that she had intel on another old ranch site and it wasn't too far out,so perfect for another afternoon ride.  I loaded the Beta up late in the morning and headed for Kolman ranch to start our jaunt.

We took a small trail out to the familiar jeep track that went up through a stand of quaking aspen, it the main route towards the top of Aspen mountain, then split off the the south.  By and by, we were running down a finger of the plateau, stopping to peer over the edges from time to time, to see cattle browsing around in the bottom land.  As we rode downslope towards a valley, there was a track to our right which we followed down to the ruins of an old cattle operation.  There was a spring creek down there and we stopped and took pictures.

From there, we were heading back up another hill, when Kim stopped to look down into another draw her was a faint jeep track in the bottom that eventually piddled out into a cow single track.  Kim also spotted what looked to be an old rusty car down there, but it was too far away to be sure of what we were looking at.  So we turned around, went back towards the valley, found the jeep track and headed up the draw.

By an by, we reached the vehicle and were surprised to find that it was disappointingly modern.  If the expired  2014 registration tags were any indicator, it meant that the car had been there for 9 years.  The interior was rotting out, as some windows were open, but the paint looked really good, so maybe the car hadn't been there quite that long.  We looked through the car....not much in it but a "greaser" bag with a company logo on it, and a hard hat.  Not one to waste anything, Kim took the greaser bag with her as we left the area.

We saw the same band of wild horses that we had seen last time, and lots of antelope on our return route.  We stopped near a sheep camp to watch antelope run.  I looked behind us and there were two muttly sheep dogs eyeballing us.  They were quiet, but not friendly, and came right over to pee on the tires of both our bikes, before heading back to the sheep wagon.  We returned via the route we came up, stopping at Three Patches picnic ground to eat a snack and watch the weather start to roll in.  Just another day on the plains, on bikes.

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by dirt dame

[Corpic 5]

Very nice what is the local fishing like?

[dirt dame 559]

2 hours ago, Corpic said:

Very nice what is the local fishing like?

Local fishing is pretty ho hum, but if you drive 80 miles south into Utah and up the Uinta mountains, fishing is pretty exciting and the scenery is beautiful.

[Bagstr 287]

Mimi,  Thanks again for the words and the photos. So much to take in as we sit here in suburbia. I find myself drawn to that stone wall: Who built it? Where did the stone come from? ( Just across the meadow..). My guess is this was a summer camp. What does your riding pal think?

[dirt dame 559]

15 hours ago, Bagstr said:

Mimi,  Thanks again for the words and the photos. So much to take in as we sit here in suburbia. I find myself drawn to that stone wall: Who built it? Where did the stone come from? ( Just across the meadow..). My guess is this was a summer camp. What does your riding pal think?

It was some sort of a cattle operation camp.  The wall is part of four that formed an enclosure and a small wooden shack once stood in the upper right corner.

 

[Bagstr 287]

Thanks

[Spaugh 1]

Hello Mimi and Dave!  Just checking in to see who is still here.

[dirt dame 559]

8 hours ago, Spaugh said:

Hello Mimi and Dave!  Just checking in to see who is still here.

Hi, Spaugh!  Ironically,I'm still here,but I'm no longer there.

[Bagstr 287]

Good to hear from you Brad. I hope the family is well. Hiding in plain sight.

    💁‍♂️