Stoney beat us to it this morning, walking in the front door around 9am while I was still snoozing. I folded up the bed quick smart and got in the shower while Stoney got to making us pancakes (I know right, who is this guy?). Jon got to work clearing the three-inch thick layer of snow that had caked itself onto every surface of my car while I watched. It’s nice to have a sidekick that thinks this shit is a novelty! Our chores done, we hung out all morning as we slowly packed the car with our stuff. The pancakes were brilliant, especially when topped with bacon and honey.

Everyone left the house at the same time. Hugs all round, we’d had a great time in Silverton, Jon got to catch up with an old friend and I got the chance to meet him. I was grateful as we drove out of the driveway that I didn’t need to put chains on, even though Jon was up for the experience. Before we left town, we stopped in at the local grog shop and bought a bottle of whiskey and some beer for our host to thank him for our stay. We snuck back to the house and put it on the counter for him to find. Goodbye Stoney and Clark, thanks for such a good time in Silverton!

The drive through Red Mountain Pass was beautiful and eerie at the same time. Stoney had warned that after the climb up to the top of the pass, the ride down was the “the fun part”. With the snow falling steadily and a significant lack of guard rails, I took it easy, taking the opportunity to take in the views when I could. Both Jon and I were in awe of the daunting mountains that surrounded us. It was as if they were standing tall, saying, “Climb me. Just try it and see what happens.” Humans were definitely never meant to live in these conditions. We were hoping the perpetual snow would mean we’d have flakes falling on our heads as we sat in the hot springs we were aiming for.

After driving through the town of Ouray and seeing that the Ouray pools were under construction, we set our navigation for Orvis Hot Springs, which had been our first choice anyway. Soon after Ouray, we were out of the snow, though it still touched the ground in most places. It made the colour of the few trees that still had leaves stand out. We drove right past the hot springs that had a few cars parked then turned around and went straight back. We’d forgotten it was a Saturday, so the crowds were unexpected to us.

I was busting for the bathroom so ran straight in while Jon managed to get a tour of the pools. At reception we paid $22 for entry and were informed about the “clothing optional” rule. Jon gave me a tour of the pools he had and we both wondered whether we should get naked or not. When we walked into the garden and picked a small pool to start with, I decided nudity wasn’t appropriate in this situation. Majority of people were in their birthday suits, but they were much older and not fit, so it wasn’t my crowd. I prefer to save my nude ass for being out in the wild. Jon and I soaked in the small pool for a while, chatting away in the shallow water. Next was the main pool which was the size of a backyard swimming pool and full of about twenty people. Most people were just sitting in silence, eyes closed enjoying the warmth but others formed small groups for intimate chats and some were reading a book, held out of the water.

Jon and I had a good old chat session, talking mostly about our engineering careers (or lack of them!) and what made us tick. After an hour or so, I was done with soaking, but we still hadn’t tried the cold dunk or the lobster tank, the hottest pool in the whole place. I followed Jon into the cold pool, not really enjoying the cold sensation after the warmth that had been engulfing me. We managed to squeeze into the lobster tank with a few hippies and relished the heat. We did one more round of cold dunking and a final soak in the main pool and we were done. We both had showers (I know, another one!) and met in the lobby where we snacked on granola for a bit before heading off.

Jon offered to drive and I took the opportunity to sit back and watch the scenery go by for probably my last time in a while. I was hungry and sleepy before long so we stopped in Delta for a burger, keeping with our recent tradition of having a late lunch in the middle of the afternoon. We found a sweet dive bar and sat ourselves down at the bar at the invite of the barmaid. We were the only ones in the place apart from a few locals who were having a heated conversation about how climate changed could be resolved if only people would breathe less. I ended up having Chili soup while Jon had the burger I was craving, but the soup did me good. I followed it up with a chocolate sundae and as Jon used the bathroom, I watched the silent Superman film playing on one of the TVs.

Back out into daylight, we continued our drive into Grand Junction. After the Red Mountain Pass, it was basically uneventful, but time got away from us. After driving into town, we hit the local REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated) to get Jon a few goodies before he head off to Japan the next day. He was astounded at American cheap prices and bought up on a few bits of gear and dried food for his maybe-hike in Yakashima. I nerded out a bit on climbing gear in the short time we had in the store before it closed. That done, we were keen for a camp. We’d sussed out the closest spot to town on freecampsites.net and sure enough, there was BLM land ten minutes from the city. Perfect for getting Jon to the train station in the morning for his trip to Denver. The place we found was basically an access point for a bunch of off-road dirt biking trails, so pretty exposed and not much in the way of shade or water. Amazingly, right next to a fire ring was a couple of pallets that we could burn, so it was looking pretty good! After reconning a few other spots along the BLM road, we agreed that the pallet camp took the camp so head back there. We figured we’d wait until sunset to light a fire, just in case the owners of the pallets came back to their camp.

Since we had a couple of daylight hours left, I was keen to do a permanent fix for my roof rack. I explained my idea to Jon and he helped me to push my piece of dowel down the front tube to straighten it, then using the pallet wood, we built a little castle to suppose the rack from underneath. It took us a good hour or two of sawing around and jumping up and down on the car, but in the end, it came together perfectly. The whole while, there was a bit white truck parked across the way with the darkest tinting I’ve ever seen, even on his windscreen. In the hour that he was parked, he had three “clients” pull up next to him, exit their car, hop into the backseat, then come out a few minutes later. Drug dealer! We tried not to pay too much attention, but we were sure he was getting a good bit of entertainment from watching us in between servicing his customers.

The camp was quite windy, so when the sun went down and we got a fire going, I parked the van to act as a windbreak, which was semi-successful but better than nothing. It was a bloody cold night and I was feeling ill again. We took turns sitting around the fire and trying to breakdown what was a very solid pallet, deciding that it was all a bit hard, especially when we found out Dan was coming to join us for the night. He’d been in Durango so had driven north to meet us, showing up an hour after sunset. Jon and I immediately wanted a tour of Air Force One. In the time we’d been away, Dan had been sending me photos of the mods he’d been doing and it was a changed van. Only the passenger seat remained, in a backwards positions and a lot of superfluous gear (like the TV and DVD) had been removed. The bed had also become a lounge with storage underneath and everything. We were both very suitably impressed.

I’d warned him that we wanted to try an experiment to break a pallet apart and he was up for using the two vans and a couple of tow ropes to break the thing down. My van stayed put while we tied our ropes around the pallet and Dan gently drove forwards to bring up the slack. With everything taught, he drove away and the pallet nicely broke down into a few pieces. One more tug and it was completely apart. Yay for van life. We spent the rest of the night talking shit around the fire until it was way too bloody cold to survive it anymore. Jon had the Astro to himself for the night while I tried out the Presidential Lounge for first time.