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Left the Valley of the Gods this morning after bacon and pancakes…yummy! Headed back to Monticello….the VOG was too warm and dusty…not good…but it was beautiful. I wanted to get back to some elevation and coolness so I headed to a free camping area in the Abajo mountains just west of Monticello…elevation at the campsite is 8803 feet…nice! Pulled in around 1300 and got a primo spot…and only one other camper in the whole place. Gonna stay here two nights before I head back to 3 Step. I may grab the buggy and come back…I can stay here for 14 days so maybe that is a plan.

N 37.88955 W 109.45290

Oh BTW this is my view tonight while I sit and eat chocolate chip cookies and drink a nice cold glass of moo juice 🙂

27 May….After a breakfast of 4 pounds of bacon and a milkshake I headed back to 3 Step to get the trailer and buggy. This spot in the Abajo mountains is sweet! Cool temps and mostly dust free. I have two neighbors but they are well away and very quiet…nice.

On the way back I stopped by the Shake Shack in Monticello and got another milkshake….all is well in the world 🙂

The grade up the road out of town to the camping area is about 5 miles long with a grade of 7%….man the motor was hot when I got to the top….not overheating but it had worked hard dragging everything up to the top. I’m all settled in for a week or so!

I use a “sand blanket” at the side door…when you walk on it the dirt and dust from my shoes falls though the weave of the thing and doesn’t get tracked inside.

My friend Bill from Florida stopped by 3 Step….he is riding some of the Back Country Discovery Routes in the area. He’s a fellow brother LEO and gave me a nice FHP coffee mug….tonight’s coffee will break it in….thanks Bill!

30 May…. makin a mess of peas to go with my steak strips, hard boiled eggs, and Hershey bar for dinner. And yes that’s a bit of butter to give them more flavor.

Oh BTW, on a nice hike this afternoon I really twisted my ankle. I heard it crackle and pop. I’m layin on the couch watching The First 48 and trying to decide if I should amputate my right foot.

31 May….sat drinking coffee last night as a glorious storm moved though…nice rain and lots of wind….pulled the cover off the buggy so it wouldn’t rip apart…my foot kept me up last night until about 2 am when I finally got to sleep…this morning I couldn’t put my boot on so that was my excuse to eat more bacon and drink coffee until about noon. Around 1400 I decided I had to get outside so I jammed my foot into my boot and went for a buggy ride…didn’t last long though…storms on the horizon…made it back just in time and now enjoying a nice cuppa while the rain rinses the buggy off.

It’s pancakes for dinner tonight…I always grab a box of pancake mix when I stop by a Cracker Barrel…super easy to make, just add water…I mix it all up in a cup so it’s easy to pour in the skillet with no mess….yummy!

Well this sucks…while enjoying my cuppa during the storm I realized I’d left my boots outside…now they’re really clean but a bit humid…they’ll dry…in a week or so.

1 June….I’ve been boondocking at my great campsite here up in the Abajo Mountains for almost a week now…simply perfect…cool nights, cool days, cool rains, and cool napping. The elevation here is just under 9,000 feet. Most days are spent making a slow breakfast, then exploring in the buggy. At this altitude I’m right at the point where the aspen trees take over. Today I found a beautiful little two track road through an alley of aspen trees. As soon as I started up the road the temps dropped at least 15 degrees under the canopy.

2 June….what a beautiful morning….rain showers last night. After breakfast I headed down the mountain, past Newspaper Rock, and out towards Canyonlands NP. I wasn’t going in the park (can’t take the buggy in) and wanted to check out some of the BLM dispersed camping areas I’ve heard about on the net. There are also a few BLM campgrounds along Hwy 211 also that looked interesting in Google Earth. I also was going to turn off onto the Lock Hart Basin road that everyone was so excited about…and it didn’t disappoint!

Here are a few shots looking around the BLM dispensed camp area just off Hwy 211.

N38° 05.445′ W109° 33.995′

Now the fun was about to begin!

Being all by myself, I only went about 6 or 7 miles in on the Lock Hart road…if I’d broke down or had a stroke it would have not been nice. Maybe when I have others along I’ll try to make it all the way to Hurrah Pass. One day…. Anyway the buggy is perfect. I did try to make it up a side spur that was really steep and all sand but had to back down after the Tensor tires in the sand and 4 wheel drive finally took a crap. Now I’m taking a nap back at the van.

4 June….A couple of days ago I explored out on the Lock Hart Basin road…today it was all about altitude. A beautiful morning…cool and crisp…the Rangers had opened the road to Indian Creek and I was looking forward to driving it in the buggy. It goes up and up into the heights of the Abajo Mountains and tops out over 10,000 feet. Nicely graded in most sections now that the fallen trees and snow have been removed. Lots of miles of shelf road with sheer drops along the way…perfect! I only went about 30 miles up it then turned back saving the other sections for another day. Oh and I did my laundry in town. This place is right across the street from the Maverick gas station in Monticello…you can’t miss it.

6 June….thick sliced bacon sizzling in the pan, rain coming down, cool temps…must be what Heaven is like 🙂

10 am…OMG I just went through a massive rain/wind/hail event…I had concerns the windows in the van were going to hold together….hail was only about marble sized but the ferocity of the event was unreal. The cover on the buggy blew away…found it about a quarter mile away…no damage…good…there’s no way I’m going back outside. Temps now are in the middle 30’s…wind still blowing like hell. This is a photo just after the storm had passed me.

The beautiful camping area I’m at…you can see the van way up in the trees…really nice.

I’m also camped on a lake…I named it “My Pond”….:)

7 June…I guess this morning is another gift for not cussing too much yesterday…the storms are gone and the moon is beautiful…it’s about 0530 in the morning and the coffee is brewing…I’m watching the gas flame on the stove and relaxing in my chair…I can swivel the passenger seat around backwards to make a nice recliner so I can read, watch TV, or just nap…not much on my schedule today…a nice walk, another cuppa coffee, maybe drive the buggy into town to spray the mud off, slowly pack up to head back to 3 Step tomorrow…we will see…stopped watching much news…so sad but it is what it is…we live in interesting times for sure…I’m so happy to be mobile…able to go where I want…where the chaos is minimal…where the air is cool…where the folks are nicer…

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