JEFF'S GALENA ADVENTURE, JUNE 14, 2006
Juha's flight got messed up, so he wound up sleeping in Houston, which would probably put him into Denver about 3pm I think he said. So he won't be here probably until 10-11pm.
I started raising the outhouse. The hole is about 4 feet deep, and I think that's about it because it might cave in if it's deeper.
I went motorcycling up spring gulch, then you turn left on the road just before the main road up there. Almost right where I turned off there was a coyote! He ran down the road around a corner and I never saw him again. The first left just peters out at a no trespassing sign at the border of the tree farm property. Then going right is the fun one :) A ways down there is an ATV-only road that goes left. I say that because there's a huge bump right at the beginning that I don't think any truck could get over. Also, it's the first back road I've seen that seems to be made for ATVs, or pioneered by them anyway. So I went up there and then wound up on the neighbor's new road on the hill!!! I must have been just above Chester's or somewhere. I didn't want to go down his road to his locked gate, so I went back and went right, which takes me to another tree farm no trespassing gate (their lot is pretty huge!). So then I walked up the steep road going to the top of the hill and looked around up there (at 44.19.826, 103,38.075). You can see the Broehm mine tailings, Terry Peak, and Bear Butte from up there.
The ATV road starts at 44.19.432, 130,37.590, and also right there is a cabin!
This has to be one of the most secluded cabins in the hills, because it's on a bad side road a couple miles back, and the road essentially ends just past this cabin. It looks pretty new. No cars or signs of life.
There was another branch off the ATV road going north, and it was a really steep, rocky road. It got steeper and rockier, and I decided I didn't want to have to go back up this road if it wound up at a gate or private property, so I just marked where I was (44,19.802,130,37.594) and turned around and left. Even that part of the road was about my limit of ability to climb, so I don't know where it winds up on the downhill side. Maybe I'll go back and walk it.
So then I got back on the non-ATV road backtracking, and remembered there was a road to the left not too far, so I took it. It looked like it was seldom driven on, and it wound up connecting to another road right at the end of that road and "no trespassing" signs to the left. So I went right and connected to 180. That road I came out on was Sigasted Road, just a little ways from where I got off the main road in Spring Gulch.
I went to Brownsville for (no-ethanol) gas and food, then came back toward Galena past the campground where 3 big campers from North Dakota were backing up becaue they'd missed the turnoff to the campground. On the right is a road where the forest service has been clearing. When you turn there, a road goes uphill to the left. I took this but almost immediately there were several trees across the road, so I stopped and walked. There was a mom deer with a fawn sneaking through the woods there. Farther up in a clearing, I saw this deer.
I didn't notice until it ran off that there was a buck just 20 feet away from this deer!
The road goes to a huge house with a green metal roof that you can see to the right on the road to Roubaix. Walking back down, I heard a deer really snorting away as he/she passed me to the right (I couldn't see it). I don't know if it could smell me or what the problem was.
It seems most of the tourists I see are from close states, like Wyoming, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. The other I think I've seen most is Oregon.
Hot and muggy today. Last night I laid out for about 1/2 hour. It seems brighter at night here now. Anyway, I only saw 2 shooting stars and 2 satellites.
There are still blooming flowers everywhere. It's wonderful. And deer everywhere, as above shows. I'll probably get some more good shots later.
Tonight a storm appeared to be coming from the southeast. I watched it, hoping for some cool shots at sunset. Sure enough, cool bump clouds! It looks now like the storm is gonna miss us to the east.
