Give us shelter

Sept. 29, 2008

Today Jerry & Kathy joined their motorcycle friends (Thella & Steve, Marlene & Larry) for a ride to Bandelier National Monument to check out the camping situation there. It seems the morning was a bit too cool for the motorcycle folks. Something about old bones was mentioned. Of course, the girls and I laid in bed until we heard everyone moving since we had no plans to move on today, so we may have just missed that early morning BRRR!

While the road crew was off exploring, the girls and I explored the hillside above camp. I found a shelter someone had spent a lot of time building in a natural hillside runoff channel (I guess it wouldn’t work well in the rain). Logs of fallen pines had been dragged to create walls on three sides, a header for the doorway, and about a dozen logs for the roof. We refilled the gaps in the roof with smaller sticks and finally pine needles that E had raked (with a large piece of bark) out of the shelter. It was a really fun spot large enough for probably six to eight people to lay side by side and enjoy the view down the hill while sheltered from wind and sun (and maybe a LIGHT shower). It was a great spot for spying on our camp, but there was no one in camp ALL DAY for us to spy on!

Took the road crew more than four hours to return. The ride was lovely, they said, but Bandelier was hot (mid-80s), so they were opting to stay at Fenton. Fine by us!