Tag: Sheep

Flattops

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I went backpacking in the Flattops Wilderness.  We took a day off work so we could get an early start and not have to `deal with the crowds of people.  We planned to take a trail that was recommended to me when I called the ranger station to get ideas.  I prepared meals ahead of time and packed up all my camping gear.

The trip started off with a cow traffic jam as we were driving to the Flattops.  I think this road may see more cow traffic than road traffic.  We got to the wilderness area and found a car camping spot for the night.  We would head out on the trail the next morning.

Little did I know we would not have to worry about crowds of people.  Either the area is far enough away from Denver or just not a popular spot.  Or the mosquitos killed all the other people.  I haven’t seen that many mosquitos in one place since I left Florida.  We had to re-apply mosquito repellant every few hours and even then, they never went away.

There were signs at the trail head that sheep farmers were grazing their sheep and we might encounter sheep.  It warned not to approach the sheep especially since the sheep dog might not like that as it is protecting the sheep.  About an hour or so onto the trail we heard a weird sound.  We weren’t sure what it was.  We came across a big field of rocks and the sound got louder.  Pretty soon we realized the sound was the sheep.  The rocks moved as they were not rocks at all, but sheep.  As we came closer, they became very interested in us.  Some of the sheep stopped what they were doing to come toward us and check us out.  So much for not approaching the sheep.  The warnings said nothing about the fact that the sheep would most likely approach us.  It was a wonderful little break from the hiking to watch the sheep watching us.  We never saw a dog, though.

We came upon a lake with some good camping spots nearby so we decided to set up camp there for two nights and we would day hike the next day from there.  We started a fire as soon as we had set up camp in hopes that the smoke would chase away the mosquitos.  It really didn’t.  We explored a nearby basin and decided to climb to the top of the basin the next day.

The wild flowers were blooming like crazy.  The only other time I had been to the Flattops, I had experienced wildflowers, the volume and brightness I had never seen before.  I counted the number of different flowers I saw on the way up.  I lost count somewhere around 50 different types of flowers.  Mother Nature is the best artist I know.

The day hike to the top of the basin the next day was great.  The hike out on the last day wasn’t too bad either.  We heard the sheep again, but didn’t really see them.  Despite the mosquitos, it was a beautiful weekend and we only saw 4 other people the whole weekend.  I’d highly recommend some hiking in the Flattops Wilderness.

Trough Road

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The fastest route to go west of where I live is not to go down to the highway, but to travel west through a couple small towns and then west along a long dirt road (Trough Road) through the mountains.  I have taken this route a few times now to get to Snowmass Village where some of my friends live.  The first time I took the route, I just let google maps direct me and I was quite shocked when it took me down this long, steep, not very wide road for over an hour.  After looking at maps closer, I realized, this really is the quickest way.

A large storm was due to hit Denver the day I was supposed to be going to Snowmass.  My plan had been to drive to Snowmass in the evening.  The whole city of Denver was in a panic over the storm.  You would think the end of the world was coming.  Grand County got the edge of the storm.  Schools were closed and the news was covered in warnings.  At one point I looked at the traffic maps and almost every highway was closed.  I debated leaving earlier to go to Snowmass, but I was afraid to get on the highway and I was sure Trough Road would not be navigable.  Plus, the mountains had been trying to kill people with avalanches lately and I was very wary of the avalanche danger.  Many areas that haven’t had avalanches in 10 or more years were covering roads and highways.  I watched the snow plow go down my road at least 5 times during the day even though I could barely see the end of my driveway.

At one point in the early afternoon, the storm lifted a little.  The clouds were still there, but they rose a little higher in the sky.  The snow slowed and I could see the end of the driveway.  I thought, if I’m going to go, now is the time.  The hardest part of the drive was my own driveway since I didn’t shovel first.  All the roads in Grand County were cleared pretty well.  I think the county has a shortage of plumbers, but an excess of snow plowers.  As I was driving, I was wondering what Trough Road would look like.  I was wondering if there was avalanche danger or if the snow would be so thick you couldn’t drive on it.  I got to it and it looked like it had been plowed.  So, I took a chance, hoping I wouldn’t get stuck if it wasn’t plowed the whole way.

It was plowed the whole way, still covered in snow and slush, but not so deep that you couldn’t drive through it.  The clouds stayed low and threatening, but it didn’t snow any more and the wind was calm.  Everything was a monotonous grey.  I saw deer, lots of deer, crossing the street, walking down the street.  I saw some elk also.  I even saw big horn sheep, which I hardly ever see in Colorado anymore.  I only saw one truck.  It was this very quiet world in slow motion as if I was in a secret bubble hidden from the storm, hidden from other cars and other humans.  It was just a pocket of beautiful nature and me.

As I got to the end of the road and close to where I would get on the highway, the road became dry.  The clouds were even higher in the sky.  The western part of the state hardly saw any of the storm.  Instead of terrifying, Trough Road had been a tunnel of safety between the storm and the highway.

One Final Tour

On By rrainefioreIn New Zealand, Travel, Uncategorized1 Comment

 

There is this bug that glows in the dark and lives in caves.  They call them glow worms, but they aren’t worms.  I booked an all day tour to go see the glow worms.  It was a big bus tour and that just made the whole day slightly disappointing, but I still got to see glow worms and sheep!  It was a 13-hour tour and there wasn’t one interesting person on the bus except the bus driver, Rachael.  I’ve attached a video.  Getting on the bus was a bit stressful.  I arrived at the bus station where there were a bunch of tour buses and people, but none of the buses had the name of the tour company I thought I booked with.  Later I found out they are all the same company with different names.  The lady in the office said I needed to check in with the lady by the buses.  There was a sea of confused tourists and somewhere in the middle of that sea was a lady with a shopping cart of fruit and a list of names.  She gave me some fruit, gave me a sticker and told me which bus to get on.  Ah, the sticker people tracking system.  So simple and yet quite effective.  I’m a green sticker for the day.

It was a 3-hour drive to the cave.  Rachael told us all sorts of information about New Zealand along the way.  I was actually a little bummed that I couldn’t stay awake for all of it.  I think she talked the whole 3 hours.  The cave tour involved a lot of information on how they found the cave, a little information on the glow worms and a quick, but beautiful boat ride through the cave.  No one is allowed to take photos so the one I posted is from the internet.  All the Japanese (half the bus) were late so we got to the farm late.  I assume their translator did a bad job of telling them when to be back.

The Agrodome farm was fun though.  First they showed us how to sheer a sheep.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Then they showed us how a dog herds sheep.  I don’t think I liked this part. It’s one thing to herd sheep because you need to, but another thing to stress them into running around a course because 53 tourists want to watch.  I did kinda like the part where one of the sheep tried to be all tough and face off with the dog and stamp its foot in protest.  “Fuck you, we did this yesterday and I don’t like you”.  Then we went on a trailer pulled by a tractor around the farm.  We saw at least 7 different types of cows, pigs, turkeys, pukekos, goats, deer, sheep, and alpacas.  Then we got to feed the sheep.  The tractor stopped and sheep came from everywhere.  It was a fantastic mess of sheep and squealing Japanese.  I could have watched that for hours.  I got to pet and feed sheep.  I was a happy 6-year-old!

The last stop was the Te Puia.  We were here in the 18-day tour, but I chose not to go.  It’s a thermal park / cultural center.  First off was a Maori concert.  It was similar to the dinner we had gone to on the tour, but just the singing and dancing part.  Then we had a tour of the thermal park.  I had my fill of people touching me and crowding me so I skipped out of the tour and walked around on my own.  There is a geyser there.  It didn’t go off while I was there.  I wish I had had more time to walk through the park.  A long ride back to Auckland and Rachael decided to not talk so people could sleep.  I was ready to stay awake and take in all the knowledge Rachael had to share.  Darn, I did that wrong.

Today, I’m going to take it easy, get some work done.  Tomorrow I get on a plane to go back to the US.  It doesn’t seem real.

Interesting facts:

Glow worms are not worms, but the larvae of a type of fly.

Glow worms glow so that insects will think that is the way out of the tunnel and then get caught in their feeding lines.

The first glow worms to hatch eat the others.

A sheep shearer makes $2 per sheep

2 dogs can handle 800-1000 sheep.

The sheep get sheared every 6 months.

Lanolin is sheep oil – their wool is oily – maybe not news to you, but it was to me.

There are Angora Goats – again, maybe you knew this, but I always thought it was a type of rabbit.  There are angora rabbits too.  Learning new things.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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