August 18, 2014

Rick and I were at the cabin alone this weekend after our guests had to cancel the day before we left. We arrived Friday evening and ate dinner at the pizza place on the ski resort.  It was excellent, as always.  

Saturday around lunch we took off from the cabin on another mountain bike adventure.  We rode to the top of James Ridge and took some new trails back into the forest.  The trails, scenery and weather were great, but we noticed the skies clouding up.  It's monsoon season in the mountains and is generally not a big deal.

However, we realized that a fairly major storm was brewing and that we, unfortunately, were at the top of a mountain a long way from the cabin.  We decided to take the most direct and safe route back and try to get back ASAP.  

We hadn't made it very far when the lightning started, and the large bolt that hit the ground very close to us made it very obvious that we needed to not be sitting up on metal bicycles.  We spent some time low on the ground in two different places.  The first was somewhat pleasant with light rainfall and a few pics. (above pic).  The second was in torrential rain with lots of hail and sleet.  It didn't take terribly long to see that we needed to get off the top of that mountain, or we were going to get hypothermia.  The temp had dropped into the 50s, and we were at almost 9,000'. 

The trail turned into a river, and we slowly rode down the mountain at a fraction of the normal pace.  When we finally got to the highway, we had another problem.  It was still pouring down rain, and the visibility was very low with traffic and no shoulder on the road.  

We spotted some storage buildings across the road and stood beside a building for a while, partially out of the rain and shaking uncontrollably from the rain and cold.  Rick noticed one of the units didn't have a lock, so we raised the door and took shelter inside for about 30 minutes.  It was still cold but a huge improvement.  The rain finally slowed enough for us to ride the remaining ~2.75 miles back to the cabin.  A hot shower never felt better.

When we headed to town later for some bakery food and cold beer, the guy below was walking around in Cloudcroft.  He had on red platform shoes with foil across the toes and carried a black purse.

Moose Drools at the Western Bar.

On Sunday morning we drive down to High Rolls and picked apples and peaches at a local orchard. We then stopped by the Cloudcroft farmer's market, ate lunch, and did a little shopping at the bike store for new pedals before heading back to the cabin for another mountain bike adventure.

We rode to the same general area but did different trails and kept a closer eye on the sky.  Showers developed, of course, but stayed west of us.  The riding was great!

We left at 6 am Monday morning to get back for a funeral.  The last pic was taken as the mountains change to hills just before sunrise.

August 3, 2014

My work was slow, so we took the opportunity to leave early for the cabin on Wednesday afternoon.  Rick installed ceiling fans and can lights in both upstairs bedrooms on Thursday and Friday, and I got the new comforter sets (Dillard's clearance sale!) in place throughout the cabin and organized all of the linens. (Forgot to get pics.)

We were joined by Pat, Liza, Randy, Sandra, Amy and Vince Thursday and Friday.  The cold, rainy weather and heavy rains earlier in the week kept us off the mountain bikes, but we managed to find plenty to do.  Rickey, Pat, Liza and I ate at the Western Bar on Thursday, and Randy & Sandra joined us Friday night for wood-fired pizza dinner at the ski resort.  We spent Saturday afternoon at the Art & Wine in the Cool Pines event which was held outdoors at the museum.  The afternoon temp in Cloudcroft was 50 degrees with rain and fog.  It felt like a cold wet November day in Lubbock, so a winter coat was appropriate--not exactly what you would expect on the 2nd day of August.

This large bear was less than 100 yds from the cabin when we arrived Wednesday evening. Our first bear!

We have baby deer.  This is one of the larger fawns who came into the yard.

Another deer pic taken from the back deck.

We tried trout fishing on Friday morning, but it was cold and rainy, and the fish weren't biting.

Our 6 mile hike in the Lincoln National forest on Friday afternoon in the rain and fog with Liza, Randy and Sandra.

The rain made everything except antlers look dark brown and created ideal antler hunting conditions.  We were looking for antlers on the ground, so I almost missed this one at the top of the mountain as the fog and clouds rolled in.

Large elk antler found in the tree.

A decent deer antler I found on the 6+ mile hike on Saturday evening with Rickey, Randy and Sandra.

Rick's deer antler.

Toby checks out our antler stash we've found so far: 1 elk, 2 deer, 4 elk spike antlers and 2 deer spike antlers.