We plan to raft the Arkansas through Browns Canyon which includes a pass through what they call the Seidel’s Suck hole.  There is a trail so we went to check it out from the land side to get some perspective.  The river isn’t real wild this time of year but it looks like it will be fun.

Our primary reason for being in this area is for a hike to the peak of Mt. Shavano.  It is one of Colorado’s many 14000+ft and happens to be one Kent hiked with the scouts some 20 years ago.  We plan to summit it Tues-Wed so we drove out to the trailhead to make sure the forest routes are suitable for our trusty Focus.  Well, they have some serious grading work to do.  It took an hour to drive 7 miles but we made it.  We are on for our climb.

Every Ranger or guide we meet out here stresses the importance of getting back down below tree line by early afternoon during the summer months. Thunderstorms are a routine thing and one makes a pretty good lightning rod if up on that bare mountain top.  We got a live demo of those storms today.  We just reached the trailhead at about 9700 feet and the sky turned dark gray all around the peak.  The clouds boiled and rolled and thunder rumbled.  We didn’t see lightening from where we were but it was plenty to convince us, we will be down below tree line by noon.

I spotted another band of big horn ewes and lambs today. Still looking for those impressive looking rams.