Well, after a 2 year hiatus from traveling in our EarthRoamer to help take care of Todd's parents, STEV is finally back on the road and roaming Colorado where we are scouting for property to create our new home base. We had been using Todd's parent's house in Ohio as our home base in between travels on the road, but sadly, they are gone and the property has been sold. Colorado has always had a special place in our hearts and is our "happy place". When we're not sure where we want to travel, we somehow always seem to end up in Colorado.
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| In addition to STEV, we're also traveling with our recently acquired Toyota 4Runner which allows us to set up a base camp and easily explore the surrounding, and sometimes technical, area. |
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| One of our base camps at Columbine Landing located in the National Forest just north of Silverthorne, CO in Summit County. |
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| Camping in Summit County puts us close to Copper Mountain where we can enjoy the amenities including "Yappy Hour" at the outdoor dog friendly bar "Downhill Duke's". |
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| Todd decided to try a little white water kayaking on the Green River located just behind our campsite at Columbine Landing. |
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| Growing up around boats, Todd's always happy being on the water. Shonah and Chip opted not to join Todd due to the fast running water. |
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| 14er's as they are called, are mountain peaks in Colorado rising more than 14,000 feet above sea level. This is the summit of Mt. Lincoln at 14,286 feet. |
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| Chip looks like he gets a free ride, but he actually hikes up every summit we do and then we give him a free ride down to reduce the wear and tear on his paws. This is the summit of Mt. Cameron at 14,238 feet. |
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| Mt. Bross at 14,172 feet is now the 7th 14er the three of us have summited together. There are a total of 58 peaks in Colorado above 14,000 feet (depending on the source). At any rate, we have just a few more to go! |
In addition to having a little fun, most of July and August were spent traveling around the state of Colorado looking for the "right" property to become our new home base. The criteria was that it needed to be in the mountains with an interesting landscape and good views. Bonus points for being adjacent to public lands and having outdoor activities nearby. Being "off grid" was a possibility, but having some amenities like a grocery store within a reasonable distance was also important.
We are now under contract on an acre of property south of Breckenridge in the "highest incorporated town in North America" - Alma, Colorado. The property sits at 11,500 feet in elevation and is bordered on two sides by Pike National Forest. Out the "back door" we literally have several of Colorado's 14,000+ foot peaks, incredible hiking, snowshoeing, back country skiing, snowmobiling, ATVing, fly fishing, and tons of wildlife including deer, elk, fox, coyote, moose and bear. It's currently vacant land and our goal is to install a driveway and get the septic system permits started yet this fall and then come back in the spring to start construction on a house we design over the winter. We plan to do most of the work ourselves which will (most definitely) be an adventure... wish us luck!
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| The winning property currently under contract. If all goes well, we will be the new owners in early October. |
This blog post is dedicated to Todd's parents who, while being gone, are always with us.
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| Todd's parents surrounded by their family. |
