Colorado Vacation 2012: Day 2

Day 147: Windy Day
I didn't sleep well. I wasn't sure what time my dad, uncle, brother and sister-in-law would be arriving. I knew they would be leaving in the middle of the night, just as we did... it is sort of another family tradition. The wind picked up in the middle of the night. I guess that is what kept me up. I kept thinking they had arrived because I kept hearing things outside. Later, I would figure out one of the things that woke me up was a rather large tree falling next to the neighboring cabin,

 It is no surprise to see dead trees down, especially from one summer to the next, but this one was alive when it went down.

 It came extremely close to hitting their cabin and almost made it all the way to the road.

 Early bedtime meant the boys got up early... 430 AM MST. They were excited for everyone else to get there too.

 Mayer discovered Tate's leftover hot chocolate mug.

We hiked up to Lover's Leap and took pictures of the peaks. We can also get better reception for phone calls, check emails and Facebook.

 

 

 East Spanish Peak

  West Spanish Peak

 We also hiked up to an old saw mill.

 Different view of West Spanish Peak

 Tate resting and asking a lot of "why?" questions about the saw mill.

 Family picture

 Relaxing in the shade, enjoying the view

 Daddy and Mayer

 While we were hiking back down, the excitement was unfolding below us. Uncle Swan and Tate went down faster than Michael, Aunt Amy, Mayer and me. My dad and Uncle Alan had stayed back at the cabin and had a front row seat. They heard a tree fall in the forest, right next to our cabin, in fact. It did make a sound and the entire canyon took notice.

 The brighter spot of green, in the middle, just past the downed tree is the roof of our cabin.

Why did the entire canyon take notice?

It took out not one or two, but all three main power lines.

 A group stopped us just up the road, before we could see anything and told us we shouldn't go any further because there were lines down in the road. (I roughly sketched them so you could see them better..) No one wanted to find out if they were still hot or not.

 It took us a while to find a way across the stream and back to our cabin.

 Lines running across our bridge

 OUr cabin is the second cabin into the canyon, so the downed tree also blocked the only road in and out.

 Multiple calls were made to the sheriff's office, fire department and the power company. We were surprised how quickly San Isabel Electric showed up, with three trucks, on a holiday weekend. The La Veta Marshall showed up just in time to convince a man it was NOT a good idea to use his chainsaw to try and clear the road before the fire department and the power company got there. The tree was still clearly touching all three lines.

 The boys enjoyed watching most of the repairs from the front walk of our cabin: the firemen using chainsaws to cut the trees and the power crew in the bucket truck. We had a picnic dinner so they could watch. Since neither of them really had a good nap, they had to go to bed before power was restored. The ordeal took about four hours. 

The irony of the situation is that we have been watching this dead tree for a few years. We sat on the deck and talked about how bad it would be if that tree fell. Now that the wind knocked two trees over in one day (one dead and one alive), we are now on higher alert. There are several trees that would cause serious and detrimental damage to the cabin if they fell. We have some definite concerns to take to the trustees.