Kings on the Road

Like astronauts circling the moon, we will lose contact with the rest of our world when we entered Canada.  No phone, text or internet (Verizon roaming rates are prohibitive).  So we’ve scheduled our online bill paying, unsubscribed from everything we could find, said goodbye to our kids and we will cross over the border.  It will be an interesting experience. We have grown so accustomed to our tether-less contact, we don’t know what to expect. How will we react?  Will we feel isolated or liberated?

After a wonderful visit with Jason’s family in Seattle its time to travel North to Alaska. We’ll catch you on the other side.

All edible

August is mushroom season in the southern Rocky Mountains.  Doctors, dentists, students, professors, locals and tourists all head to the high country to search for wild tasty mushrooms.  The most prized are the chanterelle which occur from 8000 to 10000 feet. The other commonly sought are the King Bolete which are found around 10000 feet.   These are also known as porcini.

Boletes and Chanterelles

Our friend Chris Ricci of Majesty Mushrooms led us on a foray to learn the dos and don’ts. What a great reason to wander the spruce forests high in the San Juan Mountains. Summer 2013 has been a wet one especially at high elevation and moisture is all the mushrooms need to fruit.  It has been a very good year for porcinis while not as good for Chanterelles.  With Chris’s help we have also learned to collect Leccinum, Hawk’s Wing, Slippery Jack, Black Chanterelle and Giant Puffball.

King Bolete or Porcini

Mushrooms must be processed within a couple days after harvesting.  Typically Chanterelles are used fresh.  Boletes are usually dried or frozen.  The Giant Puffball is as big as your head.  It can be sliced, grilled, toppings added and baked like a pizza.  Amazing.  Our favorite dish is Wild Mushroom Risotto made with porcini mushrooms.  Its earthy wild flavor goes great with the creamy rice.

Mushroom Hunter Di

Hawks Wing

Purgatory Flats is another fabulous hiking trail in the Durango CO area.  We were fortunate to hike with David and Kathryn from the hill country of Texas.  Hiking with another couple allowed us the ability to shuttle to the trailhead leaving one vehicle in town.

The trail begins near Durango Mountain Ski Resort at around 9000  feet.  It quickly descends to the Purgatory Flats area where Lime Creek joins Cascade Creek on its way to the Animas River.  After hiking the flats the trail enters a narrow canyon and the trail goes up and down sometimes steeply.  The views of the creek and rocky cliffs are amazing.  The Summer rains caught up to us just before the final switchback descent to the Animas River. Overall we hiked about 5 miles in 4 hours with many scenic breaks.

By the time we reached the river our overall descent was about 1100 feet.  We crossed the Animas on a beautiful wood deck suspension foot bridge.  This lead us to the Durango and Silverton RR pavilion where we waited out the rain.  After exploring the area up and down the river we flagged down the steam train headed back to Durango.  Unfortunately the engineer failed to stop for 4 people flagging him down.  He simply shouted over the din of the screaming locomotive “Catch the next train!”.  Well, we knew the 4PM train was the only train allowed to stop but we were hopeful.  Sure enough the 4:30 train did stop to pick us up.  We all enjoyed the spectacular scenery of the rail route through Animas Gorge and arrived back in Durango.

Home to home it was a 12 hour day and we’d do it again in a heartbeat.  The hike/train combo is one of our favorite outdoor activities.

Cascade Canyon

Cascade Creek

D & R on trail

K & D on the rocks

Footbridge over the Animas River

Friends on the river

Train that didn’t pick us up