March 23, 2026

A nice cloudy day. It was still in the mid 70s. In the afternoon I went walking on the Sunshine Ridge road. They’ve done more masticator work in there recently. It’s much more open. I’m sure it’s for the wildlife in winter and fire mitigation. It was so thick in there you couldn’t walk through it. I’m sure the critters will love it. There are still quite a few elk and deer in there judging by the amount of tracks. I did four miles. It was quite windy up there. I only shot video so these photos are frame shots. This evening after supper we walked a couple miles around home. What a nice day. It’s going to really heat up the next few days so the clouds were nice even if there was no precipitation from them. Spring is in the air for sure.  Plants are popping new growth.  Photos from video frames.

 March 22, 2026

We went to church this morning. Then we decided to head up Gunnison way. We’ve been having record heat. It feels like May or June. It was mid 80s here yesterday and 90 in Delta. The little bit of mountain snow we have is going fast. More record heat all this coming week. We figured the Sapinero or Lake City cutoffs were snow free. Unfortunately both are closed until the end of May for sage grouse. Bummer. So we came home and took a very warm walk in the evening. Please Lord break this heat and dry pattern!

 March 20, 2026

More record breaking highs all over the west today. We were going to head up toward Ridgway today. This morning my buddy Allen text me that he and his wife went clear into Sanborn yesterday. So we shifted gears and headed that way. That’s far better than dealing with the Telluride zoo traffic on Hwy 550. (it’s no secret that I hate what that town has done to our area…from higher prices in everything to dangerous highway traffic and nonstop airport noise.  But the money worshippers who run things love it.) The snow was nearly gone in Sanborn. We got into a little mud in spots. We went down the Horsefly road and down the Crag Point road. The Crag was blocked off just partway down…I have no idea why. We did a bit of hiking - two miles. It was too hot to hike much. It was 73 over there. We didn’t see a single critter though. There were very few people…so nice and peaceful. That will change in a big way soon when the turkey hunters are out.