Buck Basin's Rewards

To complete our 2 days of riding, we spent an afternoon ambling through Buck Basin (shown above). Actually, the photo shows all of Currant Creek Basin, which encompasses about 35 square miles.  This is big country.

The sky was an amazing blue above the yellow leaves: 

The mountains wore a patchwork cloak of aspen gold and spruce green:

The streams were clear and cold.  Mischief and Coco did some streamside bonding:

We tried hard to capture the aspen leaves falling like gold medallions as a gentle wind blew:

They were much easier to photograph on the ground:

Our trail was once an old 2 track, long since abandoned, now no more than a cow/game trail:

We found yet another quality fence gap, but since it was in the middle of nowhere, I'll grant a pardon on this one: 

When we returned to the trailer, we found that hunters were moving in fast with their campers, motor homes, and 4 wheelers.  A huge motor home was waiting at the drive to our campsite, guessing that we might be leaving soon, and a truck and camper waited on the other side of the road.  Major traffic jam!  We usually see few vehicles on forest service roads, but big holiday weekends and/or hunting season are another story.  (We didn't see a soul out on the trails.  Most of these guys must be hunting from the road.)

It's muzzleloader deer hunting season for the next week, and elk season after that.  We'll still ride, but we'll stay in more open areas and be sure to wear lots of orange!