East Castle Rock Gulch
Mosquito Range
June 5, 2024 (85F, 9,600 ft)
We arrived yesterday to a pretty alpine meadow with a view to the north-west of the Mosquito Range and to the south-east of the southern most peaks of the Front Range. The trip objective was to test our camp modifications, find out what we are missing, and practice bear alert camping.
Our activity for our first full day in camp is to hike a closed road close to our camp.
We had been hiking for about 45 minutes when he said, "Bear." I froze. My eyes darted left then right. I was thinking, I left the bear spray back at camp! I didn't see any bear? So I whispered, "where"? He says, "right here." I'm so confused.
Then he added, "It smells like a pine forest here." That was the conversation from 15 minutes ago when we were discussing the lack of pine scent.
What he actually said was not, "bear," but "there." It points out that we should have had our bear spray in our hand or in an easy to grab location. While we have not seen a single sign of a bear, we are here to practice before we actually encounter a grizzly on the trail. Lesson learned. That and don't use words that rhyme with bear or maybe just enunciate!
Bear spray is useless in a drawer back at camp.
Our second activity is learning to fly the drone. It is currently going by the name, Dub. We have a drone pad to launch him from. Without a clear surface to launch from, Dub becomes Brush Hog!
If either of us played video games, learning to fly it would probably be easier. I know up and down is left hand (north / south) and forward and back is right hand (north / south). The problem is figuring out how to get turning or moving left or right into the intuitive part of my brain. And then there is the problem of directions being relative to Dub, not me. In the distance, if I turn it in the wrong direction it's really hard to tell which direction it’s faced. I'll figure it out. But it's a good thing Dub has obstacle avoidance and will return to its launch pad with the press of a button or on its own if the battery is low.
We have been learning how to edit video. Click on the photo below to see video around our campsite.
Click on the photo
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