What's under Blue Mesa Reservoir

In the early 1960's the decision was reached to build a reservoir to the west of the town of Gunnison Colorado. This was to be a huge water retention body of water to be used for irrigation and flood control. This meant that some of the finest trout waters in the Gunnison river would be inundated and under several hundreds of feet of water once the lake was full. The resorts and hotels that catered to the fishermen would also be lost.

The Lake was put in and is now a tremendous asset to the area and offers its own brand of excellent fishing for salmon, trout and other cold water fish species.

We ended up taking a tour of the Pioneer Museum in Gunnison, Colorado and found someone had taken a map of the lake and identified the various businesses, towns, resorts and other spots of interest that were lost under the lake and where they where located. This seems like something that should be retained as a digital record so I photographed the map and description to have on  my blog for future reference.

Snowmobiling in the High Country

We live in the mountains at an altitude of 9,400 feet. One of the benefits of living in the area is the ability to enjoy winter sports of all types.

Snowmobiling is one of those winter sports. Our neighbors often travel thru the mountain Jeep trails in a snowmobile caravan from our subdivision over to another called Arrowhead on the other side of the mountain.  Arrowhead has a restaurant we all gather at to enjoy a meal and then we head back to our place. It is just under a 60 mile round trip.

This was my ride for the day. It is a 1989 Yamaha Enticer 400 LTR with 2800 miles. That means it has a long track and can seat two people although I rode solo for this trip. The bag strapped to the seat with the orange straps is a first responder first aid kit. It is the kind of thing you hope to never need but handy to have. I have newer sleds but for a variety of reasons this was the only one ready to ride. Sort of like riding an antique thru the mountains - a 30 year old sled.

We all met at the trail head to the Jeep trail over the mountain at 10:30 AM. It was minus 7 degrees so we were all bundled up and warm.

The scenery along the way is really something. Lots of powdered snow that it turns out is quite deep. In this particular spot it was about 4 feet deep. If you stepped off the sled you sank to your waist in snow. The folks in the distance are digging out a sled that slipped into deep snow

We travel in a line thru the trails

Eventually you end up on the Alpine Mesa where there are acres of deep powder to explore with your snowmobile. This is quite the playground for snowmobilers.

After a while it is nice to remove the helmets and relax a bit. Driving a snowmobile on powder is a bit of a balancing act and you build up a sweat.

30 years of snowmobile design evolution is shown in this image. The really big improvements are in suspension design. The newer ones can glide over humps and bumps at speed whereas I had to slow down to take them.

There is more of course - electric start, electronic fuel injection, better gripping tracks, newer styling and the list goes on.

There is a place up on the Alpine Mesa where you can ride to overlook the Uncompahgre mountains. It is a rather spectacular view.

Occasionally someone would zig rather than zag so it was nice to have others to help get the machine unstuck.

We made it to the Inn at Arrowhead and had a nice meal and compared snowmobiling stories

We made it back to our neighborhood late afternoon and headed to our homes to relax. It was 26 degrees when we arrived back home. Nice day for a ride.

Erie Canal Museum

Syracuse, New York is the home of the Erie Canal Museum. This museum is the location of an original weigh station which determined the costs to travel the canal based on cargo weight in the boat. It is the last of its type.

The Museum also covers the history and development of the Erie Canal and the tremendous economic impact it had on the surrounding area and history of our country.

Just down from the entrance to the Erie Canal Museum is a place to charge electric cars

The area in the immediate foreground is the location of the original canal and the overhang with the now enclosed boat is where the weighing was done

They had a great display as to how the immagrants were tasked to build the Erie Canal and how that was handled

You can explore a typical canal boat

Model of mechanism to weigh the boat

This device was used to pull the stumps after cutting trees to clear for digging the canal 

Offices where the paperwork of managing the canal were well preserved . 

The museum is a wonderful example of showcasing the development of the American transportation system and how the country benefited both economically and socially. Of special interest is how news  traveled quickly up and down the canal carried along by the canal boat operators.