Nelson happenings

Fall in the mountains is wonderful. I went for an ATV ride yesterday. I started at Tibble Fork and rode around the back dirt roads to Cascade Springs. It was great. Weather was wonderful (probably in the 50's for most of my ride) and all the aspen leaves that had fallen on the trail made the ride look very fallish and they smelled very fallish. There's something about the smell of newly felled fall leaves. When I got to Cascade Springs, I had the place to myself which was kind of strange. The regular road had a winter gate across it so no cars could come. On the way back, just down from the road that goes to Forest Lake, I took a little side road that leads up to where there once was a small mining town in the late 1800s. There was one little meadow with a sign saying that there was a Diphtheria outbreak in the town and 11 children were buried there and later a couple more children and a couple of miners were added later. There were no grave markers, only some very small piles of rocks to mark each grave. Further down the road there was one very old shack still standing among the pines and aspens and a trail that lead to a deep canyon full of tall pines where there were remnants of an old mine. At one point along the trail there was a section of HUGE tall aspen trees and under them a bunch of 10-15 foot new pines. On one part of the trail on the north side of the mountain there was hard packed snow but it wasn't a problem. I came around one corner to be faced by 9 deer standing in the trail. At one high point, I could look out and see Heber in one direction, Deer Creek in another direction, and the snow covered back side of Timp in another direction. It was an absolute fantastic ride, perfect weather, and great sensory input of sight and smell. I'm definitely doing it again next November. The only downside was that I was alone.