On Friday the 20th, 9 ATVS took off on a 38 mile ride in the Deer Lake area, south and west of Lake City. The weather was great, not hot and not cold, as the baby bear said “just right”. We first rode up to deer lakes to see if the moose were in the area, they were not! Our ride was along a rode so it was smooth sailing. We continued on until we reached the mouth of the Powderhorn valley.
We turned around and headed back towards the trail to Cannibal Plateau, so named because of miners getting caught in a snowstorm, unable to get out and one miner Alfred Packer supposedly resorted to cannibalism. We went about 1/2 mile up the trail to a grove of trees and stopped for lunch. After lunch we headed to the summit, it being at 12,200 ft. This gave us a view of all the mountains around us, Red, Umcompagne, Wetterhorn, Matterhorn, and many others. This summit was also the beginning of the Earthflow.
The Slumgullion Slide began about 700 years ago when weak volcanic tuff and breccia on the southern flank of Mesa Seco slumped several miles down the steep mountainside. Approximately 300 years ago, a second earthflow started from the top of the mountain and is still active, moving as much as twenty feet (six meters) per year. Trees growing on the newer slide are tipped at odd angles.
The first flow was so large and cataclysmic, it blocked the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and createdLake San Cristobal, Colorado’s second largest natural lake.
I tried to up load a movie, however my 3 minute movie is too big for this web page. Bummer. I have added the movie to Picasa. So go to the Photo page and click on the Colorado Album. It will be the black pic labeled ATV movie.
Happy Trails!