Halfmoon Creek

June 2025

As I left Frisco and Peak One Campground, I knew that the added elevation as I headed towards Leadville would mean colder temperatures. Still, I was a little shocked as I approached 11,318 foot Fremont Pass and crossed the snow line. The lakes around the pass and the old mine tailings ponds were frozen. Later, as I wound down the switchbacks towards the upper Arkansas River Valley, the 14,000 plus foot peaks, Mounts Massive and Elbert came into view. They were covered in heavy snow. A snow squall was passing between them.

I slowly rolled through Leadville, two miles above sea level. The town looked empty, like nothing had opened up yet for the spring, off season. South of town, I stopped at the sporting goods shop combined with the Shell station to see what I could rustle up for breakfast. The lady at the counter, whom I recognized from previous years, retrieved a couple of burritos from the cooler and pointed me at the microwave. Coffee had already been brewed.

A few minutes and I was back on the road west towards the Fish Hatchery. A quick left and was on Halfmoon Road. A couple of miles later, I ran out of paved road and started climbing along the creek, looking for the dispersed campsite I had used two years earlier. That is when the second shock hit me. There was nobody up here. It was one day after Memorial day, and I was completely alone. It didn’t appear as if anybody had been around the campsites and fire rings, no tire tracks, no scuffed up ground. I set up across the two-track from a small marshy area along the creek, my familiar site from years past.

While setting up the Starlink antenna, I was buzzed by a lone hummingbird. It was probably wondering where spring was too. The only sound was the call of a couple of passing ravens.

That evening, I contacted a friend who lives in a chalet on the side of a mountain above Leadville. We agreed to meet the next day. I worried a little about sleeping on my first night above 10,000 feet. The air is quite thin. But, I slept like a log.

The next morning I stopped by City on a Hill Coffee, the popular Leadville coffee shop, and picked up breakfast burritos and coffee for the two of us and drove up to the chalet. We talked for a while and then drove down into Leadville to pick up an 8 by 12 metal shed with a flat bed trailer.

I was to drive a 1990s era Toyota van full of wood blocks down to town. I warned my friend that I had not driven a manual transmission vehicle since my 1989 Ford Bronco II. He said, “Do your feet work? Just put them on the pedals and they will remember what to do.” He was correct.

We spent the day jacking the shed up on wood blocks, high enough to roll the trailer under it. Unfortunately it was then that we discovered the bearing on the driver’s side of the trailer was worn out and locking up. The trailer hadn’t been used in 25 years, so no surprise. We drove the shed slowly through town, with the wheel smoking all the way. We made it to withing 200 yards of the chalet, when the wheel feel off and the axle dropped down into the gravel. While my friend jacked up the trailer, I walked a quarter mile back up the road and found 4 of the 5 missing lug nuts, enough for an emergency repair, and finally made it to the chalet. We were both exhausted, so we went back down to town to Quincy’s for a steak (excellent 9 oz steak wrapped in bacon with a loaded baked potato and salad). The next morning, I spent an hour digging splinters out of my hands from the wood blocks we had carried and positioned to raise the shed.

The next day, I had two tasks. I needed to hang my hummingbird feeder and try to repair the wiring to my trailer’s water pump. I hung the feeder on the back of the trailer. A day later I had my first visitor, a bright green Broad Tailed Hummingbird.

When I had arrived at my campsite, I noticed that every time I tried to run my water pump, it blew a fuse. The fuse was the same one used by the refrigerator. So, to keep food cold and/or frozen, I had to disable the pump. You can sort of limp by without water for a while, but it is inconvenient. You have to fill a bucket for dishwashing, cooking, and flushing the toilet. But, taking a shower is not possible.

Apparently when the wiring was installed, they ran it from the converter, across to the other side of the trailer where the switch control panel was located. They ran it on top of the sub floor and under the floor. Somewhere under there it had a short. My guess was that somewhere under there, they had fastened it with a staple or skewered it with a screw. In my travels, the vibration probably caused the wire to fray.

Once I located the offending wire at the switch, I cut it to isolate it from the circuit and then spliced in a new wire above the floor. That worked. Happily, I took a shower. Should you ever buy a camper, be prepared for this sort of shenanigans, as it is very common.

On June 4th, I tried a little fishing in Halfmoon Creek. I caught 6 small Brook Trout just to the north of camp.

I managed to secure a pass to Maroon Bells on Saturday the 7th of June. Due to heavy usage in this scenic area near Aspen, you now must obtain a pass to the trailhead at Maroon Lake. A shuttle from the Aspen Highlands Welcome Center is available to for a round trip up to the lake. I made the 2 hour drive from Leadville up and over Independence Pass (12,096 ft.) and down to Aspen at 5:30 a.m. in order to catch my shuttle at 8:00 a.m. The pass was above the snow line, so quite a bit of the white stuff is still up there.

Late May and early June is a good time to make the trip to the Maroon Bells. Crowds are lighter than later in the year and there is still a lot of snow on the mountains, making for some excellent photography opportunities.

The following week, I caught 2 Brown Trout and 1 Brook Trout from the creek. I cooked the 2 Brown Trout (less bones than the Brookie). A few hummingbirds were using the feeder. One evening a burst of wind came down off Mt. Massive and flipped my twin portable solar panel array. The right panel landed on 2 sharp rocks, piercing the glass and causing it to shatter. It still worked, but only a about 2/3rds capacity. I ordered a new one from Amazon to be shipped to B&B, a small shipping store on Main Street. Fortunately, since 2021, when I bought the original panel, the priced had dropped for $180 down to $49.

My friend called and invited me to join the Leadville Senior Center group for a van trip down to the Colorado Rockies versus San Francisco Giants baseball game down in Denver on this last Thursday. It was a nice trip. I rode down next to Barbara, a native of Leadville, born there 87 years ago. Her husband worked up at the Climax Mine at Fremont Pass. He helped mine molybdenum. She told me a lot of stories of Leadville in the past.

The Rockies trailed by up to 4 runs throughout the game, but finally in the bottom of the ninth inning, trailing by 1, the managed to load the bases with 2 outs. The final batter, with a count of 4 balls and 2 strikes, hit a line drive over the shortstops head, scoring the 2 winning runs. It made for an exciting game and great ending.

Today, Father’s Day, is move day. I am packing up to move about 20 miles north to Camp Hale National Monument, just over Tennessee Pass. In the past there had been good fishing there in the Eagle River. I will stay there 5 nights, and then return to Halfmoon Road until after the July 4th camping rush.