Apologies to our loyal readers, we have not posted anything in a while as we have had some out-of-state company (which we thoroughly enjoyed!!).

I took a day trip with a friend to Wheeler Lake on Sunday.  It is a 4-wheel drive trail located between Breckenridge and Fairplay, almost in the center of the state.  After turning off the road near the Montgomery Reservoir and airing down our tires, we came to the Magnolia Mill.   Gold brought miners here and the mining camp/town of Montgomery was founded in 1861.  The Magnolia Mill is located just above the Montgomery reservoir where the original town of Montgomery (now an underwater ghost town) was located.  By 1862, a town of over 1,000 had sprung up, but by 1866 the miners had moved to other areas.  In 1957, the Montgomery Reservoir was completed and the remains of the town were forever lost underwater.  The Magnolia Mill is the sole survivor, aside from some mining equipment left behind that sparsely dots the landscape.

After leaving the mill, we headed up to Wheeler Lake.  This was one of the roughest roads to date, which allowed for some of the most pristine scenery I have seen.  Once we got to the lake at over 12,000 ft, we set up camp, grilled cheese burgers (with some mysterious Roman steak seasoning that I have to get) and did some hiking and fishing.  There was an awesome waterfall that seemed to flow out of the top of the mountain like a volcano that streamed into the lake.  Unfortunately, I did not catch anything, as a storm rolled in and we had to pack up and leave.  Driving on wet rocks = no fun!!  I did however manage to catch a Furry B.  He put up quite a fight…  When we first got to the lake, he was very excited to see the water, but I don’t think he realized how cold the water was.  I let him find out on his own and he swam longer than I thought, with just a few shivers when he got out.  It was a great day, aside from the clouds and little bit of rain that moved in.