Earache

Won't be long and it'll be a pile of dust...

Head back south past some gold mines and stopped by the old Gilpin County School. It's looked better....

End of the road, was posted from here so had to turn around...

Would be cool to refurbish it into a home as the scenery is great from up here (around 10,000'). A few of the walls are beginning to crumble anbd fall though....

I'm not sure how old these are, but they were reinforced with concrete in the not too distant past. There's also mortar in there, so not too old....

Sunday and the roads were crowded with people from the city up in the mountains for the day. So I stayed in my own area and rode some dirt - roads are too rough for cars, so not many people. Stone ruins at the Caribou Mine....

No idea. I've been by there on a Sunday morning and there's not really anyone there. No towns of any size nearby, either. It's a Catholic church though, real name is Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel. So I assume whatever archdiocese that covers Colorado takes care of it. It's well kept though.

Pics or it didn't happen.

Not too bad - it has 21,000 miles right now. Probably be around 28,000 by the end of riding season this year when it'll be 2 years old.

The county that I live in is named Gilpin County. So lots of things and places around here are named "Gilpin". It is named after William Gilpin - see; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gilpin_(governor)

They're wild animals, but they do have their standards.

The KX450XC looks cool. Wish it had a rudimentary headlight and tail light on it so it could be plated for street use here. I need to get a new dirt bike.

A neighboring town, Silver Plume (wonder what they mined there?) has it's own train for tourists to ride as well as a small museum. But the cool part is the engine house where they repair the trains. They also have a nice, original station...

The other train in town, bears the same Engine Number - although I don't know why. Maybe they shared the same line / route or something?

Gilpin Hotel now and then. Just up the street from the train. Look at that sparkling clean bike!

Same train in use.....

I seem to take a shitload of pictures of trains as I ride around the Rocky Mountains. All of the towns have a train or two up on blocks in the town center. So here are a few. I'll add more here as I see them. Starting off with my home town - Black Hawk, Colorado. These are the trains that were used to haul gold ore from the mines to stamping mills for processing....

Nah, here's one of the trains in Black Hawk, Better pic...

They'll eat just about anything that they can catch.

I'd run outta that bar room as fast as I could. Some places just give me the creeps and this is one of them.

Then there are these guys - loads of them, hunting in packs. My driveway appears to be a good hunbting ground for them as we always seem them there. They are the main culprits for snagging cats and smaller dogs for dinner..

I should do a train thread - every freakin' town here has at least one or two old steam loco's sitting on rails in their town center. Our small town has at least 2-3 of them. Here's one from Idaho Springs - next town over from ours..

It's funny, people that just move here are always posting pictures of their lost lost cats and small dogs that are lost. "Help me find Buffy" type posts. Lady, your cat isn't missing, he was lunch.

We have a bobcat that hangs out in our front yard from time to time, he's a fat bastard, too. Haven't got a lot fo good pics of him as he's always here during low light times; early morning, late evening. Don't see them much in daylight.

Mos tof these places were probably built by one or two guys with limited tools. So wood was probably the easiest and most plentiful materials available. There were no towns to go to get help, stone mason s, etc. So wood it was. The train station in Black Hawk is all brick, as most of the town's buildings are brick / stone - but labor to build them was available here in the big city.