Magnus goes (with luck) to Oregon, Day 3

Wednesday September 2

It was cool in the morning, 71 or so. Wow. Ed felt shitty.

There was a rabbit in the parking lot taunting Molly.  And with that, we happily said good-bye to Texas.

We started seeing the mountains at about 35 miles away from Raton. We passed by Capulin Volcano, a place we visited a few years ago. But it was funny that I could not tell which volcano was Capulin. Was that because we approached it from the south, when before we’d come at it from the north?

The stopping point for the night was Lathrop State Park in Colorado, near Walsenburg. It was a very nice little park, nearly empty, with nice big sites surrounded by small trees that obstructed our view but not so much that we felt closed-in.  Just lovely, state park camping that I enjoy the best.

Molly and went for a 35-minute jog at 2:30, down the road to the lake. It was a nice little lake but awfully barren of wildlife. 

The weather was hottish, about 82 degrees, and mostly sunny. So that, plus the altitude change, made a 35-minute jog plenty enough exercise for me. We were at 6300' and I felt slightly breathless.

Note for another time: sites 80 and 81 had great views. Or 90. Our site had a water fill that might be annoying in busy season. There were plenty of other water fills around the camping loop.

Later Molly and I took a walk on the trails. We didn’t make it to the Hogback Trail but it looked like a great trail. But we did make it up the approach trail, about .6 miles to the scenic overlook. There were lots of great big boulders to sit on up there. Some had water pockets in them, still holding water despite the drought. I could see the lake and past it,  the highway in the distance.