MINING COUNTRY

Yesterday I went up to explore mining country on the fat bike.

I had plans of riding several miles up into the mountains south of St. Elmo, CO and exploring and spending the night.  Well, plans change in the mountains.  It started off beautiful and sunny.  Then a quick rain moved in so I sought shelter in this old building while I ate my lunch:

It was pretty neat inside and kept me dry.

I really wanted to climb this ladder.

That rain storm moved on and so did I.

Above about 10,750 ft there is still snow.  In fact, there is a lot of snow.  The road quickly turned bad and after a while of short manageable hike-a-bikes, the hike-a-bikes became longer and deeper.  No fun.

There was water flowing everywhere from all of the melting snow.  I felt like I was in a snowy rainforest.  I could have spent a while dialing in a great shot of this pretty little waterfall, but again the rains came along with lighting.  I got a couple quick shots of the water and decided it best to head back down before it got worse.

Now it was a driving adventure.  Windows down so I could still hear and smell my surroundings.  The Chalk Creek was turbulent!

It gave me a chance to try out my neutral density filter and slow the shutter speed way down.

Fast shutter without filter.

Slow shutter with filter.  I prefer this one.

On to Leadville.  I love the old weathered wood of the mining ruins.  There is so much character and color.

 After the sun went down the colors came alive.

 Once it was really dark I tried out some light-paining.  I think there is potential for some really cool stuff, but I still have a lot to learn about it.

Click the pictures for the gallery view.