Taylor Park, Colorado July Trip

July 4

We began our two week vacation with a St. Louis Cardinals game. Susie and I drove separately from Tara, Jess and Jack so that we could leave immediately after the game and drive to Colorado. Tara, Jess and Jack spent the night in St. Louis and visited with friends the next day. The Cardinals were playing the Brewers and won 7-1. Although it was hot there was a nice breeze and we had a very good time. Here are some pictures from Busch Stadium.





Susie and I drove for 7 hours after the game and spent a short night in Salina, KS. We encountered HEAVY rain on the west side of Kansas City. After stopping for groceries in Buena Vista, CO, we arrived at Brooks’ cabin in Taylor Park around 3:30 p.m. The weather was perfect – sunny and 70 degrees. We were greeted by Brooks and his better ¾, Pat Miller, pictured here in her morning finest.





The first two days at the cabin were spent helping Brooks and Pat prepare for his annual pig roast. It is normally held on the Wednesday after the 4th of July. This is a big event with as many as 200 people in attendance. He doesn’t know for sure but it is believed this is his 28th year. J.D. and Rosie Herman drove over from Montrose to help and spend a couple of nights. You might recall that Graham and I stopped by the Herman’s for a visit on our motorcycle trip last year. They are the former owners of the Taylor Park Boat House and are dear friends of Brooks. Brooks has a very elaborate fire pit that he built several years ago. We started burning wood to heat the rock-lined pit at noon the day before the pig roast. This continued on until late that night. 8 boneless hams were placed in the pit at noon the day of the party and were cooked to perfection. No one knows for sure, but we believe 200 friends and acquaintances were in attendance. Here are some pictures from the pig roast.






Susie and I didn’t have special plans during our 11 days in Taylor Park except I wanted to do as much fishing as possible and help Brooks with the building of his Rock wall in front of the cabin. Susie has plans to spend two days in Crested Butte at the Wildflower Festival.

The fishing has been great! The brook trout have been plentiful and healthy. Here are a couple of pictures of my fishing successes.





I enjoy fishing in the small streams and beaver ponds at high elevations. It is very spiritual to be alone in the mountains, stealthly sneaking up to a stream or beaver dam and watching a feisty brookie rise to a fly or take your bait. Susie and I also spent a morning on Taylor Resevoir. We rented a boat and trolled for trout. We had our limit – 8 nice rainbows in less than two hours.



Every day Brooks and I would spend 4-5 hours working on the rock wall. Freezing, thawing, open range cattle and time has taken it’s toll on the terraced walls that have been built over 30 plus years. There is a new design, improved drainage and stability. This is a multi year project – already in it’s third year and projected to take several more. Here are some pictures of the before and after.








One of the special joys of coming to Taylor Park is the people. We have enjoyed visiting with Brooks’ friends and neighbors. On two occasions we had guests over for a fish fry and enjoyed outstanding food and visitation. J.D and Rosie Herman, Dick Dolphin, Jim and Judy Finnessy, Kip, Poppie and Sarah Beethe, Dick and Neotha Mommer, Nadine Popham, Newt and Linda Cole, just to name a few. A special shout out to Pat Miller. We spent 5 days with Pat and really enjoy her wit, charm, devotions and cooking. Anytime we are visiting Taylor Park we are treated like family.

The weather has been great. The morning low is typically just below freezing with a gradual warm up to around 70 degrees by mid afternoon. Clouds and wind usually pass through in the afternoon with an occasional shower.

Susie and I took a long hike one day to an old mine above timberline. We were disappointed in our choice of route because of the trail conditions but were rewarded with a close up view of an elk herd that we were able to watch moving from above timberline into the trees.





Susie went into Crested Butte twice for the Wildflower Festival - one day enjoying a wildflower hike and the other a garden tour and lunch at a private house on Mount Crested Butte.

We left early July 16 to return home and made the decision to drive straight through - 1150 miles and 20 hours later we arrived back in Washington, IN. A special thanks to Brooks, a very gracious and generous host. As always, we had a great vacation and we're already looking forward to returning next year - if Brooks will have us.

SD Pheasant Hunt Cont.

I arrived back in Washington, IN Saturday evening after dropping Wayne and Diane off in West Lafayette. All told, it was a 15 hour trip. Fortunately, for the last 3 hours, the Purdue/Indiana football game was on the radio and the good guys won.

We hunted 6 days. I brought home the maximum birds allowed - 15. As previously mentioned, this was a good year for S.D. pheasants. But, when the corn is all harvested, the hunting will be much better. I'll share a couple of stories.

One day we took a road trip. Not that there were necessarily more pheasants where we went - just something different and an opportunity to see some different country. Ed, his friend, Al,Wayne and me drove northwest to the Gannvalley area - country where Ed and Al had hunted on previous occasions. There were a lot of pheasants. Although we shot several birds it was obvious that late afternoon was going to be the time to hunt because they were in the unharvested corn and would be moving to the ditches and CRP acres. Unfortunately, we had to head back so that Ed could attend the wake of a family friend. Wayne even shot a pheasant in a cemetery - must have meant to be! Ask him about it sometime.

We also received an offer from a local farmer that saved the very last of several short rows of corn for us to walk through. As he was finishing up, the pheasants kept flying back into the standing corn. We bagged 3 birds as they busted out the end when we walked through. The same farmer had a slough in the middle of a bean field that we noticed several birds flying into. As we walked through the slough 20-25 birds flushed. There was a lot of shooting but only a couple of birds down. All of this was a fitting end to a great day.

I also mentioned in the previous post about the splendid dog work. Cork performed well. A dog is a must. I'm sure that we would have lost 50% of the birds if not for the dogs. Cork made some unbelievable retrieves of dead and running birds, one time tracking and chasing one through a cattail slough with 12-18 inches of water/ice for over 10 minutes. Cork is a Pointing Lab and he made several nice points over pheasants. Even if he does not point, I can tell when he is tracking a bird about to flush.

S.D. allows what is called road hunting. Hunters are allowed to have a shotgun ready to load in their vehicle. When driving down the road, if you see a pheasant in the right-of-way, you can jump out and shoot it. Several birds met their fate in this fashion as we drove from field to field. I label these birds as the dumb ones - and I got a real dumb one the last day of hunting - having to chase it down the road and through a ditch to get it to fly.

Here are a few more pictures taken the last two days of hunting:






This is the dumb bird and the last one of this hunt.

South Dakota Pheasant Hunt - November '09

For the past 7 years I have made the trip to Parkston, S.D. to hunt pheasants with my Pointing Labrador Retriever, Cork. Humor me as I explain the connection to Parkston. My cousin, Wayne Singleton – retired professor of Animal Science at Purdue University, and his wife Diana – retired educator, live in West Lafayette, IN. They were like parents to me when I attended Purdue University and we have remained very close over the years. Wayne met Diana while he was in grad school in South Dakota. Members of her family live in Parkston and Sioux Falls, in particular her brothers Ed and Pat Bowar, who are avid fishermen and hunters. For several years her mother, Helen, would graciously allow me to stay at her house in Parkston. A couple of years ago Helen passed away and Wayne and Diana decided to purchase her house and have their own place during their frequent trips to Parkston. Diana’s brother, Pat has an insurance/real estate agency in the area and knows many farmers and landowners. We always have plenty of ground to hunt. There are also several state walk in areas nearby.

This year I drove to West Lafayette on Friday, Nov. 13 and spent the night with Wayne and Diana. We left the next morning at 4:30 for the uneventful (uneventful is good) 12 hour drive to Parkston.

The hunting has been good. The pheasant numbers are down slightly from last year but still the 4th best year in the past 40. Most of our hunting is in the immediate area but we have taken 2 road trips, west near the Missouri River and the other northwest of Mitchell. Wayne and I always enjoy seeing the South Dakota country.

Pat and Ed have taken off work on several occasions to hunt. The dog work has been great. Ed has a good German Shorthair that covers a lot of territory and I have my 8 year old Lab that likes to hunt close. They make a good pair to hunt behind. The weather has been outstanding – almost unseasonably warm. During hunting hours 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. the temps have been in the high 40’s – mid 50’s. South Dakota is much like Indiana – they have had a wet fall and the farmers are late getting the crops harvested. This makes for some tough hunting since the pheasant stay in the standing corn much of the time. The best hunting is yet to come as harvest will be completed in the next couple of weeks if the good weather holds.

There is much to be said about this annual trip – great hunting, good dog work, generous farmers that allow us to hunt, great accommodations at the Singleton Bed, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, but the most special part about coming here is the people. Diana’s brothers and their family and friends have been so kind and accepting of me. I have made some dear and lasting friendships.

Tonight (Friday) we are going to gather to show my pictures of the summer motorcycle trip. You might recall that Graham and I passed through Parkston this summer on our return trip home.

This is my last day of hunting. Cork is about spent. There is no way that I can completely prepare him for 5-6 days of hunting like we experience. The cover can be difficult and we hunt a lot of territory. I’m going to take it easy today and hunt some road ditches and give him a break. We have plenty of pheasants in the freezer. Perhaps I’ll have more pictures later and will share some hunting stories in the next couple of days. Until then – enjoy the pictures.

Cork after a long day in the field.



Wayne and Joe



Cork and his master or is it Joe and his master.






Cork buddying up to Wayne.

Taylor Park October Trip

Although I hadn't intended this to be a real vacation - it ended up being a much needed time away from work and all of the activities going on at home. Months ago I had made plans to travel to Colorado to assist my cousin, Brooks Harting in closing up his cabin in Taylor Park, Colorado for the winter. Many of you know that our daughter, Tara, son-in-law, Jess, and grandson, Jackson are moving from St. Louis back to Washington, IN and are building a new house. Only their excitement exceeds ours about them moving back home. We have been busy working on the house - painting, yard work, laying tile in the bathroom and putting down hardwood floors. The two weeks prior to the Colorado trip involved many late nights - so this Colorado trip came at a much needed time.

On Saturday, October 10 I caught a ride to St. Louis with Tara, Jess and Jack and flew to Denver, rented a car and drove to Colorado Springs. Brooks' friend, Pat Miller graciously put us up for the night and provided great food and accommodations. As can be typical of the Colorado weather - I got caught in a freezing rain just before entering Colorado Springs that caused the Interstate to be closed and delayed my arrival for about an hour.

Brooks and I left Colorado Springs mid morning on Oct. 11 and made the 3 hour trip to Taylor Park. The mountains were snow covered. They had several snows so far this fall but the temps have been getting high enough to melt any snow at the lower elevations. My main purpose for making the trip was to assist Brooks in closing up the cabin for the winter. We had decided to document the many steps for closure, take pictures and record them in a document for future reference - thus the use of the camera and laptop.

J.D., Rosie Hermann and family were at the cabin for several days hunting elk with other friends in Taylor Park. Unfortunately, they weren't able to shoot any this year. You might recall that Graham and I visited J.D. and Rosie as we passed through Montrose, CO in July on our motorcycle trip. They are dear friends of Brooks' and a real pleasure to visit with.

Our time was spent doing all the little things needed to prepare the property for the winter closing - organizing, loading of supplies and tools to return to Colorado Springs, covering vehicles, boarding up windows, draining water lines, cutting fire wood, etc., etc. Brooks recently purchased a small cabin in Tincup so we spent considerable time there organizing and preparing it for winter. This is a picture of the Tincup cabin - affectionately known as "The Outback" - because to use the bathroom you have to go out back.



The weather was outstanding for two days. We were able to accomplish all of our outdoor work during this time. The other two days we had mixed snow and rain off and on. I took several pictures of the snow covered mountains, early morning sunrise and our work efforts - enjoy.











We returned to Colorado Springs on Thurs., Oct.15. Although we didn't have any major difficulty, there was 8 in. of snow on top of Cottonwood Pass. I enjoyed another stay at Pat Miller's bed, breakfast,lunch and dinner and caught up on all of the baseball playoff games.

I returned back to St. Louis on Sat., Oct 17 and spent the night at Jess and Tara's. Suz had fall break on Friday so she drove over on Thurs. night to babysit and help finish packing. Tara and Jack will now be permanently in Washington and will be staying with us until the house is finished. Jess will graduate in December and will commute back and forth until mid December.

All in all it was a good trip. I always enjoy Taylor Park and spending time with Brooks. We got a lot accomplished, spent time with good friends and still had time to relax and enjoy the time away from work and house building.

The next post of Singleton Travels will be from Parkston, S.D. in mid November for my annual pheasant hunt.

Top Ten or Eleven

It was difficult to pick a top ten list from all the great experiences that we had. These are mine in chronological order:

1. Brooks’ cabin in Taylor Park, CO – We had great weather, great fishing, and a
good rest before the big push west. It is a special place and as an added bonus, Pat Miller was there to take care of us. Our family has been visiting Taylor Park since the early 70’s and Brooks is always such a gracious host. I will be returning to Taylor Park in October to visit again and help Brooks close up for the winter. I’m going to include the ride on Hwy 92 on the north side of the Black Canyon. This is a must do if you are ever on a motorcycle in the area.

2. U.S. 50 ride across Nevada - This highway is known as the “Loneliest Road In America”, and after what I read about this stretch, would have never believed that I would have enjoyed this ride. There were nine mountain summits with sweeping ascents and descents, and long straight valley stretches where we could put the hammer down. It wasn’t the most scenic ride we had on the trip but one of the most interesting. We had to really pay attention to our fuel levels because sometimes there were long stretches between cities.

3. Yosemite – Yosemite Valley is the most beautiful vista I have ever seen. The rest of the Park wasn’t much different than many of the other mountain areas we were in. I would like to go back and spend some time hiking and backpacking in Yosemite. This was one of only two parks (the other was Glacier) where we had to be concerned about bears in our camp. Fortunately there wasn’t a problem but we heeded the National Park Service requirements of food and toiletry storage in the bear boxes 24 hours.

4. California Coast – I had read and heard about the spectacular scenery along Hwy 1. We were not disappointed. We soon discovered that we shouldn’t get in a hurry and enjoy the coastal terrain and curves. I was surprised how cool and windy the coast was. There were a lot of motorcycles, convertibles and cyclist on this stretch of road. The fog was usually heavy in the mornings and would lift by late morning. Unfortunately, we had very heavy fog in northern California and all along the Oregon coast.

5. The breakdown at Cleone Campground near Ft. Bragg, CA - Why would a starter going bad on a Saturday evening rank in the Top Ten? Well….where do I start? Thanks to Rob for the ride to the motorcycle shop, Guy and Linda for finding the perfect camp sight. Dave and Lynne Soeth, Jon and Sherri Richter and their families for their visits, coffee, monkey bread and help. We made many new friends and hope that some day we can return the kindness that these folks showed us. And of course I can’t forget J.P. Mohn, owner of Ft. Bragg Cycle Supply who stayed late Sat. to haul my motorcycle in and do the diagnosis and working on it all day Sun. to get us back on the road. This experience reaffirmed my faith in humanity. Everyone was so kind, helpful and friendly. This could have easily been a very bad experience but the kind folks of northern California wouldn’t let it happen.

6. Columbia River Gorge - I was surprised on the size and beauty of the Columbia. We rode on both the north and south side of the gorge. We were amazed by the windsurfers, the shear cliffs, waterfalls and vistas of nearby Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. Of all the campgrounds, Beacon Rock State Park was one of the nicest.

7. Glacier National Park - For me this was the most impressive National Park we visited. The helicopter ride was outstanding. I would love to spend a couple weeks in the park and do some hiking and backpacking – perhaps even going into Canada, but would wait until late summer or early fall. The ride through the park on the “Going To The Sun Road” was spectacular – if you could avoid the traffic. There was so much to see and do and so little time.

8. The visit with Lyle and Shelly Spence - Just a couple of weeks before we left, this was a “might do stop if we have time”. I am sure glad I took the time to contact Lyle and stop in for a visit. The dinner and hospitality was among the best we experienced the whole trip. It won’t be another 25 years before I have contact with Lyle.

9. Our 5 day stay in Jackson, WY - It was great that Suz could fly out and join us.
This is a picture of us sampling the local flavor:



What a great time we had with the Brocksmith clan – rafting, kayaking, biking, shopping, dining, rodeoing, tramming (are those actually words?), and taking in much of what the Jackson Hole area has to offer. Kent and Brenda were our guides and hosts and we can’t thank them enough for making this a special part of our trip. I’m sure Graham is going to list the downhill mountain biking as the highlight of his trip.

10. Sturgis – I can’t leave off the Sturgis experience. It had been 15 years since I had been to Sturgis and it will probably be 15 more before I return. The highlight of our stay was the George Thoroughgood concert and the evening at the Buffalo Chip. You might recall that Aerosmith was there just a couple of nights later and Steven Tyler fell of the stage and was injured. If we were big partiers and liked roaring motorcycles all the time and enjoyed crowded riding we would have stayed longer and had a better time. It was obvious that we have been spoiled with the open country and solitude riding that we have experienced.

I said there was going to be a Top Ten List – well I was wrong – there are eleven.

11. Our Parkston Stay – Staying in Parkston, SD is like being home. Wayne and Diana Singleton really took care of us. Diana’s family, Pat and Cathy Bowar and Michael, Audrey and Grady Bowar visited us both nights and it is always a real joy to be included in the family gatherings. We rested and prepared for the final leg to home. I hope to return in November for some pheasant hunting, which has become an annual tradition for my Pointing Labrador, Cork and myself. We have had some unbelievable hunting. This is one of my favorite pictures of Cork and I.



I am trying to get Graham to complete his list - stay posted. For those interested, I will keep the blog site open for future travels. If my employees will let me, I hope to travel to Colorado and South Dakota later this year. Thanks for following our motorcycle trip. I had no idea that there were so many people keeping up with our travels. It was a great trip and we're so thankful that we returned safe and had so many great experiences.

Day 32

We are home!!! Graham and I left Jess, Tara and Jack’s place and arrived back in Washington at 1:30 p.m. Graham was anxious to get home – so anxious that after we fueled up for the last time in Mt. Vernon, IL – he went off and left me. Suz, Tara and Jack will be leaving St. Louis to return to Washington later this afternoon, after Jack’s doctor’s appointment. Tara and Jess are going to build a home in Washington and she is coming back to work out details on beginning that process.

I had not paid much attention to our total mileage traveled and was surprised to find that we logged 8,016, I had anticipated somewhere between 7,000 and 7,500. Below is a map of our route and mileage along the way.



Stay tuned – in the next couple of days we will post our top ten experiences for both Graham and I. It was a great trip with a lifetime of experiences, but most importantly we arrived home safely and are grateful for God’s watchful care. I will spend Saturday cleaning the bikes and unpacking the trailer, and playing with Jack.

Day 31

We were up and moving by 5 a.m. Graham was right – I only had to wake him once – I guess the incentive to get home and see family and his girlfriend is all he needed. Wayne and Diana were up to see us off. We had our rain gear on as we rode the bikes out of the garage into a steady rain – the first real rain we have had all trip. It is approximately 100 miles to the Interstate 29 and we were in varying degrees of rain the whole time. We had planned to ride to St. Louis and join Suz and spend the night with Tara, Jess and Jack. Since we had 670 miles to travel we decided to take a direct route to St. Louis via interstates. We went down I 29 to Kansas City and across I 70 to near St. Louis. We arrived at Jess and Tara’s apartment at 5 p.m. It was a non-eventful trip (the way we like it).

One of the more interesting things that occurs while we are traveling is the opportunity to visit with other bikers when we stop for gas or eats. Today we visited with a couple that had been on the road for 20 days and were riding back to their home in Madison, IN. Another couple was returning to Louisiana and had been in Jackson, WY when we were there and took the same route to Sturgis. All the bikers that we talked to had the same experience in Sturgis – too crowded and a big hassle – 2 days is all they could handle.

Suz had fixed a great meal and Graham and I enjoyed getting reacquainted with Jack. You might recall that we missed Jack’s birthday, so this was our birthday dinner. He is such a great kid and joy to be around. If interested, you can check him out on Tara’s blog: http://jessandtarabrower.blogspot.com/

This was my present to Jack - a moose puppet that I found in Jackson, WY:



It was good to be back with the family. We missed out on a lot of family happenings while we were gone so there was considerable catching up to do. Graham and I will complete the trip tomorrow when we arrive back home in Washington. Only 200 miles left.