Colorado Day 5

Sunday, August 2nd

We got up and around by 9:00 am Sunday morning so we could go on a long hike to the old Gold Cup Mine.  Lindsee and I had done this hike a couple of times as kids, and we wanted to show our Erics the old mining camp and its buildings.  The hike was over 3 1/2 miles one way and most of it was along a creek and beaver ponds.  Pictured below is our hiking crew for the day.

And, here we go, with the Erics and Saidee in the lead.

Silas made it about 5 minutes before he started whining.  He wanted to be holding my hand the whole time and his little legs just didn't go very fast.  We tried to talk him into riding in the hiking backpack for awhile, and Eric would carry him, but he did not want to do this.  He held Daddy's hand, Lindsee's hand, and Uncle Eric's hand each for a little bit, but ended up with me each time.  Whew, it was a test of my patience.

Sarah and Phoebe did great!  They liked looking around for old log cabins, flowers, cool rocks, and the creek.

We came across an area that was filled with yellow flowers and Columbine.  The Columbine is the Colorado State Flower.

And, there it is!  Finally we could see Gold Cup in our near distance.  There are no roads to this old gold mining area.  The only way to get there is by hiking in or by some sort of small ATV.

A lot of the old buildings had fallen down since the last time Lindsee and I had been there, but the old tall part of the mine (the Ore "Hopper"), next to the huge pile of mine tailings, was still standing.

Eric and the kids put in some good effort trying to climb the pile of tailings.

We spent about an hour walking around and exploring the old Gold Cup Camp and Mine area.

Below is our family and Lindsee and I on top of the pile of mine tailings.

Below and in the picture above is looking back towards the North, the direction that we had hiked into Gold Cup Mining Camp from.

Here we all are on top of the big old Piston and fly wheel that still sits about in the center of the Gold Cup Mining Camp.

We found a place and crossed over the creek to explore another area of the old Gold Cup Camp.  There were several old cabins, mostly falling down by now, on this side of the creek.

We found the old tree bench.  (We have pictures of Lindsee, Matt, and I sitting here together when we were young.)  A long time ago, someone placed this plank of wood between these two trees and the trees grew around it and continue to hold it up providing a sturdy bench for old miners or tired hikers.

Near the old cabin area of the mining camp we all stopped for a snack and drink break before crossing back over the creek and hiking back to the trail-head, near the Tin Cup Cemetery.

About two minutes into the hike back I couldn't take the whining from Silas anymore.  I asked him if he wanted to ride in the backpack now???? He did, but he wanted me to carry it.  Okay.  Great.  Give me that backpack and load me up if it is going to stop the whine.  And, guess what it did!  Silas was so happy to have a free ride from his Mommy, but the free ride HAD to come from MOMMY, no one else.  This worked out great for everyone because now we could all walk faster.  I ended up carrying him the WHOLE WAY BACK!  Eric offered to carry the backpack with him in it a couple of times, but Silas refused the offer EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  I impressed my husband and my sister by carrying this weight on my back for such a distance, but my back was less than impressed by the time we reached the end of the hike and I needed some help to actually get him and the pack off my back.

"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt."

Eric tried a little bit of Trout fishing as we hiked back past some of the Beaver ponds with a make shift stick, hook, and line pole.  He saw some swimming around, but didn't catch any.

Round trip our hike and sight-seeing took over three hours.  When we returned to our cabin at Holt's Guest Ranch Lindsee and EP rested a bit and then headed back to Denver.  (They both had to work on Monday.)  We are so glad that they could come to Tin Cup and spend the weekend with us there.  We had a LOT of fun hiking, exploring, viewing wildlife, having a slumber party, and birthday partying with them.  

We love you two!  ~ See you again soon.