City Park Geyser

While at Samba practice in City Park:

Not quite the stuff in Wyoming

A close up of the water

Apparently the city's sprinkler system main had broken Sunday afternoon. Too bad it was not too hot a day or it would have been a lot more fun!

Returnin' to de island mon!

We just had to go back...

Not to worry... those are Christmas lights in the eyes of that mask!

and Marcus was there to make sure we didn't sway (in the wrong direction)

Check out those Surdos and the Timbau

it was a great venue for drumming

The ashiko and djembe players are looking and sounding fine!

You could leave the island if you had to, but we all stayed!

Look! The boat is bringing more drummers!

There is this half-tailed cat living on the island it seems.

...but he didn't mind as we recorded our Island Samba!

I guess I could get back in the groove and run the shekere a bit, but I'll have to finish my piña colada first. I do have my priorities!

It's an Island! An Island surrounded by water!

...and it's in Fort Collins!

comes complete with Tiki huts, Tiki torches

big fire pits

Tiki decks

Tiki boats, paddle boats, pontoon boats

Tiki Lagoons

Tiki waterfalls

Tiki sunsets

And Tiki fishing piers

It seems to be missing all those animatronics you might expect in Disneyland like the Enchanted Tiki Room or the hippos on the Jungle Cruise attraction! That's a good thing, because it's NOT Disneyland! But it looks like it would be a great place for a party!

Poudre Aqueduct

Along the Poudre River Trail:

It's an old aqueduct!

Over the Poudre River!

This is a good place to stop on the trail and look at rusted metal and weathered concrete. I didn't see any markings on the structure to indicate when it was built and I couldn't tell for sure what direction the water was directed to go.  It points south toward another branch of the Poudre river but it is doubtful that the branch is a source for the water. It may have been used to take water to or from the reservoir near Hoffman Mill road and S. Timberline.

May means rain!

one would think:

May is half over and it's rained twice. But, if there is a flood, please climb to safety!

High Spring Creek

Look at the top of this signpost!

The water level was 14 feet at that point in 1997!

There was one hell of a storm in 1997. To the left of the DQ was a trailer park that was totally washed away. It does not seem to rain much around here, but when it does, WATCH OUT!

Save Your Poudre !

They say it: Poo - Der

Some of the locals out in the Poudre

..and more at a local meeting.

We gotta STOP the GLADE Reservoir!

The Reservoir

Horsetooth reservoir!

I took a new route to the reservoir today...

via this Wall-Mart bike!

It took a while to get up there

... but it was worth it!

This is Dixon Reservoir looking East.

The ride down hill was quicker (and more fun too!)

Water Works

If you go Northwest of Fort Collins and follow the old Cherokee Branch of the Overland Trail, you will find this place:

It's the old water works building dating back to 1882-83, when it was built to deliver the first piped water to Fort Collins.

Water was transported to Fort Collins though wooden pipes. Iron replaced most of the pipes in later years, but there are still some wood pipes in use today!

They would dam up a branch of the Poudre River and use water power to pump the water out to stand pipes located in Fort Collins's central district.

If there was a fire in town, the local fire brigade could hook up their hoses to a standpipe and fight the fire.

The original reservoir is gone, but the building remains, along with an apple orchard with tree varieties common in the late 19th century including Irish Peach and the Esopus Spitzenburg.

The Dam Store

Located at 10103 W Us Highway 34 in Loveland, Colorado is the Dam Store...

Where you can get 3 T-Shirts for $15 and jack-a-lope heads for $99 !

...and a rum and dark chocolate candy bar that's damn good!

Poudre Canyon

North-West of town is Poudre River Canyon. We had to check it out for future kayak adventures.

You could walk across some areas. Maybe in the Spring it's higher!

We saw some people floating down the river on tubes! Hey, we have tubes! And we are only 20 minutes away!

Horsetooth Reservoir revisited

It's a warm day, and we need a break! We had these old truck tire tubes that needed to be broken in for Colorado fun! They are good for floating on the water, but they may also be good for sliding in the snow! ...down a mountain! It could happen!
Anyhow, Horsetooth Reservoir is just down the road from us, and they have a little swim beach. Here we are, floating on the reservoir:

It was very relaxing...

and sometimes entertaining!

The reservoir is large enough that we could take months exploring by kayak before we decide on taking on the Poudre River. Perhaps by next Spring we will have the proper equipment. The rubber tire tube just isn't enough!

We got some rain !

We usually have seen maybe 5 minutes of rain per week around here. Well, today it rained ALL DAY LONG!!! It was good to see rain!

I was traveling toward Ft. Collins about 40 miles east of town and going straight for this weather event. It was sunny and clear on three sides of this thing and for some reason I decided to drive right on into it.

Signs

Today's gas in Sequim, Washington

Pilot boats at Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, Washington