For the last three weekends, we have been expecting this sort of traffic. The drive up Boulder Canyon was agonizing. Traffic stopped dead two blocks from the roundabout in Nederland. The Peak to Peak Highway was clogged with gaggles of flatlanders who came up to view the aspen leaves, even though the peak color was easily a week and a half ago. I guess Denverites thought they had to wait until the first full day of fall to come up and leaf peep. It felt like there were a lot more people crawling over the mountains after dark, too. We saw so many people car camping, setting up tents just off the dirt roads, and dragging campers today. I know they can't all be hunters. (We both wore our bright orange shirts again, just in case.)
We thought we were going to get a lot more done today than we did. Even without starting the deck, which I really hoped we could do, we did important work. We hung the screen door that used to separate our basement stairs from the garage, as a way to keep dogs in and air flowing, when the big door is open. Then we started building the exterior door. We ran into several hiccups, like bolts shearing off and measurements that were 1/8 of an inch off. We persevered, and eventually had a functional door that is wedged in tightly. I have to hope when next we go there is low humidity and that someone stronger than I am can pull that thing open. I think I'll travel up with a planer or rasp next time to make it fit a little better. Oh, and it might qualify as more than a hiccup, that of the three Phillips head drill bits we had on the claim, two snapped after just a tiny bit of work on the screen door frame, and the third one that was loose in the bottom of the backpack was already broken. I guess this is why so many of the screws in the cabin are star drive. Harder to snap those off.
I'm lobbying to go up later in the week when he does an overnight, so that we can start framing out the deck. We keep adding details that make it tough for me to climb into the cabin. I need steps. And maybe Murray's ramp already. If the trip up Saturday with our neighbor goes as planned, we might -- MIGHT -- have the place dried in by sundown when we leave. I can't believe how much progress we have made since early June. When you're carrying up a few pieces at a time, especially the small pieces I carry, it seems like it will take forever to carry a cabin up a mountain. Yet here we are, with the skeleton of it nearly complete, and the musculature more than halfway done. There is still a chance we will have it skinned by the time the first snows start to stick.
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