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That's a pretty legit "off the grid" type situation. Is there some backstory to how the family got there? I was in Lake City a year ago, we were doing an off

That's a pretty legit "off the grid" type situation. Is there some backstory to how the family got there? I was in Lake City a year ago, we were doing an off road adventure and it was amazing how isolated the place is. Beautiful too. Big counties space wise, tiny populations, extremely rugged terrain. Then the flip side, I'd guess a fair number of folks there don't really want to be "connected" I mean everyone does if it's free or really cheap but a large number of the residents there aren't going to pay $100 a month for communication.

birdman3131 9y ago
Not a ton of interesting backstory but some. We moved up there in 96. My parents drove truck so where we lived did not really matter. My mom was from Arkansas and my dad had a lot of family in Colorado and wanted to be closer. We moved up there sometime in September. We had just came from a month of 100+f days in Arkansas. When it hit freezing the first week up there my parents got a bit of a wake up call. We lived there till 2000 when my mom got pregnant with my youngest brother and she had to go to lower altitudes because her body was creating too many red blood cells. We paid $12k for ~40 acres and a mobile home. https://goo.gl/maps/gN9UVEgNV652 https://goo.gl/maps/gN9UVEgNV652 should show where we lived. If you follow the road back to where it meets T road that is where the closest you could place a mailbox. Feel free to ask any more questions and I'll try to answer them.
- WalterBright 9y ago
  Perhaps a dumb question, but why not plant a bunch of trees?
  - TheCondor 9y ago
    It's over 7000' in elevation, they grow a bit more slowly at that elevation. Depending on the mountains near by it may be a "9 months of winter" kind of situation
    - wavefunction 9y ago
      Plus central Colorado is high-alpine desert so there's not a lot of precipitation to naturally encourage rapid tree growth.
- TheCondor 9y ago
  That makes sense, it's inexpensive. Depending on where the rest of the family lives, it is closer but it's probably 4 hours to the front range, possibly a lot more in the winter. Was this before school age for you? I've heard interesting stories about some of the mountain schools, Saguache might even bus kids to a neighboring county, I don't know. did you live there for fairly long stretches or did you travel with your folks? Any stories about "the locals?" I assume it's mountain ranch country so the neighbors probably have a good dose of "I don't want anyone messing with me" mixed with the neighborly that ranchers tend to be and they'd help each other out. I live in the Boulder/Denver area. Last summer we stayed in Cimmeron for half a week and then went to Lake City on our way home. I want to say the paved roads were about 100miles and 2 hours between the two, there was also a 50mile unpaved road that took about 10-12 hours and it was amazing. No cell coverage that I can recall, there were a few times where it hits you, if I broke my 4Runner, we are stuck here probably for days and it could be a real situation. If you love the outdoors and you look at it as an adventure, the place could be a fun place to have a cabin. If you live there all the time and want to be "normal" i can't imagine how it would be. Colorado is fascinating, the front range is like many small urban areas in the country, an hour away and it's like a different country in ways.
  - birdman3131 9y ago
    I was homeschooled so no stories about the school. There were times where we lived there while my dad drove truck and other times my parents drove as a team and took us kids on the truck. When we were on the truck we usually we spent about 3 weeks on the road and a couple days at home. Managed to see all of the lower 48 except Maine by the time i was 12.

birdman3131 9y ago

Not a ton of interesting backstory but some. We moved up there in 96. My parents drove truck so where we lived did not really matter. My mom was from Arkansas and my dad had a lot of family in Colorado and wanted to be closer. We moved up there sometime in September. We had just came from a month of 100+f days in Arkansas. When it hit freezing the first week up there my parents got a bit of a wake up call. We lived there till 2000 when my mom got pregnant with my youngest brother and she had to go to lower altitudes because her body was creating too many red blood cells. We paid $12k for ~40 acres and a mobile home. https://goo.gl/maps/gN9UVEgNV652 https://goo.gl/maps/gN9UVEgNV652 should show where we lived. If you follow the road back to where it meets T road that is where the closest you could place a mailbox. Feel free to ask any more questions and I'll try to answer them.

WalterBright 9y ago
Perhaps a dumb question, but why not plant a bunch of trees?
- TheCondor 9y ago
  It's over 7000' in elevation, they grow a bit more slowly at that elevation. Depending on the mountains near by it may be a "9 months of winter" kind of situation
  - wavefunction 9y ago
    Plus central Colorado is high-alpine desert so there's not a lot of precipitation to naturally encourage rapid tree growth.
TheCondor 9y ago
That makes sense, it's inexpensive. Depending on where the rest of the family lives, it is closer but it's probably 4 hours to the front range, possibly a lot more in the winter. Was this before school age for you? I've heard interesting stories about some of the mountain schools, Saguache might even bus kids to a neighboring county, I don't know. did you live there for fairly long stretches or did you travel with your folks? Any stories about "the locals?" I assume it's mountain ranch country so the neighbors probably have a good dose of "I don't want anyone messing with me" mixed with the neighborly that ranchers tend to be and they'd help each other out. I live in the Boulder/Denver area. Last summer we stayed in Cimmeron for half a week and then went to Lake City on our way home. I want to say the paved roads were about 100miles and 2 hours between the two, there was also a 50mile unpaved road that took about 10-12 hours and it was amazing. No cell coverage that I can recall, there were a few times where it hits you, if I broke my 4Runner, we are stuck here probably for days and it could be a real situation. If you love the outdoors and you look at it as an adventure, the place could be a fun place to have a cabin. If you live there all the time and want to be "normal" i can't imagine how it would be. Colorado is fascinating, the front range is like many small urban areas in the country, an hour away and it's like a different country in ways.
- birdman3131 9y ago
  I was homeschooled so no stories about the school. There were times where we lived there while my dad drove truck and other times my parents drove as a team and took us kids on the truck. When we were on the truck we usually we spent about 3 weeks on the road and a couple days at home. Managed to see all of the lower 48 except Maine by the time i was 12.