Eiseman Hut -- the Alpine hostel

The drive up the mountain to the Eiseman Hut was only 9 winding vertical miles, once you left the pavement off of I-70 at Vail.

The road was extremely pitted with deep ruts and huge holes.  It had been raining quite a bit, so there were also some very deceiving deep pot holes of water.  It was an obstacle course, but worth every tight knuckle grip.

Not counting the 30 minutes we had to wait for the loggers who were working on the Pine Beetle kill logs, it was a 65 minute drive up.  One of the logging machines can pick up the tree, strip the limbs and debark it, maneuvering the tree as if it were a toothpick. (This is not that machine)

We saw a lot of felled trees, but at least they are now using  the beetle kill pine instead of cutting down perfectly good trees.

The West side of the Eiseman Hut.  I know what you are thinking...this is not a hut. It is an authentic vertical stack log cabin that happens to sleep sixteen. Snow enthusiasts last winter were treated to an epic season that buried this building.

Another load arriving.  Part of the crew went  into the mountain with chainsaws, filled the truck and brought them back to us.  We had a 25 ton log splitter, whose duty this weekend was to split 10 cords of wood.  Here we are dumping the second load near the outhouse.

When it's our turn at the log splitter, as a team, Bob & I have developed a very efficient and expedient way of turning it into firewood.

At the end of the day, we were always treated with a magnificent sunset.

As the sun goes down..

John Muir said it best, "In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."