We didn’t sleep well last night, altitude can do that to you sometimes. We left our beautiful campsite and headed into Salida, CO to see a United Country agent there. We’ve been using United Country because they specialize in land, not just houses. We found lots of land in our price range. We had lunch before heading out, a place called Amica’s, a restaurant and brewpub. This small town has a Microbrew that has pretty good beer! We walked down First Street and saw several cruiser bikes just sitting out, unlocked. We were curious if they had a metro bike group that fixed up old bikes for public use. We asked at one shop and no, it seems that these are personal bikes, owned by shop owners and such. They’re not locked because they don’t have a real problem with crime here! Though they did admit if it was a really nice bike they’d probably lock it up. We liked the friendly feel of the town. The stores seemed to be taken care of and full of life.
We looked at the first few places near town, but didn’t stay long. We headed up to a place called Spruce Basin, about 45 minutes from Salida. At first, we were heading up a dirt road, nothing on either side and I didn’t like it. It was like too many other properties we looked at that would have cows and horses as neighbors. We suddenly came upon a few houses. We saw a sign at one corner that said “Limited Winter Maintenance” and we were a bit skeptical. We saw a VW bug coming up behind us and they asked if they could help us find something. We asked about the plots that were for sale. Lynn and Linda Bates were really helpful. There is no electricity to any of these properties and everyone is on solar power. Lynn showed us his PV panels and setup. They had a plot plan that helped us locate the lots we were looking for, one was right next door to them and another was nearby. We checked out the lot next to them, 7 acres with pines and aspens, gently rolling terrain. We walked around the property for more than an hour.
We still had more stuff to see but it was getting late. We drove back into Salida and checked into a cheap hotel room and took off to see more property south of town. We drove south of town another 45 minutes, adjoining BLM land. We found a small community, but it was 2.5 acres and we couldn’t find the right plot. It was a beautiful drive, but we didn’t feel good about the area. Too remote.
Tomorrow we move onto Buena Vista, just 30 minutes north of Salida, but for tonight, we just chilled out in the hotel room.