On our second trip to see The Dome we have extra time to explore other areas. The Jersey Girl is a good sport, but when I drive to the end of a cul-de-sac in the more distant town of Pine and park to walk out to look at some raw land she stays in the car. She mutters something about the movie Deliverance, gunshots and what is my master password before I wander off into the woods near a “No Trespassing” sign. This one is way overpriced, with steep land, a rock outcropping with an amazing view, an abandoned barn which is almost inaccessible from the only place you could build a road into it. Still, I’m learning.
One of the things I’ve learned is that realtors love to feature “rock outcroppings.” Sure these are the Rocky Mountains, and they can be pretty. The area is high enough elevation that there are no rattlesnakes among the rocks. But what you really want is a lot that is on a south facing slope, especially the access road should face south. You want a healthy forest or beautiful meadow. You hope there is water when you drill a well. But generally “rock outcroppings” means it is steep and rocky and good luck finding a flat building site.
But the Pine Creek rock outcropping site is not for the faint of heart. And probably not for me. The Jersey Girl didn’t like the extra drive either since this one was after the 4 lane main road turns to 2 winding steeper lanes.
As we were leaving I stopped by the side of a quiet dirt road seemingly in the middle of nowhere to check out the maps on my phone. It was a glorious warm fall day – the kind I crave and makes me want to move back to Colorado. The car window is open and a guy rolls up on his mountain bike and asks if we need directions. I know where we are going but ask him about the mountain biking, we strike up a conversation, he grew up in the area which has since been subdivided and developed, but he doesn’t begrudge all the new folks moving in. He is genuinely friendly, the kind of friendly that makes someone from NY or NJ suspicious. Is he on drugs? What does he want? No, it is just someone being nice. And then he says” Have you ever seen a red tailed hawk up close?
It turns out he is being mentored by a neighbor who is a licensed falconer. They caught the juvenile hawk a couple of days earlier and are beginning to train it for hunting. In the US you must be licensed to handle wild and endangered raptors. We jump at the opportunity and follow him down the road to the neighbor’s home. Another nice person. Is it something in the water? He gives us a few pointers about how not to scare the bird and we watch him bring the bird of of the darkened shed where the bird is being kept until it calms down from being captured.
So far I have not been captured by any real estate, the hunt continues. I wish I could fly over the area like that hawk to become more familiar with the the landscape and the homes.