I finally pulled the trigger and bought a Warn RT25 winch for my four-wheeler. I've been thinking about getting one ever since, oh, about the middle of January. ;) Warn is offering a $50 rebate on that winch through the end of the month, so I figured the timing isn't going to get any better. I chose the free shipping option, so it'll probably be nearly two weeks before the winch and mounting kit arrive. I plan on installing it myself--the instructions make it look pretty easy, though I'm not looking forward to cutting part of the front fascia off.

Despite the rainy weather today, I went for a drive in the car and did some geocaching. My primary motivation for getting out was to check out this canyon, but there also happened to be some caches along the way. I've been eying the road up that canyon for some time. I first noticed the road in Google Earth near where it ends, which is only three-quarters of a mile from the end of the road in the left fork of Cordingly Canyon, and only two miles north of Kenilworth. I had been thinking of hiking from Cordingly Canyon up to this road, but it would be a steep hike through some very thick trees. Instead, I'm now thinking about just riding my ATV along the road, even though most of it is on private property. CEU owns the property where the road begins just off US-191, the Blackhawk Coal Company owns most of the rest of the property that the road passes through, and there are some BLM parcels in between and at the very end. Today I hiked about a third of a mile up the road, past CEU's property line and well into the Blackhawk property, and I was pleased not to see any gates or signs. It was raining lightly when I started hiking, but it came down harder the longer I hiked, and Torrey and I ended up drenched. The canyon was beautiful in the rain. Low clouds obscured the tops of the mountains, and the wet sagebrush smelled great. If it stops raining long enough this weekend I might just drive the truck up there, because most of the road that I hiked along looked like a good 2WD road, with only one part at the beginning that requires 4WD. I'm not feeling up to an ATV ride all the way to the end of the road yet (especially not in the mud), but a drive in the truck would do me some good.