Walking the Arkansas River Conduit

 Years ago I picked up from Steve Bodio the phrase "an armed walk," meaning a stroll cross-country when you are ostensibly hunting, but spot no game.

In the winter, I sometimes modify that to "armed geocaching," since people will place caches in state wildlife areas.

Having just finished and uploaded to the printer a medium-sized editing project Sunday night, I had to get out on Monday.

Fisher the Horrid Dog had ripped a nail on a rear paw, and I could tell the paw was sore and swollen. I wanted it to heal, so I left him home.

But then I was a little lonely with no one to watch run and no one to scream at.

I walked the route of the old Arkansas River (or Valley) Conduit, which decades ago supplied industrial water to the CF&I steel mill in Pueblo.

It is not be be confused with the Arkansas Valley (or River) Conduit that has been on the drawing board for forty years, a pipeline to carry water from Pueblo Reservoir to towns downstream. (The river and well water downstream tends to be heavily mineralized.)

Most of it was an open ditch, but the top photo shows the ruined outflow of a siphon that carried water across a deep ravine.

The lower photo is the beginning of a different siphon, now crumbled. Was it deliberately blown up? The ditch parts are eroding fast. Less than a century old, and it is already a "relic of the Old Ones."

Found a couple of caches, saw no quail, missed my silly dog, left at home.