What are these?? ...Anyone.... Anyone...

Now that it's October (my very favorite month!) I'm getting in as much outdoor activity as possible before the season changes to bitter cold. Unfortunately that doesn't equate to much activity- chemistry just takes up so much time! I was able to sneak in a quick bike ride this past weekend though.

Surprisingly, there aren't as many mountain biking trails in this area one might expect. I mean, we're in the heart of the Rocky Mountains here- the biggest outdoor playground in the country. Leadville also hosts the Leadville Trail 100 every year. You know, that little bike rice that's 100 miles over massive rocky mountain terrain. The one that Lance Armstrong occasionally makes an appearance at and blows away all the other riders. So yes, I'm a little bitter that there is not more single track terrain to play on, but I'll take what I can get. I drove my car out of Leadville towards Tennessee Pass- about 10 miles or so; directly across from the Ski Cooper ski area.

There are some trails around here that I've seen before, but I can't find any information on them. It's important to know what kind of trail you're getting on- is it for Beginners or Experts? Are there long climbs or descents? Is it technical with lots of rocks, roots and switchbacks? These are things I like to know before I start pedaling. In the case of Leadville however, sometimes you just gotta get on the trail because there's no other way to know.

This is exactly what I did on Sunday- I started on a trail just North of the Tennessee pass trail. Turns out this trail was part of both the Continental Divide Trail, and the Colorado Trail (goes from Durango to Denver). Ok so that sounds pretty cool. I started pedaling for a 1/2 mile or so, and then I came across an open field where I see this:


Woa! What is that I thought? I had to get off my bike and go investigate. This kind of looked like a falling down igloo, only made with rocks. The rocks were rudimentary stacks with sand in-between. It was used for fire of some sort. The entire inside was completely covered with soot. Then as I was wondering, I noticed that there were more, only they were mostly gone. There were about five in total- mostly just the ring at the base was left. Two were of this primitive stone, the others were made of brick. What was going on here?


My first thought was that these were some kind of shelter many years ago. But then that didn't make sense, why would they be here? And there was so much soot and ash covering the inside, maybe these were some kind of kilns? But then for what? Then I thought about the 10th Mountain Division. This was a division of the Army that trained in this area during WWII. They trained here in preparation for fighting in the Alps. (Stay tuned for an entire blog dedicated to this fascinating story.) So were these used by the soldiers? Some kind of training activity, or armory?



I attempted to find something online, but my search has proved futile thus far. I don't even know what to call these so how do I search for them? So, here's where I'm putting out the request to all you readers. I know that someone knows what these are. And I'm sure there is a very simple explanation that I'm overlooking. So dear reader, if you have any insight into these stone igloos- please solve the mystery and let us know what these are!