Journal 110: Unforgettable Moments Under The Pines: Part 1

The most memorable parts of Pinehaven’s history are not always found in deeds, maps, or meeting minutes. Sometimes they emerge from rain-softened soil, arrive through a kitchen window, or begin with an innocent stop for ice cream that somehow ends with the purchase of a cabin.

One of the greatest joys of researching Pinehaven’s history has been helping owners document the histories of their cabins. Along the way, I have discovered stories that families continue telling years and even decades later. Some make us laugh. Some remind us how quickly mountain life can change. Others reveal why a simple cabin can become part of a family’s identity.

Together, these memories tell a history measured not only in years and events, but also in courage, laughter, friendship, family traditions, and the occasional visit from a bear with questionable manners.

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12 Unforgettable Moments

Here are twelve of Pinehaven’s unforgettable moments and the families who lived them.

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History Rising from the Soil. While interviewing Ron Jameson and Bob Pierottii in separate meetings, they both recalled finding Ute arrowheads and spear points in the soil after heavy rains. Sometimes Pinehaven’s history is not discovered in an archive. It rises from the rain-softened soil, reminding us that the story of this mountain began long before Pinehaven had a name.(1)

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The Orphan Who Built Pinehaven. Steve Pierotti and his siblings had lost both parents by the time he was nine, forcing him to develop unusual independence and determination. He later managed service stations, worked in coal mines, delivered coal, and built successful heating and cooling businesses. Those hard-earned qualities prepared him to transform John Vories’ fragile mountain dream into the community of Pinehaven.(2)

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Ice Cream with an Expensive Side Effect. In July 2010, Micki and Robert Boyle were traveling through southern Colorado on their way back to Amarillo, Texas. They decided to spend the night in La Veta before continuing home. While there, they stopped at Charlie’s Market for ice cream, wandered past a real estate office, and made an offer on a Pinehaven cabin within twenty-four hours. They still laugh that they can spend two months choosing tennis shoes but made one of their largest purchases in a day. Micki now warns visitors that Charlie’s ice cream can lead to buying a cabin they will never regret, although the warning has yet to appear on Charlie’s menu.(3). 

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An Association Built with Two Dollars. On August 9, 1987, Pinehaven owners gathered at the Cuchara Inn to address problems no household could solve alone. Each participating owner contributed two dollars for printing and postage, and committees began working on roads, covenants, water, sewer, and fire protection. From those modest contributions emerged an organization that would help guide Pinehaven for nearly four decades. Those founding members may not have begun with much money, but they apparently had no shortage of commitment.(4)

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Nose to Nose with a Raccoon. One evening, Sandra Harmon’s two young grandchildren pressed close to the sliding-glass door as a raccoon approached from the deck. With only the glass between them, the two Texas children found themselves “nose to nose” with one of Pinehaven’s nighttime visitors, creating a photograph that captures a memory the family still treasures. For the children, it was an unforgettable wildlife encounter. For the raccoon, it may simply have been two curious Texans on display behind glass.(5)

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Irises That Still Return. In 1975, Tom Barber’s grandmother planted irises beside the road in front of the family’s A-frame cabin. More than fifty years and six generations later, descendants of those flowers continue blooming each spring. Each spring, their return forms a living connection between the family gathering at the cabin today and the grandmother who knelt beside the road to plant them in 1975.(6)

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“Grandma, My Legs Were Shaking.” During a morning walk in June 2025, Sandra Ryan and her grandchildren encountered a bear emerging from behind the cabin. It crossed the road directly in front of them, paused twice to look back, and continued on as the family stood motionless; once safely inside, Sandra’s eight-year-old grandson admitted, “Grandma, my legs were shaking.” (7)

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Four Aspen Logs Through a Kitchen Window. During the renovation of one of Pinehaven’s oldest cabins, Tom Howard needed to move four large aspen logs into the house through a kitchen window. Neighbors, including some he barely knew, arrived to support and maneuver the logs into place. Moving four aspen logs through a kitchen window may not be the conventional way to meet the neighbors, but it revealed what kind of neighbors they were. Tom summarized their willingness to help with five words: “A lot of that in Pinehaven.” (8)

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Watching the Fire from the Deck: Jimmie and Sandee ordered a Pan Abode cabin from Washington and built it themselves in 1984. They still remember constructing every wall, installing every window and door, building the garage, and decorating the interior of what they now call their “heart home.” During the 2018 Spring Creek Fire, the flames came close enough that the Flenners could see from their decks where the fire had burned. The cabin survived, giving new meaning to the “heart home” they had built with their own hands more than three decades earlier. (9)

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Bobcats Beneath the Deck. One year, a mother bobcat and her two kittens made a temporary home beneath the lower deck of Eagles Nest on County Road 406. Security cameras captured their daily movements, allowing the family to watch three remarkably beautiful neighbors who never paid rent but caused surprisingly few problems.(10)

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The “Beary Christmas” Tree. Beginning in 2023, Gene and Rhonda spent individual time with each grandchild assembling and painting miniature log cabins bearing their names. Seventeen illuminated cabins were eventually arranged on a wooden Christmas-tree-shaped display crowned by a Santa bear, transforming a family craft project into the cabin’s “Beary Christmas Tree.” Each October, the Roncones raise the illuminated display again, turning seventeen small cabins into a celebration of the grandchildren and the Pinehaven memories they are building together. It may be the only Christmas tree in Pinehaven that contains more cabins than ornaments.(11)

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A Bear Helps Himself to a Dr Pepper. During the summer of 2009, a bear climbed through a cabin window, opened the refrigerator, and helped itself to a Dr Pepper and several other items. It departed through a neighboring window, breaking one and leaving behind what the Morgans diplomatically described as “a souvenir.” It was the only cabin guest who raided the refrigerator, broke a window, and forgot to flush.(12)

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The Stories That Make a Place Home

Taken together, these stories reveal that Pinehaven’s history lives in more than its cabins and records. It lives in flowers that return each spring, neighbors who appear when four aspen logs must somehow fit through a kitchen window, grandchildren building traditions of their own, and families who discover that life beneath the pines rarely unfolds exactly as expected. Even the bears occasionally contribute a story, although their methods leave something to be desired.

These moments may seem small when viewed individually, but together they preserve something important. They remind us that a community’s history is not made only by those who founded it or led it. It is also made by the people who loved it, cared for one another, faced danger together, laughed afterward, and kept telling the stories. Pinehaven has many more of those stories waiting beneath the pines, and Part 2 will gather twelve more. (13)