Day 1 7.19
If you’ve been following along, you know this year has been filled with so many changes. One of those is that my former 12 hour drive from our home in Kansas to my Happy Place in Colorado is now a 31 hour drive. We’d spent a wonderful day with Emma & Claire…saying good bye was hard. I left our home in Orlando at 7pm on a Friday night & drove for 10 hours.
Day 2 7.20
I grabbed a couple of hours sleep, then continued to drive all day, racking up 11 more hours behind the wheel.
It was the full moon & I was on two lane highways with no city lights & but with a great view!
Day 3 7.21
I’d pulled over & slept for a couple of hours then left at 3:20am. Ended up pulling over once again & catching about 1.5 hours sleep. But then, I was there.
I’d stopped for gas 8 times, gone through two time zones, listened to 3 audio books & drove through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico & finally, made to Colorado & where these mountains hold a big piece of my heart!
On a side note, I was arriving about 1pm on a Sunday…a good chance to find camping. But I have a friend (I’d met Jules once before camping out here & have stayed in contact with her over IG) who I knew was camping in my favorite valley. So, along my long, long drive, I’d messaged her to see when she was leaving & it happened to be Sunday morning. My friend Talie, who I’d be camping with, drove out to the sites, met Jules & they swapped a couple of sites. So, when I arrived, I was blessed with a great site, up on the ridge with a view of this gorgeous mountain!
Gothic mountain….
Our nightly pleasure is to watch the mountains that surround us glow with sunlight, moonlight, rainbows, alpenglow….it’s always beautiful & Talie & I have about a thousand photos of these evenings (& mornings). I FT with Danny & Emma & Claire & felt so very very grateful to be back here! Talie & I chatted & chatted until it was pitch black outside & then I was back in my fantastic 4Runner, tucking myself in & ready to let the cool mountain air in at night & the rhythms of the cycles of morning & night take over my body.
Day 4 7.22
I had a nice morning in camp with Talie…drinking tea & more visiting & looking around at everything. After a disastrous last summer, everything feels like a gift.
Then I drove up the road for my first hike…the 403. It was about 9:30 but I was the only one on the trail & at the top…how perfect!
I was delighted to see so many wildflowers were still blooming…I thought I’d probably missed them by coming out so late this year.
My walking friends back in Kansas sent me these wild Dirty Girl gaitors…but the best part is they all signed them with good wishes & their names. I miss these wonderful, badass, active, smart & fun women & I miss our walks along the river trail. I’ll be bringing their spirit with me on many, many hikes!
I rarely take selfies, but just feeling so very very grateful & happy to be back in this place!
This view…always amazing!
Perfect mountains...
Columbines seem to be in short supply this year, but found this lovely bunch on top of the 403!
I’d had the place to myself…until I started down. It was no surprise that 1/2 back down, I passed 34 people coming up the trail & 12 more in the parking lot.
After my hike I drove into town for the first time this trip. It changes every year, but the past 5 or 6 years, there’s been so many changes. I grabbed some lunch at Momo’s & sat on one of the benches & took the town in. Then I just walked up & down Elk, a bit sad by how different it is from what it used to be. But, the mountains & trails don’t change; the camping has gotten better with the changes the NFS have made & my friends here are still good.
The former Brick…will never be the same after the Billionaire bought it ($6.25 for a Pepsi)…as he is buying up most of the buildings in town. I spent so much time at that wonderful outdoor bar & made so many friends. Thank goodness the friendships continue, even though the good beer in this town is nowhere to be found.
I met Talie back out at camp…a woman who is always having adventures of her own & doing it all on one leg. She is finding using her crutches rather than her prosthetic, is working better. She bikes down the mountain, kayaks on the local lakes, has done some indoor climbing & her active life continues with new things to do all the time. She spent 6.5 months on the road last winter, logging 15,000 miles in her van Loona; camping & biking everyday from coast to coast. She is an amazing person, so interesting & I never, ever, ever run out of things to visit with her about.
So, we ended our night as we would every night, looking at our surrounding mountains change from day to night, chatting over a campfire, watching the stars pop out in these very dark skies (oh how I miss dark skies…they are nowhere in Orlando), & feeling the mountain temps drop & that lovely air fill our lungs.
Day 5 7.23
So, another side note. While camping up on the ridge, there was a Tiger RV camped next to us. I thought it was the same one I’d seen several other years camped near us down off the ridge overlooking the meadows. I’d never met the couple that owned this fantastic Tiger & a tiny old jeep loaded with two mountain bikes. But, this year, we all introduced ourselves. Rick & Sherry are from Durango & they had been coming out here for years. The three sites, that turned out to be all of our favorite sites, were currently closed for construction crews to work on the road. We all three had been eyeing those sites, just waiting for them to open up. It was wonderful getting to meet this interesting retired couple, who mountain bikes in the summer, then spends a huge chunk of winter in Baja, windsurfing. So, more on this in a bit.
I decided to hike Lily Lake today…not a hard hike, but I had a tiny little thing occur with my body yesterday, so I was going to be gentle with it today. Lily lake is off Kebler pass & usually a really muddy hike, but it’s been very dry lately, so the trail was mostly dirt…not mud.
Elephant head flower….Talie’s favorite, so I always think of her when I see one.
Lily lake trail is off of Kebler Pass, which has no cell service. So, when I came off the road into town, my phone started going off with text messages. Sherry, had asked the workers about our ‘most wanted’ campsites by the meadow, if they knew when they’d open up…they’d said a couple of hours. And they’d be happy if we took all three, then they wouldn’t have to deal with a lot of people coming up & down the road (they would continue to have two RV’s at the sites behind us for their workers, which worked out spectacularly! the whole time we were there!) Talie had an appointment she couldn’t miss, so I knew she couldn’t go down to get the sites & I had not idea if Rick or Sherry would be there either. The message was more than a couple of hours old, & that was long enough for us to lose those sites.
I skipped my lunch stop in town & drove straight out there. As I was pulling off the road towards the sites, Rick & Sherry were just pulling out to go biking. As it turned out, Talie & Sherry had taken down our two tents while still up on the ridge. One of the workers drove up to tell them they were opening up the sites. So, while Talie had to leave for her appointment, Rick & Sherry set up BOTH of our tents in our sites….all three of us were now going to be camping in our fave spots! YAY! It was so awesome of them to do that work for us. The four of us would meet every morning over coffee & tea & catch up every evening for the next several days until they left for Durango.
We had our first campfire this night…so happy to be back in “our spot!”
Day 6 7.24
I visited with everyone in the morning, then opened up my very stuffed Thule (road box). They all left for a day of biking & I broke out the castle tent…my favorite travel partner was joining me & I needed to get ready. Danny is flying into Denver tomorrow. He’d decided to sell the A frame pop up camper he’d bought last summer, it was just going to be an expensive pain with our move to Florida. So, he was back in a tent. We’d bought a new one, since last year our old & well used one broke a pole. So, I worked all morning trying to get ready for Danny’s visit. My options for going to Denver, was to leave at 3:30am tomorrow morning (avoiding all the wild animals that tend to run in front of your car during this time) or I’d asked my friend Sherry (the biker) if I could crash at her place for the night & she said yes.
So I made the drive to Denver that afternoon & went to Sherry’s place.
Sherry & I walked to local place for dinner, then had drinks at her house. Sherry is not only a world traveler, but is currently on a biking journey and is a foster kitten mom. So, while we caught up about her upcoming trips & Capitol to Capitol adventure, we played with the kittens too!
I somehow managed to not take any photos on this day.
Day 7 7.25
Danny had left Orlando very early, so he was arriving early. I left for the cell phone lot to await his arrival & to move everything around to make room for another person. We got gas, hit the grocery store then headed back to CB….he was super excited to be here too. We haven’t spent much time together since our move…he was there for the first 3 weeks of our move, then flew back to KC to get his truck then he headed to the lake to work hard for a month. He’d been back in Orlando about 2.5 weeks, before I’d leave to come on this trip. Retirement isn’t quite what we thought it would be, but no regrets on the move…we both love seeing the girls so much more often! But this would be our first time since his retirement, for us both to just relax & not have a list of “to do’s” & we both couldn’t wait to be in that mode.
We pulled in town, grabbed a slice of pizza at the Stash, then met our friend Rick (from RMBL) for a beer at the Eldo. We sat on their upstairs outdoor porch & looked over the town & Rick filled us in on all the changes. He never changes or gets older & it’s always great to see him!
We made it out to camp. The skies had been smoky the past few days due to the fires out west, but they were beginning to clear. Danny finished setting up his tent-home, then got out his chair & started relaxing. He met Rick & Sherry & gave Talie a hug, great to be in the company of all these people, but really great for us to be together ….here in this place. (No photos today either.)