All the while, the van strained to tow us in record high October temps. Like a rag tag crew of space cowboys in our rundown ship, we puttered over 2000 miles fiddling with the controls to keep Big Red in flight. Turn the key, give it some gas to start, turn Over Drive off, engage the headlight knob, watch the temperature gauge, then the road, then the temperature as it creeps higher and higher, slam the heat lever to hot, roll down the windows, sweat it out, watch the temperature gauge, then the road, then the temperature as it settles down, slam the lever to cool. Drive, watch, wait, repeat.
Out of the dry western Colorado mountains, over the dark, rainy peaks of New Mexico painted with broad strokes of yellow aspens, days and days along the expansive fields of northern Texas, a quick stop in a hot, sticky, swampy state park in Mississippi where we camped under towering oaks that vibrated with cicadas and dripped with Spanish moss, then into an even hotter, stickier, swampier state park in Georgia with posted alligator warnings around an otherwise welcoming lake.
All the while, the van strained to tow us in record high October temps. Like a rag tag crew of space cowboys in our rundown ship, we puttered over 2000 miles fiddling with the controls to keep Big Red in flight. Turn the key, give it some gas to start, turn Over Drive off, engage the headlight knob, watch the temperature gauge, then the road, then the temperature as it creeps higher and higher, slam the heat lever to hot, roll down the windows, sweat it out, watch the temperature gauge, then the road, then the temperature as it settles down, slam the lever to cool. Drive, watch, wait, repeat.
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From our location in Colorado, the eclipse was going to reach around 90% totality at around 11:20 am. We knew we wanted to view the eclipse on a hike, but which hike was the question. The top of a 14er sounded like a good idea, until we thought about it and realized we'd be hanging out on a peak when thunderclouds typically start rolling in. We considered James Peak, but not only is it at 13,000 feet, it's off of I-70 and we wanted to avoid getting stuck in the country's worst traffic jam in history. Luckily enough, we found the perfect hike to Square Top Lakes. It starts on Guanella Pass, only about 10 miles down Highway 285 from where we live, which allowed us to avoid the interstate and not have to wake up too early. We got to the trailhead by 9:00 am. There were a few cars in the parking lot, but across the road at the Mount Bierstadt trailhead the parking lot was packed. We had over two hours until the eclipse started, so we took our time on the 2.3 mile trail in and stopped to admire our surroundings. We found a spot above the lake, threw on our glasses and realized the eclipse had already begun!
About five years ago, Kenny and I decided to not give each other Christmas presents. However, on that Christmas Eve, I was surprised to see Kenny drop a pile of wrapped packages under the tree with my name on them. In a panic, I did what anyone would do, and I sewed a little felt pouch in the shape of a strawberry and tucked a handwritten coupon in it: "One trip to Strawberry Hot Springs. Merry Christmas!" We never went and I had been ridiculed about my last-minute gift until this day. But no more! Kenny finally cashed in his fake, thoughtless voucher and we made the trek north to Steamboat Springs for a couple of nights. We needed a place to leave Annie while we went to the hot springs, so we did two things we don't often do: leave Annie behind for a few hours and rented a cabin at a KOA. On our first afternoon in town, thunderstorms rolled in one right after the other. First we stopped at a dog park to let Annie stretch her legs, then we decided to go window shopping downtown. A cloud opened up right above us and the three of us waited under a store awning until it passed. After the rain turned to a drizzle, we decided to go across the street to get a beer at The BARley before heading back to the cabin.
The next morning, we headed out to hike Gilpin Lake from the Slavonia Trailhead. The trail is 8.5 miles roundtrip, with an option to make it an 11.20 mile trip called the "Zirkel Circle" or Zirkel Loop". This route requires going past the lake, up the pass, and down a parallel trail back to the parking lot. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the Zirkel Circle was an option until we were already at Gilpin Lake. There, we decided it was too late in the day to climb a pass and tack on three extra miles, so we stuck to our original plan. The trail profile is pretty gentle, with a 2,000 foot elevation gain over the 4.25 miles to the lake. We frequently stopped to admire this unique time when late summer meets early fall, where the wildflowers are still vibrant, mushrooms are bursting out of the ground, and berries begin to ripen. For the last few weeks, the van's been having issues shifting. In that time we conjured up a kaleidoscope of worst case scenarios: it's the transmission, the fuel pump, a solenoid, something beyond repair, we need to rent a car for a week, we need to buy a new van, we need to quit our winter job and we'll be stuck here forever), and then we made an appointment with our old mechanic in Denver. Turned out the van just needed an old-fashioned tune up and was ready for pickup by the end of the day. We spent the evening in Denver catching up with our buds, then, because we still had two days left of our weekend, packed up the van and went camping! We chose Huron Peak, a 14,003 foot peak near Buena Vista. With a 4WD vehicle, the trail is only 6.5 miles, but for us, it was 9 miles round trip from the lower parking lot. The hike, though small and easy for a 14er, is a beloved destination because of its mining history, amazing views, and significant distance from any paved roads. We settled down at a dispersed campsite near the lower parking lot for the night. As we were setting up, we realized we were in forest of bear scratching posts. I strapped on the bear spray and we went down the road to explore Winfield, a ghost town only 1/4 mile away that we had to drive through to get to our campsite. The ghost town does have a few residents, and a poster said if you spotted a local they could sell you a booklet about the town, but unfortunately no one was around.
The countdown to the end of summer is on, and that means it's almost time to pack up and move south for the winter. We've decided to return to Florida, where the highest elevation point is 345 feet above sea level, so we have a lot of hiking to get out of our systems. Before we time travel a few weeks back to cover the new spots we've explored, some exciting things happened this week. An opportunistic bear ate part of our seat through a cracked window... To each his own. And we finally finished our floors in the trailer! Here's a sneak peek of our new floor and cabinets - more details to come. Anyways, a few weeks ago, we must have been overcome by our impending departure date and came up with an ambitious plan to hike two strenuous trails two days in a row.
The first beast: Bison Peak. The beginning of the week had been stormy with thunderclouds rolling in by late morning. We wanted to get an early start to avoid the certain storm, so the night before our hike we got a head start and camped on Kenosha Pass after work. As we were pulling into the campsite off of Highway 285, we spotted a moose (and got a great deal of blurry pictures of it)! There comes a time when you have to throw away your weekend and get some important stuff done. We've been wanting to tear out the carpet in our trailer for a while and replace it with vinyl planks. So, we drove to the Home Depot in Denver and picked up the parts for our our new floor. Then, we tore out the carpet. And then we realized it was too late in the day to start laying the floor.....so we went camping.
A few months ago, I heard a radio ad for the Crested Butte Music Festival. I pulled up the calendar on the website and found a Tuesday matinee: the dress rehearsal for a double bill of the comedic one-act operas Offenbach’s The Island of Tulipatan and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. I emailed my mom the information to see if she wanted to meet us there, hoping I wasn't the only one who thought driving 200 miles to the opera sounded like a fun idea. Luckily, we're a bunch of nerds and made a date! When we were searching for campsites before the trip, we were surprised to find that there weren't many camping options near town other than the Oh-Be-Joyful Campground, a first-come, first-serve campground a few miles outside of town. With our fingers crossed, we headed down four miles of dirt road and, sure enough, found an open site. The campground used to be free, but as of summer 2017 there is a $10 fee - which is a fair price for the views, vault toilets, and a creekside site. The next day we met up with my mom at her Airbnb, which happened to have a pool and was right across from the Mount Crested Butte Mirror Palace tent, where the opera was being held. We went for a dip then put on our finest and walked over to the show.
So far during our summer in Colorado, we've adventured west to Grand Junction, south to Buena Vista, and east to the Sand Dunes, so we decided it was time to head north to hike and camp on the Front Range. Having lived in Denver for eight years before becoming full-time RVers, Kenny and I were pretty familiar with hiking and camping in the area and were excited to see some old familiar places.
I looked in my book Best Dog Hikes Colorado and chose to hike Mount Audubon, a 13er in the Indian Peaks Wilderness that begins in the Brainard Recreation Area. From past experience, we knew that Brainard, due to its close proximity to Boulder and Denver, was always a busy place, and decided to look for a quiet campsite for the night outside of the rec area near Nederland on Forest Service land. First, we tried a spot we'd camped at before during our Denver days. On the forest service road on the way to Rainbow Lakes Recreation Area, there are five or so dispersed campsites where we'd always found a spot. On this Monday afternoon, they were all full. So, we continued down the road to the Rainbow Lakes Recreation Area to checkout the pay sites. We spoke to the camp host, and they were full, except for two walk-in tent sites, which we could have done, but didn't feel like dishing out $24 to pitch a tent. So we continued north to see if Brainard Rec Area had any available sites, but because of spring runoff, their campground wasn't even open until the coming Friday. SO, we kept driving north on the Peak to Peak Highway (not a bad place to be driving aimlessly), until we ran into the Peaceful Valley and Camp Dick Campgrounds. There, we scored the last campsite in the Peaceful Valley loop. It wasn't exactly free or secluded, but it was a place to park and only ten miles from the trailhead we'd be starting out on in the morning. On Thursday, the first day of our work week, we made ambitious plans to hike Willow Lake near Crestone on our first day off, followed by Ptarmigan Lake in Buena Vista the next. 40 hours of work later, we decided to skip the first hike, sleep in, go for a walk, and meander down to the Sand Dunes Pool. The next day, we made it to the Ptarmigan Lake trailhead off Cottonwood Pass in Buena Vista. This moderate hike gains 1,490 feet over 3.3 miles, with an optional .3 miles up to a saddle for a wonderful view.
We started around 9:00 am on a warm first day of summer. For the most part, the snow had melted along the first two miles of the hike. We had a bit of a family reunion a couple of weeks ago. We met up with my mother, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew who were on a road trip from St. Paul, Minnesota to Colorado. Mom and my sister, Amy, are Colorado natives. My brother-in-law, Mark, is from New York, and the kids, Iris and Richard, are Minnesota natives. We met up with them at Sand Dunes Pool, colloquially known as the Hooper Pool. The pool, a hot springs in the San Luis Valley, is a welcome respite in the flat, strange, sandy valley. On the first night, a day before the family showed up, Angelica and I camped in the RV overflow section in the flat, flat San Luis Valley. No hook-ups, but fire pits, and a hot spring pool about a hundred yards away! In the early evening, we went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's best to tackle the sand dunes in the morning or the evening. The sand can get above 100 degrees in the daytime.
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The Campers
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