Author: rrainefiore

Fuck You Lake

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

When I first moved to Granby I bought a hiking book for Grand County.  The book is horrible.  Almost every time I’ve tried a trail in there, it gave me old or false information and the whole hike I wondered if I was on the right trail.

The worst one of these was a trail that went along Stillwater Creek up to a lake.  The lake was not named in the book.  It wasn’t named on google maps or in my gps either.  The first time I tried the trail, I barely found the start of the trail.  It was winter so the trail was not obvious.  I hiked for about an hour crawling over logs and shuffling though the deep snow.  I thought I was on the trail, then I wasn’t, then I was.  Is this a trail?  It was one of the most beautiful winter forests I’ve been in, but maybe not a trail.  I gave up after an hour.  I tried two more times in winter, but never got near the lake.  The trail must only be visible when the ground isn’t covered in snow.

 

So I tried it twice in fall.  The second time I went, my roommate came with me.  Almost immediately we had to climb over downed trees.  Where did the trail go?  Then we’d think we found the trail again only to come to a place where there was so much dead fall that the trail was lost.  Then it got steeper with a drop off on one side hundreds of feet down to the river.  We kept the river to our right.  I was on hands and knees crawling over and under downed trees.  We were both concerned with falling toward the river, but the slope above was too steep to hike.  We crawled and fought our way through the mess of trees for about an hour and a half and both my hand and my face were bleeding.  We gave up and turned around to head back.  Obviously, who ever wrote this book never actually did this trail.  It probably was a trail at some point, but no one has hiked it in 5 – 10 years (except me).

I took a closer look a map when we got home and it looked like we could reach the lake from a different direction even though there did not appear to be any trails in that area either.  But no trail couldn’t possibly be worse than the one I had been trying.  At this point my roommate was about as obsessed with finding this lake as I was so we headed out to wander around in a different part of the wilderness.  I parked the car near an atv trail.  Good thing I didn’t try to drive down it.  I would have gotten stuck with no way to turn around.  It was so rough with huge convolutions in the ground that I couldn’t even imagine how you would drive an atv down it with out tipping the atv over.  It was a short trail that ended abruptly at a cliff.  Below the cliff was a valley that probably had been carved by the Stillwater creek.  The creek was not visible.  It was all marshy and wetland like.  This was the upper part of the creek that would flow into the lake.  We couldn’t get down the cliff and it looked like a trail went to the right along the top of the cliff so we followed that.  It was one of the steepest trails I’ve ever been on so we got quite the workout.  When the trail mellowed out it looked like it was going away from the lake so we left the trail to head downhill again toward the lake.  It was steep and there were more downed trees than the other day.  The trees were bigger and almost impossible to crawl over.  About an hour of this and my roommate was cussing up a storm.  There was no turning back now, though. We were both determined to find the lake. Then we could see a clearing in the distance that had to be the lake.  Just 10 minutes more and we’d be at the edge of the trees.  There was no lake.  You can tell there might have been a lake a long time ago.  Now it was just brown marshy land.  I am all scratched up for this.  I bled for this.  And I still have to hike back up through the steep forest of twisted unforgiving dead trees.  I don’t know what the name of this dead lake is, but I’m naming it Fuck You Lake.  We both yelled at it for a little bit.  And then cried a little when we realized there was no easy way back to the car.  We had to go the way we came in.  It was a tough hike out, but we will never wonder what Fuck You Lake would have been like if only there was a trail there.

Bear and Beaver

On By rrainefioreIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Driving home from Denver, almost to Winter Park, I looked out the window and saw a bear walking by a pond. We pulled the car over and got out to watch the bear.

There was a small Beaver den on the pond. The bear was walking around the Beaver den sniffing at it and pawing at the logs. At the same time we could see at least two Beaver swimming around the pond. It took a few minutes for us to realize what was going on. The bear wasn’t interested in something near the den, the bear was trying to get into the den.

It didn’t take long for the beavers to know what was going on. They swam out into the middle of the pond and slapped the water with their tails. If you weren’t standing up high where we were, it might look like a fish jumped out of the water. It worked. The Bear’s attention was drawn to the water and he started swimming out into the middle. They kept slapping and the bear kept swimming. The bear did three or four laps around the pond. Eventually, the bear got out of the pond and wandered off until we couldn’t see where he went. The beaver den was safe for another day.

Aspen

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I think Aspen trees are wonderful.  Their trunks are great looking, especially in the winter in a grove of all white and black.  Aspens with leaves are even more wonderful.  The leaves seem so thin and small that the light just runs through them like they are opaque.  This makes the leaves look like they are lit from within.  When there is a breeze, they flutter like tissue paper, like they are barely holding on.  They shine and shimmer as they shake on the tree like glitter.  The sound is a soft shaking sound that doesn’t quite sound like rustling leaves, but a soft murmur.  And then fall, magic.  Most aspen trees turn a vibrant yellow.  As you look out across the mountain, you see a sea of dark green and glowing gold.  Some years the conditions are just right and some of the aspen turn orange and a few turn red.  The landscape is on fire.   Aspen trees are wonderful.

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3 Lakes

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The guy I’m dating skis at least once a month.  He asked me to go skiing with him in August.  It was also his birthday.  I have no desire to ski in August, but I wanted to celebrate his birthday with him.  So, the plan was for him and another friend to ski Skyscraper Glacier and I would hike up and down with them.

The hike up was a little rough for me, but only for a little while.  The top of Skyscraper Glacier is at about 12,000 feet so I was huffing and puffing a bit.  I can’t quite imagine doing it with skis attached to my pack.  There were quite a few cool looking rocks along the way.  As often happens, I did end up with a pocket full of rocks by the end of the morning.  It was beautiful being up at what appears to be the top of the world, especially since it was a Wednesday and working was the other option.

After they left me to ski, I headed around the glacier to pick a path down the steep slope and them meet them at the bottom.  I met a really nice marmot on my path.  He stood up on his hind legs and watched me.  We had a little conversation, but it was a pretty one-way conversation.  I spoke and he listened.  I was off any trails that existed at this point and chose a path down the steep slope.  It was steep enough that I had to make switchbacks every few feet.  I thought I might fall many times, but I didn’t.  But the views were great.  I could see three different lakes at the same time – Lakes Betty, Bob and King.  There was also this great boulder field below me.  I got to the boulder field and wow the boulders were huge.  It took quite a long time to get through the boulders as I was on both hands and knees crawling over them for a lot of it.

I finally got through the boulders and was able to take some pictures of them skiing.  The hike out was so beautiful.  There were wildflowers, the lakes and even a small waterfall.  How beautiful the continental divide is.

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C Lazy U

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

A while back I had been talking to a friend that works at a ranch called C Lazy U.  It is a guest ranch.  I’m not quite sure what people do at a guest ranch.  I assume they ride horses and eat fancy dinners, but I’m not quite sure.  My friend was telling me I should come out to the ranch sometime and watch the horses run out to pasture.  During the day, the ranch’s horses are in a corral or being ridden.  In the late afternoon they take them out to a pasture for the evening.  They let the horsed run through the ranch to get to the pasture.  I want to see a bunch of horses running.

One day we get a search and rescue call to C Lazy U.  The rescue went so quickly and smoothly that they had guy in the ambulance before I was needed.  We just happened to be finished right before the running of the horses.  We hung out at the corral for a little bit to kill some time.  There were 50 or 60 horses hanging out not doing much.  We met Petey, the donkey that hangs out with the horses.

Then they opened the corral gates and the horses followed one cowboy on a horse and ran down the street through the ranch.  They went from milling around kind of bored horses to happy trotting horses.  You could almost hear them saying “yay, this is my favorite part of the day – we get to go hang out in the pasture now”.  Where I thought I saw 50 or 60 horses in the corral, it seemed to be hundreds now.  They kept running by and then more and then more.  The sound was so loud I’m not sure we could have talked to each other.  Somewhere in the middle, Petey trotted by too.  He really thinks he’s just one of the horses.  I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen this many horses in one place.  What a fun end to the day.  Still not sure what people do at guest ranches.

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Belly Flop

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, Uncategorized1 Comment

I was in Golden and had lunch with a friend.  We had some time after lunch and walked down toward the river.  As we were approaching the river we heard a lot of cheering and yelling coming from the river.  It seemed like odd timing since it was the middle of the week.  I knew there were ball fields nearby, but it didn’t make sense that there would be a ball game in the middle of the day in the middle of the week.  As we got to the river, we saw a crowd of men standing in the river in one of the eddies.  They were hooting and hollering as they took turns doing belly flops into the river above the small rapid and then swimming to the group of men.  There seemed to be no end to the line of men waiting to belly flop.  There seemed to be no end to the fun they were having.  I cannot say what prompted the belly flop competition or where the men came from.  After we were done with our walk, they were gone as if it never happened.

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Front Yard

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

My front yard is ugly.  The people who owned the house before me did nothing with it.  It has an aspen tree and the rest of the yard is covered in old sun bleached wood chips.  I haven’t had the time or money to do anything about it.  This spring when the snow finally melted (June) I had some packets of flower seeds that I found in a box when I moved.  I threw them around the yard haphazardly.  Nothing grew.  Now my yard has an aspen tree, ugly wood chips, 5,000 aspen babies and a ton of weeds.  But, among the weeds are a couple red flowers.  I can see them from my desk so I have left them.  It’s about 4 flowers, but since I thought nothing would come up, I am quite delighted with them!

Flattops

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I went backpacking in the Flattops Wilderness.  We took a day off work so we could get an early start and not have to `deal with the crowds of people.  We planned to take a trail that was recommended to me when I called the ranger station to get ideas.  I prepared meals ahead of time and packed up all my camping gear.

The trip started off with a cow traffic jam as we were driving to the Flattops.  I think this road may see more cow traffic than road traffic.  We got to the wilderness area and found a car camping spot for the night.  We would head out on the trail the next morning.

Little did I know we would not have to worry about crowds of people.  Either the area is far enough away from Denver or just not a popular spot.  Or the mosquitos killed all the other people.  I haven’t seen that many mosquitos in one place since I left Florida.  We had to re-apply mosquito repellant every few hours and even then, they never went away.

There were signs at the trail head that sheep farmers were grazing their sheep and we might encounter sheep.  It warned not to approach the sheep especially since the sheep dog might not like that as it is protecting the sheep.  About an hour or so onto the trail we heard a weird sound.  We weren’t sure what it was.  We came across a big field of rocks and the sound got louder.  Pretty soon we realized the sound was the sheep.  The rocks moved as they were not rocks at all, but sheep.  As we came closer, they became very interested in us.  Some of the sheep stopped what they were doing to come toward us and check us out.  So much for not approaching the sheep.  The warnings said nothing about the fact that the sheep would most likely approach us.  It was a wonderful little break from the hiking to watch the sheep watching us.  We never saw a dog, though.

We came upon a lake with some good camping spots nearby so we decided to set up camp there for two nights and we would day hike the next day from there.  We started a fire as soon as we had set up camp in hopes that the smoke would chase away the mosquitos.  It really didn’t.  We explored a nearby basin and decided to climb to the top of the basin the next day.

The wild flowers were blooming like crazy.  The only other time I had been to the Flattops, I had experienced wildflowers, the volume and brightness I had never seen before.  I counted the number of different flowers I saw on the way up.  I lost count somewhere around 50 different types of flowers.  Mother Nature is the best artist I know.

The day hike to the top of the basin the next day was great.  The hike out on the last day wasn’t too bad either.  We heard the sheep again, but didn’t really see them.  Despite the mosquitos, it was a beautiful weekend and we only saw 4 other people the whole weekend.  I’d highly recommend some hiking in the Flattops Wilderness.

Silverton Wedding

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, Uncategorized1 Comment

I have a couple of friends that planned a themed destination wedding.  It was old west themed and planned to be in Silverton, Colorado.  This group of friends never does anything half way and this wedding was no exception.  Plus, if you ask this group of people to dress up, they will do it up right.  If you don’t ask them to dress up, they just might anyway.

We started a couple days before the wedding with anyone that was able to go to Silverton early going 4-wheel driving.  The area around Silverton is covered in 4-wheel drive only roads.  I assume a lot of these roads were old mining roads.  They are steep, treacherous and lead to some of the most beautiful overlooks in the state.  The mountains near Silverton are unbelievably steep, rugged and gorgeous.  We had maybe 15-20 vehicles from razors to jeeps to personal trucks.  It was a full day and so much fun driving down narrow dirt roads, stopping at ghost towns and stopping at the tops of mountain passes.

The day before the wedding a bunch of us went hiking.  We hiked up Ice Lakes Trail.  We didn’t make it to Ice Lakes, but saw many waterfalls on the way up.  A couple of us hiked up a beautiful high alpine meadow where you could see waterfalls all around you.

The town of Silverton is an old mining town.  It pretty much still looks like it did back in the mining days.  Now it is overrun with tourists every summer.  Most of them are up there to go 4-wheel driving.  But some people come up on the train from Durango or drive over for a day from a neighboring town.

The wedding was an old rustic lodge up a beautiful canyon near Silverton.  The road was rough and the lodge had minimal parking so they shuttled us up in atvs.  The outdoor wedding overlooked the river winding through the valley below.  It was a beautiful ceremony and followed by a great dinner, drinks and wonderful conversation.  Everyone was dressed in old west attire and it appeared the all had a magical evening.  I am so glad I got to be a part of this weekend!

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Riverside Camping

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I was going to a wedding in Silverton which is a long drive from where I live.  Silverton is also a very beautiful part of the state.  So, a bunch of us decided to make this a long weekend so we could spend more time there together.  The last two nights I shared a hotel room with a friend, but the first two nights I decided to camp to save money.

I arrived the first night around 3:00 pm and pulled into the campground I had reserved a spot at.  The sky was dark and threatening to rain.  The whole campground was muddy.  After I checked in, I drove over to my camp spot on the river. The camp spot was a small area with gravel and a picnic table.  If I had to pick my own spot, I’d never pick a spot so close to the river.  The river is flying by at quite a speed.  The water has over spilled the banks and is rushing through the grass and reeds on the side of the river.  The edge of the water only about 5 feet from where my camp site is.

Maybe it won’t rain and the river will stay where it is.  I pitch my tent, set up my sleeping pad, sleeping bag and pillow.  Then I head back into town to meet friends for dinner.  By the time dinner is done, it is pouring rain.  Maybe the rain will let up.  It doesn’t.  I go back to check on my tent.  My tent is fine and everything inside appears to be dry.  It’s hard to tell, because I’m no longer dry just from walking from my car to the tent.  The river has not reached the tent.  Whew.

I go back to town to hang out with friends.  But I cannot stop wondering if my tent will be in the river when I get back.  By about 10:00 pm, I decide to go back to camp and try to sleep.  On one hand, sleeping next to a river is relaxing.  The sound of the water puts you to sleep – nature’s white noise machine.  Everything is dry when I get in the tent.  I wake up in the middle of the night expecting my sleeping pad to be floating.  It is not.  I’m still dry.

Morning brings blue skies with white fluffy clouds.  I can’t use my picnic table because it’s soaked, but it’s not in the river.  The river does not appear to have gotten any closer to the tent.  The second night was similar to the first regarding rain, but it was easier not to worry about me and my tent floating away.

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