Sunday Night

Oy. Today was a day and a half at work. It seems it’s gone that way recently… Big eye roll emoji here. 

We’d packed up most of the stuff before I went to work – at least I’d done all I could – and when I got home (later than I wanted, of course, people suck), all we had to do was shower, pack up the cooler, get the last little bits into the car, and take off. 

We stopped at the Wendy’s in Aspen Park on our way out. The rest of the drive was largely uneventful. I realized somewhere along the way that we hadn’t driven somewhere after work, arriving at night, not knowing exactly where we were going in a LONG time. 

We managed to find the turn to where we always camp and actually had zero issues finding a spot. In fact, we pulled into one and I asked Matt if we could go a bit further to see if we could find the one I had on my mind with the amazing view – and we did!

We pitched camp as soon as we pulled in, laid down, and went to aleep. 

Monday

I woke up stupid early, as has become my habit as I’ve gotten older. I got up, set a timelapse to go, and made some coffee.  After realizing that not only was the view I’d chosen not amazing, but the GoPro was dying, I stopped it. 

I found a different view to watch the sun come up and sat freezing in my chair, watching the magic happen. 

Eventually, Matt woke up and I felt less bad about getting my puffy out of the tent. 

He had some coffee, we hung out a while, had some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and hung out reading books some more. After a long while, we got off our asses, cleaned up, and got ourselves going for the day. The goal was a gravel ride to Turret, a random ghost town out from Salida. 

Oy. That ride is HARD. Beautiful. But SO hard. 100% worth it, though. Even if at times I was grunt-cry-screaming trying to get up the steepest pitches. I did it, though. And Matt sailed right through like he always does. At one point, my thought was that I could probably run faster than I was riding – but at least I was moving faster than we were sailing the other day. Not sure how I feel about that one. 

When we finally made it back to the car, we changed back into normal clothes and decided a beer was in order. We went to Elevation, one of our old favorites. We hadn’t been there in quite a while, it felt like. But the First Cast IPA was still delicious, and we spent a little while enjoying just sitting there drinking beer. 

When we’d had our fill, we went back to camp, where we read books a while longer and made pizza for dinner. Which is where I find myself now… Watching the sun sink ever lower in the sky, making its way down towards the mountains… The view from our campsite is to DIE for!  There’s a big open valley that’s surrounded by huge mountains as far as the eye can see… Can’t WAIT to see this sunset!

We  made some dinner – pizza in the cast iron – and ate til we were stuffed. Then we read books for a bit until the sun went sown. Well, the sunset was pretty – not spectacular, like some, but sunset is sunset and they’re always pretty. 

Then we fired up the LavaBox and read books by the fire until I fell asleep in my chair… Eventually I stumbled into the tent  for the night. 

Tuesday

I managed to sleep till 6:00 today! Then, of course, I was afraid I’d miss the sunrise and got up frantically to set up a time lapse. I am SO addicted to those!  I made some coffee and settled in to read a book  until Matt got up. 

Eventually, he got up and we made some eggs for breakfast. Then we drove to the trailhead for our hike via the bathrooms, of course. 

Turned out the first mile or so of the hike was up a four wheel drive road… So I got the pleasure of listening to Matt talk about how we have a Jeep (a Rubicon, no less), and we left it at the trailhead. Soon enough, we turned onto an actual trail and headed to the first lake. 

Boss Lake was pretty, as all alpine lakes tend to be. It was pretty big, too. We took a couple pictures and videos and continued on our way to the second lake. 

Hunt Lake was even prettier than Boss. It was smaller, and we had it to ourselves. We hung out for a while, setting up a time lapse or two… And almost lost the Volta in the water. Thankfully, it got caught on the rocks and didn’t actually splash. I managed to soak one foot when I went back out to retrieve it the last time. Oops. 

The hike back was uneventful, and we went to a new brewery, Tres Litros, in Salida for a beer after. Cute new place in town. 

Then it was back to camp to chill and read books for the afternoon. Dinner was mac and cheese with kielbasa and broccoil. Sunset was pretty. Then the LavaBox again, and bed. 

Wednesday 

Super anticlimactic day today. I think the sunrise was prettiest today, so there’s that. We had coffee, made pancakes for breakfast, packed up, and headed home. We didn’t even stop anywhere cool on our way. We were home by like 12:30.

Good times. 

Here’s the video: