After my longest stretch of 5 nights in the same beautiful spot at Foose’s Creek, CO, near Salida, I was ready to get out of the motorhome for a while, so I looked up some backpacking trails nearby, and ended up deciding on Brown’s Lake near Buena Vista. It was six miles of steady uphill and I felt all of them. I got there, and immediately settled on a sandy beach of lake-front property. The wind started ripping across that alpine lake though, and I made the prudent decision to pick up my pack again to move further inland to a spot with better shelter from that brutal wind. There were no fires allowed in the area, so it turned into an early night after some generous servings of dehydrated chili mac for all. After only one night in some frigid 12,000’ climate with rain in the forecast, I was ready to be off of that mountain, so I cut the trip short in favor of cold beer and cheeseburgers at the motorhome. At least with roadside camping, there are neighbors to talk to, I was little too isolated up at Brown’s Lake to enjoy it as much as I should have. Those 12 miles straight up and straight down kicked my ass and knees fairly thoroughly, so I decided to pick up and drive just a few short miles down the road from the trailhead to my next destination, Raspberry Gulch.
After the grueling hike, I was happy to find a nice quiet place to relax for a couple of days. There are a ton of camping options in the San Isabel Forest, I could have easily camped in the area for a couple of months without seeing everything. Them dogs were just as happy as I to take a breather for a bit, eat junk food, and catch up on some Bering Sea Gold and Bob’s Burgers. Poor little Beans wasn’t too happy to test out his new backpack this trip, and refused to jump over some of the logs and rocks he knew he could manage. Instead, he opted to look at me with a sour grimace until I lifted him over the obstacle with the handle on his backpack. It never failed to make me laugh though. We did some exploring in the Raspberry Gulch area, and found the Colorado Trail for the 3rd time this tour. It looked like some of the trailers parked in the area had been there for quite some time, I’m guessing that they don’t really enforce any stay limit in the area, and I don’t blame them for setting up shop, that place was beautiful with all kinds of activities.
After a couple of days recovering, it felt good to go into town (Buena Vista), have a good meal, hot shower, and get some laundry done. I ate the first gyro sandwich I’ve had in months, and it was glorious. Then I was able to find a nice double-whammy stop at a laundromat with showers! The showers were clean enough, and it was nice to take care of a majority of the main stench offenders, except for Beans, out of the Yoterhome. After a quick stop for groceries and water, we were back on the road… for another hour or so to the next stop at Twin Lakes. I’ve enjoyed taking my sweet time getting through Colorado, I love it here, and everyone that I’ve met so far has been completely awesome.
The next stop was at Twin Lakes is between Leadville and Buena Vista, and the views were stunning. The camping options were plentiful, as I was able to get there on a Thursday. I opted to stake my spot there for the weekend, with a pleasant visit from an old homie on Saturday night. On Sunday, I was offered a place to stay with a real bed and indoor plumbing in Denver, so I couldn’t rightly refuse. It’s fantastic to have friends along the way on my journey, it provides the perfect opportunity to refresh, regroup, and get a little city time in when I’ve been in the forest talking to (but mostly yelling at) dogs for too long. It’s just too bad I don’t have any friends in Wyoming and Montana, but North we go, as long as Skippy decides to keep firing along, which is up in the air at the moment…
