We leave in a few hours to rejoin the trail. It snowed last night in the high country, so it will be interesting.? We have been able to refine our gear (again!) and also received more inspiration from Andy Skurka.? We will hike for the next couple of weeks, then join our friends in South Park.
I’ll be back to post new photos, comments and fun!? In the meantime, wish us luck and have a delightful couple of weeks
We were hiking in the Buffalo Creek Fire Zone, exhausted, and looking for a tent site. We finally find this place, in a wash, under a widowmaker – sigh – but we simply couldn’t go any father.
Low and behold, there is an entire, intact human skelton there. Some of it is scattered. Most of it is together – like a hand…. We took a GPS reading then went on.
Our friend K called in the information – and nothing. It turns out that the GPS is on the border of two counties so nothing happens. Finally over a week later, she gets a call from BOTH counties wanting to know if the site was in their county. SHEESH!
Life is simply NOT like a Jim Chee novel. No one rushes out. Instead, people fight over who is going to make the 2 mile hike to the spot.
I only hope that some mother will soon know what happened to her loved one.
Here’s a picture of the sunrise at the spot. If you look carefully, you can see a bone:
It’s been hard… Ok really hard. Every day we are both confronted with our own demons. His sound like “What’s the point?” and mine sound like “no matter how hard I try, I am just not going to be able to do this”. But here we are 80 miles later.
We aren’t going very fast. We modeled our trip after Andy Skurka (who is super fast) knowing that we aren’t 24 anymore. What we didn’t a count on is all the time we would stop to talk, 1 hour long lunches, playing with the dog, and simply our desire to enjoy some of the trial.
Truth is? We are simply not that cool. Or in shape. Or young. Or what the hell?
Did I mention it’s hard?
We have seen some amazing sites – glowing vistas, beautiful sunrises, open scenery that we would never have seen. We have challenged ourselves to stretch beyond simple comforts like pillows, pajamas, flush toilets, and, yes, clean underwear. It’s been an amazing dicotomy of challenges, delights, and experiences.
We’ll see where we end up!
Rose, the Joyful, takes a look in the Lost Creek Wilderness.
Max and Monster get in the picture AGAIN(!) in this view of South Park near Kenosha Pass.
To the tune of Green Acres theme song:
He says:
“Colorado Trail is the place for me,
Mountain Living is the life for me,
Backpacking from Denver to Durango!
Keep Denver just give me that mountianside.”
I say:
“At home is where I’d rather stay,
I do not think I can live that way,
I just enjoy an indie band show,
Darling I love you but I”ll be in the front room!”
He says: “The trails”
I say: “Emails”
He says: “Fresh air!”
I say: “Clean underwear?”
He says: “You are my wife”
I roll my eyes.
And off we went…..
It’s going to happen in a few days. I am going to walk away from the Open Grove for the first time in 5 years. I haven’t left it alone for more than a few days since it’s inception in January 2001.
I am walking from one end of Colorado to the other on the Colorado Trail. 482 miles over 6 weeks. We’ll walk out of the wilderness at the beginning of October. The trail consists of some of the most remote trails in the continental United States.
No cell service. No email. No weblog. It’s hard to even conceptualize.
We are traveling in the fall so we expect fall weather. Rain, snow, thunderstorms, all within the same day. We’ll walk 10 – 13 miles a day. We are counting on walking 2 miles an hour. We plan to walk for 5-6 hours a day.
We’ll get resupplied by friends every 4 to 6 days. We’ll hang out for a night or so, then back to the trail. We are going to spend the weekend at the South Park Music Festival. The last 3 weeks, we’ll head out to the remote wilderness in the later part of September.
Then we walk out and back to our lives.
I read this article about marriage advice and wondered what happened to the 40 years olds. It’s a little unbelievable that we are receiving marital advice from people who are married less than 10 years. What about the 7 years itch?
Or there aren’t very many married people over the age of 40. Ironically, many of our friends, who were born in our year, are currently involved in dissolving their marriages. We tend to hide out hoping that this marriage busting trend will skip our house. (Yes, kind of like the plague.)
Here’s my list of marital advice:
1. Your mother-in-law hates you. Get over it.
2. If you’re mean to each other, don’t be surprised if you break up. You’ve been screaming, sarcastic, caustic or nasty to your partner for years. Why are you surprised when s/he leaves?
3. Love each other first. If you don’t have time to love each other, make the time. Everything from raising children to financial well-being revolves around your relationship. You will fail if you don’t focus on loving each other first.
4. Acceptance goes a long way. Your partner is not perfect, but neither are you. Acceptance gives you real love.
5. Pick well. Don’t marry the guy who will some day be a great husband. Don’t find the woman who will be perfect when she (fill in the blank). Take the time to pick someone you are compatible with. Marriage researcher find picking well is the single strongest predictor to marriage longevity.
What marital advice would you give?
My birthday means:
Watch out Donald Trump! You’ve got a head for business and money. You’ll make it rich some day, even if you haven’t figured out how yet. A supreme individualist, you shouldn’t get stuck in a corporate job. Instead, make your own way – so that you can be the boss.
Your strength: Your undying determination (This is a nice way of saying, “I’ve met mules that were less stubborn”.)
Your weakness: You require an opulent lifestyle. (This is where the Funyuns come in – Don’t you associate opulents with Funyuns?)
Your power color: Plum (My sister calls this MY color – I always tell her that if is was my color, I would trademark it and make a lot of money. She doesn’t think I am very funny.)
Your power symbol: Dollar sign (Hrm…lined up in front of my student loans… ya that’s power)
Your power month: August (Sweet! This is when we are leaving for the trail!)
I don’t think there’s anything to add to this article (Singers who can’t sing) except maybe why do they have record contracts? Better yet, why do people buy their albums, watch their videos and pay to see them in concert? It’s unbelievable!
|
|
© On a limb with Claudia. Say something clever here. Or not. You decide.
