Week 9 - Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Winter Park, Colorado

Colorado is an outdoors wonderland!  21% of its total land mass is dedicated to National Forest, which translates into beautifully maintained trails, public amenities (toilets are very much appreciated) and pristine beauty around every bend in the road.  But Fall comes early at this altitude, evidenced by the changing color of the Aspens and the cooler nights.  Just a few more weeks remain of our summer sojourn.  (If you're viewing this in an email, click here for a better viewing experience.)

Shrine Peak trail, high above Vail.  A fellow hiker took
this shot across the valley of us (me, Karen, Joe) then Air
Dropped it to me right on the trail.  The wonders of technology!

Trail marker for the Colorado Trail

The most famous trail here is the Colorado Trail, which runs 486 miles from Waterton Canyon (Denver area) to Durango.  All of the trails are shared use, which means hikers, bikers and horses play together pretty well.

This stretch of the trail (#6) was along the Kenosha Pass, high above Breckenridge.  We stayed at a campsite right on the trail with Karen and Joe Stermitz.

All along this stretch of the trail were a series of tepees.  Karen and I weren't sure if they were used by the through hikers on the Colorado Trail, or if they were just misguided Eagle Scout projects.  Some of them were quite sophisticated, with elevated racks and large living spaces.

Nice, but not as comfortable as a pop-up or van

We learned the hard way to avoid the I-70 corridor between Vail and Denver, driving up and back the same 10 mile stretch, only to be rebuffed at each potential location by crowds of campers or "No Camping" signs.  In desperation, we checked into an Airbnb at 9pm to rethink our strategy.

One of the Rainbow Lakes in the Arapaho National Forest

We decided to head north towards the wilds of Wyoming.  Almost immediately we were rewarded with abundant camping opportunities nestled among the trails of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.  (There must have been some political wrangling going on with these two national forests - they weave in and out of each other; one mile you're honoring native Americans, the next you're singing the praises of the New Deal.)

At the top of the Arapaho National Recreation Area (by adding "recreation area" to the name, they get to charge us a fee), we found a stellar campsite along a rich marshland with a winding river leading to a nearby lake.  The colder weather at this elevation (10,000 ft) means no mosquitoes!  And no air!!  Biking has become a whole lot more challenging, for me anyway.  Even rolling over in bed can leave you breathless.  And not in the good sense.

Wildfires always make the prettiest sunsets

Dennis carrying my bike across Strawberry Creek -
he knows what is required if I'm to ride with him 

We descended from our beautiful perch to do a really nice bike ride along Strawberry Creek.  From there, we headed a few miles back to Winter Park.  This is one of the lesser known ski resorts, but the town is fantastic.  It's full of low key, smiling people, like so many of the small mountain towns.

Caramelized pear and onion on bleu cheese hors d'ouevre.
Just because we're camping doesn't mean we have to eat like cavemen!

One of my favorite times of the day when camping is making dinner.  I know, weird, right?  But it's a truly pleasurable experience when you have lots of time on your hands.  I like the challenge of planning and cooking a variety of dishes using my limited tools at hand:  a single burner, a propane grill, one frying pan and one sauce pan.  I'm keeping a separate blog post of all the meals I cook, called Camp Meals.

Typical campsite scene - Dennis working on the bikes, dogs snoozing

Typical town scene - taking advantage of connectivity
to catch up on email in a coffee shop, post ride

I think Dennis is starting to look more and more like a pirate, although he prefers to think of it as the true mountain man look.  I'm not sure why he even brought a razor.

Dennis decided to enter a local Winter Park race

It poured almost the entire 28 miles,
but he was all smiles at the finish line

The sporadic rain finally compelled us to unroll the awning.
It was surprisingly easy to set up and very effective - just beware of the waterfall of collected rain when you take it down

Wild woodland animals