First Camping Trip

Went on my first camping trip here in Colorado a couple of weekends ago. Got invited by a friend I have met up here, J, and his dog, P, to join them. J lives just down the hill from me, about 15 minutes away down a very rough Indianland road. From there, and this was the coolest part, we hiked out from his place, crossed 160 about 10 minutes later, and then headed up a wide, well maintained county/forest road.

We hiked along it as it made its way up a small valley. J had been out this way before and had a general idea of where we were heading. After about 45 minutes to hour up the road J had us turn off where a creek crossed under the road. Here is where we really began hiking.

For me, this was the coolest part, not the hiking, I mean that was super cool and more on that in a bit, but the fact that we were now in the San Juan National Forest , no need for a reservation, no line to wait through, no permits, and best of all, no other people. I would never have thought to just hike into the woods. But why not? It’s public lands, it is just as much mine as anyone else. A very new experience for me, where it seems like everywhere in Texas is owned by someone, and even in the State parks you can only go so far before you run into someone’s fence. Looking forward to getting know my little corner of the 1.8 million acres that make up the forest.

So we head up a vague game trail that ran along the creek. We followed this until things opened up a bit and then just trailblazed along the creek. We continued along until we came to J’s camp, where he and P had spent the night. After looking things over a bit, we decided this area was a bit tight for two. It was still pretty wet from the recent snow melting (and there was still plenty of snow still around), and what was dry was uneven. J packed up his tent real quick, and we continued on up the creek. Within 10 or 15 minutes we found a big, relatively flat, area surrounded by trees and sitting up above creek. We set up camp here.

That night we had a nice campfire.

It had got chilly during the night. My Texas-weight gear is not sufficient for this climate. I’ll be upgrading pieces as the year goes along. First thing a new quilt. My feet got pretty cold. And, to be honest, I didn’t really configure the tent well. I hadn’t used it in a while and forgot about closing the end vents, and setting the poles a bit lower so the breeze couldn’t get in as well. AND I also hadn’t used my quilt in cold weather in a good bit and didn’t configure it as well as I could have. Still, even with everything setup perfect, the quilt is only rated for 0 Celsius. Same for the sleep pad, although I got the light version mainly for the weight (when I thought pack-rat me could go ultra-light).

The next morning I saw my first butterfly, or maybe a moth?

After breakfast we slowly packed and cleaned up. Then leaving the packs at camp, we went and explored the general area. We went further up the hill/mountain. Got up high enough to see Broke Off point across from us (and which is not far from the cabin). We then made our way down, heading further up the creek. Once back at creek level we crossed it and explored around on that side. Another first for me, we found a stand of aspens. I really like those trees, and they remind me of the birch in Vermont. Which reminds me of my hike along the Long Trail, which started everything that led to me standing in a forest in Colorado staring at an aspen tree.

It was getting later in the afternoon, and still had some walking to do to get back home, plus the sun is intense up here, and I could feel I was starting to get too much of it. So we made our way back to camp, retrieved our packs and started the hike back.

Was a great introduction to hiking/camping in Colorado and right in my own backyard. Grateful to J for turning me on to the idea of just hiking into the forest. I had definitely been wanting to do some hikes but was not looking forward with trying to make reservations and all that goes with that. To be able to go on a whim for a day or an overnighter is a freeing feeling. I so often talk myself out doing things like that with the idea of having to deal with people and bureaucracy.