In the Poudre!

Went campin' this weekend.

Now, glance at the date, and remember that I'm in Colorado. Add 7,800 ft elevation, and what do you get? COLD, that's what!

Actually, on Saturday it really wasn't bad. Probably in the mid 50s in the afternoon. It was just a one night trip with Katie (who had been "camping" two times previous) up the Poudre canyon, north-west of Fort Collins. We pitched our borrowed tent at the Big Bend Campground (nine sites) at around 12:30 and proceeded to go on about a six mile hike up the Roaring Creek Trail. After returning at around 5 with a huge blister on my heel :-( we started a nice little fire, drank a few beers, grilled dinner, and hunkered down for the cold to settle in.

What a beautiful night though! Some late afternoon winds whisked all of the clouds out and a super-bright full moon rose out of the east just after sundown making for a very scenic night. The moon was so bright that it never really got dark. But without cloud cover, and remember the 7,800 ft elevation, it got really cold.

This may be a good time to mention to those non-campers among you: When you're camping, you get tired earlier than in the city. Especially with just a couple of people, cold weather, no TV, no radio, no artificial light, etc, you end up turning in somewhere near 10 o'clock. But I think we were still the last ones in the entire campground to turn in.

So, by the time 8 o'clock rolled around and it was still frigging cold (it had gotten really cloudy overnight, so no solar gain), my back couldn't stand being on the ground much longer and I slowly got dressed and ready for the day. When I put my shoes on, I realized that another hike was probably not a good idea, so I went for a little wander around the campground and down to the river. From our site (in which, by the way, sat my '67 Fairlane - campin' machine!) you could hear some little rapids, and I wanted to see them. When I got a couple hundred yards down stream I found them, and it was less impressive than previously indicated. But still nice. So I wander back to camp, Katie's still sleeping, and I get my camera, head back to the river and squeeze off a few frames before heading back and starting a fire and breakfast.

So, this is getting obscenely long (hehe :p )... I'll summarize: Start a fire; Katie gets up; make breakfast; clean up; break camp; yada yada yada; re-pack the car; head home; unpack; wash all of the now campfire-scented stuff, including myself.

Yeah, good times. Very successful weekend, especially when you consider how bad things have the potential for being when you are camping.


On another note; I have $55 worth of Borders Books gift cards. Any suggestions?


And another, completely unrelated note, click here if you have fast internet and Winamp or here for Windows Media. Enjoy!