Day 17 – Brainard Lake

Miles traveled: 30
Hours on Road: 1
States covered: 1 –Colorado

I woke up the earliest of my gang today – 7 a.m. Wilson and Andrea were already out walking the dogs. I slept like a log, never waking up at all until 7, at which point I was wide awake.

Because Taffy is blind, you’re supposed to say “touch” just before you pet her so she knows it’s coming and doesn’t get startled. Well, she’s got me figured out. Whenever I say “touch” she rolls over on her back and expects a belly rub. She gets one every time!

There’s a river that runs through Boulder called Boulder Creek. The big thing to do there is to tube down the river and then walk along the path that follows the river back up to your starting point. Jeff and the boys did this. We rented tubes at Lolita’s, and they were off. We watched them go down the first time. We had to run along the side of the river to keep up with them. At one point, the river went over to an area that the path didn’t follow, but we could still hear them. Trey was screaming like someone was killing him. In fact, as we went along the path where we could only hear them, I overheard a woman say to her companion, “What’s going on over there? Is someone in trouble?” I told her, no, it’s only my spastic son having the time of his life. He’s most definitely not getting killed.

After we saw that first run, Wilson and I went to the grocery store to buy supplies for Brainard Lake. He and Andrea treated us to our dinners for the three nights of camping. We got burgers for the first night, chicken for the second and ribs for the third. We’re all very excited that we’ll have a real chef cooking for us while we camp.

After we all met up again we headed back to Wilson’s for some lunch – homemade tortilla soup. It was fantastic and totally vegan. We were also able to meet Andrea’s daughter, Rachel, and Rachel’s husband, Sean. Great people.

We were finally off to our camp site by around 2 p.m. It’s only an hour or so drive, so we weren’t concerned. Besides, we had reservations. Trey had asked if he could ride with Uncle Wilson because he was getting sick of being stuffed into the back of the van with about five pillows on top of him. The boys were all excited because Truman was coming camping with us. He sat in the way back of the Subaru, so he didn’t interfere with Trey’s sitting in the front seat.

On our drive there, Parker and Cal cracked us up as usual. Parker said that Uncle Wilson’s chicken the night before was the best chicken he’s ever had and that I need to get the recipe. As he said, “No more slacker chicken, Mom.”

We had to go up and over a big mountain, and the beautiful houses along the way were amazing. Even more amazing was that people were willing to drive on those roads in the winter time. The hills were steep and windy. The curves were so intense at times that there were signs that told bikers they had to go single file. The cyclists wizzing down the mountain at unsafe speeds were stressing me out.

There was a second mountain we had to go up. The roads were lined with pines, but you could tell we were getting higher because the pines were getting shorter. There were still bikers everywhere, even at the higher elevation with the extremely steep grades. These people are either crazy or in amazing shape.

At one point Parker brought up the Riders of Rohan and how stupid it was that there are about four houses in Rohan but there are thousands of riders. How this topic came up is beyond me.

We went through a town called Ward that Andrea had told us about. She said that all the hippies who came out here in the 70s left their old vans there to die. As you drive along the road through the town, which takes all of two minutes to get through, there are all kinds of rusted old vans lining the way.

My America the Beautiful pass worked at Brainard Lake because the lake lies within a national forest, specifically, Roosevelt National Forest. Cal was the one who noticed the sign that said the pass was accepted there.

Just as we got to our site it began to rain. No worries, though. We set up Wilson’s awning tent with the chairs under it and waited for the rain to end. We had bought some beer before heading out, so it was all good. The boys enjoyed some organic lemonade.

Wilson started making carmelized onions to go on our hamburgers. I knew I was going to hear about my slacker burgers very soon. We took a little walk to the lake before starting the burgers. It’s only about half a mile from our site. It isn’t a big lake, but it’s surrounded by mountains, so it’s beautiful. Cal had hurt his ankle jumping from a log to the fire pit, so when we got to the lake, he soaked his foot in it for a while. The lake’s so cold, it didn’t take long for Cal’s foot to get entirely numb.

When we got back to camp it took a very long time for the coals to heat up for cooking. This elevation is not conducive to fire starting. While Jeff chopped the wood up into even smaller pieces, Trey began to pile those pieces up. He was about eight feet from his dad, working diligently, when one of the pieces Jeff chopped into went flying through the air and caught Trey right on the side of his head. The poor kid, and poor Jeff. He felt horrible that he’d hurt the little guy. We fussed over him for a while then he relaxed in one of the good chairs. He had a huge knot on his head a while later. Like Jeff’s mom always said, “You can’t hurt a Swede by hitting him in the head.”

Dinner was great. We had burgers with carmelized onions and raw onions. It makes a big difference when you use good meat. We had a fire, but the kids didn’t stay up to sit around it. We knew we were getting up early for a hike, so they went to the tent to read for a while. A couple of nights ago when we had a fire, a spark flew out at Parker. He did a front kick to stop it, then he looked at me and said, “Roadhouse.”

I went to bed pretty early, too. Wilson stayed up. In the morning he said that the moon was amazing that night.

For corresponding photos, go to:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1893017027/a=2740108027_2740108027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/