Lost Lake

As soon as summer school ended on July 10, we headed out for a week of camping. Nick had spent lots of time researching the best place for us to land and he sure picked an amazing place. Lost Lake campground (near Crested Butte) was accessed by going over one dirt-road pass (Cottonwood Pass), then going for a bit on 82 and 133 through Carbondale and finally on to road 12, which is Kebler Pass (another dirt road). After winding our way on road 12 for about 15 miles, we came to the campsite. Well, after we went about 2 miles on another winding, dirt road, then we came to the campsite. There were lots of lower sites along the dirt road, but the top is where the beauty was. We ended up staying at a lower site the first night because the sites around the lake were full. (The bugs were so bad I ate dinner in the tent. The dogs were begging to go to bed in the tent because they were swollen with bug bites. Nasty!)

We got up at the butt-crack of dawn the next morning and staked out a site that people were leaving. I even got brave enough to ask if I could park my bike on their site until they left so that I could claim it for us. The lady gave me a "you go girl!" and the site was ours. It was beautiful...right on the lake, big enough for our tent, Torrey and Alana's tent, and also a shade tent to store things under, and fortunately, had very few bugs! Here's the view from our site: We had no real plan for the week, which is what made it so appealing for vacation. We had planned out meals ahead of time and split the duties with Torrey and Alana, so we basically only had to cook and do dishes about 5 times between breakfasts and dinners...lunch was always on our own. I appreciated the elevation of our campsite (about 9,200 ft) because my triathlon this weekend is in Leadville (almost 10,000 ft elevation). So I got a few runs and bikes in at high altitude, with plenty of relaxation. We hiked Beckwith Pass (about 7 miles round trip) and spent most afternoons sitting in the lake in our lawnchairs, fishing, having a beer, reading books and just enjoying the views and peace of the land.

We went in to Crested Butte a few times to get ice, fish, hike and shop. Each journey in to town was entertaining because there was a huge herd of sheep grazing on the land and road, so you never knew when you were going to meet up with them and their sheep dogs. We had dinner at a place called the Brick Oven Pizza one night...amazing pizza! Lunches were at a small park in Crested Butte when we were in town and somehow, for the first time in their lives, our 3 crazy dogs were complimented for being "so well behaved." Right....pretty sure the people were out of their minds...may have had something to do with the high elevation??

One day we ventured out to Gothic, a small town just north of Mt. Crested Butte. They currently house college students and scientists who do research in the mountains. We found a waterfall along the road and for some unkown reason (I blame it on Nick or Torrey...for sure not myself nor Alana), it was decided we should climb to the top of the waterfall. Hmmm, not our brightest idea. If you look in the picture above us and to the right, you can see the waterfall. I made it higher than this picture, and Nick and Torrey made it even higher than I did. Something made me pretty nervous though when Nick couldn't get down without Torrey's help because he had a blind descent...Let's just stay on marked trails, shall we? :-)

The trip was amazing with so much hiking, biking, fishing, time to read good books, time to just sit and look at the flowers and mountains, good conversation...I could go on and on. We have lots of pictures on facebook for everyone to check out. Thank you so much to Nick, Alana, Torrey, Wrigley, Rusty and Sophie for one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. On this trip I learned to drive our car (finally!), fish with my cheap Wal-Mart pole and was pushed to the extreme on our hikes. What a great time...how lucky I am to live in this place!