| Colorado Trail Log (2007-07-12--> 2007-07-29)
Leaders: Alex Cullen Lucy Page (LP) Chesnutt
Students: Charlie Gentry, Todd Gilbert, Drew Michaelis, Christian Mooser, Carolyn Parrish, Claire Perrone, Clinton Rasberry, William Reames, Robert Schuler, Gigi Turner, Patrick Weatherly
July 12
We are on the Arkansas River and should have an update by Monday morning. Stay tuned!
Howdy Folks from Colorado! Our first section has been phenomenol. After picking everyone up safe and sound from the Denver airport we made our way across the Rocky Mountains and over to the Arkansas River. Our first section, a two day whitewater rafting excursion complete with overnight on the river was filled with thrills, spills, and lots of delicious food. The first day we rafted a section of the Arkansas called the Narrows. The river level was a little lower than expected which led to some pretty technical rapids, but Colorado Trail 3 pulled through and showed the rest of Moondance how to run the river. Our first two leaders of the day were GiGi and William. They had us up and moving and ready for action as soon as the sun came up. In fact, William was awake before both Alex and me. Speaking of William, Day 2 of our rafting adventure was also his 14th birthday which we celebrated with tree hung balloons and signs, group presents and cards, and an ice cream stop in Buena Vista after a long day on the river. Everyone in the group leaped off a 15 foot jump rock, squealing with delight as they hit the icy cold snow melt river. This includes Carolyn who was a little nervous, but with great encouragement from the rest of the group took the plunge. Patrick has delighted both of us with his newfound appreciation for the environment, exclaiming last night at moon-up that he really wants to own a hybrid car. Claire, Clinton and Christian did a great job last night cooking awesome fajitas and William, Robert and Charlie had a great time exploring the banks of the Arkansas river with their fly rods. Todd and Drew are really connecting to their southern heritage and even adopting a y'all into their vocabulary. We're having a great trip, hope everything at home is great! We'll let you know what’s going after we get out of the backcountry!
Thanks!
LP and Alex
July 23rd Update
Rolling 12,000 ft. green mountains. Cool, damp groves of Aspens and Douglas Firs. Mile long fields of yellow brush sprinkled with purple asters and yellow daisies and 13 Moondancers, tromping through it all. Laughing and gazing skyward and dunking our heads in the cool creek water and knowing that we had everything that we needed on our backs.
6 days in the backcountry of the San Juan National Forest, living in tents, cooking our food, sleeping in sleeping bags, hanging our food from trees, the real deal. This was the first time that many of these kids had spent one night in the backcountry and 6 was more than anyone in our group (aside from LP and I) had ever spent out in these wild, untouched places. We hiked in on the Bear Creek trail and spent all 6 days contouring alongside of this rushing body of cool water. We got a later start on our first day and only hiked 2 miles in, up through a beautiful Aspen grove, over a small saddle, and down into a wide yellow valley that was rimmed with smooth rolling mountains. And thus we began. Games of Frisbee in the field. A homemade tree-hung piñata stuffed with Jolly Ranchers and mini snickers and Twix that was destroyed (after a long battle) by a solid whack from Christian's mighty stick. The kids munched on bags of specialty MoonGORP (a secret recipe that LP and I concocted long ago) and Drew, Todd, Patrick, and Christian began a mean game of poker, betting pine cones against rocks and snickers against pretzels. Todd also introduced the group to the game of Sniper, a legendary game that will be remembered by all for years to come. We played this extreme hiding game for a good 3 hours and could have gone on into the night if we did not have to cook dinner and go to bed. All of the kids got a chance to cook in the backcountry and learned how to use white gas and an MSR stove. Robert and Claire were very involved in the kitchen and really took advantage of this opportunity to cook in the backcountry. Mac 'n Cheese, spaghetti with red sauce, chicken quesadillas, and the group favorite, pancakes. I will tell you that my favorite night was when we had rice and beans and trout. Yes, that's right, fresh caught trout. William, Charlie, and Clinton immediately snapped together their poles and tied on their flies and were quickly fly fishing like pros. It was wonderful to watch these guys concentrate on the water and interact with nature in this way. It should be noted that Patrick made a 'Ghetto Rod' out of a stick and a fishing line and sat out on a rock for over an hour and that he got a bite. Also, William caught a 10 inch trout that he named Jim and that he refused to cook because, "He is more than a fish. He is my friend." The boys caught 5 fish which we fried up with a little bit of salt and butter and picked off the bone with our fingers. It was divine.
One of the highlights of the trip was Gig’s return. Gigi sprained her ankle the day before we went into the backcountry and after toughing it out for 2 days, we decided that she needed to be evacuated. So Carolyn, Claire, and LP packed up and took her out and the boys continued on into the backcountry, following the rolling mountains deeper into the wild. The following morning we made pancakes and relaxed at camp. About 12 noon we heard a cat call from the hill above and turned to see all four girls hiking down the mountains. Gigi had returned! The doctor cleared her and gave her a brace and a strict regiment of Ibuprofen and she was back.
With the group back together, we continued on into the mountains and across the fields of wildflowers and with each day the group became closer. The kids connected in wonderful ways and began to help out more with cleaning up camp and organizing things for the day. All of the kids showed improvement in their backpacking skills - packing a pack, cooking, setting up tents, and expedition behavior and together we walked over 20 miles in the San Juan Forest and explored a place that LP swears is one of the most beautiful places that she has ever been.
Our trip ended with a wonderful last night at a beautiful campground near the creek. Drew attempted to take me on in a freestyle rap battle and the results had all of us falling out our crazy creeks with laughter. By the way, I won. We told ghost stories and sang country songs (thank you Charlie) and Claire sang us a little Italian opera. It was a fine night and a wonderful close to the backpacking section of our trip.
We are currently hanging out in Crested Butte and getting ready to kayak Blue Mesa tomorrow. Everyone is healthy and safe and shower clean, for the first time in a week.
August 1
Hello All! I hope this update finds you all freshly showered and scrubbed from 18 days in the wilderness! We really had an epic adventure that Alex and I were both sad had to come to a close. It has been a while since our last update so I will have to catch us up.
After we finished our backpacking section we made our way back across beautiful Blue Mesa Lake and to the Tall Texan Campground where we were able to SHOWER, wash clothes and relax after our 6 days in the backcountry. We all emerged feeling stronger and more confident in our backcountry skills and definitely ready for a day on the town. During our day in Crested Butte we explored the shops and nooks and crannies of a very cool mountain town. Several of the kids bought toys to play with in the van including a spiky pink and purple swim cap! Who knew they even existed? After a delicious dinner at the local burrito joint that was recommended to us by several locals we made our way back to the Tall Texan and an excellent nights sleep before sea kayaking the next day.
Up and at 'em early on, our crew made its way back across Blue Mesa Lake to meet our Crested Butte Mountain Guides for an overnight sea kayaking expedition. Fortunately, the Colorado skies looked more like Carolina Blue skies as we put on the water and tested our paddling skills. Most of us caught on pretty quickly and before we knew it we were at camp and setting up our tents in a historic sawmill town that now only has dilapidated old log cabins there. After setting up camp, we took a short hike over to some cliffs above the lake where we able to practice our cliff jumping techniques plus see how many spins we could turn before hitting the water! We got some great pictures which will all be on the group picture CD! The night wasn't over after that though. We played some mafia and sniper as cook crew dished up delicious backcountry pizza and watched a beautiful lightening storm come across the mountains. Unfortunately, the storm ended up coming a little too close and we were chased inside our tents for lightening protocol forcing us to inhale our backcountry pizza rather than sit and enjoy it bite by bite.
The next morning after a leisurely wake up time we began to make our way back across the lake. Our group was definitely on point with their paddling and speedily made its way back across the lake. This turned out to be very fortunate as big thunderheads rolled up around all sides of the lake just as we neared where we had put in. So, we quickly jumped into the van and drove some more. The kids were pretty tuckered out, so they slept while Alex and I drove across the Colorado countryside to our next destination...Rock Climbing in Lake City.
Lake City, Colorado: The land of big rocks and even bigger hail storms.
So, if that headline give you any ideas. Lake City was a big ole time. Our first day of rock climbing was absolutely gorgeous. Bright and sunny, no humidity and hardly a cloud in the sky. God's Craig, where we were climbing is a fantastic sedimentary rock face that looks out into the San Juan Mountains. Views of jagged peaks and bright white snow fields greeted each student as they challenged themselves to the new vertical terrain. Our group completely dominated the climbing section. Nearly every person climbed the most difficult route and was ready for more. We finished the day tired and ready for some awesome ice cream at the San Juan Soda Company in Lake City. Unfortunately, a giant hail storm blew up and spoiled our plans for a game of ultimate frisbee and we were chased back to camp to hang out until the lightening and hail storm subsided. Who knew it rained so much in Colorado? We all thought we were in a drought!
Our next day of climbing was even more exciting with half of us exploring the new routes and the other half doing a 200 ft. rappel down to the bottom of the cliffs we were climbing up. Unfortunately, we were chased off the rock at noon when another storm blew in cutting our climbing section short. Nevertheless, we were off again towards the mighty Arkansas River with rain coming down to raise the river levels!
On the Arkansas River, we camp in an area called Big Horn Sheep Canyon. And for good reason, there are Big Horn Sheep all over the place. A great place for a trip, the campground is right along the river and the area around is a completely protected national forest which allows for fantastic wildlife and a great continuous section of relatively undisturbed wilderness.
The next morning, bright and early we were up and getting ready to get on the river. Everyone was pretty tired because it was the end of the trip, but really excited about the most exciting day of the trip! We put in and rafted a very full Parkdale section. The river was flowing at about 900 cfs that day, definitely up from the 750 it had been running earlier in the summer. Then we embarked into the Royal Gorge. Immediately we were greeted by a helicopter flying straight at us through the giant crack in the earth. The huge sandstone walls engulfed us as we picked our way down through the rapids of sunshine and pump house. Big waves, big drops and tons of fun! We got off the river exhausted and pleased with ourselves for making it through an awesome section. We finished off the day with a pizza dinner and went to bed tired but happy.
The next morning we got up and headed to our final campground, Mueller State Park. Near Pike's Peak, Mueller State Park is a beautiful area with awesome scenery and great facilities. We all got showers and cleaned up before heading into town for our banquet dinner. At banquet, we ate and ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Apparently, it was Alex's birthday so we got a free desert AND our entire section of the restaurant helped us serenade him. It was a great end to an awesome trip. Alex and I had so much fun with each and every one of the kids. We were so fortunate to have had such a great group that got along so well and really worked together to make the trip great. We wish you all the best of luck in the coming school year and hope that you will think about doing another Moondance trip as well. We'll miss you guys!!!
LP and Alex
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