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Well, allow me to document the worst night’s sleep and the most sleep terrors that I have ever had. First of all, we are in the BACK of the campground. It is beautiful and quiet, but we’re removed from anybody. So as soon as I was about to walk into the tent, I hear rustling in the grass. I shine the light timidly around, mostly hoping that I DON’T catch whatever’s moving within the beam. As I laid down, the rustling got closer and closer. I was frozen; intently listening on it’s encroachment. Jenn was trying to comfort me, but…she eventually fell asleep. I finally got the nerve to sit up and make noise, as the creatures outside stopped whenever I made noise. Jenn had convinced me that they were raccoons, but she also left me with “don’t startle whatever it is though, because it might be a skunk”. Shoot. So the creature gets in contact with our tent. I finally start making a lot of noise, shining my light etc. I realize the animal ain’t gonna stop, so I start dozing off—only to wake up 20 minutes later in serious night terrors (which usually consist of giant spiders crawling on
the walls, myself, and Jenn—last night was no exception). Then I discover that the animal is literally under our tent, right next to my face. Snake? Mouse? Prairie dog? I don’t know. I fall asleep, have 3 more spider-based night terrors, and wake up really late the next day. It was frickin’ field mice. I knew I should’ve just trusted God that everything was ok, but now I just look like a fool. Live and learn.-zd
Yawn-our rough night led to late start. We enjoyed a 50 cent shower at the camp shower house, then went back to tent to make breakfast. Our sweet camp stove (thanks dad) let us have eggs, toast, and coffee. Afterwards, we decided to head out to Red Rocks Park. For the last 6 hours we have been hiking around the red giants and standing awe-struck at the views. The Red Rocks Park is also home to a famous amphitheater that seats 9000+ at an elevation of 6,400 feet. The list of performers is world-renowned and we looked jealously at the Foo Fighters, Paul Simon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Whitestripes concert flyers. Maybe another trip.
Then we wandered over to Dinosaur
Ridge. WE TOUCHED REAL DINOSAUR BONES! The site was discovered in the 70’s and they decided not to excavate-it was left as is, for people to come and see. Besides the bones, there were “footprints”, or huge, smooth, foot shaped dents/bulges in the exposed layer of rock. Although it’s debatable, it is believed that these bulges in the surface were from the 40 tons brontosaurus…sweet.
We finished the evening by going on the scariest drive of our lives. Mount Evans is the highest paved auto road in America, so naturally, we paid the $10 and headed up. For over an hour we climbed up the side of a mountain, through switchbacks and guardrail-less roads. Just before summit, we saw two mountain goats feeding on mountain moss. Finally after much tension, we reached the top. We parked the van and made the short hike to the summit-14,270 feet. (click: http://www.mountevans.com/). It was sunset, and the wind was whipping. At eye level, not too far off, lightning struck a few times. Horrifyingly awe-inspiring. You can see forever up there. The wind whips your face, and the temperature is 40 degrees or so. In fact, for every 1,000 feet climb, the temperature drops 5 degrees farenheit. We started our decline (after breaking the camera lens due to an unfortunate gust of wind and improper tripod placement). We were both freezing, awe-struck, and terrified of the darkening and nearly freezing road ahead of us. As we climbed down, Zack asked that Jenn please honk around every turn…every blind turn could easily have led to us being pushed off the mountain—and there were a lot of blind turns. We thought for sure we’d be the last ones that had made the ascent to summit, but sure enough, cars kept coming. One came around the mountain at about 50 mph (the sane speed would’ve been 5 mph at this time of day due to the darkness and cold, wet roads). That infuriated one of us in the car. We did spot two elk lying on a mountainside halfway down the bottom—they were watching the sunset. Finally, we made it to the lodge at Echo Lake. We went in hoping for pan-fried trout, but the kitchen was closed. The young man served us hot, delicious chili—a much needed heat source for our to the bone frozen bodies. A few post cards and the check later, we were on our dark road home. We took the easier route to interstate 70, with wider roads and fewer switchbacks. We saw a deer, a fox, and a chainsaw killer (all except the last)—and by saw, we mean nearly hit! Haha Upon tent arrival, one beer each and BED! Thank the Lord!-us
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Kris (The good sister)
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Big Strong Man
haha, I laughed at that one, Zack. That happened to me when i was in Boundary Waters, but it turned out it was a frickin' Mama Moose w/her baby! They kept brushing against our tent, scared the bejeebers out of me. A little more life threatening than field mice ;) Is Dinosaur Ridge where we went? Southwest corner of Colorado? Then we went white water rafting, remember? Are you guys going rafting? Did you get the soundtrack yet?