Camping

Here is my little story about a camping trip last summer:

We only had a weekend. That's 2 days; 1 night. We arrived around 10am on the Saturday to the Black Hawk area of Colorado, up in the mountains. We drove. And drove. And drove. And stopped at every National Forest campsite that we knew of or could find. Hmmm. No spaces. Not one. We even got laughed at several times by several rude people for even trying to look for one. So we spent a nice day out anyway, visiting a couple of ghost towns. Then as a last ditch effort, we stopped in at Idaho Springs Visitor Center and inquired there. Same deal - just a rude lady laughing at us.

Then came a more pleasant chap! He informed us that his place backed onto the forest and we could park there and use his land to hike back into the forest where we would find flat areas to camp. Yeah!

I must now describe the hike:
1. Round the side of his house.
2. Down steps
3. Round the side of a huge dog cage
4. Down more steps
5. Down a ladder
6. Over a rickety old bridge with no vertical sides and the planks on one side looking like they might give way into the water.
7. Up through the forest to find a camping spot.

Bear in mind that we had anticipated parking near our campsite and unloading and not hiking the stuff so this took us several trips!!

We found the flattest spot we could and set up camp. Nearby, discovered bear scat.

After dinner, we settled into our tent. We knew it was a little slopey but after lying there for a few mins, we realized that it was quite an angle and probably by the morning we would be in a pile in one corner. Plus then there was the bear scat. And the cold. Hahahaha! So we kept mentioning the idea of packing up and leaving but we were both to proud to decide upon that.

Then 10 mins before dark, I said, "Let's go!" I don't think you will have seen anyone pack up camp as quickly as we did! And we managed to juggle our way back to the car, through all the obstacles, with everything in one go. We drove home, and slept on our nice cozy, warm, FLAT bed, with no bears :)

We promised ourselves this year we would book at a campsite in advance so that we can at least camp on flat land! So we head off to Spillway Campground near Lake George, CO, tomorrow for a 2 night stay. Wish us luck!!