And it was Good

Before Thomas started his new job we took a couple of weeks vacation to one of our favorite places in the world! God's Country. We started our adventure in Santa Fe National Forest. We hiked and camped at Holy Ghost Trail. We hiked this once already with our dogs, so we thought it would be a good start. Then we spent a night in town at a Pets stay Free La Quinta while we tried to fax paperwork on our house we were also in the middle of selling. (Yeah! We close this week, but it only took 3 weeks to get the right offer! Wow!)

Then we headed to a place very near and dear to me, Lake City, CO. When we got there, it was a little colder than we expected. We decided to stay in a little cabin one night so we wouldn't have to set up camp in the cold dark. Lake City Resort is where we ended up. While we moved our things into the room Thomas stomped on a little spider we thought may be a black widow. We decided it had to be the only one and moved on. We settled in, ate, walked the dogs, and watched a little basketball. About 10 o'clock we got ready for bed. As I moved the trash can to a spot the dogs could not reach, Waylon jumped back as a bigger black spider swung from the trash can, in the air, on a web. BIG. We put it in a zip lock bag and Thomas took it to the manager. The only comment we got from her was "Eee, No, I don't want to see a spider!" Absolutely NO help. I went into town to see what I could find to kill these critters! Luckily Dan at Dan's Fly Shop still had his lights on and he loaned me his personal can of bug spray. In the mean time Thomas found 7 more spiders all over that little room. We decided that was way too many to be comfortable sleeping with. So we packed up our things and headed out into the dark to find a campground. By midnight we were leaving the keys on her doorstep with a note saying I would be back for a refund in the morning because we could not sleep with so many spiders. We arrived in the morning, with a less than warm welcome. Instead we got "no you are not getting your money back, that spider did not come from that room, I cleaned it before you got there, 10 guest have stayed there before you, you could not have gotten bug spray anywhere in town that late at night, would you like to speak to the owner, (which happens to be mommy), oh and you are now on a reject list." Yeah. Should have just set up camp in the first place. So, if you happen to be heading to LC, ever, don't stay in the Lake City Resorts... It, too, has new owners. We ended up spending about $100 on that beautiful campsite. We woke up on top of a cliff overlooking the San Cristobal Lake and could not have been any happier to be there.

The rest of the trip was wonderful relaxing and rejuvenating. We caught up with old friends at Ute Trail Ranch, saw a beautiful sunset from Windy Point, ate at Poker Alice’s twice and had ice cream at the San Juan Soda Shop. We hiked up Handies Mountain at Grizzle Gulch, where the dogs rediscovered snow! We spent the remaining time north of Gunnison with friends who showed us how to really play hard. We hiked around the Blue Mesa Reservoir, which was extremely low. Because of the large amount of snow they got this winter, they drained the reservoir to prepare for the snow run off that will come this summer. What was going to be a Sunday stroll around the lake, turned into an all day hike up the backside of a mountain with lots of scree and mountain goats. It was so worth it when we go to the top. We borrowed a mule and spent a day exploring trails in a whole new way. We hung out in Crested Butte and Ouray before headed into Red River and then home. It was a great trip and we made it all the way to Lampasas before my transmission went out, but somehow we made to Dripping Springs that night. Now it is back to work and searching for the next place to call home.

Some of these are with my 5D and some are with the G9...

This is David. He was a camper on one of the very first trips I guided with Ute Trail. He was saved on that trip and now he pretty much runs the camp. And that is pretty awesome!

How's my hair look?

The Mule.

Do you know that the largest growing organism is in the world?

Aspen!!!

Waylon discovered that my thermarest was a lot warmer than sitting on the ground...
No chance of getting that seat back.