time well spent.

so, I just had a great weekend. when i left work at 6pm on friday, people were still moving into our neww office, and I told them I was going camping and my boss told me I should have left earlier. so, i rushed home, threw my gear together and met my good friend Bryan at the grocery store parking lot, transferred my stuff to his car and we were off. We stopped at an outdoor concert up against the bookcliffs outside of town where we met up with 6 other folks. The concert was really fun and we were all dancing barefoot in the grass until 11pm. Then we were back in the car and drove south of here towards Gunnsion (we were supposed to meet up with Bryan’s friends for a rafting trip in central Colorado), finally at 1am we decided that was enough driving and we stopped to camp in a small canyon. our camp spot was right next to a creek and the stars were gorgeous. and we just laid there with our heads out of the tent, chatting and enjoying ht enight for almost an hour before falling asleep. when we got up early in the morning I realized I had camped there with my dad almost 10 years ago! we were out of camp by 7 and back on the road.

we got to the put in along the Arkansas River at 9, when we were supposed to meet. But folks were still straggling in, and by the time we ran the shuttle and got all the gear set up, we weren’t on the river until 11. Which was actually fine by me because it was finally warm by then. we ran Browns Canyon, a 12 mile stretch with class3-4 rapids but luckily it was running at only 1700 cfs, last week I guess it was at 3000 cfs. There were about 15 people in our group (only 3 of whom i'd met before), on 4 rubber rafts and 4 kayaks. For the most part they were all extreme boaters, so they put me (and Bryan) on a big rubber raft with this guy “Haus” who manned the huge raft all by himself. And we got to just sit there and chat and laugh and generally have a great time. It was so much FUN. The rapids weren’t too tough and nobody except one dog had to swim, and the sun was warm, and the company crazy but fun. I learned a ton about rafting and boating etiquette from just watching and listening. For example, most scary rapids are named things like Kevorkian’s rapid or Deatheater II; when you need to pee, you just drop the drawers and pee right into the river because it’s the high desert and you’re not supposed to pee on the sand; it is ok to start drinking at 10 am, drink all the way down the river, and keep drinking at camp until everyone goes to sleep. About the latter info there, I couldn’t believe people could drink that much! And no one acted drunk or anything. I guess if that’s what you do every weekend, you get pretty used to it. anyway, it was a fun trip.

After cooking up a ton of spaghetti we all played Frisbee and star gazed and (they) all exchanged crazy-extreme-boating stories and spent another beautiful night under the stars. (I have always wanted to hang out with extreme outdoors people because they fascinate me. But at the same time they intimidate me. After the first few hours they were all very friendly and when we left Sunday morning they all gave hugs and invited me to go out with them when ever again. Yay!)

Sunday morning Bryan and i took off on our own because folks were going to run another section of the river but weren’t going to be getting out until 6pm, meaning we wouldn’t get back home until after 10pm. So we drove through the mountains and after going over the continental divide we stopped for a hike up to an alpine lake. It was another beautiful day, and the spring had just set into the mountains. The first flowers were just popping up, and the streams were roaring the snow was melting like crazy. The lakes were gorgeous, though still had light blue ice floating in them. nothing like taking a nap, in the sun, on soft songy ground, in the middle of the mountians, with creeks gurgling and marmots squeaking. right before we hiked back down, we decided to take a quick dip. So, I almost died. It was so freaking cold!! I couldn’t make a noise for about 15 seconds after going under. But after running around the shore for a few minutes we air dried and warmed right up. Then we stopped for ice-cream in Aspen. (Which is such a strange place in and of itself) and we didn’t feel like we fit in, being all grubby and not wearing all black.

We were very sleepy on the ride home so had to listen to bad radio stations and sing along while driving into the hot sun towards Grand Junction. And I made it back to Fruita just in time to make sushi for Father’s Day and my sister made a cherry pie and that was the end of a great time.

(after re-reading this, i don't think i adequately expressed the happiness i had the whole trip, from the dancing, to stargazing, to rafting, to laughing, to hiking, ot just being with lovely people...my mouth hurt from smiling so much. there.)