What Was I Doing On This Day Nine Years Ago?

Normally I would have no idea what I was doing nine years ago but, thanks to Facebook reminders, I know now that I was having a really, super great day nine years ago today.

On this day in 2009 I was in a rubber raft with my friend, her son, and his chocolate lab, Harley.  We left Estes Park in the morning, drove over the mountain, unloaded the raft, and moved a truck to where we were going to pull out.  We took two vehicles.  I rode with Harley.  Harley sat with me in the raft.  Harley was an experienced rafter on the Colorado River. After awhile I noticed that when the sides of the river were steep, the water would go faster and Harley would wedge himself under my legs.  When the sides of the river were flatter, the river would go slowly and the dog would stretch out and relax.  I enjoyed every minute of this 5 hour river raft trip but the rapids were the best.  My friend caught this photo of me in the middle of a joyous "yooo hoooo!"  The day was warm and sunny but the water was cold enough to numb my legs in mere seconds.

 

I love white water rafting.  I never knew that before this trip.  I was so lucky to get a guided tour like I did.  I should make plans to go again.

White Water Rafting

One day in Colorado my friend and I went white water rafting with her son. He has his own raft. He's preparing for a 16 day trip rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon next summer. He likes to get practice in whenever he can. We wanted to shuttle our vehicles. I suggested my friend ride with her son and spend some mother/son time. The Colorado river is on the other side of the mountains and we had a 3 hour drive ahead. I rode with Harley. Harley is part chocolate lab and part German shorthair. We spent 6 hours in the car together and she sat by me during the four hours in the raft. Basically she was my dog for the day. We got along well. Harley thinks she's human. She doesn't like to be treated like a dog. Petting is barely tolerable unless you rub her chest. Don't talk to her like she is a dog - she doesn't like that. Don't throw things and expect her to get all excited because she won't. She's a human dog. Even when riding in the car, she sits on the seat and looks out the window as if she is a human. She likes the highest peaks. Once you're on lower (more boring) ground, she curls up on the seat and sleeps. When I stopped for a rest stop, I just had to ask her to wait. She sat waiting with the windows wide open. I really enjoyed having a dog for the day. We drove to a public landing upriver from the small town of Radium, Colorado. We unloaded the boat and the supplies. We had to move the truck to the pull-out spot. I was voted the person to drive the Nissan manual 5-speed truck to the next spot. I got in and the truck wouldn't start. I tried many times. I moved the seat as forward as it could go and the truck still wouldn't start. Sometimes if you don't have the clutch pushed in all the way the vehicle won't start. So I stretched my left leg as far as it would go, pointed my toe, and sat on the edge of the seat. The truck started. I had the map of where to park the truck so I took off down the gravel mountain roads. Each gear shift was an exercise of left leg lengthening. We rolled though the town of Radium. I saw a collection of about 6 houses and that was the extent of that town. We went up another mountain pass and I came upon the spot where we were supposed to pull out. I made a right turn and the driveway to the campsite immediately hair pinned to the right again. I couldn't turn and stretch my leg at the same time. I decided I would just keep the same gear and roll down this hill. That worked. By the time I parked that truck, my heart was pounding in my chest. If shuttling the vehicles was this scary, how was I going to live through the rafting? We headed back and my friend's son had finished pumping air into the raft and loading the boat. I saw the water in the river moving by really fast. It looked a little scary. Then I saw other groups getting ready to raft. Some groups had toddlers going on the trip. Well, that was encouraging. If a two year old can do it, surely I can do it too. We got in the raft. My place was in the front with Harley. My friend's son had two oars and he sat in the middle rowing forward. My friend sat in the far back. I zipped up my life jacket and pulled the straps tight. We were on our way. I was told that if I fell out, I should not try and stand up. Standing up in the river would be very dangerous. The best thing to do is to float on my back with my feet up out of the water and try to move toward shore. We were moving fast. We saw a train track on the right. We were in a flat area between mountains. Soon we came to a gorge. The rock faces of the mountain were close on both sides. The water got deeper and the river got narrower. Rocks were pointing out of the water. Harley got up and positioned herself between my calves and the cooler I was sitting on. She wedged herself in tight, moving my legs where she wanted them to be. We went over some rapids. I couldn't feel the rocks we went over but suddenly my knees were a lot closer to my ears than they were a minute ago. Then we went down. Water splashed up. The raft has drainage holes where the sides and the floor come together. Water splashed into the boat through those drainage holes. Suddenly the front of the boat was up again and the back was down. Then the front was down and the back was up. Woo Hoo! This was fun! I was wet. Harley was wet too. I saw a big rock coming up. All of a sudden we turned directions and I was looking up river at what we just passed through. I heard my friend scream. She just got soaked. I think her son wanted her to get as wet as I was because we quickly turned around again. I watched for rocks. I tried to predict what course he would take. After a while I was reading the river fairly well. The river went past the gorge and into a flatter area. The water got quiet and shallow again. Harley laid down. The scenery was so gorgeous I cannot describe the beauty. A quartet of common Mergansers floated near the shore. I admired the female Merganser's coppery head with my binoculars. We went past a beaver dam on the right. The railroad went into a tunnel and came out again a few minutes later. The sky had puffy white clouds and the temperature was about 80. Another gorge was coming up ahead. Harley positioned herself between my legs and the cooler again. This was Harley's fifth trip down the river. She knew what to expect. If Harley got nervous, it was time for me to be nervous too. More rocks were pointing out of the river. Sometimes the waves curled back toward us. We went up. We went down. We tilted to the right. We tilted to the left. Rafting is so much fun! I put my hands up in the air like people do on a roller coaster. Wooo Hoooo! Other rafters were screaming too. The water calmed down again. Another rafter pulling up to shore told us that the kids in kayaks kept flipping over. They had rescued the kayak kids 3 times already. Now he said it would be out turn to save the kayak kids. He said the kayakers had promised to get out of the river at Radium. And he pointed to their hat over in the weeds. We rescued the hat from the weeds and gave it to the kayak kids. They looked pretty scared. As they paddled toward us one guy said, "Go to the left side of the raft." They came on the right side of the raft so I don't think they had much experience in making the kayak go in the direction they wanted. They didn't need any rescuing from us. After the next gorge, we came upon a natural hot spring. Other people were soaking in this rocky hot tub. We pulled over and joined them. The water was warm but not quite as warm as a hot tub. We soaked for a while and watched people jump off the cliffs into the water. One guy did a very impressive back flip. The water in the Colorado is very cold and he quickly got back into the hot spring. Soon we passed the town of Radium. Up to now the river was very crowded but we had only been rafting for about 90 minutes so I was glad our trip wasn't over yet. After Radium, we saw only a couple rafts. We had the river almost exclusively to ourselves. Some anglers stood in waders in the shallow parts of the white water. I think it would be impossible to stand upright in water much higher than your knees. The river would knock you over. We stopped to eat our lunch on an island. My friend makes the best sandwiches out of sesame bagels, Swiss cheese, mustard, peppers, onions, green beans, broccoli, and carrots. We headed downstream again. After Radium the rapids are fewer and farther apart. My friend's son had a lot of rowing to do. I would have offered to row but I wasn't sure I could handle any rapids. The sun was beating down on us. I was glad I was wearing my visor and long sleeved shirt. We saw more ducks, a robin, ravens, tree swallows, and cliff swallows. We passed through more mountain gorges and saw a couple more railroad tunnels. At one point we saw a huge dust cloud ahead. A grader, perched on a railroad car, was grading the gravel on the sides of the track. Just like a snow plow, the grader pulled the blade ahead. After one more set of thrilling rapids it was time to pull out of the water. We unloaded the boat. The water was icy cold and made my legs numb which felt great because the rest of me was really hot. I carried one of the 5 foot by 18 inch side boards up the river bank. The sun was on my back. I said, "Look, my shadow makes me look like an angel." "Or a totem pole," was my reply. We loaded up the truck and let the air out of the raft. All three of us piled on the raft to push the air out of the valves. We got it rolled up and all 4 of us climbed into the truck. We drove through Radium again and picked up my car. My dog and I got in the car and followed the truck back to town. We bought cold drinks before driving the 3 hours back to Estes Park. We were exhausted. We got back about 8 p.m. Although we thought we should be hungry, none of us were. Those sandwiches we ate at lunch were magically filling. I felt so lucky to have this opportunity to go rafting. I know a lot of people who say they've always wanted to do it but haven't yet. My advice? Don't wait too long!

The Rock Inn

While in Estes Park, we went to the Rock Inn twice. One night we had dinner there while a man and a woman played the fiddle in blue grass style. The woman stood on a mat and stomped her feet to the music. I ordered chickpea stew. It was delicious!!!! I was determined to make it when I got home. I found a recipe and tried it. My chickpea stew was even more delicious! Here it is if you want to try it.

Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil, one cup onion cut into 1-inch squares with layers separated, 1 TB minced garlic, 1 TB dried oregano, 4 cups chickpeas-drained and rinsed, 16 ounces canned crushed Italian plum tomatoes with juice, 1-10 ounce bag fresh spinach-washed and with stems removed, 2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Directions: Heat oil in a sauce pan. Add onions and garlic. Saute over medium high heat until onion turns translucent. Add oregano, chickpeas and tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the spinach and saute until the spinach just starts to wilt. Remove from heat, add salt, pepper and parsley and stir until well blended.

Rocky Mountain delicious!!! Don't scrimp and use dried parsley. I think the fresh parsley is a key ingredient.

Driving Mountain Roads

I love to drive. New roads are my favorite. New mountain roads are a joy to drive on. I love going up and down hills. Switchbacks? Love 'em. Hairpin curves? Love 'em too. The roads through Rocky Mountain National Park were fun to drive on. Estes Park is seven plus thousand feet above sea level. The Trail Ridge road through the park is the highest mountain pass road and tops out over 12 -almost 13 thousand feet above sea level. As we drove we saw a sign that said we were 2 miles above sea level. Later we saw another sign that said we were 3 miles above sea level. The Toyota Yaris was a fun car to drive and handled the mountains well. My only complaint was the seat belt. The belt crossed over my larynx and felt like it was choking me. Sometimes I put the belt behind my back because it was so uncomfortable. If I was wearing a sweater or a jacket, I could tuck the belt below some fabric and be comfortable. Without extra layers the seat belt was a problem. Here is a photo I took out the driver's window as I drove up the mountain trail road. The mountain trail is a special road because it's not paved and goes only one way - up. When you start out at the park entrance, we were in meadows and Ponderosa pine forests with big fluffy trees, wide straight streams, and tall grass. As you go up the meadows and tall grasses disappear. Pines dominate the hills with quaking aspen poking out in yellow here and there. The streams move faster, curve more, and have rocks poking out of the water.Higher up the aspen disappear and the streams flow really fast and wiggle back and forth like snakes. This photo was taken at almost the end of the tree line. You can see these trees are alpine - slower growing, darker in color, and sparse. Eventually the trees get only a few feet tall and grow only in the protection of rock formations. Some shrubby trees had needles only on the protected side of the branches and trunks. Ahead are the tundra hills and some patches of snow. To the left is a cliff. There are trees on the cliff but it is very steep. The switchbacks on this road were especially fun. You can't see around the corner. As you drive you notice huge ruts in the roads on the corners. I tried to drive on top of the ruts but you gotta keep going and keep turning. My Toyota never bottomed out and I was surprised because I took that mountain trail road twice. There is no room to pass on this approximately 8 mile road. There were a couple pull off areas where cars could park. One one switchback curve I saw a woman standing in the road. I thought, "Seriously? This is where you want to be standing?" What I didn't see is that she was standing and watching two men change a tire on a yellow jeep. What an unfortunate place to get a flat! The other park roads (Road number 34 and road number 36 were wider, paved, and had two-way traffic. But they were fun too. I took those road a half dozen times at least. What I could not understand is all the bicycles on that road. There are no bike lanes. I would often have to wait behind a bicycle until the traffic cleared and I could get past them safely. Now, tell me, who would want to bicycle up the highest mountain road on the state of Colorado? These people are crazy? I can't think of worse conditions to bicycle! Coming back down would be fun but not biking up. I could see getting a ride to the top and then biking down but these people were biking up the mountain on a narrow road, often in the rain. All the bikers wore those Lycra biking outfits and helmets. Most of them had very good muscle definition in their calves. Sometimes I envied the motorcyclists going up and down the mountain but not once did I envy a bicyclist.

Wildlife Encounters in Colorado or Why I Screamed

We saw lots of wildlife in Colorado. Rocky Mountain National Park has many herds of elk. Sometimes the elk sit near the roads. All the tourists pull over to the side to take pictures. There are signs posted warning us not to approach wildlife but some people get out of their cars and walk among the elk with their cameras. The elk looked sleek and strong this time of year. I hear they're not always this pretty. But the elk isn't why I screamed. We saw two moose on the other side of the continental divide where the water drains into the Colorado River. The moose were standing in a small stream munching away. I love seeing moose. I bought a stained glass depiction of a moose head to hang in the window in honor of this sighting. The moose isn't why I screamed. When we stopped to walk on the tundra trail, high above the tree line, I didn't think there would be any animals up this high and in this desolate place. I was wrong. The tundra was teeming with life. White and black butterflies flitted about. I couldn't believe how many of these butterflies were up there. The butterflies were reckless. They would fly across the path and crash into my legs. We saw grasshoppers and chipmunk like creatures. A roly-poly brown creature that looked like a woodchuck was busy on the tundra. He turned out to be a marmot. I was told that when you hike in the tundra, marmots will follow you. If you stop to urinate, they will hurry to lick up the urine because they crave the salt. I was advised that if I had to stop and pee on the tundra, it's best to pee on a rock. If you pee on plants, the marmots will eat the plants to get the salt and damage the plants. The marmot wasn't why I screamed. Actually I didn't REALLY scream. I didn't have enough breath in my lungs to let our a real horror-flick scream. My scream came out more like a scared moan. I was sitting on the deck of the cabin in a lawn chair. I was trying to overcome my altitude sickness by swallowing Aleve and drinking lots of water. I had the Estes Park newspaper in my lap and my red stainless steel water container in my hand. A hummingbird flew by. I thought it was a ruby throated hummingbird but something wasn't quite right. The throat wasn't ruby, more of a red. And the head looked different. Turns out it was a broad tailed hummingbird common in alpine areas. This hummingbird flew back again to check out my red jug and see if it was edible. It flew and hovered right in my face. I am talking RIGHT in my face. We were seeing eye to eye. That bird was way inside my personal bubble. And it stayed hovering there. That is when I semi-screamed. The hummingbird's long beak was just inches from my nose. You might think I'm a woos to scream because of a hummingbird. Don't judge me until you've had a hummingbird beak hover inches from your nose too.

Where We Stayed In Estes Park

Estes Park is about a 2 hour drive northwest of Denver. We arrived in the afternoon and went to the school where her son is the wilderness department head at an experiential-based high school. He took us to his cabin on the other side of town. He lives a few hundred feet from the Rocky Mountain National Park. He has a manly cabin that made both of us jealous of the simplicity and the charm. We both would be happy to downsize our lives and live in a small place like this. The cabin has one bedroom, a bathroom with a shower, a small kitchen, and a small sitting room with a fireplace. He has a small deck and a shed in the back. From the picture window we could see Long's Peak - a landmark mountain in this area. My friend's son was nice enough to let us use his cabin. He stayed with a friend during our trip. Can you believe his hospitality? Move out and let his Mom and her friend take over his house? Would you do that for your Mom? I doubt many people would. I slept in the front room on a futon. Futons are more comfortable for my back than my own bed. While I lay on the futon, I looked out the window. I could see Long's Peak, a full moon, and a tree. I slept for a while. When I woke again, I could see Long's Peak, Orion's belt, and a tree. When I woke the third time I could see Long's Peak, peach colored clouds in a pale blue sky, and a tree. When I woke for the final time, I could see Long's Peak, orange clouds, and a tree. We sure had nice digs on our trip!

Estes Park, Colorado

My friend and I went to visit her son in Estes Park, Colorado. We flew to Denver and rented a car. We had arranged for an economy car. She drives a Prius and I drive a Civic so an economy car seemed to be a good choice. This is the third car I have rented this year and I gotta say, those rental car employees really push you to spend more money. This one in Denver was a pro. First he asks where we are going. Then he says at that altitude, they recommend a 4 wheel drive and a 6 cylinder vehicle.

"No," I say. "We want an economy car."

He leads us out to the lot and points disdainfully at a Toyota Yaris. We look. It's true that the car is about one third shorter than you would expect. I ask for a four door. He says they don't have that. He then says, smiling and nodding his head up and down, for only $28 we can get a Camry. He is a handsome guy and he has a fabulous smile. I find myself becoming mesmerized. My friend figures this means $28 per day which sounds cheaper than our economy car price. She sounds interested. He continues to smile and nod his head yes. I ask, "That is $28 more, right?"

He says, "No, not $28 more per day, $28 for the entire time."

"No," I repeat. "We want an economy car."

Then he asks if we want the basic insurance or the recommended insurance. I tell him we have insurance and don't need anymore. "Really?" he asks, "How much is your deductible?"

He is still smiling and nodding his handsome head up and down, physically showing me how to agree to spend more money. He's so handsome I can't remember the name of my car insurance company much less my deductible. I shake my head to break the spell. "We don't need more insurance."

Eventually he gives up on us and gives us the keys to the car. Throughout the entire trip as this little Toyota Yaris climbs up mountain roads and traverses the Trail Ridge Road (highest mountain pass in the state) without any trouble, I think about this rental car salesman who said this car didn't have enough power for the elevation. What a bunch of baloney.