First off, let me apologize to those faithful readers who have been looking for updates on our family’s July Crestone trip. Phew! It sure is easier to write when one is traveling by himself or with his partner. More quiet reflection is possible. When traveling with two boys, however, the equation changes. It’s been a while since I’ve traveled so intensely with kids. Their interest and care take precedence over reflective blogging!
Know, though, that Cindy Lou and I as well as Noah and Adel had a great time. I don’t really want to play the trip back for you one day/event at a time, so let me reflect a bit on what moves me most after the fact.
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When we got to Crestone, I hate to admit, I was damn depressed.
We had been on the road four long days, and all travelers were pretty worn out, even though we were energized by just having watched rafters on the Arkansas River and finally arriving at the lofty and green Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Fact was our first afternoon in Crestone was mighty hot. Must have been in the low- to mid-90s, I’d guess. The straw bale house in which we stayed was reasonably cool, but with the temp where it was, it was still hot. And, I must add, the place had no air conditioning and not even a fan. All I could think of was that if the afternoon heat continued like that for all of our nine day visit, we would all be fricking miserable.
So it was that after an initial unpacking of the car, and feeling uncomfortably hot, I found myself parked on the adult bed on the loft in tears. Cindy comforted me and told me all would be okay, but I had very vivid images of how hot the mid-section of America had been on the first leg of our 3,000 mile round-trip. If we had to put up with anything like that without in-house cooling, everybody’s behavior wouldn’t be pretty. (On our night #2 stop in Salina, Kansas, the heat index had to have been 110+ degrees. Felt like we got out of the air conditioned car and stepped into a roaster. No kidding.) In addition, good friend Bruce was coming in from Los Angeles, and he made it perfectly clear he'd rather do Colorado in October when everything cooled off. Having him trek in from California for a hot and uncomfortable stay disheartened me even more.
You see, this Colorado trip was all my idea. Yes, Cindy Lou was in favor, but if the truth be told, she would prefer vacationing on a nice breezy beach someplace where she could lay out in the sun and read a book. Crestone sure as hell wasn’t feeling like that on afternoon #1.
Still, the boys seemed to be in good shape. We had hauled two twenty inch bikes ‘cross country, and they jumped on and took off up the road first chance they got. It was what I hoped they would do. I expected the bikes would give them both a certain sense of independence on this trip.
And, after all, that was one of the main reasons for expanding our Crestone expedition to boys. I mean, I love the Colorado Rockies. I have for as long as I can remember. I hadn’t gotten there for too many years, though, when I discovered Paul Winter Consort’s Crestone album in 2008 -- which is currently playing in my writing space. I determined that winter I had to get back.
It was great to find the Nada Hermitage in summer 2009 for a two week Crestone stay with Cindy Lou. It was even better for me to return there fall 2010 for a solo two week writing sabbatical. Amazing stuff with first snow flying on the peaks and all.
But a trip from Ohio to Colorado was an adventure above all. I have had such a good time in the process over the years that I so wanted to share it with grandkids. This was our first try at taking them to mountains. It had to be a good time.
Well, by afternoon’s end I was feeling a bit better. The afternoon cooled as soon as the sun began to set. By night’s end, the air was in the very delicious 50s. Oh, so nice to sleep in that!
I also decided that even though we needed a few days to adapt our lungs to the thinner air at 8000 feet, we had to get the boys mountain hiking on day 2. Cindy agreed.
We wouldn’t try to do too much. We’d just head up the North Crestone Lake trail as far as we could. Turned out we had just the right amount of lunch and found a lovely spot just off the trail to eat it and get our feet wet in that delightful stream descending down the mountain.
All would be great, as Cindy promised. Tears again. More later.
Today’s elder idea: This year, it is not clear, just what ends here or what’s begun....
Michael Martin Murphy
‘Swans Against the Sun’
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