We headed into Boulder and hit UpSlope Brewery. After having a drink, we ended up moving in to the downtown area of Boulder and the outside “mall area” between 10th and 14th streets. Once we arrived we found that it was not only game day for Colorado U (based in Boulder) but it was homecoming and they were playing Arizona State. The place was completely mobbed. We walked through the mall area until someone finally mentioned that it was a $500 fine to have a dog in the mall area. Of course we had Murphy with us, so we moved out of there and found a place to grab a beer, some lunch, and watch some college football. As the day moved on, we wanted to get an early jump on finding a place to camp… hoping to avoid the random searching in the dark. Tara had reached out to her friend Amanda (lives in Denver) for a recommendation on where to stay. She said Gold Hill.
As we started our drive to Gold Hill I started to realize that Gold Hill wasn’t a place… well at least not a place with an address, but more of an area… like the name of an entire hill. So we didn’t really have a location to drive to, but more an idea of an area where there may be a place to park for the night. After driving around for a bit, we decided to turn down a dirt road that had a sign for the Switzerland Trail. Very quickly Tara, Murphy and I realized that we were committed to this. The road was too narrow to turn around. We were driving down a dirt road, roughly 6 inches wider than the truck/camper. On one side of the truck was rocks, just a rock wall that shot straight up, and on the other side of the truck, a cliff, just a rocky cliff that dropped straight down. Things were getting pretty scary. At one point, I stopped the truck and got out to walk ahead and see if there was anything positive around the corner. I believed I used the word “terrifying” to describe it to Tara. After a little more of this drive to certain death, we reached a picnic area.
As we were pulling into the picnic area a couple walked out of the woods (I don’t know maybe they were hiking? Making out? Doing drugs… I don’t know, doesn’t matter) As the guy walked up I got out of the car to ask… well, basically where are we, can we park here and what’s ahead. Before a word came out of my mouth, the guy said “Wow, you’re just going for it huh?” as he looked at the camper and knowing the road we just drove down. He told me that we should camp in the picnic area parking lot. That would be our best bet and no one would mind. I asked what’s ahead, and he said “Well, it’s a lot like that road you just drove in on, only it’s more narrow, more rocky, and really steep.” So essentially the worst possible situation we could be in.
I have to give it to the guy though, without him, we may have lost the Shast,… who knows? We ended up camping in the picnic area parking lot, and as we sat watching the sun set, you could see down the mountain into Boulder. As the night grew darker, the city lights grew brighter. It was really a great spot to spend the night, and great weather and beautiful view almost made me forget that in the morning, I would have to do that drive all over again.
We called it a night and got some rest. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. We were again heading into Boulder, but this time, to see the Applegate’s.
I went to college with Bryan and Becca. They’ve been living in Colorado for about 6 years now and knew we were on our road trip so we reached out once we were in the Boulder area. They said we should stop by and it happened to be Sunday which meant one thing, watching the Patriots with familiar faces who were also Patriots fans. They also let us shower, which, after a few days boondocking, was a huge deal. I was surprised they went through with it after we piled out of the truck. We ate great food, caught up with friends, and watched some football. For Tara and I, this was an absolute top shelf Sunday. It was really nice to see some familiar faces (it had been about a month since we were with friends in San Fran). It was also great talking to Bryan because he spends a lot of time outdoors and is incredibly knowledgable about Colorado. He took out maps, told us where to get these “special” maps (I think that’s all I can say about them), gave us some suggestions for places to stop, for both camping and a beer, and really made Tara and I feel like we had a plan for the rest of our time in Colorado. A little less guess work and terrifying roads. Before we left, we gave them the tour of the camper… yeah, we do tours… and as Becca looked around and let out a little “I could do this”, we could basically see Bryan’s mind start working on how to get a camper. Best of luck Bryan.
Heading towards Independence Pass and Aspen.
withoutwhatifs 