Of Rafts, Camping and a Bit of Family Time

Ethan won a day long rafting trip at one of the Epic Single Track races. Rafting is something I've always wanted to do, but never tried. We also had not been camping as a family all season, usually just it had been just the kids and I, so we took the opportunity to do a small family vacation and I am sure glad we did. We had a blast.

Thursday the kids and I had a lot of fun with our friends, Mike, Laurel and Rhys, in Monument. We headed home, packed the car and headed for the hills. It had rained a lot during the day in Denver and Winter Park so we decided to spend the first night in a hotel. On the way up we listened to music by John Denver. Just as he was singing about fire in the sky the orange, pink sunset bloomed into its full glory straight ahead of us. The music, the road and the mountians made me think of Natalie. I always think of her when I listen to John Denver since I got the music from her. We were all jazzed to spend a weekend away.

We spent the night in the Inn at Silver Creek. The outside was lovely and looked lush. The actual room was cramped and dated. The beds made loud, creaking complaints every time one of us moved. We were fine with checking out in the morning. We left early to make sure that we would get to Kremling on time.

Ethan and I had our fun with the Adventures in Whitewater crew for the day. The trip ended up being very leisurely. Our guide was a guy called "Mouse." He's been rafting for almost 20 years. He told lots of silly jokes and great stories about rafting trips he had taken. There were three other boats. All of the guides were great. We drove from Kremling to the Pumphouse recreation spot. From there we rafted down the Colorado river through the lower Gore Canyon. We worked our way through two rapids, the Wake Up and Thread the Needle. After each successful pass we did a high five with the paddles. Partway through we stopped at a spot with a natural sulphar hot spring for a bit of a dip. The next stop was a Jump Rock, a thirty five foot jumping spot. Ethan was the first one off. He even went a second time. A few others jumped, too. Some chickened out at the end. I imagine it looks quite high from the top of the rock. Later we stopped for a long lunch of plentiful sandwiches, cookies, cheese, chips and lemonade. Lemonade never tasted so go. We pulled in at Radium, but Ethan and I would have been happy to keep going. We'd like to do a more aggressive trip. This had class 2 and 3 rapids. We'd like to go for the class 5 rapids.

While Ethan and I were rafting, Ellie and Larr set up camp, explored, had ice cream and generally enjoyed eachother's company. It is not often that the girl gets her dad all to herself.


As we were driving back towards Kremling I spied a lovely camping spot by a small river. I had wished that I could show it to Larr as it looked like the perfect camping spot. Imagine my surprise when Larr and Ellie took up to our campsite and it was the very one I thought was perfect. I had been looking at my own tents and had not known it. The camp was in a Radium State Wildlife Area O.C. Mugrage Campground. The sites were large and the bathroom was clean enough. We had a leisurely dinner. Then we chatted. Ellie was engrossed in reading her favorite book, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. Ethan and Larr took time exposure photos of the moon rising.


The next morning Ethan and Larr went exploring. The local bit of railroad was being worked on. They are replacing the wooden ties with concrete ones. The cool machinery beckoned the boys to come for a closer look. Ellie and I stayed at camp relaxing. We had a nice chat with people who were in the next campsite. I would have liked to stay another day, but we had things to get done, a party to prep for and a friend to meet. Still, I was thankful for the time we had together. I just wish we had more free weekends. I plan on returning to that campground another day.