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I woke up at the crack of dawn and watched the sunrise over the mountains. There were rabbits and Blue Jays going about their business in the early morning. It was freezing cold but the air smelt of crisp pine trees and earth. This is nothing like the fake "pine air freshener" scents you get from the supermarket, nor is it the dry, astringent aroma from the Mediterranean pine that I am used to. It is something else and it is intoxicating! I am not normally a mountain person, but the scenery is so vast and diverse that I am in awe of the landscape around me.
After we'd had our breakfast of milk and cereal, we packed up and left camp. Onwards and (probably) upwards! Wendy has developed a new hobby - reading out the feet-above-sea-level road signs... Our daytrips to the Cottonwood Lakes, St Elmo and Mount Princeton yesterday took us to just above 14000 feet! No wonder we've had bad altitude sickness! We've been ascending to dizzying heights in a matter of hours!
We decided our first stop would be Salida. It's a town famous in the region for art and a Farmer's market (they have a strict policy of you can only sell what you've grown or made yourself). We walked around the streets filled with old, character-filled houses and buildings. There were some funky shops and a number of great little cafes and bakeries. We also found the Market and bought some fresh tortillas so we could make our own lunch wraps with the previous day's leftover chicken and salad.
Back on the road again and we got hungry at about 12. Stopped for lunch at the start of the Waterdog Lakes trail which is situated on a very steep part of the Monarch Pass. We found a cute little spot by a babbling brook, whipped out our new camping chairs and made the chicken wraps. Deeeeelicious! Plenty of hikers passed us on their way to and from the lake - it looked like really hard work. We were just enjoying the shaded, tree sheltered position by the stream. Ah, that's the life!
On the Monarch Pass again, just after we began the steep descent from a dizzying height, we drove past 2 cyclists loaded with camping gear. I commented, at the time, "Oh my God, look at those crazy people! They cycled over that steep pass which was difficult enough with our car, let alone pedal power!". This is not something I can easily conceive of and shocked when I see cyclists going over mountains. It looks like really, really, really hard work - especially in the blazing sun!
We arrived at Gunnison and bought some supplies there but the town itself was nothing great to look at or stay in - just another highway stop. We stayed at the Mesa RV Campgrounds just a few miles past the town. A really lovely campsite with plenty of facilities. They even have teepees overlooking a field full of cattle and a ranch house in the distance - how quintessentially Western! We set up tent on the lawn, in the shade of some tall pine trees and decided to drive to the Blue Mesa Lake for a swim and refreshing break. We didn't do that but, instead, watched boaters partying on the lake.
Along the way, we stopped at Elm Creek at the Curecanti National Park Visitor's Centre where we bought an Annual National Parks Pass for $80 which will allow us to visit any National Park free of charge. As we plan to visit quite a few on this trip, we reckon it'll pay for itself in the next month and then some! We also bought tickets for the Ranger-led Morrow Point boat trip as it is a unique way to see the start of the Black Canyon - the only way to access the water from this part of the canyon is via boat as there are 2 dams in either side that block access.
We stopped for a couple of beers and burgers at Pappy's Restaurant @ Elk Creek Marina where we had front row seats to watch a band with a violin, banjo, bass and (my absolute favourite) a slide guitar! All the locals come here to listen to live music and relax by the lake. The band is called Iola - after a town which was submerged by the dams which were built in the region in the 1960's - and they played alt-country with a twist. The 2 main female singers harmonised like angels! But at times, when looking around the place, it felt like I was on the set of "Children of the Corn" out here - everyone has blond hair and blue eyes - they certainly wouldn't look out of place in Sweden!
When we returned to the campgrounds, lo and behold who do we meet but the 2 cyclists who were cycling up Monarch Pass earlier that day! 2 very slender kids that have just recently graduated from college and decided to cycle across the States. My jaw dropped when they said they started off in Virginia and were making their way across the Rocky Mountains to California! In the flat states, like Kansas, they were averaging about 150miles a day but now they were limited by the altitude and the ascent to about 50-70miles a day. That's 2 very determined kids!
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