The Greg Outdoors: Journey

Day 15: June 29, Heaton Bay Campground, Frisco, CO. Alt. 9000 ft. It is a crisp bright morning with snow-capped peaks visible from our site. We discovered that an Abu Dhabi friend, Laurie DeMayo, would be nearby so we left El Creek a day earlier than planned hoping to get a spot in this popular campsite. A3 was occupied but next door A1, though signposted as reserved, was empty. Checking with the camp host, we were in luck., and were able to take over the spot due to a late minute on-line cancellation. So far, even at Chaco Canyon, we could have found a campsite even if signposted and on line says it is booked.

En route Joyce took her first hand at driving the truck/Airstream combo and found it easier than she expected (she did great!) We stopped at Monarch Pass at 11,312 ft. and on the Continental divide. There were Mountain Bikers and other travelers there and it was a refreshing cool. We looked over the displayed relief map of the continental divide trail and found we adhered pretty well to it's course, which was the intended "up the continental divide and down the west coast" route. Joyce will stick with driving uphill as the downhill is trickier, but it was nice to share and for me to let my eyes linger over the mountain tops, rivers, forests, farms and meadows.

Quickly setting up camp, we then headed over for a happy hour with Laurie at a ski resort-side condo of friends of hers. A brief squall forced us inside where we caught up with each other over wine and prosecco and made new friends and talked about Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other adventures.

We stopped at an ACE for some hardware as our bathroom door was delaminating. On the advice of Kristen, with whom I work, we bought farm fresh peaches from the roadside, slept well, and the next morning we were joined by Fateme, a dear friend and accomplished woman physicist whom we met and befriended when she was in charge of Sean's physicist lab at University of Arizona. Fateme, considered our "Persian daughter", now lives in Boulder, CO 90 minutes from out campsite working at a start-up that is creating practical ways to use soon to be available Quantum Computing in anticipation of its arrival in the next several years. She is always up for fun and a good chat.

That day we had the opportunity to introduce Fateme to fishing! Dillon Reservoir is a great place to catch trout and other fish...for some at least! A popular fishing spot was an 11 minute walk from our camp so we grabbed our tackle and off we went. We had some power bait and some minnow lures and Fateme learned to cast like a pro! We only got one bite and didn't manage to bring it in. Nonetheless, a neighboring family of pescaderos caught a number of rainbow trout and prior to releasing them (since they were only 13-14 inches) offered the fish to us and we gratefully accepted the first and then 3 others. Thus we had fresh fish for dinner!! We didn't catch them, but we'll never tell!

Before cooking dinner, Fateme and I went for a great bike ride. Dillon reservoir has a beautiful18 mile trail that circumnavigates the lake. We couldn't do the whole thing that late in the day so we went east and headed for Sapphire Peak outlook. It was an 800 ft climb and clouds were moving in and we decided to turn around 2/3 of the way up. (Now I realize we had gone nearly half way and could have done the whole loop. Returning we could see the clouds gathering near our campsite and we had a windy, wet ride feeling very exposed on the Dam road, but made it back to the campsite in good form. We cooked a gourmet (if we should be so bold) meal of grilled fish, asparagus, red onion, mushroom and lime slices. Fateme started a fire and cooked the potatoes in the coals.

Dillon Scenic Rec Path with Fateme

Fateme was already hooked, so the next morning we went to a different spot to fish. This time we took the truck. We loaded our collapsible wagon with our foldable kayak, camping chairs, beach shade canopy, fishing gear and all the equipment worked perfectly! We again used powerbait, and some lures but this time--yay!--we caught 3 rainbow trout (2 small ones and one keeper now sitting in Fateme's freezer.) We opened up the kayak and Fateme, Joyce and I took turns exploring the quiet, still blue reservoir.

Kayaking Dillon Reservoir

For lunch, Joyce, with Fateme's help, made Keema Matar with fresh ginger, garlic, onions and canned habanero tomatoes, arabic bread, some of the slightly charred potatoes from last night. The fragrance coming from the camper was mouthwatering!