jpgray's epic CO vacation in photos (many images, 56k people)

[jpgray]

My dad, bro and myself went on a 41.4 mile, five-day backpacking trip, and, lucky you, you get to see some of the pictures.

1
Me at the first camp:


2
A break on day 2:


Elk herd of cows on day 2, with a rebelliously disinterested youth:


A break on day 3, with me smiling because no one asked me to take off the sun specs and squint into the camera:


My brother in the same pose:


Our pappy removes his sunglasses for no man:


Even halfway into the trip the salt stains on this shirt have progressed so far that solid pink has given way to a virtual tie-dye:


The flowers were really gorgeous on this loop--one of my brother's better shots:


We played leapfrog (now this is going to sound derogatory) with a French group a few times heading towards Squaw Pass. They were great fun, and they had cheese(!) and carrots(!!). I learned the French pronunciation for "knickers" at this point:


An elk hoof at our third camp:


Day 4 was altogether nasty but exciting. After a pleasant few miles on the trail, a whole chain of awesome storm clouds forced us to cower in fear under a tarp until the lightning relented enough for us to get over our last ridge and into the trees of the North Fork. We were hailed on three times and had lightning strike all around us, making our hair stand on end and our gear hum ominously. After we had made a frenzied crossing of a ridge during a break in the clouds, we came upon a massive snowslide in the North Fork Canyon as the downpour continued. It had obliterated the trail, so we had to improvise:




The next day I was fairly sleepy:



This looked much less graceful in life:


Triumphant at the car:


For you boot fetishists:


Call it altitude sickness or psychologically revealing, but I had an overpowering urge to steal this sign:


In the sprawling metropolis of Lake City, we frightened the locals, polluted their coffee shop and ate all their food. The coffee was good:

[sundog]

1. that's you??? i thought you were an old man.

:P

awesome pics :7

on edit- that one of the flowers is the best

[jpgray]

4. Yes--I am truly a callow, inexperienced youth

I hope our mutual buddyship can survive this shock.

:hide:

[sundog]

5. absolutely not

hehe... it's a nice surprise my old buddy :7

[Beware the Beast Man]

2. Man, that is picturesque.

Glad you had a great time on your vacation. Thanks for sharing the pics. :thumbsup:

[jpgray]

7. Well, I would have liked to post another set of pics

I really was crushed that I didn't get out to meet you and Mrs. Beastman and the rest of the gang earlier this Summer.

[Redneck Socialist]

3. Sweet!

I'm jealous. I haven't been out west in a dog's age. I miss it. I might get some hiking in this weekend though, east coast style.

[enigmatic]

6. Great pics!

LaKe City is a cool-ass town; I thought about moving there a few times..

[jpgray]

17. It's like a Texas colony!

Lots of Texans there. But it is a neat little town--the day we were there the talk was of an electrical line that went out in the middle of a production of Cabaret--the engineer who knew how to fix the problem was a star of the show, so he had to to rush out in full makeup and cabaret regalia to fix the broken line. :D

[Susang]

8. That's so cool

Great pictures! Looks like you had a lot of fun, even when the weather didn't cooperate.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Couldn't be better if they were scratch and sniff

:thumbsup:

[jpgray]

20. That's certainly more true than you know

I can now safely say five days is probably the absolute limit I'd go without at least a camp suds bath.

[rockymountaindem]

10. What part of the state were you visiting?

???

[jpgray]

16. Weminuche Wilderness starting from Thirty Mile Campground

We camped at Trout Lake, passed right by the weirdly exposed Red Lakes, had geat views of the Window and the Pyramid, etc.

[asthmaticeog]

11. Nice!

Looks like it was a great time. And I have to add, *finally* we get to see what jpgray looks like - I kept imagining you looked like Mark E. Smith because of how long you rocked his pic in your avatar. (Seriously!)

[Blue-Jay]

15. Ya know....That's how I always pictured him too.

Those pics are fuckin' awesome, BTW. Nice to have you back, jp.

[jpgray]

27. Yeah--I was worried people were reading my posts as Mancunian cant

Everyone is so superficial. No one understands the real me. Don't you know I've been hurt before and may never learn to love again?

:cry::cry::cry:

(I think that last bit is a Charles Manson song Dennis Wilson recorded :D)

[intrepid_wanderer]

12. awesome!

Thanks for sharing!!


I miss CO... thankfully I'll be visiting my mommie they-ahh on the 19th... and on for about a week or so :-)

[tjwmason]

13. Marvellous pictures

I occasionally wonder about going hiking - the thought of being totally in the wild with such gorgesou scenery around appeals - then I realise that there wouldn't be a very good bed, and no shower in the morning either.

[StopTheMorans]

14. nice pics!

i was hiking in downeast Maine all weekend; it's one of my favorite activities. looks like a lot of fun, and incredibly scenic. where did you take these pics?

[jpgray]

19. One of the nicer wilderness areas in CO, the Weminuche

Starting from Thirty Mile Campground we took the long way (16 miles or so) to Trout Lake, wound down Texas Creek and up past the Red Lakes, got into the North Fork Canyon and then out over Weminuche Pass.

[swag]

18. Beautiful.

I really love that mountain meadow.

[Sugar Smack]

21. Those are incredible, beautiful pictures.

Hiking, camping and exploring the NC mountains with friends is one of my favorite things to do. Your photos brought back some good memories. Four years ago, a boyfriend and I camped out for about a week around Asheville. We had some money, but mostly we'd brought things with us to trade with other campers and hikers we met.

I think one of the most interesting parts of spending that much time outdoors is finding out how resourceful you really are.

I like your last photo too, because it reminds me of how my friend and I got semi-acclimated back into "city life" after spending so much time roughing it. We weren't used to being waited on or having plates of steaming food in front of us.

Thanks for the pictures. I'm glad you had such a good time.

[jpgray]

22. Camping around NC sounds like a good time

The best part about that re-acclimation is how good real food tastes after days of freeze-dried gunk.

[Sugar Smack]

23. I agree. You finally get food that's not constantly

accompanied by the taste of campfire smoke, although I like that too at times. The last time I went camping, it was for four days and everyone in the diner we went to could smell the smoke in our clothes.

These were day trips, but I wanted to share them-



That was my second time white water rafting. I'm between the two guys on the right.



This was my umpteenth time rock climbing. I'm in the black shirt. My father got my brother and me into outdoor things when we were very young.

[intheflow]

24. May I add a link to my Colorado vacation photos?

I just posted these yesterday in the photography group:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=280&topic_id=7144&mesg_id=7144

Why is there a drought in Colorado for 5 years that breaks the when we go camping?

I don't know where Lake City is, but next week I'll be starting two weeks in Pike National Forest, but Breckinridge. I'm pretty sure that's by the North Fork, but maybe it's South Fork. Forkin' rivers all sound the same!

Thanks for sharing the photos, jp! :hi:

[Sugar Smack]

25. WOW. I am completely speechless.

Those are such beautiful pictures, so vivid. I almost felt a little vertigo from the first one. Absolutely spectacular, and so peaceful.

I want to go there some day. Thank you for sharing your photos.

[livetohike]

26. Okay, now you have made livetohike extremely jealous

and happy you posted these great pictures! Looks like you all had a terrific vacation.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

28. Wow, jp!

Fabulous pics....and along with EVERYONE else, I was certain that you were a middle-aged man!

Must be the name...sounds so sober and well, middle-aged!

But you are one young and very hot looking guy...I'm drooling...

I'm probably old enough to be your mom...if you're in your thirties, anyhow...

Anyway...thanks for posting these! Awesome, all of them...and I do mean ALL.....

:toast: :yourock: :pals:

[jpgray]

29. I never thought I was cultivating such a curmudgeonly vibe

I for one thought my DU behavior seemed blatantly immature. :D