road trippin'

we took off on thursday, desperate to get out of the snow and cold. it was getting to us in a major way, so we went on a quest for something that felt like summer. we didn't exactly find summer, but we found cool places in colorado and got to meet up with justin, which totally made up for the lack of summer weather. 

we put some good miles on the car, which was loaded down with bikes, kayaks, and way too much camping gear. the kayaks really served as a rudder for the wind to throw the car around on the interstate, and in the end, we didn't even use them. oh well. another time.

here is a map of our ridiculous meandering journey. we only doubled-back on our tracks once!

this place that we camped was windy, windy, windy. all the picnic tables had these sun/wind shades, but to me they looked like an army of drones or something. 

we met up with justin, who drove through the night from texas. since he didn't sleep and we didn't get restful sleep due to wind and a rocky campsite, we all needed coffee and breakfast. after that we headed into the mountains, to an awesome town of salida, which we can add to the list of towns brandon and i could live in. they have a kayak park in town, incredible mountain biking all around, and a fairly light winter considering their elevation and location in the middle of the rockies. 

we spent the afternoon mountain biking on some awesome trails above town. they got pretty intense towards the end (i.e., steep, sandy, and not well-banked into the hillside). it was a great afternoon though--a nice way to combat sitting in a car all day. we found an awesome camping spot along side a creek and had a nice, cold night.

the next day we drove somewhat aimlessly through colorado, unsure of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. finding forest service access proved to be difficult and took us up a sketchy road. justin's rented minivan did awesome, but with rain in the forecast, we didn't want to get ourselves stuck on the 4WD road.

 

this peak is mount lindsey, even spelled right.

sunday morning, justin set back for home and we headed for great sand dunes national park. it was impressive, but windy. wind + sand wasn't exactly soothing, so we didn't last long. just enough for a picnic lunch, a splash in the creek, and a few photos.

although we planned to camp a few more nights, i got kind of burnt out on living out of the car. plus the place we planned to camp produced ticks within 10 minutes of our arrival. i really didn't want to relive that nightmare with harvey. also the river was low, so the kayak park brandon wanted to hit just didn't give him enough motivation to suit up for a "mediocre" wave.

we drove the remaining 3.5 hours home to wake up in our own bed, hopefully tick free. we made a big detour to check out breckenridge and had awesome food at a little burrito shop. good fuel for our ambitious drive home. but waking up here, without aching backs from sleeping on the ground and having access to real coffee and cream, totally made the groggy drive worth it.