6-21-12 Thursday Camping

Since we were laboring under the delusion that we had all kinds of time, Thursday around camp was dedicated to hanging hammocks, playing in the water, and being as chill as possible. After the pictures of sunrise at Maroon Bells, we got back to camp to find Dad setting up the stoves for coffee and hot cocoa. 

I downloaded the five million pictures I'd just filled up the memory card with onto my laptop and Sam went back to Harry Potter as we watched the sun play with the tops of the trees on the lower part of the ridge.

Breakfast the first morning was biscuits and gravy, perfect for the cold. However, as the biscuits neared completion, someone flipped the sunlight switch and it blazed across the campsite, warming everything up by at least ten degrees in a matter of minutes. The layers everyone had been wearing starting peeling off: jacket, flannel, gloves, hats, all abandoned. We would look at them later that day and wonder if we would ever want to put them on again, as hot as it was. That lasted until the sun set again that evening.

Down at the river in the new morning sun, you could really enjoy the way the pristine water made everything sparkle, even the moss and the tiny little mushrooms seemed to enjoy it. Any time it just got too hot, about 5 seconds of bare feet in the running streams would set you to rights. The minerals in the water and the abundance of life meant many of the typically gray rocks were a shimmering green under the water.

I hope you click on the pictures to see all the detail in the moss. I could have sat there and pet it all day. I didn't try to bring any of these back with me, but I did manage to hunt over 100 amazing rocks from the streams.

The afternoon was dedicated to listening, watching, journaling, reading, and napping, in between trips to the water. The view from the hammock under the shade of the aspens is unparalleled. Time slows to a delicious crawl.