Sorry for the day off folks. I didn’t have enough posts queued up for this long stretch, but things will be back to normal (daily) now.
Day 140: Lakewood
I took a zero at Six and Dangerpants’ new condo. Six made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Amazing. I tried to do some blogging while a Die Hard series marathon ran on AMC. In the middle of Die Hard 2, Dangerpants took me to the grocery store to do my resupply shopping. I got enough for the next section and enough more to ship ahead. When we got back, there was still a lot of Die Hard 2 to go. They sure can stretch a movie with commercials.
We had decided to do and booked an escape room, so we left well before the end of Die Hard with a Vengeance to do that. Six’s car got rear-ended by a pickup truck starting a three car pileup as we turned into the venue. They decided to skip the police report and we ended up starting the escape room just shortly after our planned start time. As rooms go, I’d say it was below average compared to all the ones I’ve done, though it did have some interesting ideas I’ve not seen. We did solve it, but it took 3 hints and maybe a half minute overtime.
From there we went to Walmart to get boxes and because I had miscalculated the number of tortillas I needed during my earlier trip. Then we went to Edgewater Market for dinner and drinks. I had some Venezuelan pocket sandwiches and Crispy Boi and Old Fashioned Happy Meal from Roger’s (“the originator of the Happy Meal, often imitated, likely duplicated”). We sat in the rooftop bar until 9 because the weather was so nice (and it had an outdoor heating system). Then we went back to the apartment and watched a movie until midnight while I got a decent chunk more blogging done.
Day 141: Lake Granby
I slept in pretty late after that late night. Six made banana pancakes while I did the last of the blog uploads and edits. I got in one last shower and cleaned myself up before doing my final packing and preparations for the trip back to Grand Lake.
The traffic was a bit thicker in the outbound direction even though it was Sunday noon and people should have been returning to the city from their weekend trips. We stopped for a brief photo shoot on Berthoud Pass then arrived in Grand Lake around 1:30. After wandering through the town looking at lunch options, we settled on a return to Sagebrush. We shared some mozzarella sticks, then I went with a chili and a chicken cobb salad since I had already sampled the barbecue. Six and Dangerpants tried different types of barbecue. Six and I had some last beer to part by, then we drove down to the trailhead for pictures and hugs all around. I hiked out just before 4pm.
The trail ran south along the east shore of the lake, immediately entering the national park again, before turning up into the woods slightly. Not climbing away from the lake or creeks, really, but splitting into a trail for bikes and a trail for horses. The CDT followed the latter, and here there were many blowdowns.
After a couple of miles, the trails rejoined and the blowdowns stopped being an issue. I stopped at 6pm for a snack break. Prunes and apricots dipped in Biscoff spread, candy. Less than an hour later, I left the national park for good just as Arapaho Creek was starting to spread out into Granby Lake. I stopped an hour and a half later after struggling to find any suitable sites anywhere along the climb up to the ridge along the east side of the lake. There was a major wind event last year, so there was deadfall everywhere, and yet plenty of snags still standing anywhere there might have been a clear spot. I didn’t see anything at all until I reached the top and started to descend. I saw a slopey but relatively clear spot among some shorter pines.
Once I was in my tent, I discovered my toiletry bag was apparently gone, not in its proper place, most likely left behind in town. So I slept without brushing my teeth for the first time in years.
Trail miles: 8.4
Distance to Frisco: 132.7 miles
