Ouray '09...part 1

We had so much fun last year in the beauty of the San Juan Valley and Uncompaghre Wilderness that we decided to make it annual thing. This past weekend was it!

Jeff left a few hours before me because I had school the morning we headed out. No big deal, but you can't miss class in a short semester. Too much information missed and too big a risk of being dropped. That's fine, I knew it was an easy (and gorgeous!!!) drive, plus I knew I'd end up being right behind him. We wussed out and took our rig. It's heavy, Monarch Pass is steep, and my 4Runner is fast.

The first night was actually spent at the house belonging to our camping buddy's grandmother in Montrose. Nothing too exciting, but she has the only toy poodle I've ever actually liked. Sophie was cool. Made me miss my Red Dog, though. It was nice, however, and Luke & I were able to excitedly share our views of the elk and deer. That's the most elk I've seen in one place since Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Amazing! And the deer were respecting the road grazing right behind the guard rails in a few spots. Luke loved that. But the best story of the night? Jason thought he could make it all the way from our house to Montrose on one tank of gas. He was wrong! He ran out of gas and coasted 4 miles into town...then waited until Jeff showed up with a gas can. I'm not sure I'll ever let him live THAT down! Cracks me up.

The next morning we got ready and headed toward Ridgeway to set up camp. It struck me that the view was clear and the whole area didn't smell like smoke this year. We could see smoke in the air, but it was from a distance away. I believe it's from a lightning sparked fire to the North near the town of Fruita on I-70, but I can't prove that. It made for some spectacular sunsets, though! Anyway, our easy jaunt to the campsite was made, but we got there too early and had to wait to check-in. Whoops. No biggie, with the views in this area it isn't difficult to wait a wee bit.

Campsite set. Luke was having a ball running around between Jason's tent (purist! He was wise) and our trailer. Then we decided it was time to get ready for some fishing. I still needed my license. Now, you have to realize that the fact I'm even mentioning that is near blasphemy in my household. I grew up fishing, I love fishing, and it's a shame I don't get to do it very often since my boy came along! Still, it's nice that I could walk to the visitor center and get it there. No 20-minute drive into Montrose, or even 10-minute drive into Ridgeway to worry about it. Besides, I like the exercise!

This was Luke's first time fishing. Ever. Seriously, I am a bad, bad mom to do that to my boy! He should've had a rod in his hand about the same time I stuck him in the saddle. Too late now. He has his little "Lightning McQueen" rod and was bouncing, ready to go. We figured we'd be right on the river so we put his life jacket on, but he didn't mind. Guess what? They had 2 small ponds right on the river to fish, so he really didn't need it. I'm a bit paranoid, though, and I wasn't going to say anything. He fell in this lake last year and I'd rather not take the risk.

I cast for Luke the first few times. He actually caught a tree branch and pulled it in on one of these early casts and thought that was awesome. He decided to play with that for a while and I started my own fishing. Jeff came and took over at that point. My man taught my boy how to cast and, let me tell you! This child can outcast daddy!!! Seriously! I don't know how other 3-year-olds do when casting, but my child gets it out there!! And he loved it.

When we realized it was after 8pm and we hadn't had dinner yet is the moment we decided to head back to the camp. This is where the rig came in handy: I microwaved some brawts and we ate in quick fashion. Even still had some time to put them over the fire for a few seconds to get that campfire flavor!

End of the day our boy crashed out hard. We crawled into bed and stared at the stars through the ceiling vent. Saw a satellite, countless shooting stars, and fell asleep content in this awesome valley. We had big plans for the morning and were looking forward to it....