by carrot quinn |
August 19
Mileage: 2
1984.5 miles hiked
Mileage: 2
1984.5 miles hiked
I sleep badly again, if only because I'm in town again, in a bed. It's such a comfortable bed though! What a strange world this is. I wake early, lay in bed for awhile, and then commence the slowest morning in the history of anything. I bought a loaf of GF bread and a dozen eggs yesterday so I make toad in a hole (aka circle bread aka eggy in a bready aka tits on toast aka dead baby in a shallow grave) for everyone, as well as some sauteed kale (not really sauteed, cooked in a skillet with oil, a little salt for osmosis. Skilleted?) Then black tea and dark chocolate and leftover chocolate coconut bliss. Then sitting in the guest room for a long time in front of my pile of stuff, texting friends and feeling tired. Then blog writing.
In the afternoon my aunt Christy, who also lives in town, drops by to say hi and offers us a ride back to Grand Lake. We'd planned on hitching, as Amy had to get up in the wee hours to go to work, so this is great. And I get to hang out with my aunt! Did I tell you basically my whole extended family lives in Colorado? They've been here for five generations. My great-grandparents homesteaded in what in Arvada. My family were cowboys, now they're all mechanics. My parents moved to Alaska after getting married in the seventies. It's a long story...
En route to Grand Lake we pass a stand selling Palisade peaches. Palisade is a town outside of Grand Junction, a desert town in western Colorado where much of my family lives. That area produces the best peaches I've ever had in my life. I remember when my grandparents adopted me in high school, and I moved from Alaska to Grand Junction. I'd never eaten fruit right off of a tree before. That fall the peaches on my grandparent's trees ripened, the branches practically snapping under the weight. I stood in the warm dusk and tore open a peach, the juice running down my forearms. I brushed off the earwigs. It was one of the most memorable moments of my teen years.
The peaches at this stand on the shores of the lake aren't ripe, though. They wouldn't have shipped well that way. I get one anyway and try to remember the way the desert smelled at dusk, right before the crickets came on.
In Grand Lake we run a last few errands and then I sit at the library and finish working on my blog. Dinner is a burger and fries from the Dairy King and then we're off, walking along the lake. We make it all of two miles before throwing our bedrolls down among some blowdowns next to a stream. The sky is clear and we get to cowboy camp! For the first time in longer than I can remember.
Photos on instagram
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