On the road again

Well, hello, Aristotle (if you have forgotten, Aristotle is the name of our camper)! So good to be back in your gracious confines. It’s been a long seven months without you. Did you miss us? Over the past seven months we were doing a little more luxurious traveling, staying in some nice hotels, and, frankly, I dearly missed my time on the road with Aristotle. I missed the daily hikes, the life in the backcountry, the surprises (some good, some really challenging) that come with life in a camper. We’re only a few days into a few weeks tramp and it feels so right and familiar. So… wondering what we are doing? This picture captures it all

The road to this lovely, secluded spot came with a bit of stress, nail biting bumps and a roller coaster ride in the back while Matt navigated huge potholes and I held cabinets in place. Think massive earthquake – don’t recommend riding the camper roller coaster. Alas, there’s the pot at the end of the rainbow, a dream campsite, in the sun, good weather, lots of nearby hiking, waterfalls, streams, and lakes. Just when all was going perfectly well, the stoic gods and Zeus decided to throw us a challenge – snow and cold weather (so need for lots of propane heat) combined with clouds (so no solar). Should I say that we thought one tank would be good enough for our entire trip? We might be going through one tank in a few days!

The snow didn’t stop us from enjoying a few hikes, so between hovering around the heating duct or snuggled under the thick covers we decided to venture out to the famous “Blue Lakes”. What did we see, learn? That during the seven months we completely forgot the lessons in preparedness! Oh – and we forgot that a bit of snow on the ground at the base of the hike might mean lots of snow on the hike.

From the idyllic beginning of a few waterfalls, wildlife (literally that fox trotted about 20 feet from us), stream crossings, to the challenge of steep hillside snow climbing (at times we would sink in to our knee caps or slip precariously down), and finally the reward of a beautiful lake. Sadly, we hadn’t planned well enough. After a few seemingly near-death experiences of slipping and beginning to fall off the mountain, we found nature-made walking sticks to help in the journey. Of course we also hadn’t planned on the amount of time it would take, so we were pushing the limits of sunlight. Admittedly, I got a bit stressed and tried to rush us along, much to Matt’s chagrin. Would like to do this hike again, but with proper gear – waterproof shoes, hiking sticks, crampons for the shoes (my running shoes proved useless for repelling water and getting a grip on the mountainside). The pictures belie the challenge as I was unwilling to pull out the phone to snap a shot while desperately trying to stay alive. Didn’t want to end up a selfie example or in the Darwin Award column.

Might have more posts later – as we will definitely have stories from a few more hikes, mountain biking rides, and adventures into town (thinking the clothing optional hot springs – and, no, I’m not snapping photos there either). And since we now have Starlink for internet service (FAST) we hopefully can post from just about anywhere.