Day 19 - Rest Day!

0 miles / Day 19 of 54 / Colona, CO

Today, thanks to Dan, we took our first rest day of the trip. Our goal is Pueblo, CO by July 4th and thanks to a few big days across the Utah desert it looks like we can afford to take a day off.

We were lucky to get to spend the day with our friend and fellow teacher Mari (shout out to Minnesota!) who has been using summer to trek across Colorado, see old friends, climb 14,000 mountain peaks and sleep on mountainsides. You're too real for these streets Mar Mar.

Lesson #49: Forget dinner and a movie, celebrate important events by spending time outside together.

Dan's good friends Rob and Ginger were celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary by spending the day on the Crystal River kayaking and rafting. Lucky us, thanks to Dan, Rob and Ginger we got to join the party.

Jack and Mari blowing up the "Pumpkin".

The Crystal River isn't a commercialized river and our route took us through class 3 whitewater in Bogan Canyon. It's 8,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains and filled with ice cold water from the continuous snow melt off of the mountain peaks.

As we were pumping up the raft and getting the gear ready the monsoon hit. It was about 15 minutes of a high altitude downpour with thick drops followed  by about 10 minutes of pea sized hail. We put on a few extra layers to adjust to the lowered temperature and we were ready to launch.

Dan and Rob have been kayaking together for over 15 years and led the scouting effort down the river yelling and using hand signals to communicate with Ginger about obstacles to avoid and best currents / routes to take.

Our fearless leader Ginger.

Ginger was an excellent river raft guide. The water was low and the four of us in the raft had to do a lot of technical maneuvers to avoid the rocks and driftwood that filled the river. The river was absolutely gorgeous. Snow capped mountain peaks, pines as far as the eye could see, and crystal clear water kept distracting us as we were paddling through obstacles.

After about two hours in the raft we got off the river just in time to beat the second monsoon and hail. We finished off the rafting experience with a dip in the natural hot springs, 104 degrees of sulfur water to get nice and toasty.

Dan is a carpenter built a house on a plot he and his wife bought 16 years ago in the Uncompahtgre Valley. He gave us the history of the area as we drove through the continuous stretch of mountains and valleys. Various billionaires have swooped in over the past 10 to 15 years to stake their claim in this beautiful (and undeveloped) part of Colorado.

The ride to and from the Roaring Fork Valley to raft was about two and a half hours each way. On the ride Dan told us of his theory that the uber-rich come here to buy their mega ranches in an effort to validate their manhood and virility. The ego is a powerful thing. We drove past Ralph Lauren's 15,000 acre ranch. The next valley over was Friedken's (owner of Lexus) 10,000 acre ranch. Charlie Ergen (Owner of DirectTV) was most recent to put his flag in the ground.

Lesson #50: Sometimes what comes around doesn't go around.

Dan pointed out the former CFO of Enron's ranch. She apparently left the company right before the crash and avoided any legal charges and any loss of wealth.

Lesson #51: The best part of being a parent is getting to regress back to childhood.

On the ride home Dan told us about how much he enjoyed being a dad and watching his daughter grow up. It was priceless to see him talk about getting to be a kid through being a parent.

Thank you to Dan and his wife Sammie for the adventure, much needed showers, and chance to rest before our push to Pueblo.