I've finally found a truly inspiring campsite. It's actually not technically a campsite. It's across the road from a campgrounds. Once upon a time outside of Guilin China I went on a kayaking expedition which ended up quite the experience and my temporarily losing the kayak. Upon returning to the kayaking place the woman at the desk asked if I was French. To which I responded with a hearty no and that I was in fact America. She was surprised, Americans don't usually do that sort of thing apparently. Well, that's just how I roll.
Upon arriving at cold springs campground, my last stop before gunnison and tracking down this farm, I did a little wandering/firewood gathering. Everywhere else I had stayed was laden with signs (no firewood cutting/gather go to site 28 and pay $5). This is one of those “drop your money in the box on the honor system” deals. While there was a similar sign here it was only toward cutting, not gathering. And, hey we're in wide open Colorado anyway. If a man's gonna be free anywhere it's here. So I gathered myself a nice six hours worth, plus a handful of cutting of pine to keep any skeeters at bay. Then I decided the next order of business was to track down water as I was down to half a gallon. Walking over the highway up to a gate which had a sign that read only “please close gate” I stumbled upon a forty foot wide raging river. If there was any body of water that was safe to drink from of this was it, and boy was it tasty. Looking around there was a ready made campfire pit, a beautiful tree to pitch my temporary home under... why not. Back to the car, grabbed the main items and headed across the road again. Collect firewood, set up tent, one more trip back to get a second sleeping back (from experience I know it gets cold here at night, even during the summer) and then to build a bonfire and cook up some of those non-perishable goods for dinner.
In the morning I awoke to solitude and just just barely within reach of straight up wilderness. No showers of course, so my bath was a dip into the freeeeezing river. After six months of the overt rudeness of modern Chinese society this is heaven. Now to cook up some grits and have a little breakfast.
Upon arriving at cold springs campground, my last stop before gunnison and tracking down this farm, I did a little wandering/firewood gathering. Everywhere else I had stayed was laden with signs (no firewood cutting/gather go to site 28 and pay $5). This is one of those “drop your money in the box on the honor system” deals. While there was a similar sign here it was only toward cutting, not gathering. And, hey we're in wide open Colorado anyway. If a man's gonna be free anywhere it's here. So I gathered myself a nice six hours worth, plus a handful of cutting of pine to keep any skeeters at bay. Then I decided the next order of business was to track down water as I was down to half a gallon. Walking over the highway up to a gate which had a sign that read only “please close gate” I stumbled upon a forty foot wide raging river. If there was any body of water that was safe to drink from of this was it, and boy was it tasty. Looking around there was a ready made campfire pit, a beautiful tree to pitch my temporary home under... why not. Back to the car, grabbed the main items and headed across the road again. Collect firewood, set up tent, one more trip back to get a second sleeping back (from experience I know it gets cold here at night, even during the summer) and then to build a bonfire and cook up some of those non-perishable goods for dinner.
In the morning I awoke to solitude and just just barely within reach of straight up wilderness. No showers of course, so my bath was a dip into the freeeeezing river. After six months of the overt rudeness of modern Chinese society this is heaven. Now to cook up some grits and have a little breakfast.
How I'm livin'
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