Away

I went back to work about about mid may. I went from 0-180 overnight. Meaning I went from not working to working 12 hour days every day. And this will continue for months.

This my friends is absolutely not a complaint. Not one single bit. I am SOOOOO happy to be working FINALLY. That being said, my body, after 8 months, wasn’t quite ready. It’s getting there. And I’m training it well. But it needs breaks more than it used to.

I had scheduled an entire week off (Frontier Days is normally a week I spend with my brother in the glacier rivers of Alaska) but ended up with just a long weekend.

It was exactly what I needed. Just a little break. Not in a camper. But…. away.

I rented a cabin in the Snowies. 10 miles from Centennial and 5 miles from the Medicine Bow Summit.

We started the weekend by driving to Saratoga, where we could spend the morning in the mineral springs, hot pools and the river. We were early enough to find a spot in the river where the warm water flows, and I parked my tush there for a couple hours, letting the water heal me as best it could. It felt wonderful on my knee. But as expected, tourists came. LOTS of them. Mostly from Colorado (Sorry Colorado friends, we love you… but there are too many of you in this area right now) Saratoga is normally a very quiet town with NO people, so this was hard for me.  We ate at the new restaurant (Saratoga friends this used to be the Hamburger House) that is now very modern and very delicious.

We stayed a a cabin about 10 miles from Centennial and 5 miles from Medicine Bow Peak. It was perfect. It was adorned with buffalo plaid blankets and log furniture and down blankets.  There were only a couple others staying there and we never saw one another. The river ran through the whole property… full of brook trout and lined with wild flowers. Of course those flowers were picked and put on the table.

We spent the afternoon and most of the evening watching the moose next to our cabin. Talking to her. She even nodded her head at me when we left for coffee.

We liked the trail off the Sugarloaf campground starting at Lewis lake the next morning. I made it 3 miles and the evening we hiked around Mirror Lake and I made it another 3 miles. With all the exploring I did in the morning I put on about 7 miles for the day. Which to me.. is an incredible feat. There were rocks and streams and steep hills that I needed help with. I went very very slow. To some at a distance it might look like I’m ridiculously prissy getting over water and mud and boulders…. but in reality it’s just really hard to maneuver still.

The new trails were amazing. I learned about pikas and watermelon snow. The lakes were so clear that you could see the bottom. The trail was full of happy people and beautiful dogs. The outdoors is something that people are flocking to right now… because you are able to feel a little safer out there in the wild.

I was able to rest. I was able to put the phone down, no wifi. I was able to sleep a little and breath a little and there is nothing better than the smell of a river on a crisp summer morning.

Thank you Snowy Mountain Lodge for the awesome accommodations. It was just what we needed!