Thunderbolts and Lightning
Thor and Zeus stood on top of opposing peaks and battled for meteorologic dominance. I cowered in the middle.
Last weekend, I had a fantastic opportunity to travel to Boulder Colorado to learn a bit about my profession. I extended the start of the trip and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park for three days and two nights of camping in the high country - backpack, tent, sleeping bag, bear-proof food storage container - the whole deal. After getting my back country permit from the Park rangers, I headed out. I spent the first day near Fern Lake and generally got acclimated (both body and spirit) to being in the Park.
On Day Two, I left Fern Lake early in the morning and hiked up to my 2nd campsite - "Sourdough", situated just below the tree line at 10,600 feet. Unlike Fern Lake with its three other campsites, Sourdough sits alone, nary another campsite within three miles. After getting my site set up, I spent the day skirting the tree line and exploring the area, located in a valley surrounded by 2000 foot granite cliffs. I had a great time, and then I heard a loud rumble. Looking to the west, I saw some ominous and dark clouds rapidly advancing on my position. A couple of rumbles later, I exercised the better part of valor and scooted to my site.
Shortly, the rumbles got louder and louder and were preceded by lighting strikes. Rain started. Before getting in the tent, I saw lightning, counted to "one Mississippi, two Missi-" and then heard the thunder. The lightning flashed, the thunder crashed and the rain come down in sheets as thick as lead. The high altitude removed all dampening of the noise of the thunder and the giant cliff walls turned the valley into an enormous echo chamber. As I huddled in my tent, I realized that Thor stood here
and Zeus stood here
and they were hurling thunderbolts at each other in an attempt to establish pantheonic superiority. I don't know who won, but I probably lost. I worried. Clearly, I made it, but as the wind howled, the rain poured and the lightning increased in frequency, I cowered in my tent and tried to answer the question "What is the worst that can happen". Too many things could have gone wrong and when I had one answer ("oh, flood"), I came up with another ("oh, forest fire").
I grew.
I spent Day Three reflecting on the previous night's excitement and decided if I have the opportunity to do it again, I would.
Posted at 11:34AM Sep 06, 2009 by schnee in General |
The other day, I met a bear
The other day
I met a bear
A great big bear
Oh way out there
I tried to remember those lyrics, wanting to contribute some song to the campfire sing-a-long to which my 15 girl scout hostesses invited the boys and I. They gave us s'mores and banana boats after-all and the only thing I brought was a hastily assembled bouquet of native grasses and a "goofy guests" verse to "He's got the whole world in His hands". Perhaps I should start at the beginning...
The boys and I camped at Inks Lake in Central Texas this past weekend. Kathleen made the arrangements and stayed behind with Anna as Ben, Jack and I loaded the Subaru and headed out for our Saturday night stay. Inks Lake is a rather nice state park about 90 minutes (or less!) from our house. Camping in Central Texas isn't the best (follow that link to see how I broke that promise), but we gotta do what we gotta do. Ironically, the boys and I got the campsite that the Choir was in (again, follow that link).
The site was about 30 metres from where the car could be parked. I had two boys, neither of which can be completely unsupervised. I had to set up the camp and be a dad at the same time. It was a bit difficult, but I managed. Once the tent was up and snacks served, I took the boys swimming at the lake. We met a very nice family ('hi Jose, Monika, Joseph and Jaden!') and played around for a couple of hours. Then it was time to head back to the camp, for cooking and eating.
That went pretty well. As we were setting up, the Girl Scout leader from the next camp over invited us for s'mores and banana boats later on. A very welcome invitation that was. The scouts totally owned me in the "campfire making" category - they had a roaring fire when all I had (initially) was a feeble matchstick. And, of course, Jack noticed ("Daddy, why is there fire so much bigger"). Eventually, we got our fire popping and all was well. Cooked hotdogs and had dinner, followed by a pre-s'more marshmallow or two. Then it was time to visit the Girl Scouts.
That was fun. We sat around and sang songs, roasted marshmallow and had a good time. Jack immediately joined in the sing-a-longs and Ben eventually caught on. We stayed for an hour and then went on a moonlight hike, which both boys enjoyed immensely (the super power flashlights probably had something to do with).
Sleep that night was a challenge for a bit - both boys kept screwing around it the tent until I had to put my foot down and separate them. Sleep eventually followed and was too-soon followed by morning.
We went on a long hike into the granite (documented by the craptacular cellphone camera, below) and loaded up into the car for the drive home. It was quite fun!
Posted at 02:46PM May 07, 2007 by schnee in Life |
