this outdoorsy thing i did!

Oh little blog, so much has happened & so little has been recorded of it.  Thus begins a series of blog posts chronicling events that happened between May and August, in no particular order, but which I want to remember enough to put them into words.

One of my “resolutions” this year was to go camping for the very first time – no, seriously, I have never gone. My family, despite that my mother and father took cross-country (even cross-Canada!) motorcycle camping trips before I was born (which is something I can picture my father doing but NEVER my mother???), the closest I’ve ever come to what you could consider camping is That One Time we stayed in a cabin when visiting family up in Canada (or was it Cheboygan? I was tiny!).

Luckily I have an extra outdoorsy boyfriend who promised to take me; and thus began a birthday road trip of epic proportions that changed about six thousand times between its inception and its actualization.  It’s been over a month since this trip occurred, and I have no idea how to be succinct when it comes to words, so the below archive of five days spent delighting in beer and mountains will probably be lengthy and scattered, but if you can bear with me, I promise there are a whole lot of pretty pictures.

Day 1 – Denver -> Durango -> Mesa Verde

I got up at the crack of dawn for a mostly uneventful flight (seriously people, Spirit is not the devil people make them out to be) to Denver, where Nate met me with hot coffee (this is how I know he truly likes & understands me) and then loaded me up in his car and we commenced the Longest Drive Ever.  The positive thing about driving in Colorado is: EVERYTHING IS LOVELY AND MOUNTAINS.  The other positive thing was bananas and almond butter.

A few hours in we happened upon the glorious act of serendipity that was the discovery that we were like six seconds away from Elevation Brewing Company – so of course we stopped for some libations to tide our weakening selves over until we hit Durango to hit up Ska Brewing Company, home of the Actual Worst Designed Logo, but what might be one of the coolest views I’ve ever had from a brewery patio.

From there we were back on the road to Mesa Verde National Park where we camped out & built an $18 fire, drank some incredible sour birthday beers and took a walk on which an outrageous amount of wildlife happened in ridiculously close proximity, and then curled up slept in the delightful outdoors (the verdict: I am pleased by camping).

Your intrepid road trippers.

No one with any history in graphic design made this.

My first lil' camp site :')

$18 fires & Russian River sours; this is how I want to always spend my birthday.

Day Two – Mesa Verde -> Ouray

We woke up early and I ate approximately 8 pounds of trail mix for breakfast while desperately creating camp coffee and trying to tame my greasy, unwashed camping hair (eventually a ponytail did the trick….sort of), and then drove ourselves further out into the park for a couple mile hike through some ruins to see some seriously cool petroglyphs. 10,000+ steps by 10:00 am, baby!  Also at some point during this hike I decided to try doing basket/bound headstands at a precarious cliff edge and succeeded for the first time ever without a wall to support myself, so you’re pretty badass, Colorado wilderness.

Midday we set out on some twisty turny windy rainy mountain roads (seriously the temperature drops between morning to afternoon to night in this state are outrageous) and made our way to this tiny little town nestled in the mountains called Ouray, where we found ourselves a camp site and then ventured down into the (rainy) civilization to go to a brewery that was literally called “Mr. Grumpy Pants” (aka the Ourayle House), as well as the actual Ouray Brewery, and then investigated the local hot springs (ALWAYS hot springs) before trekking back to camp where Nate made me some incredible burrito concoction and then we ate Bon Bon Bons, investigated a river, and drank a truly fantastic quad until I was too frozen to do anything but curl up and sleep until sunrise.

I also did a headstand here.

Petroglyphs!

Why are there all kinds of cars pulled over on this terrifying mountain road? Oh, because GIANT WATERFALL.

Day 3 – Ouray -> Glenwood Springs

Again, randomly, Colorado mornings continued to be absolutely sunny and beautiful, and after I repurposes leftover burrito insides into scrambled eggs we went on a morning hike around the area.  Ouray in the winter is home to a huge ice climbing park, so we were basically clambering all around a bunch of cliffs & rock formations lined with modified sprinkler systems & giant pipes to transport water that freezes everything over in the winter.  As the world’s most amateur ice climber ever I was transfixed with desire to come back and show everyone just how bad(ass) I am at scaling frozen over rock walls.  Someday, Ouray.  Someday.

After our morning excursion we popped into a super cute little coffee shop where I had a cappuccino with house-made brown sugar cinnamon sauce (MORE PLEASE) and a slice of almond-flour blueberry coffee cake (ALSO MORE) and then headed out to what was originally going to be Redstone, but ended up being Glenwood Springs because we couldn’t find a campsite.

The weather in Glenwood Springs took a crazy turn for the OUTRAGEOUS DOWNPOUR, but I was a thousand percent restless after being trapped in a car for so long and I whined about it for long enough that Nate indulged me in waiting it out so we could hike Hanging Lake Trail, which ended up being SO worth it.  The damp, slightly rainy weather actually made the hike really enjoyable – at some points it felt like we were actually traversing through a rainforest.  The whole hike out was uphill, but the view at the end was SO worth it.  Plus after a sweaty descent there were more (bigger than football field-sized) hot springs in our future, so life was delightful.  (We also stopped at the Glenwood Springs Brewery afterward, and a beer bar where I got tequila barrel aged IPA, which is probably the best possible way to follow up soaking in a giant oversized natural hot tub for an hour).

I’d promised to provide at least one gourmet camp dinner, so that night we ate fancy soba noodles by candlelight (and more bon bon bons and beers beers beers) and then passed the fuck out.

That sunrise, though...

Got that freezing cold camp cooking on lock.

Now picture climbing up this when it's covered in ice.

Hike a soggy mile and a half uphill for this? Yes.

....now come on, Colorado wilderness, just stop.

Hot springs for dayssssss...

The worse food photo I've ever taken.

Day 4 – Glenwood Springs -> Denver

Because he is the greatest human, Nate found – seriously – what was basically a Scottie Dog fucking convention and (after an incredible Cajun breakfast that included bison meatloaf) delivered me to basically an ARMY of adorable little black old men dogs for a late birthday present.  Possible greatest most ridiculous moment of my life (don’t ask me why but I’ve been obsessed with Scotties since I was tiny – I think it has to do with Walker’s Shortbread but don’t quote me on that).

Following the Actual Scottie Dog Celebration Picnic, we headed up into the city to go drink allllllllll the sour beers at Crooked Stave, followed by a mini city brewery tour that included the best Devils on Horseback I’ve ever eaten (made with peppadew peppers instead of dates!) and a Czech restaurant where I buried my face in svickova and Pilser Urquell.

LITTLE OLD MEN DOGS <3 <3 <3

This was someone literally ordering a flight of EVERYTHING.

I salivate just LOOKING at these. Can someone tell me where to find peppadew peppers in Michigan?

Be still, my little quasi-Czechoslovakian heart.

Day 5 – More Denver

Okay yeah, camping is over at this point, but a thousand other things are not so shut up and bear with me.

After fancy coffee and a walk through downtown, we went and had breakfast at Ophelia’s, which I had never heard of before, but which is this fantastic sprawling former-brothel decked out in fancy string lights, old vaguely sexually explicit posters and bathroom stalls made out of yardsticks, where I ate lingonberry duck meatballs over PARSNIP GRITS dear god I love parsnips.

Following this we urban hiked our way up to Epic, to Ratio (that strawberry berlinerweisse, though), Spangalang, and then a handful of bottle shops so I could load up my suitcase (this bitch came in at 49.1 lbs – the airline limit without extra fees is 50), and Sugar House Bakery because ARTISAN POP TARTS.

Oh my gosh the difference a shower makes.

The haul!

So, long story short: camping happened.  Glorious nature happened.  Beer happened.  Mountains happened.  I was distraught to return to extra flat Michigan, but my kitties were pleased to see me home.  Next adventure please!