Grouse Hollow Journal for September 20, 2012 by Greg Koelker


Colorado 2012 continued:


On Friday morning August 24, El and I met Ben and Mark at the Route 6 Cafe in Avon, Colorado for breakfast.  El and I had said goodbye to our nice condo beforehand.  We all had hungry man breakfasts of coffee and eggs and taters and pancakes and bacon.  After we were stuffed, Mark showed us the nearby offices of his business, Zone Transportation; then he went to work.  El and I spent some time shopping with Ben, who was preparing to go into elk camp the next day; I got a one-day fishing license for $8 at Walmart, for the next day too.  We said our goodbyes at his condo and headed out.


That afternoon El and I drove up the mountains to the highest incorporated city in the United States: Leadville, Colorado.  On the way up the pass, we curled around the ghost town of Gilman, left behind in the 50's.  You can see 1950's cars and small homes left in decay and disrepair with ignored toys and rusting 50's appliances when the mine closed down.  You can only enter by permit, but we saw a photographic display at Leadville a few years ago.  After we found our hotel in Leadville, we drove around town a bit.  The old mining town is a tad run down in places, with small and rustic looking buildings and homes, but that adds to the authenticity I think.   The downtown is rustic old west for sure, with false fronts but with lots of antique shops and touristy restaurants as well as a saloon or two.  One can even go to college at Leadville. At the Colorado Mountain College, students can earn degrees in Outdoor Education and Outdoor Recreation Leadership among other things.  We have visited the National Mining Hall of Fame Museum in Leadville.  It is well worth the few bucks it cost to go through it.  There is so much history there that includes a lot of famous people.   After sight seeing, we stopped at the Safeway for supplies before checking into the Silver King Hotel that afternoon.  Mark and Whitney called on us shortly after we got settled in, and we followed their lead to the White Star campground near the Twin Lakes Reservoir 22 miles away.  The camp was to be the base for a mountain climbing, fundraising expedition the next morning.  We all helped put up a tarp and get the campground ready for all of the crew that would camp and then climb the next day.  Did you ever use folded up duct tape as tent rope?  It works!  The weather was cool and dry, but threatened a shower at times.  Our friend Danielle McNair showed up with her son, four and a half year-old Champ.  He loves Mark - Uncle Mark, that is.  Champ helped Mark make the fire for the evening.  He and I got along okay too.  (Good thing too, since I wasn't climbing, I was "volunteered" to spend the next day with Champ while the others were gone mountain climbing.)  Anyway, the pine tree lined campsite was surrounded by mountain peaks - the perfect setting for the start of an assault on a mountain peak.  That night, we sat around a pine campfire and relaxed, before El and I retreated to our hotel room.  (Keep in mind that my idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn without a lounge.)


That night, El wasn't feeling well and didn't sleep well and then woke up with a head ache.  I feared she had somehow contracted the Lyme's Disease I had just sort of gotten over.   She took a hot, hot shower, and some sinus pills and we headed out to the camp site.  It was cold.  The car thermometer said 36, and continually flashed ice warnings in the message center.  When we rolled in, there were quite a few more campers than when we left the night before, as well as a number of dogs.  After some coffee and organization, Mark took Ellen and the rest of the gang motored off to the jumping off spot on Mt. La Plata, the fifth highest mountain in Colorado at 14,336 feet.  El has been training all summer to get in shape for the climb.  Good luck, Darlin'.


After most of the crew had left, I settled in with a cup of coffee and a book and prepared to relax until Champ woke up.  That didn't take long.  He came out in his pajamas to answer the call of nature before all of the climbers were off.  Danielle had showed me his cooler full of food and his extra clothes and his books and his games and his fishing pole.  He is a wonderful little guy with a shock of wavy hair with an irresistible smile and eyes any girl would die for.  He has a ready smile and didn't seem shy at all to me, although I had heard that he could be.  I told him to get his sweats and boots back on and to bring his coat.  He came and sat with me for a bit.  Danielle had made him some oatmeal and he ate some of that.  He told me he wanted to build up the fire and have some more S'mores.  "Later," I said.  I read to him a while and we hiked around the camp ground.  We drove down to one of the landings on Twin Lakes Reservoir to check things out.  The water is very low, with a nearly 40-yard bath tub ring around it.  The lakes are usually only separated by two islands, but right now they are land locked apart.  I showed Champ how to skip flat rocks on the water, and he did okay, but lake rocks are rounded and don't make for very good skipping.  We walked along the lake, him asking questions about everything he saw or thought of and me answering the best I could - scary, huh?  The lake water was crystal clear and icy cold.  Champ found a piece of wood with a round hole through it that he surmised was part of a sunken pirate ship.  He said that grape shot had made that hole. (Grape shot?  What the heck are they reading or seeing in preschool?)  Before we were done, we - okay I - was dragging along pieces of the ship left behind by a battle or storm.  After putting the parts of the ship in the car, I showed him how to pick up real trash and we filled my jacket pockets with glass, fishline, bait containers, bottle caps, and bits of plastic.  Man, we both hate litter. 


Back at camp, after a snack, I said I needed a nap and that the most comfortable chair was in our Chevy Malibu rental car.  He agreed to let me relax a while - if he could be in the driver's seat.  He talked quietly and sang and played with the steering wheel while I tried to catch some much needed shut eye - remember I was recovering from Lyme's.  I did sleep too, a bit at least.  I think Champ did as well as he curled up against me for awhile and sat quietly.  I remember being awakened when I felt something on my face.  I was wearing my dark trooper style sun glasses and the something was Champ's finger pushing them slowly up my face.  He explained that he wanted to see if I was really sleeping.  It was time for lunch.  We had to borrow a lighter from a nearby camper, but Champ and I got a happy little fire going by rolling up some cardboard and piling kindling on it.  Champ gathered lots of pine cones and sticks, motivated by the prospect of S'mores for lunch.  He told me I was a much better fire maker than Uncle Mark, who built the fire the day before.  He did a great job of getting his marshmallows just right for smashing in between the graham crackers.   I burned a cheddarwurst, and we had a merry old time while I continued to answer questions about everything.  He called me "grandpa" a couple times as his Uncle Mark said he should.  By the end of the day, he was saying "Uffda" and "Boomshakalaka," two of my favorite expletives.  After lunch we drove back to the lake with fishing gear, and Champ practiced casting and reeling in a jig.  I advised and stay on alert for flying hooks.  We had his cooler with us, and we shared a sandwich and a juice drink on the beach.  Back at camp, we had a fruit snack and played a ladder toss game for a while.  He sat with me while I read some of the Lord of the Rings to him.  He was full of questions and wide-eyed about dragons and orcs and hobbits.  He wanted more S'mores, but I thought he had had enough sugar.  He tossed the ball for one of the dogs that was left behind for a bit.  We went for another walk (to find the runaway dog) and Champ rode his bike for awhile.  He was getting a bit cranky by mid afternoon, but I couldn't get him to just relax a bit with his head down.  Anyway, I do know that when the mountain climbers started pulling back into camp, I was at least as tired as the climbers were. 


Late in the afternoon, Nicole and Logan Timmerman showed up with supper: Moe's Famous Bar-B-Que.  Spicy pulled pork, pork and beans, cole slaw, and more - it don't git no better.  Nicole's little guy, Logan is the happiest little baby I think I have ever seen, giggling and smiling and laughing at any attention.  Nicole's husband, Matt was making the climb.  Matt and Nicole are good friends of Mark and Whitney's and Ben's and came to Cancun for Mark and Whitney's wedding in 2010.  A little while later, when Ellen and Mark rolled in, El was all smiles (and exhaustion) after making the summit.  She said it was really hard at first but Mark encouraged her and waited for her and helped her along.  They had some pictures of the Horses for Joy banner with all of them on the rocky summit.  It was really cold up there I guess.  El said the hike back down was harder than going up.  I am very proud of her, and all of the mountain climbers.  The climb and fundraiser were for a very good cause - helping people with disabilities using horse therapy. I am very proud of all of them, especially my girl and our kids.


Later, we feasted on Moe's sandwiches, beans, coleslaw, plus desserts brought by some of the campers, all washed down with some local brew or lemonade.  As the stars began to make an appearance, El and I said our goodbyes as we had to leave early in the morning to beat the traffic on I-70 in to Denver to catch our flight back to the Twin Cities - we were also both exhausted.  Mark, a professional driver who makes the trip to Denver Airport regularly, feared that all of the tourists that were in the mountains to see the US Cup Pro-Challenge Bike race all week would all be heading for the Denver airport too and there would be long delays.  The signs along the interstate stated as much.  It was hard to go as we won't see our kids until who knows when again. 


The next morning, the kitchen room at the hotel had a crew of very thin athlete types that turned out to be a college cross country team that was training at high altitude - nice bunch of kids.  Our trip to the airport was without incident.  We had to fill up before we returned our car.  Gas AT THE AIRPORT was $3.29 a gallon.  (It was $3.85 here the next day.)  I don't get that.


Until next time, get out -   Congratulations to our old friends and neighbors, Sandy and Wilbert Proksch.  They hit their 50th anniversary this last week.  We have known them since the late 1970's when we bought our Proksch Coulee home.  We deer hunted with them, employed their wonderful daughters as baby sitters, their son helped me find my first bow kill, and farms part of our place today, and they saved our bacon more than once when we had plugged chimneys or needed help that only a farm machine could complete.  Sandy even convinced me to go ahead with my knee replacement surgery a few years ago, by asking, "You are in pain now.  So what are you waiting for?"  I am so glad I did it.  Anyway, best of luck Sandy and Wilbert on the next 50.  Finally, our biggest news (of the decade maybe) is that my better-half retired this last week after 36 years in Chemistry and Automated Testing at Gundersen Lutheran.  She plans to spend more time with her horse and helping out at the Flying Horse and Horses for Joy, as well as more time in her garden, with her flowers, and clearing trails here on the farm, among other activities.  I know she plans to spend more time taking me fishing.  Anyway, Scout and I are very happy for her - and us - as she will be free when we are free to spend a little more time in the boat, ice shack, deer blind, Colorado and Canada and maybe Arizona - or for that matter who knows where, doing who knows what?  I am very happy for you, Darlin'.   Enjoy.