mkitchen
Explorer
Finally Hitting the Road
After 30 years working with the local Sheriff's Department, I finally retired and was ready to take the trip to Alaska that I had always dreamed of. I retired in mid April and as the jokes always imply; I had a heart attack on Memorial Day. Not the way that I wanted to start my retirement or my summer. Regardless of that mis-adventure though I was determined to still do my trip to Alaska as planned for July and August. Mo and I had made plans to meet up with some friends in Kelowna British Columbia and from there we were going to head up to Alaska and see as much country as time allowed. The whole idea was to not have a strict schedule and be free to explore where ever we wanted as we traveled.
Like most of us who look forward to that paycheck, my earlier trips were pretty well scheduled so that we could fit in destinations with time available. Well, no longer having to do that, I wanted to travel without a schedule. I have a friend, Jeff, who was able to take off for a month one summer and he and his wife just traveled where they wanted, when they wanted and they had a great time. For years, I told my self that I wanted that same freedom. Well I finally got it. I had a great vehicle and the perfect trailer for that type of travel and I was going to head out, see the wild west in all it's glory. The dream of all overlanders and I finally get to do it. By the second night, I was complaining to Mo that I wanted to go home.
Our first night, due to a late start from Kingman was to camp in the San Francisco Peaks, just above Flagstaff. I found a fine spot with a wonderful view of the moon as it traveled across the sky.
Leaving there, we headed northeast towards the four corners. This is a section of Arizona that is superlative in it's vast, open views of the high desert. We traveled through Monument Valley and though still a bit warm, was a great tour.
From Monument Valley, we continued on and into Utah for a short period and them Dolores Colorado. We were still in some pretty warm country so we headed higher into the woods. We found a nice forest service campground and we had time to make camp and take a short hike along a creek before dark. These are the moments that I have dreamed of for years and I was doing them, so why the funk and depression. How can a fellow have a pity party when there is absolutely nothing to be pitied for?
Our camp that night
My goal was to head to Telluride the next day, find a camp site and travel some of the passes. Again due to poor planning on my part, I showed up in Telluride on the same weekend that they were having their summer music festival. Okay, let's look at this. I am in a really pissy mood, mad at the world and do not want to be around other people (Mo had her hands full) and I am armed. So going into Telluride was out and north bound we headed. Again, traveling on some of the most beautiful roads around, we headed up towards Marble. We found a tiny forest service camp ground on Erickson Creek and planted there for a night that grew to two as we were enjoying the area. We traveled over a pass to Crested Butte and spent a day just casually walking around the town, trying out some local brews and meeting some very friendly foiks. If you want to meet people, walk a couple of Welsh Corgi's. Unlike me, Corgi's like everybody. This level of cordiality rubs off even on me. Everyone in town from store clerks to tourists just seemed to be very happy to be there.
So two days camping at Erickson Creek and getting to visit Crested Butte did lift my spirits quite a bit and I started to think that the trip might work out yet. After all, I had two months set aside and lots of country to see. So let's see how it goes. Besides Mo was not hearing the idea of going home. So I will post up the next part of the trip soon.
Mikey
After 30 years working with the local Sheriff's Department, I finally retired and was ready to take the trip to Alaska that I had always dreamed of. I retired in mid April and as the jokes always imply; I had a heart attack on Memorial Day. Not the way that I wanted to start my retirement or my summer. Regardless of that mis-adventure though I was determined to still do my trip to Alaska as planned for July and August. Mo and I had made plans to meet up with some friends in Kelowna British Columbia and from there we were going to head up to Alaska and see as much country as time allowed. The whole idea was to not have a strict schedule and be free to explore where ever we wanted as we traveled.
Like most of us who look forward to that paycheck, my earlier trips were pretty well scheduled so that we could fit in destinations with time available. Well, no longer having to do that, I wanted to travel without a schedule. I have a friend, Jeff, who was able to take off for a month one summer and he and his wife just traveled where they wanted, when they wanted and they had a great time. For years, I told my self that I wanted that same freedom. Well I finally got it. I had a great vehicle and the perfect trailer for that type of travel and I was going to head out, see the wild west in all it's glory. The dream of all overlanders and I finally get to do it. By the second night, I was complaining to Mo that I wanted to go home.
Our first night, due to a late start from Kingman was to camp in the San Francisco Peaks, just above Flagstaff. I found a fine spot with a wonderful view of the moon as it traveled across the sky.
Leaving there, we headed northeast towards the four corners. This is a section of Arizona that is superlative in it's vast, open views of the high desert. We traveled through Monument Valley and though still a bit warm, was a great tour.
From Monument Valley, we continued on and into Utah for a short period and them Dolores Colorado. We were still in some pretty warm country so we headed higher into the woods. We found a nice forest service campground and we had time to make camp and take a short hike along a creek before dark. These are the moments that I have dreamed of for years and I was doing them, so why the funk and depression. How can a fellow have a pity party when there is absolutely nothing to be pitied for?
Our camp that night
My goal was to head to Telluride the next day, find a camp site and travel some of the passes. Again due to poor planning on my part, I showed up in Telluride on the same weekend that they were having their summer music festival. Okay, let's look at this. I am in a really pissy mood, mad at the world and do not want to be around other people (Mo had her hands full) and I am armed. So going into Telluride was out and north bound we headed. Again, traveling on some of the most beautiful roads around, we headed up towards Marble. We found a tiny forest service camp ground on Erickson Creek and planted there for a night that grew to two as we were enjoying the area. We traveled over a pass to Crested Butte and spent a day just casually walking around the town, trying out some local brews and meeting some very friendly foiks. If you want to meet people, walk a couple of Welsh Corgi's. Unlike me, Corgi's like everybody. This level of cordiality rubs off even on me. Everyone in town from store clerks to tourists just seemed to be very happy to be there.
So two days camping at Erickson Creek and getting to visit Crested Butte did lift my spirits quite a bit and I started to think that the trip might work out yet. After all, I had two months set aside and lots of country to see. So let's see how it goes. Besides Mo was not hearing the idea of going home. So I will post up the next part of the trip soon.
Mikey
Last edited:
