May 5th, 2025
I usually reserve a site at St. Vrain State Park when I visit my son near Boulder. St. Vrain is outside of the town of Longmont, just north of Boulder. The park contains a number of small lakes and ponds clustered along the St.Vrain River which exits the front range of the Rocky Mountains. The head of the stream and it’s tributaries cascade down from Rocky Mountain National Park and the Indian Peaks Wilderness along the Continental Divide. The park is a popular spring destination for area fisherman.
My site in the park had full hookups, electricity being the most valuable to me. It allowed me to run the microwave and air conditioner if necessary. Temperatures in the spring however, are generally cool. My small television antenna picked up a number of “over the air” stations and the cell phone signal was excellent, making the use of Starlink unnecessary. The sites are mostly open and in the sun, with concrete camping pads and covered picnic tables. The only downside to the park, is it’s proximity to Interstate 25, which translates to a little bit of road noise during the day.
There are many choices in the area for dining and shopping, including an REI outdoors store and the Buff. The Buff is a local morning restaurant serving breakfast and lunch. It gets it’s name from the University of Colorado’s mascot, the Buffalo. Their omelets are excellent and I usually eat there at least one morning during my visit.
I had mail and packages forwarded to my son’s home prior to my visit. Receiving mail and shipments is one of the logistical things for which you constantly plan as you travel the west. I long since converted most of my correspondence to email so I did not have to pay much for forwarding. But, I still get one or two letters per month. I did however, have a new stand up paddle board (SUP) shipped. I decided that paddling may be a way to get access to some better fishing, as well as giving me a little upper body exercise to go along with hiking. I miss my prior years of canoeing. The SUP I purchased is inflatable, so I do not need a rack on the roof of the truck. I did however, need to reorganize the contents of my pickup to fit the folded board in the bed of the truck.
To make a little more room, I sacrificed my Osprey backpack. I resold it to the local REI. Doing so was a hard decision, as it means I can no longer backpack. However, at my age, being alone, it is probably not wise to be out tramping around in the wilderness with a pack on overnight trips. I have a Garmin GPS locator in case I got into some kind of trouble in the back country (bear?), but being alone would most likely mean the locater would help searchers found a body, as opposed to a breathing hiker. Also, leaving my camper unattended for several days of backpacking would give me an uneasy feeling. It is my home, and thus, everything I own is contained within it. Still, it was a hard thing to give up. Of all the things I have owned, giving up equipment that allows me to access the wilderness, seems to be the most difficult. Unfortunately, that is my reality now.
I will be at St. Vrain for 4 nights and then will move a little bit north towards Loveland for another week. I have an annual cardiologist appointment next week and after that I will idle a little while in order to wait for warmer nights up in the high mountains. There is still a lot of snow cover up there and nights still sometimes get below freezing.
Meanwhile, I visit with my son. He will soon go on a trip of his own to Europe. But, as I am staying in the central Colorado mountains this summer, I will have chances to see him again before too long.
From my campsite, I can look to the west and see Long’s Peak, still covered in snow. It’s base rises from Rocky Mountain National Park, a place that holds many good memories, going back to 1975, when I first visited on my honeymoon, a year after high school. Mostly they are good memories, but there are also some that are bittersweet. It still calls me.
“Memories are always special. Sometimes we laugh by remembering the days we cried. And we cry by remembering the days we laughed. That is life.“
Starting All Over 