This is about how I ended up in Colorado the first time.
Somewhere around 1989, my father moved to Colorado. Actually, he went to Crested Butte for an AL-ANON meeting and just didn’t come back. He ran into an old friend and former co-worker at the meeting. My dad had loaned him money a good many years prior and never paid it back, so this friend offered to let Dad stay in his mountain cabin in Creede as long as he needed. After a few months my dad found work down in the near-ish valley, but Creede was now a part of our world, and for that I am truly thankful.
I came to visit in spring of 1992. Dad took me all over to see his favorite places, and introduced me to everyone he knew. There were a couple of friends in particular that Dad knew I’d like because they had horses. These guys made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I only went home to get my horse! … And I didn’t even have a car at the time.
My father, Dear Old Dad, (DOD) said I “never missed an opportunity”, and these guys he introduced me to offered me a chance to ride horses in the mountains all summer! They had a chuckwagon and a contract to take it on a cattle drive, but needed someone to care for the horses and take people on trail rides while they were gone.
I met a few folks who became fast friends and are still so today! I worked with the greener horses, took people on rides and pretty much just rode all day. I had 3 sections of land to freely ride in so I had about 350,000 acres to explore. It was heaven.
Then something happened with the chuckwagon gig and lawsuits for breach of contract were filed and I suddenly had nowhere to live.
This (pic with arrow) radio tower was not there when I was, but it now sits just above the place with the camper in this story. I took this picture from the summit area of La Veta pass, elevation 9,413. I was at about 10,500. Other pics of area.
Remember I had no car! Just me and my horse. One of my new friends had a camper set up on her 40-acre plot within these sections of land, and I had been working with her horse some. She offered to let me and my horse stay up there for a while, and of course, I readily agreed.
This camper sat at bout 10,500 feet, almost overlooking La Veta Pass. Without a car, I was a 4 hour horseback ride to the nearest phone! I loved it. I had my horse, her horse and her 2 pack burrows. I built an outdoor shower for myself, and a small corral for the burrows who tended to wander too far. The horses stayed near enough to come when called.
My friends and my dad came up to check on me and bring me a few items of food when they had the time. It still took at least an hour to get up to where I was if you started at the gate. Dad was about an hour just to get to the gate.
One of my favorite memories was the morning I awoke to dense fog with all these dark shadows moving through. The horses were on high alert and occasionally snorting but it was just a really large herd of elk. I had seen this herd several times and knew it just from the size, at last 75 animals. The horses and I watched quietly as the mix of white fog and dark shadows passed through about 100 yards away. It was mesmerizing!
