Labor Day Weekend - 2010

I am one of the lucky ones who does not have to LABOR on labor day weekend! And because we close at noon on Fridays before holidays, it was a 3 1/2 day weekend for me!!

Glenn and I were off for our last camping trip of the season as soon as we could finish up the packing and merge onto the traffic filled highway!! The destination for the weekend was Marshall Pass - the same area where Glenn will be hunting!!

I had a spot all picked out from a previous trip over there but there was a huge mudhole in front of the road to get into it and somehow, the spot just didn't look as great as it did a few years ago - oh well - Glenn assured me we would find one on the other side of the pass and we did - probably the most beautiful spot we have ever camped in!! This was our view!

Did you notice that the aspens are still green??? Even though we've had some cold weather, the trees haven't started to change over in that area which I'm really excited about - if fall is running a little bit late there, then the trees should still be gold when we head to Lake City at the end of the month!!

We took a ride on the ATV that evening after roasting brats on the fire and it was darn cold that night - I even woke up cold and had to tell Glenn to scoot over next to me so I could have some of his body heat - BRRRR!!! The furnace felt good that morning!!

I dressed in layers that day - a tank top, a long sleeved t-shirt, a short sleeved t-shirt, a heavy pullover sweatshirt AND a hooded sweatshirt!! For the lower part, I had on kneesocks, long johns and fleece pants!! Glenn and I both looked like we were heading to Alaska!! But believe me, when you take off at 8:30am, it's DARN cold riding the ATV!! It was that morning that I remembered what I forgot (does that make sense?) - the suntan lotion!!

After 7 hours in the sun, my face was pretty crisp so the next day I was reduced to wearing a ballcap under my hood!! I despise wearing hats - don't get me wrong, I LOVE hats - I just can't wear them - they make my head itch!! But I just didn't have a choice so I put up with it!!

We were camped just about 3 miles from the actual Continental Divide!! And if you'll peak at the elevation on the sign, you'll know why it was so cold riding! And the majority of the time we were a LOT higher than that!!

I LOVE this spot on top -you can see for miles and miles - I could see a bunch of towers on one mountain and then finally realized I was looking at Monarch Pass - or should I say looking DOWN on Monarch - we were pretty high!!

We stopped and had our picnic high on this mountaintop and enjoyed the sunshine!!

One of my favorite spots to ride through were the aspen groves - acres and acres of aspens!! I love their white bark with the black spots and I'd give anything to come back to this spot in a couple of weeks when they will be gold!!

We spent 3 days riding around the mountain - I think we hit every trail there was to take!! Most of the trails were pretty decent but there a few times I chose to get off and walk!! Evenings were spent playing Scrabble and Upwords, eating, and listening to my IPOD while sitting around the campfire! Below is a picture of our campsite!

It was a glorious weekend with excellent weather and I was sorry to see it come to an end!! But I'll leave you with a little preview of what is to come VERY soon!! This little branch decided to turn early and in just a couple of weeks, every aspen around will be turning gold!!