Caving and Camping

Shoot; it’s practically impossible to write a post at this coffee shop! But I owe you one; I haven’t written anything since Memorial Day weekend. Dave and I are at Caffe Luna in Longmont. We’re cat-sitting for our friends Andy and Gretchen, who live in Longmont, so we needed to find a coffee shop that was open and had wifi. This one is perfect. Quiet, empty, a cool old house with books for sale everywhere! And there’s the problem. My eye is caught by The Complete Tutankhamun, which Mom would like, and then there’s Günter Grass’s The Flounder. I’ve never read Grass, and probably should. The ever-present Roots. Desmond Morris, whose famous book so thrilled me in the attic as a kid. Should I read James Michener? How about Nadine Gordimer? And those orange Penguin classics, so neat and simple.

Anyway. We just have a few minutes before the shop closes. There’s a big thunderstorm brewing outside and everything is blowing around. What I mean to tell you about is the weekend. Dave and I went on a grotto trip up to the White River Plateau. It was just lovely to be out in the mountains camping. It made the weekend feel nice and long. I was almost even energized for work on Monday morning!

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Well, the whole work week has already passed. It was another busy one, especially because it was bike to work week. Dave and I always participate in bike to work day on Wednesday, but every year I’ve planned to bike every day and I’ve never made it. This year I was determined to do it; plus, I figured it would add to my triathlon training. Monday we ate dinner at home (beef and broccoli, with broccoli from the garden) and I talked to N on the phone. Then we drove to Longmont to feed our friends’ cats, Merlin and Niko. Afterward we went to the Goat and listened to a couple of really good singers. Tuesday we had a meeting at church and then went to the gym. Then to feed the cats. Wednesday we watched the Bike Shorts movies at the Boulder Theater and then rode our bikes home at 10:00 p.m. It’s always fun to be out on bikes late at night, with the strange shadows shimmering around us and the breeze a little bit cooler. Thursday night was band and our crock pot dinner (chicken and vegetables), plus a trip to Longmont. Then on Friday we went to the park to celebrate our friend Greg’s newly-earned Ph.D. Congratulations, Greg! Emily put together a great party and all the babies (John, Henry, and Marin) were in top form. Then we watched Pulp Fiction, which we hadn’t seen in a long time. (“Whose motorcycle is this?” “It’s a chopper, baby.” “Whose chopper is this?” “It’s Zed’s.” “Who’s Zed?” “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.”) Remember, every day I was leaving the house between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. on my bike. Working all day. Riding home. (I rode more than 100 miles this week!) And arriving home from the kitties in time to see the very end of Conan O’Brian. No wonder we slept in this morning.

Anyway, again, I was trying to tell you about last weekend. I rode my bike to work on Friday and then rode over to Dave’s work to meet up with our carpool. It’s a fun ride from LRP to Eltron! About six miles, flat, and I get to cross the railroad tracks under a bridge, which feels like I’m in a totally different world. The only crummy part is the short ride along Diagonal Highway. Our friend Jen arrived shortly after I and then Pete, who was driving, came only ten minutes or so later. We hopped in Pete’s Pathfinder and headed for I-70. We stopped for dinner at a Good Times in a gas station and then stopped later for beer. We imagined how many beers each person would drink and then bought an extra little bit. Lots of PBR (it’s often that kind of crowd!) and some Sunshine Wheat and Tecate, all in cans. Cans are great for camping. When we got to

Room with a View on the White River Plateau, we found Stan, Bruce, and Mike around the fire. They brought wine, rum, and whisky. Bob, who is 74, was already asleep. We stayed up until 2:00 a.m. chatting and taste-testing. Dave and I slept great, snug in our EMS tent.

The next morning, most people were awake by about 9:00 and fed. Dave cooked our egg breakfast, as he usually does when we’re camping. We’ve been taking the Mukka car camping, so he had his mocha and I had a latte. Ooh la la! Jen and Pete did some morning morel hunting and came back with a whole clump of mushrooms.

We all eventually got up, got our caving stuff together, and climbed into two cars to head to the overlook. We hiked the trail to Groaning Cave and took a “before” photo of the eight of us. Dave was nominally the trip leader, but many of us had been in the cave before. I always feel better when several people know more or less where we’re going. We moved through the cave pretty well. I laid in the wet corrugated tube to open the lock, so I was wet and cold a lot of the time. Bob moves a little more slowly than those of us who are 30 or 40 years younger than he is, but nobody minded. It was a fun group. We stopped to eat and take photos several times. I was hoping we would make it to the Blue Lagoon, my favorite spot on earth. And we did! Bob was ready to turn back just as we got there.

So we took turns admiring the pool and taking pictures. Mike talked about his AT trip (he’s a distance hiker). I caved around a bit, trying to stay warm. When everyone had been down the hole, we turned back. Bob and Bruce headed out together when we got to the CSU room. The rest of us explored the CSU passage, farther than I’d been before. There are some gorgeous features back there!

Six hours of caving later, we popped back out the entrance and hiked uphill back to the car. Everybody ate dinner and we all hit the sack early. The pouring rain woke me up—a beautiful sound when you’re snug in a tent. One corner of our tent got wet, but we stayed dry ourselves. Our Marmot tent, which Jen was borrowing, stayed totally dry.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast, packed up, and looked for morels for a while. We got home around 1:30 p.m. on a beautiful day. I did some work in the garden and we went to feed the kitties. I talked to Mom and Dad (it was Father’s Day), and I called Elaina, who’s coming to visit in a couple of weeks. It was a very relaxing weekend! The weather was perfect and the caving was really fun. The company was great, too. Now that it’s weekend again, we’re sitting at Cannon Mine and catching up on our blogging. We’ll do some chores and possibly go golfing. My next post will be about the garden, which is just thriving after a whole spring of rain.

Other photos from the weekend: