Last Chance

So the joke starts...A guy walks into a bar and says that he just saw 3 dogs driving an SUV..., well I am that guy, not in a bar, but on Main Street in Frisco and this really wasn't a joke.  These 4 dogs were in this vehicle and every time we came out of the laundromat they were in different positions.  This time it looked like they were tired of waiting for their daddy and were taking off without him.

"Where's the poker game?"

Today was a day of last chances before we pull up stakes and head to Denver on Wednesday.  I saw a commercial on the local TV channel for "The lost Cajun."  It is not a person, but a restaurant in Frisco and something on the menu with the name gumbo or etouffee sounded good for lunch.  We split an order of red beans and rice, along with crayfish etouffee...both really good, followed by a beignet chaser.  We had it all but the Mardi Gras beads.

We let our cajun food babies rest while we drove towards Boreas Pass to see more fall colors.  Last year we drove the road to the pass and saw incredible aspen at their peak.  This time it was a bit past their prime, but there were some exceptions.

At this vantage point above Breckenridge we looked over at the ski resort and the area we hiked to yesterday, which was freshly dusted with a couple of inches of snow.

The hike yesterday took us to the valley to the left of the ski runs.

The alpine lake we hiked to is just below center and to the right, behind
the foreground ridge.

With our tummies full and our eyes full, it was time to go to the dogs!  We went for a short hike above Dillon Lake.  The dogs had their bellies full and now their eyes were full too.

The campground is just right of center.

With rain moving in for tomorrow, it was our last chance to do a little me time.  Miki spent some time sketching and I did something fishy (ha!).  I caught two little rainbows which kept me there until dusk.  I could barely make out my fly (not my zipper) floating in the sky's reflection on the water when I heard some noises in the nearby woods.  Since I was surrounded by coyote tracks, the noise was enough to send me packing.  

Finally, our last chance for a fire.  Miki likes her campfires and a few days earlier, another site was vacated and they left their unused firewood.  I am not above recycling what others discarded, so pilfering I went.  So now the question was what kind of fire would the weather permit.

Faux fire?

Real fire?

REAL FIRE!

Last chance?  Not really, cause we will be back, probably in this same campsite.  Hopefully the lake will be a little higher, the leaves will be spec-tac-u-lar again, and I'll fish Crystal Lake with a whole fly rod.  If for some reason we don't return, as Miki would say, everything was perfect this time.



My Zen from the Road:  Nothing takes the place of the real thing.  A campfire, fishing an alpine lake with half a fly rod, or seeing three dogs ready to drive away...they were all real to me.