A month in Denver, Colorado Springs and hiking between the two

On the 11th of May I flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado to visit Karla and Daniel. Karla had a week off from school and work so we went mountain biking and hiking. She also introduced me to the sport of rock climbing. We went out a few times and I learned a lot. It was fun. After a week with them, Karla drove me out into the Pike National Forest and dropped me off.

I hiked into the Lost Creek Wilderness and stayed for five days. On the second day it rained a lot, so I did not get any good views. On the third day it snowed. I barely got my tent up before the whole world turned white. That night, as I lay in my tent, I could hear the bears sniffing at my tent, trying to eat my food. Luckily, after only a few minutes I realized that the sound was just snow gathering on the roof of the tent, and sliding off. On the morning of the fourth day, the sky was clear and blue. It was amazing to wake up in the middle of the forest, far from anyone, and see everything covered in white. It was incredibly quiet.

I eventually made it up to Bailey, Colorado. A nice man from Montreal stopped to give me a ride to Denver. On the way he had to do some surveying and I got to help. He let me walk down the street with the little orange clicky wheel and count how many feet from one manhole cover to the next. Then he brought me to Susie's house in Denver.

I spent a few days in Denver meeting many of Susie's friends, visiting Red Rocks and relaxing. Then I went back down to Karla's for the Memorial Day Weekend. On Saturday, we went to John Martin Reservoir to do some jet skiing. I had never done that before and it was a lot of fun. I only fell off once and only cut my knee a little bit. We also did a bit more rock climbing that weekend. Also, my cousin Bailey came to town and we had a good afternoon visit.

Then I passed the next week alphabetizing Daniel's Science Fiction book collection, and reading some of them as well. At the end of the week, Karla and Daniel and I drove up to Fort Collins to get some of Karla's things. On Sunday, they drove me to a new section of the Lost Creek Wilderness, and dropped me off again. I hiked all day Sunday and Monday and ended up camping in a large valley at 11,000 feet. On Tuesday, I read a book all morning and then packed up for a day hike. I climbed a 12, 450 foot peak and then wandered around above tree line and climbed a few shorter mountains. I ended up at the head of the valley and had an amazing view. To the north, west and south were high mountains stretching off into the distance. More than 180 degrees of the sky were filled with impressive snow covered peaks. On my way back down the valley, I saw a bunch of deer.

Last Wednesday, I hiked out of the wilderness and a nice man named Tom drove me to my friend Wendy's house in Denver. The next day we went on a hike and then I went back to Susie's place. On Friday, Susie had a going away party and her car broke, so we could not leave. On Saturday we went downtown and watched the local Professional Hockey team, the Avalanche, win the championship. The game was interesting and it was fun to watch it with a rowdy crowd. Then the fun started.

Denver has a reputation for rioting after one of their sports teams wins a national championship. So, naturally, everyone went out into the street to look for the riot after the game ended. Susie, her boyfriend John and I walked until we saw a big gathering of people at an intersection. We could not see the center of the crowd, but could make out the tops of police in riot gear and on horseback. With that many police ready to squash a riot we knew it was only a matter of time until they felt the crowd of onlookers was a wild unruly mob and needed dispersing. Sure enough, the police let loose with some tear gas and we all ran away.

That proved so exciting to the people, that most quickly returned for the second round. The three of us found a nice place to stand, above the sidewalk, and waited for the police to feel threatened again. They decided to chase the people down the street away from us and shot their tear gas in that direction. Some of it wafted back towards us. It had a pleasant lemon-lime smell. We were not in the thick of it, but the discomfort in our throats and eyes eventually made us back off. We strolled off for some fresh air and did a little coughing and nose-running along the way.

It looked like the police did a pretty good job of saturating the area, so we moved down the main street in search of some more fun. We found one recently maced guy yelling at some more police. Then we saw a few people attack the unarmed newspaper machines. Moving on, we encountered five or six young people lighting a small fire with newspapers and then posing for a picture behind it before running off. By this time, it seemed that most people had gone home or found a bar.

We began looking for the bar with our friends, and encountered a TV news reporter. She stopped us for an interview. She asked me if I had expected to get tear gassed when I left the house that day. I told her 밳es, I had?and she seemed to like that. I explained what I knew of Denver's reputation to riot. She asked Susie what she thought of people punching motorists and breaking car windows, but we did not see any of that. John conducted his entire interview with a can of beer in his hand. I don't think any of us actually made it onto TV.

We finally found a bar to play pool in and stayed until about one a.m. When we headed for home the police were still out in force, but pretty relaxed. The street cleaners were already working hard and I don't think there was any sign of the fun the next morning.

On Sunday we went for a small hike up near Boulder and watched John play hockey. Yesterday, Susie and I finally got her car to the repair shop and then went up to Boulder to spend the afternoon with an old friend. Today the car is being worked on and hopefully we will be able to head out and start backpacking tomorrow.