What did we do to pass time this summer as we wait for snow to return?
How about a Summer of Water?!?
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| "Woo! I approoooovve!" states wooing Rudy in West Tenmile Creek flowing through Copper Mountain Ski Resort. "I might not be a water loon, but I enjoy dipping my toes too!" adds happy Jack. |
With the passing of Zorro, we found ourselves lonely and missing the wonderful old man at home. So, to distract ourselves while waiting for snow to return, we decided to tour Colorado this summer and touch as many waters as we could. Rudy LOVES to wade deep into cold water during the summer and he has earned the summer nickname of River Rat Red for his passion for getting in water. Jack, while not as crazed as Rudy about water, also loves to dip his toes in cool, cool water in the summer. So, with a River Rat Red and Toe Dipping Jack, we decided to tour around Colorado and touch as many named entities of water as we could reach. We primarily visited other "ski towns" with a few cities added into the mix. We would get to a new town and then walk/hike to as many waters as we could reach. Some were quickly accessible flowing through parks while others required 1-2 hour hikes to visit and touch. Regardless of the effort needed for each water entity, Rudy loved to douse himself in each and Jack loved to cool his toes as well. What a fun way to make the long summer go by quickly :)
What did we end up accomplishing? Well, we touched 155, yes one hundred and fifty five, different named water entities. Wow! When we started the summer saying, "let's touch as much water as we can," Nancy & I assumed we'd touch maybe 40 or 50 entities. Quickly into the summer and we adjusted our expectation to 75. Quickly after that, we said, "Wow, we might hit 100!" Then, soon after that it was, "125 looks to be in reach!" Finally it was, "WOW, we are going to top 150!"
Here is the list of each water entity we immersed ourselves into grouped into 4 categories:
(1) Rivers: Animas River, Arkansas River, Blue River, Colorado River, East River, Elk River, Fraser River, Gunnison River, La Plata River, Los Pinos River, Mancos River, Piedra River, Rio Grande, Rio de Flag, San Juan River, San Miguel River, Slate River, Snake River, South Arkansas River, Swan River, Taylor River, Uncompahgre River, Yampa River.
(2) Bodies (lakes, reservoirs, ponds, pools): Casey's Pond, Columbine Lake, Dumont Lake, Fetcher Pond, Frances Short Pond, Georgetown Lake, Grand Lake, Green Mountain Reservoir, Huck Finn Pond, Lake Catamount, Lake Dillon, Lake Granby, Lake Grant, Lower Crystal Lake, Maggie Pond, Monarch Lake, Muddy Pass Lake, North Lions Pond, North Pond, Peanut Lake, Sawmill Reservoir, Seven Sacred Pools, Shadow Mountain Lake, South Lions Pond, Taylor Park Reservoir, Telemark Pond, Willow Creek Reservoir, Wolford Mountain Reservoir.
(3) Creeks: Agate Creek, Arapaho Creek, Beaver Creek, Big Creek, Boulder Creek, Bridal Veil Creek, Brush Creek, Buck Creek, Burgess Creek, Burro Creek, Butcher Creek, Clear Creek, Coal Creek, Cooper Creek, Cornet Creek, Cottonwood Creek, Crested Butte Pass Creek, Crystal Creek, Cub Creek, Cucumber Creek, Denny Creek, Elk Creek, Fish Creek, French Creek, Hamilton Creek, Hoop Creek, Illinois Creek, Indiana Creek, Jim Creek, Junction Creek, Lakewood Bear Creek, Leland Creek, Lightner Creek, Little Columbine Creek, Little Vasquez Creek, Lottis Creek, Mad Creek, Marshall Creek, Mary Jane Creek, McCabe Creek, McKinnis Creek, Middle Cottonwood Creek, Miner's Creek, Monte Cristo Creek, Muddy Creek, North Tenmile Creek, Oak Creek, Oh-be-joyful Creek, Priest Creek, Quayle Creek, Ranch Creek, Saint Louis Creek, Sawmill Creek, Second Creek, Soda Creek, Spring Creek, Spruce Creek, Steamboat Bear Creek, Straight Creek, Telluride Bear Creek, Tenmile Creek, Tonahutu Creek, Trout Creek, Turkey Creek, Vasquez Creek, Walton Creek, West Tenmile Creek, Wet Beaver Creek, Wildcat Creek, Willow Creek, Wolf Creek.
(4) The Rest (falls, forks, streams, ditches, washes, gulches, inlets): Barton Ditch, Bear Creek Falls, Berthoud Cascade Falls, Boreas Ditch, Boynton Wash, Bridal Veil Falls, Burgess Ditch, Cathedral Stream, Coors Falls, Cornet Falls, East Inlet to Grand Lake, Fish Creek Falls, HT Wash, Horse Gulch, Indiana Ditch, Lake Fork, Medicine Spring, Middle Fork Ranch Creek, Middle Fork South Platte River, North Fork Fish Creek, North Fork Ranch Creek, North Inlet to Grand Lake, Pagosa Spring, Roaring Fork Arapaho Creek, Sinclair Wash, Soldier Wash, South Fork Mad Creek, South Fork Pass Creek, South Fork Ranch Creek, South Fork Rio Grande, Templeton Wash, West Fork Clear Creek, Wildcat Ditch.
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| Jack, Rudy & I on a rock in glacial (i.e, cold :) Lower Crystal Lake. |
The most comical story from the summer was the visit to Grand Lake, the deepest naturally occurring lake in Colorado. Up to this point, our water events had primarily been rivers, creeks and other shallow flowing water entities. But, Grand Lake proved to be a grand event :) We started going into the lake until Jack & Rudy got about chest deep (I was in swimsuit ready to participate). Once that deep, Jack said, "Deep enough for me," which we totally expected. So, I handed Jack back to Nancy on the shoreline and Rudy & I turned to go deep! Before this, Rudy had only swum for very short distances (a couple feet) in deep rivers or creeks. But, as we reached "deeper than Rudy" water in Grand Lake, Rudy simply looked at me with a happy smile and we both started dog paddling deeper and deeper. What a swimming natural.
Shortly after Grand Lake, we were visiting North Fork Fish Creek and came upon a very deep water entry from a large rock. Before Grand Lake, Rudy would have cautiously descended from the rocks into the deep creek. After Grand Lake, Rudy simply looked at the deep water and proclaimed, "I can swin! Cowabunga! Cannonball Red!' Rudy then jumped and did a classic cannonball into the deep water. He almost pulled Jack & I off the rock with him (it was that far of a jump) - what a loon!
What was our favorited named water entity? Well, that had to be Oh-be-joyful Creek near Crested Butte. How can you say "oh be joyful" without cracking a smile on your face :)
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| Smiling Jack & Rudy in Oh-be-joyful Creek near Crested Butte. |
As for me, I loved all the waterfalls we encountered during the summer. As for Rudy, he LOVED standing in the waterfall spray. As for Jack, he loved dipping his toes at the edge of the falls and keeping us all safe from going in too deep!
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| Happy Rudy in the spray from Bridal Veil Falls near Telluride. |
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| Cool shot of Coors Falls near Berthoud Pass. Rudy taking in the cool spray and Jack starting to turnaround so we don't go too deep and get caught in the waterfall flow :) |
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| Beautiful shot of the impressive Bear Creek Falls near Telluride. |
We also tracked our water visits by the nearest locale for each entity. While the vast majority were in Colorado, we did take one trip into Arizona and touched water in the Sedona to Flagstaff corridor. I expected to touch 3 waters in Arizona: Rio de Flag, Oak Creek and Wet Beaver Creek. But, it turns out it was a very wet monsoon season in northern Arizona and, as a result, we found ourselves touching 12 water entities on this journey into Arizona! Wow! My favorite on this stretch were the Seven Sacred Pools near mystic Sedona. So fun to find the 7 pools filled in early October!
Back to the water locales. We had 143 water entities in Colorado and 12 in Arizona. Here's a cool histogram of the different locales we ventured to and the number of water entities touched at each:
- Steamboat Springs: 20.
- Winter Park: 18.
- Breckenridge: 17.
- Crested Butte/Gunnison: 14.
- Sedona/Flagstaff (Arizona): 12.
- Telluride: 9.
- Durango: 8.
- Dillon/Silverthorne/Keystone: 8.
- Berthoud Pass to Loveland Pass: 8.
- Grand Lake: 7.
- Buena Vista: 7.
- Pagosa Springs: 5.
- Granby: 5.
- Frisco/Copper: 4.
- Rabbit Ears Pass: 4.
- South Fork: 4.
- Hot Sulphur Springs/Kremmling: 3.
- Montrose: 1.
- Lakewood: 1.
A summer of water with our toes in 155 different named water entities. Jack & Rudy sure know how to make the most out of any & every endeavor!
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| "Give us a challenge and we'll exceed expectations!" declares proud Jack. "Woooo! I can top any & all expectations!' announces wooing River Rat Red. Nice shot of Lake Grant near Crested Butte behind us. |
That's a wrap. Our summer of water with 155 targets is in the books. Snow is starting to appear on the high mountain peaks in Colorado and we'll be skijoring again very, very soon! Stay tuned and....
Pray for Snow!
