“And the Colorado rocky mountain high, I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky, you can talk to God and listen to the casual reply….Rocky mountain high”-John Denver; “Rocky Mountain High”

Colorado, the home of the fictional town of South Park, and several real towns almost as strange as South Park. The home of John Denver, recreational marijuana, fifty-three fourteen thousand-foot peaks, and your three-time Super Bowl Champions; the Denver Broncos. It’s America’s most beautiful state (it’s literally where “America the Beautiful” was written) almost feels like a second home to me. My dad grew up in Fort Collins and Denver, and I have become quite familiar with the centennial state myself. Most importantly, the Centennial State became the location of one of my most cherished memories and over the next several weeks I will share my experiences along with other insights about outdoor activities in Colorado with y’all (as they say on the “front range”).

To make a long story short, I was a Boy Scout for most of childhood in the town of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania here in Happy Valley. At the end of my Scouting journey, my troop was sending a crew to Philmont Scout Ranch in Northern New Mexico. After months of preparation and training, Philmont burned down do to a wildfire and our trip was cancelled five weeks before we planned on heading out. With flights booked to Denver, some quick and clever planning allowed us to reroute our trip to the White River National Forest near Aspen, Colorado.

In mid-July we flew to Denver and spent a couple days in the Colorado Springs area getting adjusted to the higher altitude. We then headed deep into the heart of the Rockies and spent several days backpacking at altitudes often over 12,000 ft. We dealt with hail storms, altitude sickness, and food rationing. The views were spectacular, the people were friendly, and the memories will last a lifetime.

At the point in which I stopped writing for the fall semester we had finished completed the forth pass in the “Four Pass Loop” and began our descent back to the trailhead. We were camped surrounding Snowmass Lake, and because this was the middle of July, there was a fair number of people around.

Due to the fact that our food had to be stored in bear canisters, we had been living off half rations for the past several days, so our peanut butter bars and freeze-dried beef stroganoff did not quite constitute a thanksgiving dinner. After dinner that night, a few of us were playing cards next to the lake when a group of 50-year-old men came up to us. They were a group of childhood friends from Oregon who went on a big backpacking trip every year. Many of their sons were scouts and after talking to our leaders, were impressed with our ability to adjust to a new trip. They told us that they had too much extra food to carry out and gave us a bunch of it. It was a reminder that no matter where you go, even deep in the Colorado wilderness, you can always depend the kindness of people.