UberEZ

Camping With Ghosts

My options for camping are becoming limited this year, simply because of other weekend conflicts, combined with not really owning good cold weather gear. Plus, I much prefer to camp in nice weather anyway! So with that in mind, I went for another quick overnight this weekend.

It was a bit random as far as how things turned out. After talking with a friend, I was planning on going to one location, but after arriving I quickly turned away. There was way to much going on with ATV’s, boats and the homes which people pull behind their cars! I headed back to my standby area and enjoyed the solitude of wilderness for miles!

Did I mention I had to share it with ghosts? Only about 50 yards from my campsite was a cross. This should have been my first clue! I’ve seen them out in the wilderness before so thought nothing of it. I got camp setup and began exploring around the area. I came upon a stump about 30 yards from my tent. It looked harmless! But after doing a double take something jumped out at me!

I built a fire that night and just hung out for a while having a couple of beers and thinking about nothing. Suddenly I started getting these weird fire displays! They looked like worms jumping out from the flames! They lasted for about a minute and then the fire resumed it’s normal burn. OK, time to go to bed!

I listened to the owls and the coyotes throughout the night and into the early morning hours. I made my pine needle tea and oatmeal over the morning fire! No ghosts came and stole me in the night!

Mount Princeton With Friends

A friend of mine was in town this past week with his son on a combined business/pleasure trip. The pleasure part included doing some Colorado white water rafting and mountain climbing.

I met them in Buena Vista, after they had done some river rafting, for a bite to eat. After that we were off to find a place to camp so that we could get up early and hike Mount Princeton.

It all looked good on paper! A bit of misleading information acquired earlier, combined with starting out a little later than planed had us 4-wheeling our way up to the trail head on some exposed rough terrain as the sun was going down behind the Rockies! Not feeling comfortable with the situation, we eventually decided to pull off at timberline and call it camp. My friends slept in a tent and I slept in the jeep. It can be a bit chilly at 12,000 feet!

We got up early the next morning and started our hike for Mount Princeton summit. After and initial start from one trail, we eventually aborted and started our climb from another trail head. My friends did a great job. We didn’t actually reach the summit, but that was not our goal anyway. We wanted to experience some high altitude Colorado hiking. The trip was great and I believe my friends son is ready to summit next time!

I Got KISSed Last Night

Thanks to my buddy Cory for inviting me to the KISS concert at the Boadmoor World Arena!

Wow! What a show. I never before saw this band live or purchased any of their albums back in the day, but it sure was an incredible concert. Their Hall Of Fame music was accompanied by some really cool laser affects, stage presentations and of course the famous KISS look!

They opened with ‘Detroit Rock City’ and closed with ‘Rock And Roll All Night’. And a lot of jamming songs in between. The original members, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, are in their mid 60’s now but still possess and give off a ton of energy.

I learned something that really struck me as ‘I Like These Guys’ at the show. KISS is a big supporter of our military and our veterans. They’ve partnered with Hiring Our Heroes to salute military heroes across our country. During the show, they donated $150,000 to a group that helps veterans! At one point during the concert the music stopped and the entire stadium stood up, placed their right hand over their heart and followed Paul Stanley as he took the lead in reciting the ‘Pledge Of Allegiance’.

Remember I mentioned that KISS closed with ‘Rock And Roll All Night’? The song was actually introduced with a version of ‘Star Spangled Banner’! I caught some of it on video here!