A few weeks back I finally got together a camping trip to go up to the infamous Vail spot. I say infamous because it is the same campsite I attempted to lead 14 other people to at the start of the summer only to have the road closed... Whoops....
Anyway after a flurry of cancellations and people wondering how I could have enough free time to go camping in late July with school just on the horizon a hearty group of four made their way up to Piney River.
Since I was driving in my dad's borrowed Chevy Trailblazer, I didn't feel I could partake in the wild rally racing style of Connor and Nathan in Connor's car, so Andrew and I took our time, several times falling far enough behind that the other car had to wait for us to catch up. This did lead to one amusing moment where they were waiting for us to catch up to them at a one car wide bridge and chose to sit on the middle of the bridge and pretend to be gawking at the scenery. The amusing thing was that they missed the burly mountain man in his F-250 pick-up truck who was waiting to cross the bridge from the other direction. A murderous stare later we were across the bridge.
It wasn't long before we had the campsite established and took a hike down to Piney Lake. The lake sits about 2 or 3 miles from the campsite. However as I learned in this situation if ever you are in doubt of the distance you must cover on foot, always say that your destination lies about a mile away. That's far enough to let people know they have some ground to cover, but close enough to avoid crushing their will to continue on. Strangely enough no one seems to mind if you say "It's about a mile from here" every 5 minutes or so. We eventually made our way to the lake.
Piney lake is a picturesque secret lying behind the ridges of the North side of I-70 at Vail. A rocky tower of a mountain provides the backdrop to the lake itself which has a small ranch that provides canoe rentals, lodging, and food, at one end, and forest at all the others. We decided that we would come back the next day and rent a canoe.
That night I realized how college has turned me into quite a desperate man when it comes to ways to make a quick buck or two. You see the four of us were sitting around the campfire, eating marshmallows, with Connor and Nathan for some odd reason finding it amusing to bite small chunks of marshmallow off and spit them across the fire. As the fun dwindled down, I began to collect the small morsels of marshmallow on a stick preparing to throw them away so as not to attract fierce marshmallow eating creatures during the night. After I had gathered them all up, a challenge was issued. Connor offered me $1 to eat everything on the stick, including the bits of dirt and pine needles stuck to the marshmallows, and quickly Nathan and Andrew jumped in on the action. However I would be allowed to roast the concoction in the fire first. Now $3 may not sound like much, and I'll admit that it isn't, but that's a gallon of gas, a Dairy Queen Blizzard, or a half dozen Krispy Kreams! So of course, I proceeded to roast the collection of objects on my skewer and eat them to the cheers of my friends. Aside from a few crunchy things I assume were small rocks the marshmallows tasted just fine. However it was a few moments later that I realized that pine needles are not intended for any sort of consumption. They are extremely difficult to swallow and nearly impossible to bite into pieces. After struggling with them for a few minutes, I was allowed to spit the remnants out! I'm now $3 the richer and so far other than the odd growths in my mouth seem to be none the worse!
The next day we made our way back to Piney Lake to rent a canoe. The four of us fit in a canoe built for two, but expanded to four by adding little wooden folding chairs and set out across the lake. I am amazed we did not tip over, we came very close several times. We made our way to the other side of the lake before beaching ourselves and swimming in the water which must've been at least 38 or 39 degrees. We then proceeded to take the canoe to the other side of the lake before crossing the rock boundary of the lake and the river. Apparently you aren't supposed to take the canoe out of the lake, but we figured that if they didn't want their canoe taken down the river they should have put signs at the mouth. Unfortunately we only made it about 200 feet or so before we hit a beaver dam and decided that our hour long rental was probably up... But not before we made one last run across the lake and threw the seaweed like plants growing in the shallow areas of the lake at each other until we were coated...
It was that night that one of the most incredible creations of sport took place. Stumbling upon two large dead trees that had fallen across each other so that one provided a pivot point for the other to swing around like a see-saw, we created a charming game known as DEATH LOG! DEATH LOG is played by having one person shake the log around as other attempt to cross it all the while everyone chants DEATH LOG DEATH LOG DEATH LOG!!! I am sure we caused many people to pack up and leave the canyon that night...
On the way out on our last day, Connor took us to a spot in Eagle where you can jump off of a 15 foot cliff into the Colorado river. After we had all jumped off a few times, I went for what was to be my fourth jump. However the cliff we were jumping off of slopes down at an incline and is covered with small pebbles and very dry soil. I slid as I approached the edge and tried to stop! My feet actually slid off the edge and I wound up in a sitting position with the point of the cliff a few inches from an area I would prefer not to ever come into contact with rocks. It spooked me so badly that it took about 20 minutes for the others to convince me I wasn't going to die if I jumped off again...
