I left Girl Scout camp, and didn’t really have a place to go. I decided to head to where my Sunday reservation was, West Chicago Creek Campground, near Mt. Evans and Idaho Spring. It’s a Forest Service Campground in the Arapaho National Forest.

I am having some serious hurdles finding information on some of these campgrounds. I think they should perhaps come with a level of expertise rating system. Frankly I had no business being up there, reservation or not.

Three miles down a dirt road, I came to 2 hairy S-curves. My stomach was bottoming out. I (my truck and trailer) passed another truck on this narrow section (the truck wouldn’t back up). Of course there was a drop off on the edge of the road.

I got up to the campground.

There was an open space.

I tried to back into it.

It’s slow going as a singleton backing up a trailer as a newbie. Most people are so willing to help, and as I have mentioned previously, and so a “helper” came along.

Right off the bat, he told me the wrong thing, the wrong way to turn the wheel. So he said he’d just be my eyes, and I thought that would be that. Meanwhile halfway through maneuvering, his buddies were trying to get him to stop and go on a hike, so he left.

And so it happened. Upon trying to straighten out, I hit a rock. A boulder.

The back wall of my trailer separated about 3 inches from the frame.

There, I said it. I’m sick about it. (So sick about it that I can’t even tell my parents yet – hi mom and dad).

Along came Joe.

Joe’s the camp host up there. He’s greater than sliced bread. With Joe’s help, and my site neighbor Mike and family, they finagled the trailer out of the spot it was in. Joe’s wife Vicki had me come and hang out at their site while the maneuvering was taking place.

It took an hour.

My goodness, I am so thankful that they could get me out of the pickle I was in.

Really after all of that I wanted to go straight to sleep, but Dana, Mike’s daughter invited me over for dinner.

It was a three generation gathering, Mike and his wife Carol, Dana their daughter with husband Brian and their daughters Taylor and R… R – what is that child’s name?

It was salve to this girls broken soul… and broken trailer.

Lovely conversation, entertainment from the girls, Mike’s stories! And s’mores. I was there for two hours sitting by their welcomed campfire. What a joy. And in the end I got a few tips, and came to the conclusion that this is why God made insurance.

So, the spot I was in wasn’t even the spot I had made my reservation. Which meant that I had to move the damn trailer. One of the ways that Joe and Mike maneuvered the trailer into the initial spot was to unhook my truck and use Joe’s. (Apparently my truck was too big). So the next day, Joe graciously moved my trailer to my regular spot with his truck again. Luckily I spent 4 nights there, I could stay put for a longer amount of time.

The gang was invited over to Joe and Vicki’s site for an evening campfire, such a great way to spend time with wonderful folks. Joe was 4 weeks into his retirement, and camp host suited him so well.

West Chicago Creek, despite it’s hairpin turns and boulders near parking spots, was gorgeous. I made work in the shadow of Grey Wolf Mountain, and Kioko and I took walks to the creek, and a mile up into the wilderness.

We enjoyed warm days and cool nights, while nestled in the lodge pole pines. Delightful.

I am on the fence about going back. I made it down the mountain just fine, but it’s this one turn at the end of the campground that has me worried for next time. I’ll have to figure out a way to meet up with Joe and Vicki again.

…Oh… what about the trailer you say?

Yeah, so I already had an appointment at Lazy Days already on the books, why don’t we just add that to my tab?

I coordinated with Geico and the collision shop to have it looked at while it was there for other fixes. They’ll order parts, I’ll coordinate for another time to drop it off and hopefully that will be that. I am back at camp now, another weekend camp, having dropped the trailer off for the fixes, dropped the cat and dog off at their own camp (kennel), it worked out fairly well.

We’ll see what happens the next round.