March 9, 2022: The Never-Ending Winter blues (whites and browns)

This is the time of year when winter seems to never end…and doesn’t it seem as if climate change makes winter start later and last longer? The past few days have been cold, blustery, and full of flurries that only add up to a few inches of the white stuff. Everything is brown and white, even the sky has been dull. This weather makes me think about camping. Hiking! Backpacking! Sleeping high in the mountains, surrounded by aspens and water, blue skies and flowers!

Last fall, we lived in Pippin, our 14′ camper, for 3 months while we waited to close on 4Fords. Looking back, both Alan and I realize that we had a blast during that time. We are not the type to be full-time RVers, we like having roots too much, but, geez, the simplicity of camping is awesome. Over the years, we have called all three of our homes (Boulder, Bayfield, and now Dulce) “Basecamp“. Those homes have been our roots, yes, but they’ve also been where we hang out while planning the next adventure. Our homes are really just big storage units for our camping life. We have a whole shed full of tents, sleeping bags, cookstoves, backpacks, water filters, dehydrated food, and the dehydrator to make it. Camp chairs, bandanas, bear vaults, GPS, critter mesh bags…oh, the gear!

We never really wanted a camper, preferring tents, but decided that having hard sides would expand our camping season. Enter a 14′ GeoPro, fondly called “Pippin”.

The bed inside is only 6’x6′, not long enough for Alan, so we built a “bed-extender” and bought a fancy custom mattress. Hey, compared to 4Fords, Pippin has running water and a shower! (It has a toilet, too, but we don’t use it, liking an outdoor loo more).

Even with all the work we’re having to do around here, we’re already planning trips with Pippin, who is currently stored in Chama, for the spring (desert), summer (Point Sublime, Grand Canyon), and fall (anywhere with aspens: Crested Butte?). This time of year demands that we dream of color, cerulean blue, emerald green, the yellow of quaking leaves, the silver flip of a trout, the orange flash of a tanager.

This is what I think about during the dull days of late winter: the colors of camping.