Two weeks ago, I decided to visit Crested Butte. I've never been there. It's on my list of places in Colorado, I've never been, and wanted to go. So having now been there what did I learn? Crested Butte is awesome. It's such a cool little town that is an outdoorsmans paradise, away from major roadways and high traffic trails.
Crested Butte is the home of the bike. If I was to guess where bikes originally came from it would be there. Everyone in town was getting around on cruiser bikes, there was great roadbiking on the roads through the passes, and mountian bikes gallorre. I was amazed that you could actually get around on cruisers, from home to town and back. It made me jealous, here in the valley it's so hard to make that feasable with the hills and highways.
The second thing I noticed is that I came across a huge amount of International Scouts. If you don't know what a scout is, it's a 4 wheel drive truck that was introduced in the early 60s and produced the international Harvester corporation and manufactured them only until 1980. They are really cool looking precursors to the SUV, that featured a boxy look much like that of the early Bronco's and had removable hardtops. For a truck that had a relatively short span of production, that stoped being produced more than 35 years ago, and to see 5 or 6 of them in one place seems crazy to me. It's like if you owned a scout, it would automatically start driving and wouldnt stop until you got to Crested Butte. Perhaps if you wanted to move there, you would have to fill out a questionare with one quesion, do you own or have you ever owned an international scout. If you answer yes, boom, your automatically accepted.
One of the many Scouts I came accros in Crested Butte
Changing the subject slightly, and why I call it the misadventures on the road, I had to cut my visit short because weather. For someone (myself) who usually is over-prepared for any situation, I was completely unprepared for how cold it was going to be. It was the middle of August so I had a light sleeping bag. Biiiiiig mistake. I abandoned my tent, put on all the layers I had in my car and attempted unsuccessfully to sleep in my car. So 6 in the morning, after about an hour of total sleep, I sat in my camping chair, in my sleeping bag, chugging coffee to warm up waiting for the sun to hit my face. As I waddled over to my tent, I shook the ice off the rainfly and said not happening another night. No way. On the positive side, it was a beutiful camp spot, only about 10 minutes outside of town.
So, to wrap this up, lesson learned, be prepared, be more than prepared and you will be ready for anything. If you are like myself, and don't do well in extreme cold conditions, have lots of extra layers and always bring your warm sleeping bag. Also, go exploring in these last few weeks of summer, there is nothing better, you never know what you will come across. Enjoy the rest of the summer folks. - Barry