The Full Send Adventure Day 1 - Denver to Nucla
Day 1 of our trip began with Ty, Shane, and Trent meeting up in the front range to convoy on the highway to Montrose to begin the Rim Rocker Trail. Due to an unexpected change in the public school schedule to to COVID-19, my daughter ended up with some time off school this week and was able to join me on this trip. The four of us met up early in the morning and began our trip southwest on 285 towards Buena Vista. The highway miles passed quickly and we reached Buena Vista as the Deerhammer distillery was opening for lunch service (along with the permanent food truck on their patio) at 11. We enjoyed some food from the truck and bought a few bottles in preparation of the week to come.
After lunch we continued south on 285 to Poncha Springs, then west on 50 to Montrose. We stopped in Montrose for fuel, then headed west on route 90, the start of the Rim Rocker trail. This section of trail between Montrose and Nucla is a well graded road, generally covered in dirt or gravel. We covered ground very quickly and soon reached the boundary of the Uncompahgre National Forest. We followed Divide Road towards Columbine Pass, stopping in the forest before the pass to make camp for the night. We found a quiet spur off of Divide Road and set up camp for the first time.
For this trip I built out a sleeping platform with cargo storage underneath, and this was my first opportunity to sleep in my rig on the trail. With camp set up, we enjoyed a meal of rice and chicken tacos, then sat around the table enjoying some whiskey as the night grew dark. The clear skies provided impressive views of the celestial bodies, even allowing a faint view of the Milky Way. Having lived in or around very large cities for the last 25 years, it has been a long time since I've been able to see so many stars at night.
Tired from the early start and long day behind the wheel, we went to bed just before a light rain fell. Temperatures overnight were quite cool, but my Jeep proved to be a comfortably warm and dry place to spend the night.
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