Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Spectacular Lake San Cristobel (Lake City, Colorado)

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Highway 149 (the Silver Thread Byway) is a road I’ve been wanting to drive for a few years now, but it’s not on the way to anything so you really have to make it a destination.  To complicate matters, much of the route is without cellphone coverage, so I’d have plan to drive it on a weekend or vacation days.  So, that’s what I finally planned to do!

Millie and I left Montrose on Monday with a general idea of camping around the Lake City area so I could potentially do the Alpine Loop 4-wheel drive tour from there.  Lake City had a handful of commercial RV parks that looked fine, but very crowded. 

But there was a county campground on Lake San Cristobel that I’d read about online that I thought I’d check out first.  It was about 5 miles out of town and the last 2 miles or so, were down a narrow, hilly, dirt road—not the kind of road you want to drive when towing a car, but I had faith there’d be a turnaround spot at the campground, and there was Smile

Wupperman Campground was nothing fancy—no hookups, and no flush toilets or showers.  But it did have outhouses, broken down picnic tables, and lumpy unlevel sites.  Why would someone spend $15/night to camp here?  Because you can camp right on the lake and wake up to a camping loop all to yourself!

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The water was still as glass, so it didn’t take me long to pull out the Sea Eagle and get it inflated for a morning paddle around the lake!
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Half of the campsites were right on the lake (where I stayed), and the other half were high up on a bluff overlooking the lake (those little white dots on the left side of the picture are campers!)

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Here’s a shot of my new Sea Eagle FastTrack 385 kayak.  It comes with 2 seats and 2 paddles, but obviously Millie prefers to just lay down in the boat and have me paddle her around!  This is, however, the first boat she’s ever felt comfortable enough to stay in for any length of time.  She never used to like my canoes (too tippy) or my previous Sea Eagle 330 kayak (floor too flexible).  But she loves the firm floor and super stability of the FastTrack!

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I like that it weighs just 35 lbs and fits in the back of the Tracker!

After our boat ride, Millie was rarin’ to go for a swim.  She even found me a stick!
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So, for a rundown campground with no modern conveniences, this was quite an awesome place to stay!

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