June 16, 2014

I have to preface that building the bed in the back of our van was the BEST idea of 2014. It has become a vital tool for us to harness our ‘Jake and Jill spirit for adventure’ and has motivated us to start ticking off the local Colorado hot-spots that are NOT climbing related. After a few trips to Moab, UT, we really wanted to go someplace closer to home. This weekend, we went to Dillon, CO; It couldn’t have done a better job at satisfying our need for fun.

Because Dillon is a short 2-hour jaunt, we decided to head up on Saturday morning. We had rented/reserved a Catalina 22 to sail on Lake Dillon in the afternoon. We have always wanted to do this ever since we got into sailing, and figured why not NOW? The Catalina 22 is pretty much exactly like our Coronado 15, only a bit larger. We are always excited to get out and try sailing on different boats, because they are all so different (plus it will give us ideas on what we like and don’t like for when we get our own big boat).

We arrived bit early on Saturday and had a few hours to simply enjoy the Marina and surrounding beach and park. The day seemed perfect, sunny with a few clouds and mostly clear. It was much cooler up at 9500+ feet than down in Boulder, so it was a good thing we packed our warm gear. We took a stroll on the beach, took loads of pictures of sailboats, mountains, nature, etc., ate a light lunch and daydreamed about owning a bigger boat. The coolest thing was that this is the highest elevation lake that can be sailed…and we were about to conquer it!

The wind picked up as the morning rolled on, and we noticed a storm front moving in, bringing with it strong gusty winds. We were hoping that it would pass but it looked like it was only getting worse…oh well – that is typical for us. We headed to the Marina Office a bit early because we were super anxious to get out there! We had to take a short verbal quiz to make sure we really knew what the heck we are doing (umm yeah…remember last week’s post about capsizing the boat…yeah), but we passed no problem.

We walked down to the dock and a dock-hand took us to our boat, briefed us on how the engine works and a few other key rigging items. As soon as we hopped on board, the strong gusty winds really kicked up, so we both sported our super awesome foul-weather gear. We thought for a second that maybe we should wait until the storm passed, but then decided that we should just go for it (with some motivation from the dock-hand). So we kicked on the motor and I got us moving. I have to mention that we have NEVER, in the history of our sailing/boating experience, had a chance to use a motor to/from dock…even during our ASA classes. The weather was always so bad that it was never “safe” for us newbies. So this was my very first time motoring all by my lonesies out of the narrow marina slip into the mouth of the lake. Despite one very close call with a parked boat, I got us out without any hiccups. (WHEW!)

Soon enough we were motoring into the bay’s mouth. Jilly took the helm while I prepped the main sail. We turned into wind, hoisted the main, and shut down the motor…IT WAS OFFICIALLY ON!

For the next couple of hours, we battled strong, 20-30 knot winds that CONSTANTLY shifted around us; sometimes 180 degrees in seconds. We played it very conservative with sail trim because we were still a little shaky from the recent capsize, and this boat was completely foreign to us; so our reaction time was not as fast as in our own boat. Plus it was WAY COLDER up in the mountains and we didn’t want to have any contact with the chilly water!

We were pretty much on edge and nervous for the majority of the sail. Because the rigging on this boat was kind of a mess, it made it difficult to helm and adjust the trim on sails; so we took turns doing both jobs together. The uneasy weather also made it more difficult to control the boat. One thing we really LOVED about this boat was the roller furling on the headsail (the front sail). We could easily furl in sail when winds kicked up too strong, or let it out when the winds died out completely in just seconds…very different from our sailboat rig (and could have possibly saved us from capsizing in the first place, but I digress.)

After about an hour, we attempted to go further out into the bay towards the town of Frisco, CO. We had some difficulty because the winds were not very cooperative, though we were slowly making headway. Then the wind completely died. For about 20 minutes we had nothing; and so did the other 40+ sailboats out on the water. It was so funny to see everyone bobbing up and down in one spot…especially when just a few seconds before everyone was flying!

We noticed a second, more gruesome storm-front heading towards us, and decided that we were not in the mood to sail through it. So we headed in a bit early because we were tired of being scared and cold…and we wanted to end the sail on a high note. We headed back to the Marina on a broad reach, which is a VERY comfortable point of sail in high winds. We got the engine started, lowered the main and headed in to our parking spot, as if we were seasoned pros!

 
After sailing we were ready to head to camp and relax. We camped right around the corner from the Marina at a campground called “Heaton Bay”. It was mostly RV’ers but with our van, we fit right in. It was GORGEOUS! Tons of beautiful views of mountains and trees and nature nature everywhere! We loved it.

Once settled, we decided we were going to visit Frisco (10 min from our camp) and check out the huge BBQ competition that was being held there. We figured we could try some award winning ribs, pulled pork, fat back…haha I know this totally goes against the Vegan diet, but as they say…WHEN IN ROME!

We got there, but decided not to eat anything (oddly enough). It was pretty packed with people, live music, and “wild west” entertainment (a pig race!). Honestly we were tired, sore and generally feeling beat up, plus we didn’t want to deal with the crowds, so we left after about 20 minutes of walking around.

Back at camp we setup our cook tent, hiked around and took lots of pics. We found a small pond with a HUGE beaver dam. We also spotted a small outdoor church…yes a CHURCH. It had pews and a lectern; but sitting out in the open – in nature. That is OUR KIND OF CHURCH!

Yet another storm was brewing, so we ate our food and decided to crawl into our cozy van bed early to watch a few episodes of Futurama. We both fell asleep around 8:15PM (the sun was still out!). I guess we were wiped out. Though Jill woke up in the middle of the night because she was freezing and had to pee. It was below freezing by then, but our 2-person sleeping bag did its job very well…we were pretty much as comfortable as could be expected.

We slept for about 12 hours…not waking until after 8am (other than for a few pee breaks). Breakfast consisted of “Jake’s famous homemade ‘Just Add Water’ Pancakes”, It was the first time I had tried to make something like this, and they were pretty good…not great, but not bad.

After taking our time with breakfast and cleaning up camp, we had one last adventure to tick off our list for our visit to Dillon, CO. Outlet Mall Shopping!!! We spent a few hours shopping and buying lots of fun new (and discounted) clothes, mostly outdoor gear (as would be expected), although I actually found some new casual-everyday apparel. A few highlights included “Columbia” “J Crew” & “Pearl Izumi”.

 
It was really nice to have a casual day without any big plans. We did have to head back to Boulder, which took an extra hour with weekend traffic…and we were pretty much starving marvins the whole way home. Thank goodness for Jilly’s homemade granola bars (totally raw and vegan)…they were a savior for sure – plus they are delicious. I think she will have a very formidable career in second life as a vegan chef. When we got home, she even whipped up a homemade BBQ tofu, mango, spinach, caramelized onion pizza for dinner – not too shabby!