Once the Rocky Mountains touches your heart, you're never the same again. John Denver or no John Denver. That's the thing about living in the mountains. A couple of my friends who came back to Nederland for the Reunion (the Reunion is for people who used to live in the area in the 1970s and 1980s) are seriously considering moving back. One lives in Texas and the other is from Florida. Here is a photo of the sky at 9,000' elevation. Can't you smell the pine?
Lady Jake and Red Ted are resting on a log after hiking the Hessie Trail near Lake Eldora. Both used to work at Lake Eldora Ski Resort. Ted says once you work at a ski resort, you can ski free at any other ski resort in Colorado, which is a great perk no matter what kind of job you have there, I suppose. I am not a person who skis. In fact, my one time trying to ski made me so frustrated and irritated that I took off my skis, threw them down the hill and cried. The only other time I ever felt that way was when I tried to do my own taxes. We all have our limitations. I recognize mine.
Don't ask me what kind of waspy critter this is because I do not know. But there were many of them. They left us alone, and that made me very happy. It's very easy to make me happy. Just don't bite me. Don't whack me with a log. Don't push me down a mountain. And don't make me eat Cream of Wheat. There, you have it. Oh, wait, and don't tell me the seller credits to buyer on a HUD need to be removed because the bank won't authorize it when those seller credits are not a credit in a short sale.
If you look waaaaay off in the distance just to the right of the last V, you will see Devil's Thumb. It's just a tiny little thumb sticking up. Do you see it? This was shot coming down the road from the Lake Eldora Ski Resort. If you can believe it, for all the time I lived in Nederland in the 1970s, I never made it up that road. And why would I go? In the summertime, there was nobody at the resort. In the winter, I'd have to be a fool to risk my life like that. But they have installed guard rails now.
This is the Barker Reservoir at the edge of town. My friend and former roommate Donnie Pease took me here when I was fired from First American Title in 1976. I used to work in Boulder as a title searcher. He said there was only one thing to do when you're fired, and that one thing was to go fishing. We caught a whole bunch of brown trout in these waters, stuffed them with shrimp and threw a party, one of many in Nederland.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub, Nederland, Colorado
Comments (11)Subscribe to CommentsComment