Life learning to be a Luna

3 Colorado’s First Night

When we land in Denver, Colorado we first look for some food being it’s little past noon. We look up some things close by that’s quick and easy, found a few options till something called fat shack stops Maggie.

Maggie: “ OK, who calls a restaurant fat shack ?? I don’t know if we should eat there.”

Cathy: “Wow but look at their menu it looks good. Id definitely eat this.”

Me: “You gotta remember this is way different than home, some stuff is legal here girls that is probably heaven to smokers.”

We all agreed to try it being it was our last fast food for almost a week. We put in an order and got the directions, but first we have to get a Uber. Once it was in hand we had to find the Rocky Mountains camp station where our stuff is being held. Once we got that taken care of we made our way to our camp. For that being a little hole in the wall place, that was the best junk food stuffed sub sandwich ever!!!

It was a hour and a half drive to the mountains but it was not without beautiful sites. Maggie and I were in amazement at the mountains and the houses on the way. We took pictures of the views but they didn’t do justice to the real thing. Cathy missed a lot because she was texting Jackson updates. Talking about the flight and the food and everything, she wanted him to feel he was there. Maggie and I made a bet that she was the first one to lose bat battery life on her electronics. On the way to the mountains I did notice that Drew texted me back but I was not sure about starting my week with that on my mind. So i waited to respond.

We get to the camp trails and immediately get our things and our packs loaded. We stopped a few rangers and we asked for advice about where to start the hike, what we can do to be prepared things like that. They pulled out their map and pointed us to our spot saying it was sought after for the sites. One ranger mentioned there are some wolf sittings in the evenings. We set out on our destination for the week and our 5 mile hike. It’s going to get dark soon so we hurry on the hike. Cathy wasn’t thrilled about 5miles but Maggie didn’t mind she was always active, we still took a lot of rests though with the thin air.

By the time it was 6:30 we had found our site, so we started camp. We had almost 2hrs until dark, so the first thing we all started with, our tent. We had a big family tent that had room for 5 adult people, for it being so big we had it pitched pretty easily. When you have three girls working together we can get a lot done! We then got our sleeping bags out and set up a fire pit. Before it got to dark we set up a Lantern circle so we could find our way back or animals would stay out. We scavenged plenty of wood for the night and started the fire. We made a rule we didn’t want to leave anyone alone in case something happened, so we all three tried to do buddy system. The whole afternoon was fun with the fresh air and the beautiful sites. We all really enjoyed our selves with laughter, new and old stories. Everything was going smooth and I was happy, I forgot about all the bad recently I was at bliss.

Come that night it was cool but a clear and beautiful night. We had everything setup like a movie: the camp fire burning bright, the tent set up perfectly, and we were enjoying a warm dinner under the stars. For it to be canned food it was good, and the coffee wasn’t half bad to for trial and error on our part. You dont relize what you dont know till it comes time to do it. We were talking when we heard distant howling with the purple sky blossoming. We just didn’t expect the howling to be as close as they were. The one thing I didn’t bring was something to protect us in case something came into camp. We had bear spray but Cathy and Maggie was freaked out, Cathy thought it would be cool to see some wolves in the wild. We heard a lot of howling as the night went on, all I could think of was she might get her wish. It was a very full beautiful moon out, getting to expierance that in the Colorado mountans was really magical. We stayed up until 11 or so chatting and telling ghost stories just for laughs. All I could think of to tell was the werewolf stories my grandpa used to tell. Maggie and Cathy didn’t think much of the stories, they decided to go to bed. I stayed up a little longer I wanted to soak in the view a little longer.

I dozed off at some point cause I was woken up by a warm breath in my face. I slowly opened my eyes not registuring what was happening. Once they were open I tried not to be startled, but I was met with some beautiful golden eyes, the thing attached to those eyes was a huge black wolf with some brown on the right ear. I was shocked but tried to keep my breathing even not wanting to startle the wolf, but something about this enormous animal in front of me made me feel safe. The golden eyes looked like gold with dew droplets on them with that sparkle. I wasn’t scared after a minute or two of looking into his eyes. But I got up slowly anyways and tried not to run off the wolf. His eyes never left me, all of a sudden there were several howls all around us and it made him on edge. Then there were a few others I didn’t notice until that moment they went running out of camp, and the black beast followed suite. They all ran off into the forest but not before the black wolf turned one more time to see me. It wanted to wake Cathy and Maggie but before I could decide they can running out frantic!

Maggie: “What’s going on!?!l

Cathy: “OMG WAS THAT WOLVES!”

Me: “It’s fine! I dozed and there were some wolves that stumbled into came. I scared them off when I woke up, they are gone.”

Cathy: “Wolves?!? Omg lucky!!”

Maggie: “ That’s what you say? Kimmy are you ok? What happened what woke you?”

Me: “Actually one came up to me and woke me. I’m fine and it don’t look like they got into anything.”

Cathy: “I’m glad your OK.”

Maggie: “ That is terrifying! Come to bed and try to relax it’s early in the morning. We will be up soon anyway, for breakfast.”

Me: “ OK, I think that ain’t a bad idea. I’ll be there soon. I’m going to go relive myself first.”

We all nodded while they went back into the tent. I walked behind the tree and went to pee. I kept thinking about that wolf. He was magnificent. I can’t believe how close he got. With the thought of that experience in my head, I headed off to bed for the adventure of a week in Colorado to begin.