Our family took a three-day/two night trip to Lake City at the beginning of October. I’d been itching to get out there and explore a few trail run routes and gravel bike rides for the last several years and Christie and I both have been rushing to use the camper at the end of the warm weather.

While I didn’t explore everything I was hoping to, it was a full trip from start to finish.

We left in the middle of the day so the kids could get in some school and I could do a morning workout. The drive was long — a little over three hours — and felt slow. Fortunately, we had great weather and once we turned south on CO-149, everything was new for everybody in the car. That road is really different than others in Colorado. It rolls up and down in elevation, is twisty and narrow, and ends with about 15 miles along riverside cliffs, a worthwhile long introduction to the quaint and quiet town.

The plan was to park in town and let the kids play at the park while I scoped out potential camp spots on my gravel bike. We were hoping to stay along the Alpine Loop, but I needed to find out just how much room there was and what the nature of the drive was like before hauling in the camper. I rode about 11 miles down the north side of the loop towards Engineer Pass, turning around once the chunkiness of the road made things a bit too clunky with the Lauf.

I was surprised to find a few homes out there and wondered what it must be like to live that far away from civilization, especially since Lake City already felt far away from the nearest real town.

While I would have had no problem towing the camper past Henson to some riverside pull offs closer to the Uncompaghre TH, I decided to just have us camp at the very first marked dispersed camping site, which was only about a mile out of town. This ended up being a really great move for everything we ended up doing, since the kids were not stranded super far away from the stream and the town park.

We set up camp and ate the first meal I’d made ahead of time and frozen.

The next morning, Ajee and I drove up to the Nellie Creek Road turn. I ran the 4 mile approach and then the 3.75 mile trail to the top of the 14er. It was a fantastic run. Other than the very top, most of the trail stayed in the sweet spot of uphill running — between 8-14%. I wasn’t trying to push anything, and in fact had to stop a couple of times to pee, but my ascent time was actually pretty quick nonetheless. If I’d been more urgent and hadn’t run into snow in the final mile, I might have been able to snag an FKT.

The views from the top of any 14er are spectacular, but I’ve heard some hikers complain that they all start to feel the same. As someone who has gone up to the top of Mt. Elbert 15 times the last two summers, I can at least somewhat understand where they’re coming from. I think going up a 14er in the San Juans is a good remedy: the views from the top were insane.

I didn’t seem possible that the jagged Matterhorn-looking ridges off in the distance could be inside my state. On the northwest side, I could have sworn I saw Leadville’s 14ers, though that hardly seems possible. Maybe it was just a perfect day, but the top was worth it, even if Ajee unknowingly freaked me out by galavanting over to the massive drop off that makes Uncompaghre famous.

I got back to the camper, cleaned off in the river, and then went into town to pick up Christie and the kids, who’d done some school in the morning and then hiked into town to play at the park for lunch. I was thankful I only had a 2-minute drive to get them.

When I did, we took a little drive up over to Henson so Novi could see the old mining structures and so Christie could get a taste of what the area was like. I got back to the camper and sent her out for her run after that. There wasn’t much recovery or rest for me, as we hung out by the river. The dry 60 degree sunny weather felt amazing against our frozen skin.

I hopped on my bike around 4 p.m. with the intention to ride over to the other side of the Alpine Loop. I also was looking forward to checking out some of the campsites by the lake and along Cinnamon Pass. I’m always scouting for future trips as well.

The paved exit out of Lake City was gorgeous. It climbed steadily for a few miles and then was totally flat around the lake. I thought about how fun the winding section by the shore would be for rollerskiing and biking. Unfortunately, I knew I didn’t have time to go around the lake and see Cinnamon Pass, so I decided to just get right onto CR 30 instead of inspecting the high campsites at Wupperman Campground, which was supposedly closed but clearly had a few trailers inside. I think if we come back to Lake City, we will try to snag the site we had this time, but if we can’t, we’ll go to Wupperman. I’d be game to camp at Wupperman for several nights, too. It looks amazing.

I was amazed with how smooth, fast, and flat CR 30 was all the way out to the Mill Creek TH. I had planned to do an out and back and figured I’d have to turn around due to the scariness of shelf road, but I never quite got to it. Finally, after riding for about 90 minutes, I just stopped. The ride was going to be a 2.5 hour ride by the time I got back — so, a pretty monstrous day for me.

Personally, this side of the loop was better from a biking standpoint. I hope in the future I can come back and conquer a few of the 14ers — Sunshine, Red Cloud and Handies — but it might be a while and I’m not totally sure I have the stomach to do the shelf road approach.

I got back and wolfed down the chicken I’d made for the family. We all tried to stay cozy as the sun went down and temperatures fell. We made a nice little fire, read stories and turned the lights out a little after 8.

The next day, I did a 2-hour run on a trail that was not at all what I’d expected and turned out to actually be quite disappointing. Then we swung over to Lake San Cristobal so I could show Christie and the girls what that looked like. We ended up having our lunch right on a little beach spot near the island bridge.

We were hoping to do another night and stay closer to San Luis Peak, but there was some road construction that would have made that difficult. So, we drove back through Gunnison, stopping to check out some children’s books at a thrift store before powering back home.

All in all, it was a successful trip. The girls loved it and spent the next several days saying they wanted to go back to Lake City, apparently having forgotten the arduous drive to get there. I don’t have too many memories from camping when I was that young — 5, 3, and 10 months. Yet, as a parent, it feels like they must be remembering everything, and interestingly, they do hold onto many of the experiences, at least through the reminder of this toddler window.

It’s not easy to camp with three little kids, but Christie is amazing and the girls really are, too. Hugo sometimes can be a handful, crawling constantly and getting into things he shouldn’t, but his face is so cute, we’re willing to put up with it. We’ve found great joy in going out even for one night, and since we’re positioned in such a great spot, even that isn’t much of a commitment. It’s nice to be able to do what we did this time — pack for 3-4 but deciding our reality is such that if we want to bail, it’s not a fail. I think bringing that mindset to the adventure has helped.

I think we ended up bringing the camper out 4 or 5 times. I took it once with just the girls and I also went for a couple nights by myself, which I’ll report on in a future post I suppose, if I find the time.