And corn stuff that was WONDERFUL.
I got to spend part of my lunch talking to the fabulous Donna Warner Wilson, who is the CEO of Cherokee Ranch. Which I figure must be kind of like being Queen, only she doesn't live there, and without a crown. She was very nice and I really enjoyed chatting with her over sloppy joes.
Before we all got back to it, we were addressed by the lovely Ann Baker Easley, Executive Director of the VOC. She had some really encouraging words, and just reiterated how important to this the volunteers are. I'd heard there were about 115 volunteers who showed up, and that is a LOT of sloppy joes, but it's also a lot of people giving up a Saturday they could've just been lounging on their couch eating ice cream sandwiches and watching TV to come build a trail. That's pretty impressive.
So back to trail building. We went back to the trails we'd finished and cleaned up the tools and everything.
I think they both looked great, but then I might have been a little biased, having had a paw in the creation of them.
One of my crew mates, Ian, planted this little tree to help show that this WASN'T part of the trail. It's tough making trail borders look like they weren't put there on purpose and the branches and stuff just happened to fall there.
We had to wait for just a little bit to join all the folks up closer to the castle for the final little bit of trail that needed to go in.
Fletcher brought around water for everyone, and we finished things up, tidied edges, that kind of thing.
Some of us posed in the sun, on a rock, like a wild bunny. Well, a wild bunny with sunglasses.
Finally, everyone was working on the path closest to the Castle. This is where the crusher fines would be coming in, and they really do make a beautiful path.
But they have to be carried down by the wheelbarrow full, and that can be kind of tricky on lumpy ground like this. So some of us were running back and forth with wheelbarrows, some were digging out the path so it was about 1" deep, and some were tamping down the crusher fines on the path. It was a whole lot of movement, and pretty fast, because everyone was ready to be done and go to the Castle for ice cream!
It took a lot of work, but finally, the trail was done. Completely and totally DONE.
There's the "before".
And the "after".
Then it was up to the Castle for ice cream and tours!
The Castle is INCREDIBLE. That roof is seven color slate, which is available only in Vermont (I think. I was pretty worn out by the time we got to the tour. I could barely hop.)
This is a nifty little building that I think I overheard one of the Castle docents say was a guest house. Oh, it looks small, but I guess there's a spiral staircase in it that goes down to the guest rooms. Or something like that. I'll have to ask when I go back.
The view from up here is amazing, and I can't imagine a better place to put your Castle than up here.
You can even see Pike's Peak! What a view!
I never did get a chance to ask about the cannon, but seriously, what Castle doesn't need a cannon?
The tour was wonderful, but there are no pictures allowed inside the castle, so I don't have any tour pictures to show you. While we were waiting for everyone else to get out of the tour, we hung around eating ice cream.
And some of us posed on rocks in front of trees.
There was a raffle.
But I didn't win anything. And after the raffle, we all went home. Kirkachu and Wendy talked about going back and walking the trail, but we were all way too tired, and we all promised to come back and walk the trail again someday soon.
On the way down, we saw a deer.
And like the good tourists we are, stopped to snap pictures.
She sure was pretty, though.
We decided that we'd worked hard enough, none of us felt like cooking. So we ended up in a Red Robin for delicious burgers.
And still not carrot cake. Harumph. I guess this diet thing is making Wendy happy, but I'm starting to have carrot cake withdrawal!The salad did have carrots in it, though. So I guess it's okay.
I don't know what adventures we have planned next. I skipped the Mothers' Day picnic because I was still really, really worn out (and it was cold. I don't like cold picnics.) So we'll see. It's great to be back, and trail building really was an incredible experience.
To look back at that last trail and know that an hour before, that hadn't been there. It was like magic. I can't describe it, but if you'd like to see for yourself, I recommend you check out the VOC - Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. I know I'll be doing more projects with them, so maybe I'll see you there.
Also, I highly recommend a visit to Cherokee Ranch and Castle. It was really obvious to me on the tour how much the docents and employees there really care about the Castle and everything in it. Also, I think the lady who lived there last, Ms. Tweet Kimball, seems like a real character and it was a lot of fun hearing about her and her cattle. They offer tours and teas and brunches and all kinds of musical events. Hopefully we'll be checking out more of those too.
For now, I'm pretty content to continue settling in to my home. It's great to be back in Colorado. I missed it more than I knew.
- Gage
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