What Were They Thinking – Adventure in a Colorado Wilderness with Three 12 Year Olds
I still cant believe it. Its been 40 or so years since that fateful summer. My buddies Steve and Larry and I were around 12 years of age when we were dropped off early in the day on a rainy, muddy little trail of a road off Highway 135 north of Gunnison, Colorado up toward Kebler Pass.
The mission: follow trails up Pass Creek through the West Elk Wilderness Area, cross Swampy and Castle Passes at 11,086 feet, finally coming out on the other side following Little Robinson Creek down arriving at Coal Creek just up from the Paonia Reservior and Anthracite Creek.
I marvel and wonder to this day, what were those boys parents thinking? What would prompt them to turn 3 twelve year olds loose for a journey through the West Elk Wilderness? We were on the trail way back in the backcountry of Colorado for 3 days and nights, carrying and fixing meals, setting up camps, fishing, chopping wood and worrying about bears and being lost. I and people I know with children that age now are not sure we would even consider dropping them off on a wilderness trail, seeing them 3...