Yesterday was my second annual Dad Remembrance Day - I hit as many of Dad's favorite haunts as I could.
Lucy and I started the day out with brunch at Lucille's Cajun Cafe in Boulder. I think Lucille's may serve the best brunch in the U.S. My God it was good! Exquisite beignets, spectacular french toast, and Cajun Cafe Au Lait. I was so stuffed, that as we left, I told Lucy I would never eat again.
As it turns out, it was a good thing I had such a big meal. I needed all the energy I could get for the afternoon's adventures. I left downtown Boulder, drove by our old Boulder house off of Baseline and then motored on towards Golden and Highway 6.
Dad loved driving up Highway 6 through Clear Creek Canyon - and I do too. It is a beautiful drive - canyon walls, a roaring creek, and lots of tunnels. In honor of Dad, I decided to do a Highway 6 geocache - Practice Pitch at Mayhem Creek.
Practice Pitch was quite the experience and it was made much more difficult by my stumbling around. I've driven Highway 6 many many times, but I'm not that familiar with the pullouts and I wasn't super positive where the pullout was located for this cache. So, I pulled out at what seemed to be a reasonable location based upon my GPS reading. I started hiking up a fairly steep trail - which at 6500 feet is not exactly a walk in the park. I ended up on a high ridge meadow and went about another 1/2 mile back in. At that point, I could see the "Practice Pitch" rock wall in the distance and realized that I wouldn't be able to get there from here. So, I scrambled back down to the car, drove about 300 yards around the curve and there was another pullout. Voila. And this trail was flat!!!!
I hiked a 1/2 mile back to the cliff. And starting searching and searching and searching. All the while I was thinking that, "Gee, this looks like snake country to me." (In Alaska, we don't have snakes. Anything that can kill you is really big and not hiding under some rock.) I saw one snake slither behind a pile of rocks and I got rather spooked. But, I bravely re-gathered my resolve and carefully continued my search.
A large cavern opening kept catching my eye. I thought that it might be a good place for the cache. But also a good place for snakes. So, I cautiously worked my way up to the cavern opening and peered in. No cache. But there was a Diamond back rattler curled up sound asleep. Yikers!!!!
I hopped right back away from there to a snake free rock and rethought my situation. Based on another cacher's earlier log entry and the decrypted clue, I decided that my coordinates were off. So, I hunted in a new area and within 30 seconds, I found the cache!
Dad would have had a blast with all of this. He would have thought that Geocaching was the greatest thing ever. Plus he loved being out in the mountains. And he was also a huge snake lover. When he was a boy, he caught rattlesnakes and copperheads and milked them for their venom. This snake loving gene did not get passed on to me.
Anyhoo, I staggered back to the car, took a huge slug of water, and then headed off to Loveland Pass - a point along the Continental Divide that was a favorite place of Dad's. And, as luck would have it, there is also a geocache located at the pass - Continental Divide at Loveland Pass. This cache wasn't as involved as Practice Pitch. But the Loveland Pass cache was at 12,200 feet. So, that in and of itself was a bit extreme. Stumbling around on top of scree at 12,200 will quickly wear you out. I had to take more than one wheez break. But, I hung in there and finally found the cache.
I've decided that I'm not necessarily a good geocacher - I'm just persistent.
I finally rolled into Keystone at 6:00 PM - I was one beat puppy totally ready for beer. The Ski Boy's sister lives right outside of Keystone, so she and I went to the Dam Brewery for dinner and beer. The perfect end to a great day!
11:45:46 AM 
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The Victorious Geocaching Slat Rat.
Diamondback Rattlesnake Home! Enter at your own risk.
The Slat Rat at the Continental Divide.
Here's 