Day 28 Chill out day in Allen’s Park – a day ahead of schedule

13 miles (21 km) – Total so far: 1,417 miles (2,280 km)

Occasionally I make good decisions. This morning in Estes Park Visitor’s Centre I had the option of losing height and camping at a lake near Loveland, or climbing some more hills, staying in the mountains and a chance of a campsite at Allen’s Park. The village of Allen’s Park is actually a mile and a half up a steep hill from the campground. There isn’t much there, but it is a place that has refused to be altered by the years. The Tapestry cafe and tavern is a small place with sandwich type food and no fries, and also it had ‘open mic’ night. The food was great, open mic night was quite entertaining and the beers were from the Great Divide Brewery, notably Titan IPA at 7.1%. American beers are categorised like bread; rye, brown, white, sourdough. I expect initially it was to get the microbreweries to catch in, and clearly it worked. If there’s a problem, it is that within the category they all taste pretty similar, especially if they are cold. Really I am only shouting for IPA and porters, possibly browns. My thoughts with IPA are that therefore they may as well be strong. That is my thinking behind Titan being very high up my list of strongest beers of the Divide. I hope it all makes sense.

All that was left for me, as darkness had fallen, was to negotiate the one and a half mile downhill to my campsite in the pitch black. Where had that full moon gone? Luckily I am experienced in these matters, and the problems were few.

Back to the tent and the entertainment for the evening wasn’t over. About 30 metres away were a group that had been partying all afternoon and by now were pretty hammered, several families. Though they retired at just after 10 pm leaving me to read my French novel Brodeck’s Report, they did not put any of their food away or tidy up. I had asked the Ranger about bears as there were no storage boxes, and she said they were very rare. I just left my few items on the table outside the tent therefore, better the bear just takes them rather than rips the tent. At about 3 am the first black bear appeared, it was easy to hear and see. It spent a while demolishing the party area, then went and returned with two others and a cub, and continued the demolition. It didn’t bother with me at all. Humorous as this was, and I can assure you extremely so, such irresponsibility does put other groups who are ‘bear aware’ in danger. Enjoying an early morning coffee, it is more high quality entertainment to see their reaction to it as they wake with their hangovers.

Some miles out in riding up the hills to the east to the cafe, and to the west to the store.