September 13-14, 2014 Denver, Colorado

Saturday I went to Denver to go to the Colorado Trail Recognition Picnic. The Colorado Trail is a 500 mile trail from Denver to Durango through some of the most beautiful scenery in Colorado. It was built entirely by volunteers, like me. I worked on the Colorado Trail every summer for at least 17 years. The last 5 years I worked as a kitchen manager for huge crews. I retired from the Colorado trail crews when I met John. I started using my vacations for vacation with John, about 9 years ago.

 

The picnic was at Bear Creek Lake Park in Lakewood. They supplied  free food and drinks and lots of good company. I was surprised that there were still people I had worked with. This is Gudy  Gaskill. She is the ‘mother’ of the trail. In 1987 she visualized the trail and worked   tirelessly on the trail, recruited volunteers, and raised money for many years and the Colorado Trail Foundation was formed and the trail was built. She is still on the board and very active with the foundation.

I worked many years on crews led by Jon Greeniesen. Marilin ran the kitchen and inspired me to take on the same job. We had lots of fun on their crews, and built lots of trail. Here is the cake with a picture of the part of the trail (I may have worked on the section) that was for dessert. 

  

After we ate there was a hand chain saw competition. The saw blade is like a chain saw blade with loops on the end. You put a stick through the ends and get two people together and saw. These guys were all very good. Cindy on the left top worked  on the crew that I cooked for. She now leads her own crew, and runs a mean saw.  Sunday I went to the Glass Artist Fellowship meeting. I have not been to a meeting for years. I saw many old friends and learned more about glass. We also discussed the glass show this fall, I will be here and can participate.

We have our meetings at Mike and Sandy Penfound’s studio. Here is the glass blowing part in the back. They do beautiful work.