I was a single guy of 30 years when I took this adventure. It was on a mountain top in western Colorado, although I don’t remember exactly where now. I spent the year before outfitting my recently purchased Chevy van as a camper. My freshly minted roommate and I left Indiana one morning and were at the 10,000 ft elevation twenty-four hours later. That same day, we hiked to the 12,000 level where this picture was taken. Even in my youth I discovered that doing that so quickly was not a smart thing to do.

We camped out that night and were the only ones there, but when we got up, there was another tent about 100 yards away. As we were fixing breakfast, a couple of hikers emerged from the tent. They were a young couple and were buck-naked. They frolicked around for a while until they say our tent. 😳 Unfortunately I didn’t think quickly enough to get my camera. That would certainly have been THE picture.

The water from the stream that we washed up in was just above freezing. That day we hiked to the top of the mountain in the photo. Of course, I forgot to take the camera with me, so this was the picture that represented that trip for the next 47 years.

We stayed up there for two days and then hiked back down to the van, and it was then on to other destinations.