The Weminuche Wilderness

Is three-quarters the size of Rhode Island. (There are Walmarts bigger than Rhode Island too).

 Nevertheless, this massive piece of WOW is Colorado's largest protected area. There's 500 miles of trails, numerous Continental Divide crossings and an average altitude of 10,000 lung gasping feet. It's home to elk, weasels, neighborly mountain goats, wild flowers and way too many deer flies. (I killed thousands but still they kept coming). 

Jonathan and I covered over 50 miles of it, and never made a dent in seeing the big picture. We went over the Great Divide so many times we weren't sure if we were drinking water splashing toward the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. (They both tasted the same too BTW.) 

I left there feeling mentally and physically refreshed despite the thumping on my knees from hauling sustenance, shelter and one book for six days.

Thank You President Lyndon Baines Johnson for signing the Wilderness Act of 1964 into law. (Another invention besides jazz, baseball and National Parks we Americans can be proud of).

 

To sum up its gist, here it is: 

“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Ain't that great?

So...go out there and explore LBJ's legacy. 

Jeff