Days 3 & 4 of CO trip

Sorry for the delay in finishing this trip details, New dog is quite a handful and keeping me busy.

Most of Day 3's climbing of Maroon Peak can be read here


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...After getting back into Aspen we stopped once again at the most affordable place in town, McDonalds, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then I began my trek home. After going over Independence pass again I bid farewell to Matt, Chris and Andy and the Dogs, then turned south. Initially my plan for that evening was to camp in the National Forest someplace outside Villa Grove, CO. As I was nearing that area I realized I would still be able to make a lot of progress driving some more that afternoon, shortening the amount of driving I would have to do the following day. So I kept going not really sure where I was going to sleep that night, part of me was really tempted to break down in stay in a hotel in Alamosa, but again as I arrived there I wanted to shorten the following days drive some more and kept going. Finally I came to the conclusion that I would try and find some national forest in Northern New Mexico to camp in, but when I finally got into New Mexico the sun had gone down, making finding a good camping spot rather difficult. After turning down several forest roads without any success, I was half tempted to just drive through the night, but as I kept going I was getting really tired, so finally I found one more forest road and turned down it, after a few minutes of driving around on this road, I managed to find a reasonable spot to set up my tent. As I got out of the car to investigate this site further, I suddenly heard voices in the distance, or at least I thought I had. After a few minutes of sitting and listening, followed by looking around more with the flashlight, I decided my mind was just playing tricks on me and went about setting up my tent. Regardless of my conclusion I was still uneasy about camping here, and it took a while for me to fall asleep.

Day 4
Once I managed to fall asleep, I slept really well, only to be woken by the wind sometime before sunrise.  Now that I was awake again, the fear of the unknown about what was around this area began to run through my head and I decided it was useless at this point to continue trying to sleep.   So I got up and began packing up my tent and getting ready for the day in the dark, never to see the area in the daylight.  Back on the road I Continued my trek, this time with a purpose of getting home, there would be no more recreational stops along this trip, just straight driving, and several hours later I arrived.