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We arrived in Durango around 2:30 and set up camp at Junction Creek Campgrounds. Afterwards we found out that we would be white water rafting!!! While everyone in the group was ecstatic to go on our first rafting trip at B2B, apparently this was a sore subject for some of our clients. I don’t want to say anyone lied to their children or loved ones but let’s go with, some clients had the idea that they would be rafting or rock-climbing every weekend when they got here and no one saw fit to correct that notion, but hey you guys had to do what you had to do to get some of us here. This quickly blew over and we headed to Mild and Wild, the rafting company that would be leading us down the Animas River or river of lost souls as the conquistadors called it (Kind of fitting, don’t you think?). The Animas flows through the city of Durango and contains some class 1, 2 and 3 rapids and after being set up with gear and some short instructions they let us loose. Everyone had a blast and while unfortunately no one got thrown from the raft, there was a portion where we were going slow enough to jump out into the 40-degree water. After navigating a stretch of the river for about an hour we had to disembark.
We all agreed that is was over way to quick and wanted to go around again but alas we couldn’t, it was getting late so we headed back to camp to start on dinner. After dinner, we had a camp AA meeting about what we were looking forward to in sobriety, then hit the hay. The next morning, we woke up at 6 had coffee, oats and yogurt for breakfast then hopped in the van for another hour and a half to head to the San Juan Mountain range where we would be hiking up into its basin to a place called Ice Lake. When we arrived, the scene was breath taking, we were surrounded by lush green mountains and forest on all sides with jagged rocks and water falls popping out of the mountains on the horizon. The hike was a little over 7 miles round trip but there was more than 2500 feet of elevation gained in the first two miles up. It was described as a “moderate” hike by Kelly, although after reaching the lake all of us disagreed … thanks canyon pro.
It was scenic all the way up to the top. We had to cross streams, move past waterfalls and we even got to play with some snow, most of us I think didn’t realize this till the descent though, we were too busy gasping for air on the way up. Once we reached the Lake in the basin though words don’t even describe how beautiful it was. The lake which was made up of melting snow that had run down the mountains it was surrounded by on all sides was the bluest water I had ever seen in my life there were several waterfalls in the distance the feed into the Lake, it was stunning. Some of our braver clients even jumped into the freezing water for a little polar dip while other hikers and on lookers gasped and took pictures, that’s just how we do things here at B2B.
I don’t think any of us wanted to leave but unfortunately, we had a schedule to keep. After descending the trail, we hopped back in the van and headed back to camp to make dinner. We were given the option of having a more leisurely time around camp or firing out dinner and heading to a meeting in Durango. We of course choose the out of town meeting and after another phenomenal client made stir-fry meal we headed back into town. Our group was more than 75 percent of the population of the meeting it a lot of great stuff was shared and our group brought some much-needed energy to a very small meeting. The meeting ended at 9pm Colorado time and everyone was exhausted from the day’s activities, so we returned to camp and headed to bed. The next morning, we were up and on the road early so we could get back to flag at a reasonable hour. We owe a big thanks to Kelly, Nick and intern A. for setting up such an amazing trip I’m sure it was logistical nightmare, but we all agreed it was by far one of the most amazing trips any of us had been on. From the boys at B2B we love all of you family members out there and we will cya next week.