West Virginia to Colorado

 West Virginia Family Reunion and Colorado Plans

 

Stop one on our journey was to Charleston, WV for a family reunion. It was originally scheduled for July 2020, and then was rescheduled to this summer due to the pandemic.

Our family had been to Charleston once before to visit “Uncle Jim and Aunt Beth” when Ava was a newborn. But this time, most of Grandmas’s family was there to join in the visit. And now our kids are old enough to remember and enjoy. Charleston is a very sweet town of 45,000 people with a large river running through its center. There are beautiful hills and forests all around.

If you haven’t flown in a while, things might be a bit different than you’re used to. Our flights were re-scheduled a few times before we flew. We started with a ferry trip and overnight stay in Vancouver, and then had three planes (YVR, SFO, ORD) before we arrived. Everything went smoothly enough and we received all of our bags, but line ups were long everywhere and we all needed to be patient at every turn.

Highlights of the trip included:

-          Having a connected room with Aunt Karen, Uncle Sean and cousin Molly, who recently turned 2 and is an absolute joy. Grandma’s room was nearby also, so we had a nice visit in a good hotel with plenty of games and pool time and food.

-          Seeing most of Grandma’s family, including both her brother’s full families (so all of Jason’s cousins on this side) – all together in one place!

-          Watching the local baseball game at the ball park with the whole family

-          Lovely walks / runs through the town and along the river bank, where many events were set up for the Sternwheel Regatta / 4^th of July celebrations. Stalls of food including ‘we will deep fry anything!’ were set up and it was fun to walk around and look at all the offerings.

-          Playing pool in Uncle Jim’s basement while eating apple pie and visiting with family.

-          Running a 5km trail run in the nearby forest for Independence Day. Rachel was the second female overall and won a trophy for being first in her age group.

-          A really fun boat ride on Uncle Jim’s boat – our kids loved going fast and bouncing along.

-          A visit to the New River Gorge National Park, which was lovely scenery under a blue sky before a thunderstorm rolled in

 

So what’s next?

 

Jason and Meggan left WV and flew to Colorado to have some time in the mountains. The girls are staying with Grandma and heading to her house in Northern Virginia for the next while. After getting organized (and working some) in Denver, we head to the high country.

 

The Colorado Trail Project:

For anyone who isn’t familiar, Meggan has been sectioning the Colorado Trail for many years. She has hiked most of it but has run some and biked some. There are three chunks of trail she hasn’t done yet, and hopefully during this trip she will complete all the missing sections.

 

Section 6: Meggan will hike approx. 26 miles over two days connecting the area between Kenosha Pass and Breckenridge, filling in a missing gap from her previous hikes. Jason will shuttle and support in our rental car, but work while she hikes during the day. The big test here will be the altitude. Landing and then heading out to hike at 10,000-12,000feet without much time to acclimate will be a challenge.

 

Section 8/9/10: Meggan will be joined by a dear friend Lori, and together they will hike from Copper Ski resort to the base of Mt. Massive near Leadville. Jason and Lori’s partner Randy will shuttle and run car support, so each night will be spending camping at the cars. Total is about 54 miles. The first day is the hardest because we have two higher exposed passes to get through before any possible afternoon storms arrive.

 

Section 24-28 from Silverton to Durango. A few summers ago, Meggan and her brother Jeff backpacked a beautiful section and finished near Silverton, CO. This year, Meggan will pick up a friend-of-a-friend named Shelley and backpack the last 75 miles over 4-5 days to finish at the Southwestern terminus of the trail. It should be fun to backpack with a new person and their dog, and so grateful not to be hiking alone. While this is happening, Jason will pace and support friends running the HardRock 100 mile ultra, which is a very special event.

 

Hopefully that all goes well, and then we fly back to Grandma’s and reunite with our girls.