BrandonoBrien.com

Brandon O'Brien

Travel and Adventure Journal

I wanted a place to journal all my travels and adventures around the world. I always enjoy going back and reflecting on my past travels and getting to relive them through my words and photos.

You're reading posts I wrote on June 5 throughout the years. Return home.
Overnighter on the Conejos River in Southern Colorado

Overnighter on the Conejos River in Southern Colorado

Sunday, June 5, 2022 @ 4:00 PM in General Travel

On Friday, Sam had the urge to get out of town for the weekend. Unfortunately, most of the National Forest in NM is currently closed due to fire danger so we had to widen our radius slightly. We were looking for somewhere that was within about a 3 hour drive from home, had water nearby and wouldn't be slammed with people. After talking with some friends, we landed on the Conejos River between Antonito and Chama. One of our friends mentioned she had some friends who were planning on camping up in this area so we figured we'd try it too. We actually did a several night backpacking trip up in this area several years ago and remembered it being really beautiful.

We packed up the car and were out the door by about 9:30am on Saturday. Rather than try to prep any food, we just went to Market Street and bought some premade meals for food. We bought a salmon salad with pasta salad for lunch #1, some fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner and some more fried chicken for lunch #2. The drive up to the campground was pretty uneventful and surprisingly lacking any real traffic aside from one area near San Antonio Mountain where the road was under construction and down to one lane.

We got to the campground a little before 12:30 and found a nice spot directly across from the river. We pulled out our coolers and camping gear and had lunch before heading out for a walk down to Spectacle Lake and the campground there. There were several people fishing for trout in the lake and we actually saw a few people catch some fish. The lake definitely looked stocked since you could see a ton of fish just swimming around.

After getting back to the campsite, we relaxed in some shade and read books for a few hours before it was time for dinner. Some motorcyclists pulled up to hang out by the creek and snap some pics. I went over to talk to them and snapped some shots for them. Turns out they weren't staying the night but just making a little detour while they were on their way back to Taos for the night. We shared some quick stories of our various trips before they took off. To reheat dinner, we just used our camp stove and a frying pan with some foil, which worked surprisingly well. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing before we finally called it an early night and went to bed in the back of the truck.

Due to some combination of white noise from the river, the temperatures being on the cooler side and having tall cliffs all around us, we actually slept in until about 7:30 which is "late" for us. We ended up with about 10 hours of sleep which felt amazing. Breakfast was some coffee, a muffin for me and some overnight oats for Sam. We packed up camp after drinking our coffee and drove up the road about 10 minutes to the South Fork trailhead.

There was a little debate about whether this was the same trailhead we started our big backpacking trip from, and it turns out it was. We hiked about four miles and enjoyed being in some greenery again. Near the trailhead were a few stream crossings. On the way out, we tried picking our steps carefully to avoid getting wet. On the way back, we just sloshed right through the water since we could put sandels on when we got to the car. When we had just crossed the river, we saw some people from Santa Fe (the friends of friends who were staying in this area which spurred our idea to camp here). We chatted with them for a bit before getting back to the truck and having lunch.

The drive back home was equally uneventful aside from the one section where the road was down to one lane.

Teaser photos:

At Spectacle Lake
At Spectacle Lake
Max after a dunk in the Conejos river
Max after a dunk in the Conejos river
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner
Hiking on the Roaring Gulch trail
Hiking on the Roaring Gulch trail

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Tags: camping, colorado

Posted from: United States

Tours in London - Day 2 - London 2011

Tours in London - Day 2 - London 2011

Sunday, June 5, 2011 @ 10:35 PM in 2011 London

Our first full day in London is over! The day's activities included a bike tour of the River Thames and a Jack the Ripper tour. The weather today was rainy and only 50-60 degrees, much colder than yesterday. I only wore a shirt and shorts on the bike tour and was pretty cold. We stared off by having breakfast in the hotel, then jumped on the tube and headed to Waterloo Station where we were supposed to meet with the bike tour group. We got to Waterloo a little early and walked around the train station.

The bike tour was only me, Eric and another guy named Kevin who also ended up being from Greenwood, Indiana. The bike tour took us down the River Thames and we got to see the London Eye, Millennium bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe, London Bridge, Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, a River Thames boat cruise and headed back west on the river. Then we got off and saw Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square (where there was a huge Sikh gathering) and rode by Parliament and Big Ben. For lunch the bike tour stopped at a pub called the River Thamesside Inn where we had a beer and some fish n chips. We also got to ride our bikes across the Tower Bridge when we were heading to the river cruise. We also learned about how Shakespeare created over 600 new words in Hamlet alone.

After the bike tour we headed back to the hotel. Along the way we found a grocery store next to the Gloucester Road station (right by our hotel). I bought some apples and Eric bought some juice. We had about an hour and a half to kill before dinner time at the hotel so I changed into some warmer clothes and Eric took a nap. We then headed down to Covent Garden for dinner and ended up eating at an American style restaurant to get a break from fish n chips. After that, we wandered around until we finally found the Strand Palace hotel where we met up with the Jack the Ripper tour. It took us a while to get there because our phones couldn't accurately pinpoint where we were so we kept missing streets we were supposed to turn on to get there.

The Jack the Ripper tour was interesting. It was still raining and cold while this took place. We started off getting a little tour of the actual city of London and some history surrounding it. We also saw a few notable places, such as areas where Sweeny Todd lived and some old Roman gates to the true city of London. After that, we got off the bus and started the walking tour. We got to see the spots where Jack the Ripper murdered each of his victims and also stopped for a break in a big market area. We got back on the bus and were dropped off near Trafalgar Square and had a pint of beer at the Sherlock Holmes pub. We met a guy on the tour from Kansas City who was traveling to London by himself and had a beer with him as well (he had an orange juice).

After the tour we were going to try to get some pictures of Parliament at night, but the rain was coming down harder so we just jumped on the tube and headed back to the hotel. Weather aside, it was a good day and we got to see a lot of the city and learn quite a few facts. We also learned that they call a pickle a gherkin here.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: london, england

Posted from: England