A near disaster of a day, but was saved by a pair of Good Samaritans!
Thursday, August 17
We left the campsite at the West Lake Campground near Red Feather Lakes Village a bit after 9AM and by 1030 we'd found a nice boondocking spot less than 15 miles away and 1600 ft higher in elevation.
We're now camping off of Larimer County Rd 86 aka Deadman Road. Just 4.3 miles from the fire tower I'd visited yesterday.
No cell signal at this campsite so I went exploring for the closest point to check in with the kids. I had to ride Yagi the 4.3 miles to the Fire Tower and got signal there. I then rode back towards camp, kept going towards Red Feather Lakes to see if there was a closer cell signal point. Coincidentally, it was 4.3 miles from camp at a curve on the road!
Oh well, so I rode back and shortly after getting back to camp, I realized I didn't have my camera bag with me! Some panic'ed searching of the VRRV and the campsite yielded nothing. I feared I had put the camera case on the cargo rack prior to donning my helmet and had then ridden off searching for Internet signal! Dammit.
The next few hours were spent by Martha and I, searching the campsite and me also back tracking all the way back to the Fire Tower and back, twice! Nothing.
Not willing to believe that a loose camera case could have stayed with the motorcycle for long as I rode the packed dirt county road...I nevertheless rode the full distance; but paying extra attention by walking the road for the first mile.
Of course, I didn't find the case. Ironically, I did find an Internet cell signal just a quarter mile from camp while I was walking along searching along the road side!
At the end of the third back track, I stopped at the nearby cell signal point and saw I had a voicemail! The caller had left a message saying they'd found the camera case and to call them.
I called and talked with the caller's Dad. He told me they were camping near the North Fork of the Poudre NF campground and we arranged to meet at the entrance.
I stopped at the camp to let Martha know and she sent me forth with a bottle of wine and some reward money.
I met Jacob, and his dad James, shortly afterwards. They initially refused my offer of a cash reward, saying to just "pay it forward". As we talked, I managed to convince James to accept the bottle of wine at least. Some more talking and I finally convinced Jacob to take the reward money, with his Dad's consent. Such honest and forthright behavior must be encouraged!
Oh, and here's the pics of the tower from Wednesday:
5 comments:
Nice that you were able to get it back. Maybe time to add Tile to your camera?
So glad to hear of the happy ending! Yes, there are good people out there.
RichardM and Bridget....not a bad idea, though in this particular case, it wouldn't have worked due to my having very little access to Internet connectivity I believe.
Yes, good people out there, but do they have to be so few and far between encounters?
Great people out there, Dom. The world seems a bit better after this happy ending. Glad, you got the camera back.
Yep, a happy ending indeed SonjaM....
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