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My Amazing Trip Through the Rocky Mountains - Part 1

Updated on March 20, 2013

The Rocky Mountains - My Amazing Trip

By Dexter Yarbrough. Yes. I am a city boy by birth, but my heart belongs in the south (Georgia/Mississippi) and the mountains. "City of Big Shoulders," "Second City," "Hog butcher for the world," and "That Toddling Town" aptly describes where I have lived for years. It is a great city with its skyscrapers, museums, nightlife and "The Lake." As for the food, it doesn't get any tastier than that which you can find in the "Heart of America."

But with the good comes the bad and "Sweet Home" has its share of humidity, crime and silliness. It was time to take a trip! Time to find a place where there will be few people and beauty for miles around. I decided to head to the Rocky Mountains!

No Tryst!

Oh, yes. I had been to the Rocky Mountains for short day trips. But this time I was going to rough it! Just me and my camping supplies and cameras. I was going to spend two days out in the wild - communing with nature in God's country!

My wife, a city girl, couldn't understand why I wanted to go off alone into "nowhere." Jokingly inquiring as to whether or not I was going to see another woman (the answer was no), I told her I wanted to head off to "where the deer and the buffalo roam" and points beyond. Raising her eyebrows and looking a bit more serious, she asked if I was going to be with a man. I just can't win!

After assuring my wife that I wasn't going off to a "Brokeback Mountain" rendezvous, I hit the road across country to the beautiful southern Rockies (Nebraska is so boring to drive through). Upon completing an 18 hour drive and with plenty of daylight left, I decided to leave my vehicle at a parking area in the Roosevelt National Forest and begin my sojourn.

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A Friend Indeed

Now, you have to understand something. I am a black man. Yep. There ain't a whole lot of us walking around in the Rockies. A friend of mine reminded me of this with a text message (within cell phone coverage) about an hour before reaching my parking spot. He texted that I should be careful not to get shot because some of those deer and elk are the same color as I am. "Ha, ha, ha, funny," I texted back. See, I know that the month of June isn't hunting season. I think.

Thank goodness I brought along bug spray. Gosh, the bugs were awful as I left my vehicle behind and started my hike. The weather was warm and the ice capped mountains were breathtaking. The Asian beetles had done some major damage to a lot of the pine trees, so there was a mixture of green and brown off in the distance.

Aside from the bugs, it was just wonderful breathing in clean air and taking in the beautiful scenery. I can just imagine how the settlers in the old days must have felt upon reaching the foothills and taking in God's beautiful creation.

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My Encounter

As I was walking along, I came across something that I didn't expect. The funny thing is sometimes we lose all reason when we are in an unfamiliar area alone. I mean, we can have the best in education, street smarts and common sense. But all that went out the window for me. I started thinking about tigers and lions (the African ones) and started getting a little scared! I was hoping no alligators would come out from among the low-lying swamp-like areas! The dinosaurs did die off, didn't they?

What I didn't expect to see were cattle. Aren't they supposed to be on a ranch or in the supermarket covered in plastic packaging? I was actually scared when I walked up on a bunch of - cows! There were about 30 of them staring at me and I was scared to death. All reason had left me. Do cows eat humans? Will they flour me down, fry me and smother me with onions and gravy? Will there be a stampede with me getting trampled? Can a cow out run a scared black dude?

Now wait a minute, I began to think. There have been numerous times you have walked though gang members hanging on street corners. These cows look mean but those dudes on the south side of the big "C" look meaner! How dare you be afraid?

Since I don't eat red meat, I figured the cows could sense that I was no threat to their livelihood. 'Hey, I don't eat you so can you return the favor?' Anyway, I gathered my courage and walked through that herd. I also figured that a herd of black cows would have sympathy for a black man walking alone in their territory. You know, in cow think - "he's black and we're black. Let's give the brotha' from anotha' motha' a pass." They even posed for a few photos! Whew! Other than a few "moo's" and stares, I pressed on. I think I will ride this "black" thang out!

Now that I had faced that encounter, I was emboldened and determined to move forward in my journey. However, there was one lone cow a short distance from the others. I noticed that it had just unloaded a pretty large load of dung! I had planned on taking a photo of this lone cow, but after seeing and smelling that, I decided to move away. Can you believe that cow actually smirked at me as I walked away from it, as if to say "pop, pop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is?" At that same moment, I realized - I did not pack any toilet paper. Damn!

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of "My Amazing Trip Through the Rockies!" - Dexter Yarbrough

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