On hot summer days, you’re supposed to fill ice cube trays, go to a concert in the park, read in a hammock, feel renewed. All I got was a bad case of Lewis-
and-Clark envy.
Because, wouldn’t it be so much more refreshing to get a blank check from the government, buy lots of gear and follow an uncharted river to its headwaters with the promise of new trade routes in the offing and a big finale in Washington, D.C.? Wouldn’t that be diverting for kids on summer break?
Having muttered about this on the un-wild banks of my local swimming pool, I finally decided to force my family to explore the mildly raging waters of Bear Creek as it passes through Jefferson County, named for the very president who financed the Corps of Discovery.
“It’ll be adventurous! Uncharted!” I told my husband and kids. “And we can’t spend more than $15 an hour. Did you bring sunscreen?”
Half an hour later, we fried on the mirror-like surface of Big Soda Lake at the base of the hogback east of Morrison. The lake is small – less than one- fourth the size of Chatfield Reservoir – but without the serenity-wrecking Jet Skis. On the other hand, Big Soda Lake quickly gets crowded on weekends.
A Ukrainian baptism took place under the cottonwoods – four generations of a family trying to resist jumping into the lake in dress-up clothes and dozens of blood-red roses floating in the lake. Every grill station occupied. The smell of lighter fluid rent the air.
We rented a yellow plastic pedal boat and a couple of canoes. My 7-year-old called on her Girl Scout background and enjoyed self-propulsion. My 15-year-old rolled her eyes and moved from sighing to insubordination, at one point refusing to row altogether. I was loving the metaphor – what is the sound of one hand paddling a hot, tin canoe? – when the wind came up from the west, and I remembered my mission. Would Meriwether Lewis have killed any more time here, learning to waterski, renting a horse, or hiking an “interpretative trail?” I doubted it.
A few days later, alone, I drove up Colorado 74, a classic two-lane road that parallels Bear Creek along eight curvy miles. I’ve done this hundreds of times in 25 years, by car and by bicycle, and I’m pleased to report the route is still overrun by elk, deer and Harleys.
Exploring the river’s edge below Napa Auto Parts in Evergreen, I ran into Ada Jones, who drives the local RTD bus. She was knee-deep in Bear Creek, having spent her morning being patient with other people’s children in order to come out here in the afternoons and be patient with the process of fly-fishing.
Even though Ada appeared to have been doing this all her life, it turned out to be one of those midlife passions that sticks twice as hard as anything your parents make you do.
“This is my time to myself,” she said. “I hear nothing, I talk to nobody, I just fish.” A semi-urban fisherwoman, her territory ranges “from the Church of the Transfiguration, past Baskin Robbins to Cactus Jack’s Tavern.”
I never had been inside Cactus Jack’s, imagining I could smell its nicotine essence even from a passing car, but knew it might be the last outpost of civilization before Bear Creek backed into a dam. And if Lewis and Clark could survive on rotten salmon and stagnant water, I could check out Cactus Jack’s on adult date night.
As it happened, my husband and I took to the Cactus Jack’s deck immediately. It hangs so far out over Bear Creek that you can chat with whoever happens to be fishing directly below you. The nostalgic rock duo Pair A Deux was belting out Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” in earshot of an evangelical Christian youth group hiking by on the other side of the creek, and even they sang a chorus or two. It seemed to be the kind of place united not by age demographics but by boots and concert T-shirts – Frye meets Doc Marten. In a perfect world you’d arrive at Cactus Jack’s by BSA rather than minivan, but they have Fat Tire on tap and a very good cheeseburger.
The wilderness seemed a little less alluring, but we looked at it anyway. For the record, to the west lay: a public golf course, another lake with more pedal boats, and Squaw Pass, where a little snow lingered, trying to look menacing, and succeeding, in my view.
It was still summer, and I wasn’t ready to experience an extra early frost above timberline. Like any good explorer, I conserved resources. I went home to bed.
Robin Chotzinoff is a freelance writer who lives in Evergreen.
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The details
Big Soda Lake is inside Bear Creek Lake Park at 15600 West Morrison Road, just east of C-470 at the Morrison Road exit. Information at 303-697-6159 will take you waterskiing, horseback riding, hiking and more. Boat rentals are $15 per hour, 303-697-
1522 for information.
For information on fly-fishing Bear Creek, contact the Blue Quill Angler at 1532 Bergen Parkway in Evergreen at 303-674-4700.
Cactus Jack’s Tavern, 4651 Colorado 73, Evergreen (303) 674-
1564. Food is served by River Ribs at 303-670-1113 inside the Tavern.
