dawg days
May 8, 2026
This blog is arriving pretty late, as since I got a dog, started full-time van life, and kinda moved to Fort Collins, I haven't had a moment of rest... or consistent Wi-fi. I've been exhausted, falling asleep within seconds every night. But now that my dogs is at daycare, and I've settled down in the corner of a cozy cafe called Alleycat, I'm ready to remind myself what the hell just happened. In the month of april, I bounced from Estes Park, to Taos, to Leadville, to Boulder, to Fort Collins, all in the span of two weeks. A lot of big life changes, but don't I say that every blog? Let's recap.
In late march, with the end date of my job at the YMCA craft shop in sight, I started being bad and looking at shelter dogs on the work computer. Boo, I know! Am I even ready for a pet? I'm not of fan of people my age who have crazy chaotic lives and can't take care of their animals, but I have wanted a dog for years, ever since I got the big 'ol dog breed encyclopedia for my sixth birthday. After college, I worked a year at Dogtopia, but I couldn't have my own mutt because of how frequently I would move, every six months bouncing from seasonal job to seasonal job, often with sub-par, crowded housing. Last month, I decided to take a break from the nomadic life and stay in Colorado for at least a year. Part of my 'big picture' for my own life included having an animal companion, so with my new converted van and guiding job, a (hypothetically) stable income and living, I decided to fufil my little dream-life trifecta. On petfinder, I ended up spotting a strange looking egg-head creature named Pippin - a bull terrier ala the old Budlight mascot Spud McKenzie, whose lamp form was my Instagram profile picture for years. There was no information about this mysterious beast, and my first visit was not promising. Pippin was fat, depressed, had shit all over his crate, and seeemed compleately stoned! Turned out he was- he had just gotten two benign tumors removed and was on a LOT of drugs. I went home dogless that day, but after a week where I could not stop thinking about him, I decided to pull the trigger and get my boy. At the shelter, I met a completely different dog, super affectionate and silly. Pippin latched onto me immediately, and from his adoption day we were inseperable. As a former stray, he's been a perfect van dog and adventure buddy, and it feels like things were meant to be. Although he doesn't know how to sit, and refuses to learn, he is potty trained, can walk off leash, and very social. I was worried that he would be aggressive and disobediant as a five year old who has only experienced the streets and the shelter, but he loves to go the the dog park and play with the pack, then spread out on my van rug and get belly rubs. I love my P-Dawg!
Three days after his adoption, I decided to take Pippin with me to Taos, New Mexico, where Maddie was celebrating her birthday. I know you're supposed to give a shelter dog stability in the early days, but my life is basically a series of spontaneous road trips, so it was important for Pippin to get out there. Us three + Lila all piled into Maddie's suburu and hit the road. I had never been to the area, but it felt strangely similar to all the dirtbag towns I've been to, like Bishop and Fayetteville, except this town had a lot more adobe houses and dusty desert roads. We met a whole bunch of cool raft guides/ski guides living out of their rigs, and spent our first night crashing at a raft yard with an awesome red adobe sunhouse, that had huge windows and a stone shower. It was my dream house fr, I may be in a van for now, but if I ever get lucky enough to graduate from the dirtbag academy... Pippin also made friends with a random border collie stray who wanders around the property, and they played all night as we drank beers by the fire. The next morning, we hiked to some natural hot springs, which were right by a cold river that you could jump in for a fun shock. After a nice night of drinking and camping, the next day we headed out to the Great Sand Dunes national park, where we went sand boarding. The dunes are really weird, it looks like a bunch of trucks dumped some sand right in the middle of the colorado mountains. I don't think my history of board sports helped much with sandboarding but I got the hang of it. Our good time got cut short by a huge hail storm, which Pippin was not a fan of. It's one of the only times I've ever seen his tail tucked and ears down as we ran to the car!
During my trip to Taos, I ended up getting a job! Cool! Not in New Mexico, but back in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is a chill college town an hour down the mountain from Estes. It was at Ascent climbing gym, a nice space with tall lead walls, fun problem bouldering, hot showers (very important), and big windows that open and let the sunshine flow in. I love a cool breeze when I'm climbing, indoors and outdoors, plus the free van parking out back is a huge plus. Me and Magz went down to visit their friend and check out some shops, gyms, and bars. It's pretty hip, and a nice change from a winter in Estes with all the crouchy old people that live there. I like Foco a lot, there's an awesome dog park west of town, a ton of sport climbing and boating in Poudre and Horsetooth Resivoir, every shop that exists on this one road, plenty of people my age, and it's a little friendlier to the van variety than Boulder. I've always enjoyed my time there, which is good because soon I'd basically have to move there... more on that in a bit. Back in Estes, I finally finished out my job at the Y. Thank god! I moved out of the dorms before they could kick me out, and figured out stealth camping with a dog, not the easiest thing in the world. It was difficult at first, expirimenting with flying under the radar, finding the good parking spots, and keep Pippin hidden from questioning eyes, but by the time my job ended, I had gotten into the groove of things and now it's my new normal. After one more rave with Maddie and Lila, I said goodbye to some of my only friends in town, as they were heading back to West Virginia :( . Man, I miss the New River Gorge, especially how easy it was to vanlife down at the AAC campground, but I have to keep reminding myself of how lonely I was living there. I'm here in Colorado to make friends and climb and stuff, and that's my goal this summer! So far, my only semi-consistent buddy is Magz, but hopefully things will change and I'll meet some cool people in FoCo. After saying goodbye to my friends at the Y, (only temporarily, as I planned to sneak showers there during the summer), I headed to Leadville for my Wilderness First Responder course, a neccessary class for all backcountry guide types.
I sent Pippin off with his sitter and headed to Leadville, a cool little ski town a bit south of Copper. I had a nice 'vacation' learning how to plug lung punctures and identify whether someone is going into shock. I camped illegally by turqoise lake, where I had an incredible view of the snow capped mountains all to myself, and spent way to much money shopping and getting coffee in town. The Melezana factory was there, sewing handmade micro-grid hoodies, and of course I had to buy one for me and my dog so we could match. Boo! After a week out there, I was missing Pippin quite a bit, and drove quickly back to Boulder where I was camping in the bed of some guy I met on Tinder. Pippin had gotten into big trouble at the sitters, and even though I made it clear he wasn't allowed near cats, the sitters cat had escaped from the garage and gotten into a scuffle with my dog, most likely killing the poor kitty. The sitter was fair enough to say that no one was at fault and it was a bad accident, and I know now to keep Pippin away from all felines. I've learnt a lot this month from being a new dog owner, pretty much the first time I've had to take care of another living thing. In ways, it has limited the things I can do, I have to think about where I can put Pippin and for how long, and certainly drained my wallet. Dogs are expensive, especially when you can't help but buy him silly clothes. But owning a dog has also provided structure in my under-employed life and opened a lot of other doors. I've explored so much of my new 'home' in Fort Collins just by walking Pippin and taking him to different parks. Speaking of Foco,
I had expected to get a little guiding work during May, like one or two tours and some training, but that plan was soon dashed as my boss told me I wouldn't start guide training until June. Yikes. I had forgotten how slow May is for guiding, and the snow soon piled on so it was impossible to climb anyways. Since I'm not working, I decided to leave Estes for a bit. I love the nature there, but it's really hard to live out of a van. There's strict overnight parking laws and greedy landowners who know they can make more charging tourists for rooms than renting spaces out to people who actually work there. I was going to pay for a spot behind the Mountain Shop, but Magz let me know that the other guides did not want me there, so my parking plan for Estes is probably just the Lion's Gulch trailhead, not ideal for Pippin as it is right by a busy highway. Luckily, I was able to load on as many shifts as were available at my other job, so I've been basically living at Ascent 24/7, climbing, working, using their showers, and camping behind their building with the other local conversions. So far, I haven't made any personal connections in town, and all of my free time is taken up by the little canine bugger, or cooking meals on my butane stove and trying not to CO2 poison myself. I'm on the internet a lot less, which is nice I guess, but I haven't climbed outdoors in awhile and my spending account is looking very... dry. I have been putting a lot of money into the van to make in comfortable, getting a huge fridge, carpet, mood lighting, etc. but now it's time to lock in and stop bleeding money, especially with these gas prices. At least I don't have to pay rent... Hopefully with my semi-employed status in May, I'll be able to climb outside more, train inside more, and head out on my free days to do some sport at Pouter or trad at Eldo.