Posted on September 30, 2009

I first discovered the H-Bar-G the summer of 1990. The previous summer I had met someone who told me about it (thanks again Scott!) at a hostel in Northern California and we met up in Colorado the following year. I drove through that gate and I knew I was home. I spent between a week and a month in Lester cabin every summer afterward. Who knew I'd be content to share a room and a bathroom with so many others! And the year Lou got the new mattresses!!! That was awesome!

While most every one else seemed to spend their days hiking or involved in some other jock activity, I was content to be a "porch potoato." Sitting with my feet up on the railing and watching the light change over the mountains was my version of heaven. And the stars at night, the Perseid meteor showers were incredible! I met so many wonderful people (and a few not so wonderful, human nature being what it is of course)...

I was there for what must have been Lou's last summer. The cancer was back and he was going in for treatments... when I didn't get a post card that Christmas I feared the worst... and then found out he was gone and the hostel was closed.

I went back in September of 2001, to say goodbye. I stayed at a B&B in Boulder (my financial situation having changed from when I first discovered the H-Bar-G) and drove up to that wonderful gate. There was a sign asking people to respect that is was private property. Inner turmoil... they couldn't possibly mean me... this is my second home... I need to see the view from the porch one last time... but in the end I just sat at the gate and cried.

The next morning was 9/11 and I was stuck in Boulder watching those horrible images on TV. Sobbing for my lost home and for all those lost in the disaster... unable to get a plane back to SF... wandering the streets of Boulder. The images of 9/11 will always be inextricably intertwined for me with the loss of a little piece of heaven in Colorado.

RIP Lou, the only Republican I've ever loved.

- Martha Radetsky, MA, MFT (San Francisco, CA)



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