2026 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake

This past Sunday was Father's Day, and my wife and kids took me camping.

For quite awhile, our family tradition has been to go camping on Father's Day weekend.

On this blog, you can go all the way back to 2011 Father's Day Weekend to see photos of us camping.

Back then, the kids were pretty small. They are not small anymore. In fact, this year all four of us were drinking alcohol beverages around the camp fire.

I'm not sure how much longer this tradition will continue, but I was lucky enough to have it go at least this year.

This year, like a couple of previous years, we camped just West of Leadville close to Turquois Lake.

2025 Thanksgiving Turkey

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving.

Since 2018 (Cherry Wood Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey), I've been the one in charge of cooking / smoking / grilling the turkeys at the SheppyBrew house.

It's fun for me, and it frees up the oven for the various sides my wife generally makes.

And, I think smoked turkey tastes better than it would if we cooked it in the oven.

Over the years, I've tried several techniques for actually cooking the turkey.

I've smoked a few roasted whole. I've done spatchcocked. I've halved the bird and last year, I quartered the bird.

My plan this year was to repeat the Quartered bird like I did with the 2024 Thanksgiving Turkey. However, for whatever reason, this bird was just being difficult when I was cutting it.

I ended up just deciding to try the spatchcock method again.

2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 3)

So ... as you know if you've been following along on this blog, I've been posting Fathers' Day photos recently.

If you have not been following along and are interested, check out 2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 1) and 2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 2).

Now, I'm posting the finale, Part 3.

We got up Sunday morning and the boys made me pancakes for breakfast. Then we packed up the camp.

2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 2)

A couple days ago I posted 2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 1), and I have more photos from that trip.

After the hike on Part 1, we decided that it was too early to go back to the campground, so we decided to drive up Trail Ridge Road, which is the main road running through the park 48 miles from Estes Park to Grand Lake.

 

2025 Fathers' Day Photos (Part 1)

Fathers' Day was this past weekend.

We hardly go camping anymore. I actually suspect that I'm the only one who actually likes camping and the rest of the family only tolerates it to make me happy.

So, over the past few years, we pretty much only go camping on Fathers' Day weekend.

Oh well. At least I get to go once a year, and at least my family loves me enough to make me happy.

And ... this past weekend, we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) for the weekend, and camped in the Aspenglen Campground.

Here are some photos of our trip .... (and I'm planning on posting more in a couple of days)

 

Pork Butt and Kumbucha

Summer is almost over!

My youngest son is heading off to college this week. How did this happen so fast?

One of the things he requested before heading off to school was to have pulled pork for dinner some night.

So, this past Sunday I smoked a pork butt.

Generally, I use Kombucha to spray my bbq. My spray bottle was empty, but I've had a batch fermenting for quite awhile.

So, I had to bottle up that batch.

I got started around 6am, applying rub to the butt, getting the kettle ready, and getting the kombucha ready to bottle.

Double Pork Butt

So ... remember in Double Chuck Roast, I doubled up on Chuck Roasts to feel family visiting for my younger son's graduation from high school.

Well, this past weekend, we had more family visiting, again mostly to celebrate my son.

This group was even bigger.

This time, I decided to go with a couple of 9ish pound pork butts so I'd have plenty of meat for the big group of family we have visiting.

Early Saturday morning ... around 3am ... I got the kettle ready and the pork on the fire by 3:30 ish.

I let the pork shoulder smoke for around 6 hours. 

2023 Fathers' Day Weekend Pictures

The past few Fathers' Days, I've posted photos of camping trips my wife and kids have taken me on.

I love camping, and my family knows this so Fathers' Days are pretty much the only guaranteed times that I actually get to go camping.

This past Fathers' Day, my family took me to Cow Creek South Campground by Green Mountain Reservoir just north of Silverthorn, Colorado.

It's been real rainy here in Colorado for several weeks and this weekend was no exception.

We got quite a bit of rain, but it was still a great trip. I'd rather be camping in the rain than sitting on my couch at home any day.

Double Chuck Roast

We had my wife's family visiting this past weekend to help celebrate my younger son's graduation from high school.

On Saturday, we wanted some BBQ, but of course my wife also wanted me to spend time with the family.

If you follow this blog at all, you probably have seen posts about me smoking chuck roast for shredded beef sandwiches.

Chuck roast takes a long time to get tender enough to shred the beef, but I like to smoke it for a few hours in the morning and then put it in the Crock Pot for several hours afterward.

That way, I don't have to pay attention to the cooking meat for the majority of the time it is cooking ... at least after that couple of hours on the smoker.

Mac and Cheese on the Kettle

My youngest son graduated from High School this past weekend.

This makes me feel old. Where did all the years go? As they say ... "The days are long. The years are short".

Anyway ... with my oldest son visiting to celebrate his little brother, I made my world-famous comfort food ...

Smoked Mac and Cheese.

I made it a little different than I ever had before. Usually, I use either bacon or sausage as the meat. This time I used both.

And ... the bacon was just laying on the top of the dish as opposed to having it mixed into the noodles and cheese mixture.

Chatfield SUP Photos

This past weekend was Independence Day weekend, which also happens to be the Beer Model's Birthday Weekend.

On Saturday, we decided to pack up the kayaks and paddle board and head over to Chatfield Reservoir for a day of water activities and lunch brats on the portable grill.

We have 3 portal water crafts to share amongst 4 family members, so there is always someone sitting on the beach when we go.

I had the grill to manage and some beer to drink while I was sitting on the beach. This time, I also remembered to bring a bluetooth speaker to listen to music.

2022 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake Part 2

As I mentioned in 2022 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake Part 1, my family took me camping at Turquois Lake, which is just West of Leadville, Colorado for Fathers Day weekend.

I promised more pictures. Here there are.

Part 1 was pretty much all kayaking and SUP pictures. 

This post will have more camping and hiking pictures.

2022 Fathers' Day Camping at Turquois Lake Part 1

The past few Fathers' Days, I've posted photos of camping trips my wife and kids have taken me on.

I love camping, and my family knows this so Fathers' Days are pretty consistently times that I actually get to go camping.

Last year, in fact, the only camping trip I went on was Fathers' Day weekend. (see Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 1) and Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 2).

This past weekend was Fathers' Day 2022, and my family took me camping at Turquois Lake, which is just West of Leadville, Colorado.

It just happens to be the same place we went for Father's Day Weekend 2020Father's Day Weekend 2020.

It is a nice camping area and has the lake where we can Kayak and SUP, which is a lot of fun.

Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 2)

As I mentioned in Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 1), we went camping in Rocky Mountain National Park over Fathers' Day weekend.

On Saturday, we drove up Trail Ridge Road and enjoyed the mountain views.

Fathers' Day 2021 in RMNP (Part 1)

Like most Fathers' Days, we went camping as a family again this year. This year, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).

I love camping and I'm glad that even though the kids are getting bigger, they still seem (for the most part) to enjoy going with me.

Happy Fathers' Day to me!

Here are some pictures from this weekend ...

Smoked Mac-n-Cheese

My son is home from college for Spring Break.

His favorite thing I smoke is Smoked Mac and Cheese, and so I made a batch this past Saturday.

He also wanted to go hiking on Saturday. Since my kids don't get up until fairly late in the day, I prepared the Mac and Cheese in the morning so I could just throw it on the smoker in the afternoon.

If you would like to see the recipe ... go to my blog post Smoked Mac and Cheese. 

It is basically the recipe I (sort of) followed.

I started by cooking the bacon on my grill.

As the bacon was cooking, I started the sauce inside on our stove.

Arctic Vortex (Batch 277)

Happy Brew Year!

As I indicated in SheppyBrew 2020 Year-End Brewing Stats, 2020 was a busy brewing year. I also started 2021 with a brew day.

For Christmas, I received a new addition to my Anvil Foundry, the optional Recirculation Pump Kit.

When I first got the Foundry, I figured I'd try it without the pump kit and see how things went.

I still consider it optional, but the recirculation does provide some advantages that I thought were worth giving it a try, so I put it on my "gift list", and one of my family members bought it for me.

So, of course I had to try out the new toy. I thought a New Year's Day brew would be a perfect time to try it out.

The beer I brewed was the Winter Saison that I brew every year,

 Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

Keg Kooler

So ... for my birthday this year, my lovely wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model), bought me a Pancho's Keg Kooler.

It is sort of a portable kegerator for homebrew.

Really, it is a 20 gallon round cooler with a tap and beer line attached.

It is a perfect fit for a corny keg and a 2.5 pound CO2 canister.

With a little ice ... voila ... bring your homebrew anywhere.

Awesome!

With the whole COVID SIP situation this year, I have not used this Keg Kooler as much as I thought I would.

Father's Day Weekend 2020

Quite often, we go camping on Fathers' Day weekend.

I think that is because the father in the household really likes camping and gets sad that we don't do it as much as he would like.

This past weekend was Fathers' Day. And, we went camping.

This year, we went to a campground at Turquois Lake, which is just West of Leadville, Colorado.

It was very nice.

I took a couple days off work so we could make it a 4-day weekend and camp three nights.

50

I recently had a birthday.

This birthday brought my age to 50. Not sure I feel a day over 49.

My wife (aka the Beer Model) is a saint. Not only does she put up with me, but she also does a great job making me feel special.

This year for my birthday, we coordinated with the kids to come up with a birthday weekend getaway for us to do in the Mountains.

We went Snowmobiling.

We did go snowmobiling once before, and it was a blast.

This time was awesome too.

Here are some pictures from the snowmobile ride: