A little more Colorado
Less than great internet or just being tired after playing seems to have gotten in the way of blogging. High in the Colorado Rockies there are just too many trails to hike and cycle.
Mike's birthday choice was to cycle around Lake Dillon and over Swan Mountain. I requested an early start to avoid the warm sun on the climb to the summit. I was finally getting acclimated to the altitude and made the ride just fine.
Happy birthday!
Fish tacos were on the Island Grill's menu at Frisco's Marina for lunch three miles from the campground.
Over the years, we had noticed a lot of people parking at this trailhead between Frisco and Breckenridge. I wanted to check it out. It turns out that very few people use this trail but use the parking lot as a starting place to ride their bikes on the bike paths to avoid the climb to Breckenridge.
This was great for us, a nice quiet 6 mile hike on the Colorado and Continental Divide Trail.
The beetle kill was very bad many years ago killing much of the lodgepole and other pines due to warmer temperatures that wouldn't kill off the beetle larva. The forest had been so overgrown that no sunlight made it to the ground leaving the ground barren and the pines compete with the aspen for space. Before the dead pines were cleared which took many years, it was not real safe to hike on many of the trails. We could hear the logs cracking as the wind would blow through them, knocking them to the ground.
Now we heard birds returning more than ever. The aspens and new pines are flourishing and ground cover growing nicely.
This through hiker from Massachusetts was walking the Colorado Trail from Waterton Canyon in Denver to Durango and back. Once he finishes this journey, he heads to New Zealand to walk there. He stopped to visit for a while and then turned and started walking again. He had a very steep climb over the Divide that day.
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| Our smoky mountains. |
At night, we watched the shooting stars of the Perseid Meteor showers every few minutes in the dark mountain skies.
Colorado Springs
I had jury duty in Colorado Springs and added some fun to the occasion. I had been excused from jury duty for 14 years since I was working as a traveling nurse and not home very often. This time they gave me a directive to pick a day in the next six months.
We joined the Colorado Springs Cycling Club's Monday dinner ride the day before my duty. It was a real treat catching up with ole friends.
I showed up for my jury duty ready to serve and was chosen for a criminal trail. As we sat and listened to the judge, I felt I could be an impartial juror. He was innocent until the prosecutor proved him otherwise. As the selection went on, the judge continued to ask us questions and people responded very strongly about the child abuse accusations. As time went on, listening to the other potential jurors, it got to me. I got some tears in my eyes that didn't seem to want to stop. I ran out of tissues and a couple of ladies handed me new ones. Needless to say, the judge sent us to lunch and had 6 of us return before everyone else. I was excused by both attorneys and the judge and was quite thankful. It would have been a tough week lasting 4 days. I was standing on the corner when Mike cam to pick me up. He said that I just looked pitiful. I never did hear how the case turned out.
That evening we got to have a stream side dinner with Barb and John Strom who happened to be work camping in Colorado Springs. Mike had worked with them in Mesa last winter. We had a fun evening.
Woodland Park
We arrived in our old home town of Woodland Park in time to see the motorcycle riders heading to Cripple Creek for the "Salute to American Veterans Rally". The impressive parade of motorcycles went on for 32 minutes.
We miss our hikes and happy hours with our friends in this great little mountain town but are also thankful for the opportunity to travel for a while.
Time to leave Colorado...
