Woodland Park's Lovell Gulch

We returned to hike Lovell Gulch today after moving away 3 years ago. We used to hike here about once a week. It is generally 10 degrees cooler than Colorado Springs and the birds were singing their hearts out.

We saw a few more hikers on the trail than when we used to hike here. The trail starts a mile before reaching the loop. Once at the top, the views go for miles.

Had to stop for Buffalo wine burgers with green chili along the creek in Cascade.

Summit County and Lake Dillon in Colorado

We enjoy Summit County in the winter for skiing, hiking and cycling in the summer. There are several National campgrounds around the lake but Heaton Bay is our favorite. Safeway is a couple of miles away in the town of Frisco. The bike trail runs along side the campground. You can ride to Vail, Keystone or Breckenridge.

An evening of kayaking on Lake Dillon.

Riding our bikes from Frisco to Copper Mountain and on to the top of Vail Pass.

The hike is out of Breckenridge up Boreas Pass and beautiful.

After rain and lightening every afternoon, the weather is warming up which sends us looking for shade. Back to Colorado Springs for a couple of weeks while we finish up our jobs before heading out further.

Chatfield State Park, Co

The drive thru the mountains from Buena Vista to Littleton, Colorado was so pretty after all of the rain. We enjoy Chatfield State Park so much, lots of space and full hookups. They have bike trails all over the Denver area along the South Platte river and streams.

Hudson Gardens has a great coffee shop along the river which was a treat after 32 miles for the last 7 miles back to the trailer.

We had tickets to see Three Dog Night at Hudson Gardens. We enjoy this venue since it is small and cozy and had such a good time. We had forgotten about many of their songs.

After the rain and the concert. Another good day!

Buena Vista Bike Fest

This is a fun event put on by the Colorado Springs Cycling Club which we belong to. A lot of effort is made to make this a fun event. The views during the ride are incredible.

The ride around Turquoise Lake were so pleasant and very little traffic. But the grade seemed to go on and on as we reached the high point. As you can see I needed plenty of pictures aka rest stops.

Once we made it to the Summit, everyone would stop and put clothes on and zip up for the ride down.

After the decent and arriving in Leadville, CO, there were great volunteers with lunch for us. Couldn't sit too long since we had another climb around the Mineral Belt and didn't want to get stiff.

After the ride and return to Buena Vista, there was beer, BBQ and music. We slept like babies that night.

Buena Vista, Colorado

We haven't been to Buena Vista in a while. Everything was beautiful and river running high after all of the rain we have received.

Mount Princeton in the background while we ride our bikes up Cottonwood Pass.

We managed to ride up to Cottonwood Hot Springs before the pass really started to climb. When we stopped in for a visit, they were very pleasant and showed us around. We have visited Mt Princeton Hot Springs in the past but really liked the atmosphere here.

I was hoping to hike up to Ptarmigan Lake but as you can see the snow was still a bit deep.

After driving down the pass to under 10,000 feet we found another trail with lots of beaver ponds and streams.

The Buena Vista Park runs along the Arkansas River with hiking/biking trails, kayaking and rafting.

So glad we got to return even though its not very far from where we live.

H. B. Wallace Reserve, Green Mountain Falls

After so much rain this month, it was good to get out with the Pikes Peak Over the Hill Gang for a morning hike.

We started out down here and headed to the rocks way up there. Of course, we had to take Fat Man's Squeeze up and squeeze between the rocks.

Lots of short switchbacks going straight up. We made it to the top of Castle Rock.

The toes got sore going down. I guess I should tie my shoes better. It was fun to catch up with everyone. Only found one tick. Isn't it early in the season?

Getting ready for a another adventure

Colorado is great in the summer. As excited as we are to be starting a new chapter in our life, we are waiting until the end of summer to be on our way. We have been fortunate to have good friends to spend time riding our bikes and hiking with after a long winter inside. I don't think they really get what we are planning to do. We are a little glad that everyone doesn't want to do the same. Who else would take care of the grocery stores and send us our mail if everyone was gone? Our kids are not surprised since Debbie has worked 3 month contracts as an ICU traveling nurse over the past 12 years and they see our passion for travel and meeting new people. It is a process getting things in order to totally change the way a person is living. As we go thru things, giving away some and packing away others, it is fun to remember our past giving pictures to our kids and laughing at the memories. I am glad we didn't leave it for them to go thru when we aren't able to share what they ment to us.We have a contract on the house, an offer to buy our furniture, the travel trailer is getting tuned up for our summer and most of our belongings that we don't need given away. We will move across town and enjoy the summer in the mountains but ready to leave when the time is right. Gore Creek, Vail, Colorado