When we last spoke, I had just finished an awesome adventure with Keri, Ron, Katie, and Baby Kiwi that included some spectacular hiking at Yosemite National Park. I got to continue my national park tour three weeks ago by going to visit Rocky Mountain National Park with Landon. We had such a great time, and per usual, it did my heart so good to see that boy :)
Landon works for a company that moves by-products from breweries to dairies so that farmers can use the brewer's grain as feed for the cattle. He had the awesome fortune of getting to go to CO for his work for a week to meet with their lead nutritionist and tour some of the dairy facilities in the northern part of the state. I decided to fly out (hey, a ticket to CO is a heck of a lot cheaper than one to FL!) so that we could spend a 3 day weekend together hiking and exploring. We were worried that the fires would interfere with our hiking plans, but God is good and kept the smoke away from our area of the park.
I started out the trip by juuuuuust missing Caroline and Cameron and their herd of youngsters (I arrived in Denver as they were leaving Denver, but I could feel their presence in the air and it was really cool to be able to send her a text while in the same time zone :) ). After basking in that small triumphant feeling (don't hate.... being 3 time zones away really sucks sometimes!), I picked up our rental car and headed off to find my man. For the record, this trip made me officially experience a feeling of hatred towards a Chevrolet. I did not know this was possible. But I shall never drive a Chevy Cruz again, mark my words.
We headed off to Estes Park, CO. If you have never been, you really should. Estes Park is such a neat area, with lots of hiking and a beautiful down town area. I forgot to take pictures, but you should totally just take my word for it. Or Google it. Whatev.
After spending the first part of the day in Estes Park, we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park to get to Grand Lake, CO for the night.
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| Chillin a mile high. There was snow next to us. |
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| Mountain Man got so excited about the Rockies that he forgot that it is illegal to walk on the tundra.... Oh well. Picture turned out pretty sweet anyway. |
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| Please take this moment to note the excessive wind. My free arm is holding down my poofy shirt so that I don't flash yall, and I think my hair is self-explanatory. |
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| Oh, hey Rockies :) |
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| Found some elk in a meadow. |
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| And lots of beeeeebies! And the poor babysitter doe. Ha. |
After lots of careful planning on my part (much to the annoyance of Landon), we chose to hike from the Green Mountain trailhead to the Tonahuntu Creek divide, to Granite Falls, to Haynach Lake, and back.
It was a super pretty trail. Started out nice and flat, very well maintained, with a huge circle around the aptly named Big Meadow. Lots of beautiful wild flowers, and we even stumbled on two young bull moose. Mooses? Mice? Wait, that's not right....
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| Self-timer on a rock! Davys would be so proud :) |
Trail begins to get steeper as you approach Granite Falls, and a good majority of the hike is next to the beautiful, and crystal clear, river. On the way back, our water supply was pretty low, and considering that we were at pretty high altitude, the water was glacial run-off, and we still had about 8 miles back to the trail head, we decided to play russian roulette with intestinally upsetting bacteria and just drink from the river. We won. :)
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| You can even climb to the top of the falls, like this creeper. |
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| Everyone respects a man who speaks softly and carries a big stick. Or a man who lifts many hundred pounds and carries a big stick..... ha. |
The falls are a turn-around point for most hikers, but we pressed onward. The trail got less maintained, and we didn't see another soul for the rest of the hike (which is how I personally prefer to roll). We did find some VERY fresh mountain lion tracks and clear evidence of a struggle with some sort of cloven-hoofed mammal, which was slightly disconcerting, but well worth it when we reached the meadow at the top of our hike at 11,500 feet. We hung out on a huge boulder, ate lunch, and just took in the majesty of the scenery. Majestic really is the best word to use to describe the Rockies, I think.
Now is the point where I should mention that I did not do a good job with math for this hike..... I got so excited about exploring this part of the park that I totally did not take mileage into consideration. Here is the equation that we ended up with:
1 power lifter (with ZERO type I slow twitch muscle fibers) + 17.2 miles of hiking + 11,500 ft elevation = the "drunken monkey walk"
What is a drunken monkey walk? It occurs when you lose all glycogen stores to your muscles and are running on only lactic acid. You basically can't support yourself and rely on your walking stick, and throw one leg hopelessly in front of the other and struggle to stand upright. I took a lot of video because I thought it was semi-entertaining, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post them. Ha. So here is a still shot and the rest will have to happen with your imagination:
Either way, we eventually made it back to the car, with Landon and my ankle in on piece. I asked him if he ever wanted to go hiking with me again and he was silent for a while. After much thought he replied "Yes....... if we are smarter about the distance...."
We spent the night back in Denver, and the next day almost drove to Ft. Collins to see FRIEND KATIE B.!!! Its a good thing that she caught on to my directionally challenged self and re-directed me the right direction..... towards Ft. Carson. Which is where she actually lives. Which is the exact opposite direction of Ft. Collins. Of course.
Y'all, this chick is amazing. She is such a beautiful, hilarious, talented, brave, and loving-hearted woman. And I haven't seen her in almost 3 years because she has been serving overseas in the Army and we kept missing each other when she was home and I was in MI. She is now engaged, and I got to meet her fiance, who is awesome. We ate brunch at a sweet restaurant that reminded us both of Griffin's back where we grew up :) It was soooo good to get to see this girl! So good, in fact, that we forgot to take a picture :( So here is one from the last time I saw her when we went rock climbing!
Bottom line: I love the Rockies, Landon, and Katie, and I was so glad to get to see all three of them!
Also, if you're bored, feed a lemon to a baby and see what happens!
Love,
AP
love this! so glad y'all had such a great time & that we got to text from the same time zone! still miss you!!!! and Landon, you can kill her for posting that picture... :)
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