Wednesday, August 26, 2015

In Utah, on vacation.


Here we are on vacation in Utah, enjoying the lovely late summer at our cabin, the Lerfa Lodge.  The cabin is in good shape, and the meadow we have for a front yard looks healthy.  Its taken 25 years to get it that way, but its doing really well.  We have new fir trees coming up all over, and the Aspens are healthy and filling in the gaps where we cut down so many dead trees.  Its beautiful!

Bryce came up to see us on Monday evening, and on Tuesday he took us on a really lovely hike to Long Lake and Island Lake.  About 7 miles total, and really beautiful the entire way.  It was perfect weather, and the woodland fairy creatures were happy and smiling!


To add to the hiking pleasure, the berries were out!  Here's the crew engrossed in picking Huckleberries...that's right, Huckleberries!  They were really small but ripe and delicious.



And I just couldn't pass up these gorgeous currant bushes without stopping.  They were wonderful, and beautiful to boot.



This area is surrounded by several peaks...that's Long lake in the background, with my favorite hiking people in the foreground!



All along the way the tall grass kept catching my eye, very lovely and waving gently in the breeze.  Moose was having a great time, and he kept checking on me to make sure I was still there.




So we got to Island lake with thunder sounding beyond the far ridge...that was really cool as it echoed around the peaks.  It was like someone hitting a metal 50 gallon drum.



My fishing excursion was cut short when I realized that a when you have a 4-piece fly rod, you really need all 4 pieces to make it work.  Somehow I had left one piece behind, but no matter, we sat down for a snack and soon......




We got a lovely rain storm that turned to hail!  We sheltered under a tree which kept most of the rain and hail off of us, and the sounds and the smells and the coolness were terrific.  Moose didn't mind any of this, and went out and barked to ward off whatever beastie he had smelled in the forest.



Moose loves the water......


Then the storm passed and the ground drank up the water and we had a sunny, pleasant walk out.  This is Long lake again, with these cool glacier-smoothed rock we got to walk on.  Some of them were polished shiny like the hood of a car!




It was a really lovely day!  We took our time, sat and enjoyed our surroundings and had a wonderful time together.  The best part about the day was the company....I love these people!



Sunday, July 12, 2015

Fun (finally) in Colorado!

As my friend James says, I've been spending my weekends enjoying the "joys of home ownership".  Not this weekend, however, we decided to get out and play!  I started doing CrossFit workouts again this week, and my 56 year old body is wondering what hit it, but never mind that, I'm in charge here! So on Friday, the glorious flex day off, we slept late (yahoo!!!!) and then climbed Eagle peak.  That's a steep rough trail but not very long and it has this beautiful aspen grove half way up.


 And it was Moose's first time on this peak, so he got in the selfie...

...and we hung out by the creek on the way down....

It was one of those perfect weather days that's just cloudy enough and just sunny enough.  It feels really good to climb, and Sue and I both are getting better at it.  Moose, on the other hand, with his youth and raging male hormones, never seems to get very tired, at least not for more than about 15 minutes!  He's turning out to be a great hiking companion, but at 70 pounds and 7 months, he's likely going to be a big one.

After recovering by eating Pasties (Scandinavian meat pies), we got up Saturday morning for our first mountain bike ride of the season.  We headed out the the Greenland open space and it was glorious!


 Great rolling single-track trails, hardly any people, a few nice horses, and some runners and wonderful vistas.  It felt like we had the area to ourselves, and this place is only 15 minutes from our house!  We love living in Colorado!  The place had one long hill (Reptillicus hill from the BLLLLBR comes to mind), but we made it and the downhill on the other side was a blast!  It was another perfect weather day after several weeks of rain and thunderstorms.  The wildflowers were amazing!  We saw big stands of waist-high pearly-white scarlet gilia (it wasn't red) and tall grasses and penstemon.  The company was awesome too....I love living in Colorado with my best friend ever!





After the ride we hit the local farmer's market ( I love saying that, "local" farmer's market, CAUSE I LIVE HERE and I'm a local now!!!!)  OK, I got carried away there, but I'm allowed.  Green beans and a falafel sandwich...life is very, very good.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Back (Home) again!

I've decided to come back to my blog because Colorado is such a great place and I'm going to keep track of my adventures here.  On Friday I was at work looking out my window at the mountains and it hit me....I need to be there!  So I decided to get up early Saturday morning and do a hike.  Then I realized that I could hike to Stanley Reservoir and hike and fish (with my new fly rod) both!  Great plan!  Sue is out of town or I would have taken her with me.

I woke up to a cloudy sky, more accurately it felt like I was in a cloud, but I trusted my weather app and set out anyway.  This is what it looked like when I left my truck at the trailhead:



But, in about 100 yards my faith paid off:


SUNSHINE!!  We haven't had a lot of that around here recently, but I'm grateful for all the rain because it means a better summer.  This is a beautiful hike, but the first mile (of 2) is VERY steep, kind of a hard way to get started but its worth it.


The hike was lovely and cool, but I started to wonder if I was going to be able to get past the waterfall, which is usually pretty tame.  It was running high, but thanks to my hiking poles and my super great Keen hiking boots (product placement!) I got by just fine.



Next along the trail is one of my favorite places in the world.  I've been to this spot with my friends, my kids, my wife.  It is most lovely in the fall when the aspens are in their glory.  It may not look like much, but when I step into this meadow I forget my cares and my heart soars!



Next is the lake, which sits in a lovely spot and you'd think you were so far away from the world.  I had the place all to myself.  My son-in-law-Stephen was supposed to be with me, but he chose the better part and was with his family (he's leaving on a business trip on Monday).  Good call Stephen, but I missed you.







I recently bought a fly rod, because for many years I have wanted to learn to fly fish when I moved back to the mountains.  So here I am, and thanks to the really nice guy at Bass Pro Shops, I had the basic flys and how to fish them.  The Olive Wollybugger was knocking them dead!  My casting wasn't so great, but I was catching fish (catch and release) and having a blast.  I even successfully did some roll casts right next to some trees and caught a fish there too!
Before I left I had to take the iconic fly fishing picture.  There should be a wicker creel in there, but I don't have one!



The hike down was equally lovely (and lots easier).  What a jewel this place is, 15 minutes from my house and up in the mountains I love.  If Sue had been home she would have enjoyed fresh trout for lunch!

So I'm back blogging, so give me your comments, and look for me on Facebook...I'm coming back to that too!