Payne Creek

Just under an hour from my home in Denver is a trail leading into Pike National Forest and then the Lost Creek Wilderness.  That trail is the Payne Creek Trail.  This was my backpacking destination for Memorial Day weekend.

This was not only close to town but one place where I was fairly confident there would be no snow.  Yes, that’s right – snow.  This Memorial Day weekend snow conditions in the mountains were like March not May.  To make this point more clearly, let me tell you that some ski areas actually re-opened!

The Payne Creek Trail was joyfully free of snow.  The weather was pretty much perfect save a small bit of early evening rain on Saturday and some seriously strong winds on Sunday night.  Here’s a shot of a budding Aspen Tree in the mid-morning light Saturday.

Me in the tent during the Saturday evening rain.

I was accompanied by two friends: Charlie and Dylan.  Charlie is a super cute terrier (pictured immediately below) and Dylan is Charlie’s person (pictured below the picture immediately below).

We didn’t see much wildlife save for this mouse that tried to make a new home in Dylan’s shoes:

The weekend was goal-less and relaxing.  Just naps, yahtzee, reading, eating, naps, uno, and reading.  A perfect antidote to my current busy life.

Amazing Colorado!

This weekend my friend Lisa invited me to share her birthday weekend backpacking with her in the West Elks wilderness in southwest Colorado.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

We were parked, packed up, and ready to hike by 3:30 pm on Friday.  We hiked in about 3ish miles and found an idyllic camping site.  It was a small meadow of lush greenery and dandelions surrounded by aspens and tall pine trees. 

This was the tent and its backdrop as we viewed it from our spot at breakfast:

The early morning sun made for a great view over breakfast.

All the dandelions in the little meadow were lit up with the sun:

The birthday girl enjoying her coffee:

 

After our leisurely morning meal we got on our way.  Our goal was Storm Pass, which was about five miles one way from our site.  The whole hike was stunning though, so it made the length manageable.  We were treated to views of unique rock formations, waterfalls, valley vistas, and interesting old trees.

 

 

 

 

 

The view from Storm Pass was fabulous.  We had an excellent view of the Castles and the clouds made the view all the better.

We were also surprised to see a good variety of wildflowers!  This one is an avalanche lily, it grows as snowfields recede.  We saw gobs of them. 

The white and blue flowers below are two kinds of campion (I think), they are tiny.

This is a budding flower and I have no idea what it is.

This is a tiny little flower that looks like an orchid.

These little sunshines are asters.

This is a red columbine!  It looks like a firework.

We got back to camp with enough time after dinner to sit by a stream nearby and enjoy the evening sun and some beverages.  There were some flowers around us, Indian Paintbrush, that were awesome in the light of the lowering sun.

 

We packed up and hiked out the next morning (today/Sunday) and, guess what?, the morning light was stupendous!  This is the two of us before we set off:

These are two shots of Lisa on the trail through the aspens:

 

This was a parting view of the rock formations:

I forgot!  There were lots of cows!!  Cattle are allowed to graze on public lands with permits and graze they do.  On the way in we were literally herding cattle down the trail as they ran from us and mooed loudly.   On the way out we only saw a few:

The only downside to doing a trip like this fairly early in the season is that the bar is raised pretty high in terms of expectations of beauty – many places will pale in comparison.

Colorado State Fair and Camping

This past weekend our niece and nephew, Morgan and Jake, were out to visit (with their parents) from the east coast. So, of course, we all went to the Colorado State Fair to get some real western culture.

The animal stuff was the strangest. I mean the fair with the rides and the greasy food and the people, some of large size, was no surprise. Here is a sheep being prepared for show and judgment:
We came across a sheep contest and I swear as we passed by the only words I heard were "...and the body cavity..." I have no idea what this has to do with judging the sheep and I don't want to know.

We also saw swine in repose:

This one is called "Sandy with Swine":

The cows were also present - here is a choice image of the view:

I found this odd but it was very popular, one of the "interactive" things kids could do was milk a cow. Now, I'm sure this is a great experience, perhaps once in a lifetime, and educational for the children but it sure seemed...I don't know just odd to watch. What also caught my attention was the look on the cow's face as she was handled by one child after another:

Unfortunately we missed the "mutton busting" which was on Friday night. This is basically small children competing with other small children - who can stay on the running sheep the longest...



Other than animals there were marching band complete with color guards competing for some trophy or other. Here is a view of the tortured kids in their marching band outfits in the heat of Pueblo, Colorado.

Then there were the rides...this is the "Wacky Worm." Sandy got to ride it with Jake.


As you can see it was a pretty scary ride:

After the day at the state fair we took Jake to Jellystone campgound just south of Castle Rock, Colorado. The main event was a campfire and roasting marshmallows. Jake didn't like his very toasty so he held it pretty high over the fire:


Sandy on the other hand likes his burnt. Not really but I think Jake found it amusing to see three marshmallows on fire.


Jake wanted to stay up late but it was a chilly night. Sandy put him in his rented REI kids sleeping back and put him on the picnic table.


It was a pretty tiring weekend for kid-less folks like ourselves.

National Geographic burns stinky

So, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park this past weekend to camp in the park and hear the elk bugle (you can hear it here and here - this second one is strange quasi-elk porn with a really whiny bull elk). We went with a soon-to-be-married couple, Scott and Kara (you can see a picture of them in a previous post here) and their dog Charlie.

The weather was "typical" Colorado weather: it rained and was chilly and windy for 1/2 an hour and then it was sunny and hot for an hour, like that over and over. These were the conditions during our Cub Lake hike. I was lucky enough to get to hike with this rugged male model:

While stopped at Cub Lake we were pestered by gray jays, ducks (they actually came out of the water to beg for food), and chipmunks. This one chipmunk, after s/he learned that we were not going to give up the goods, dug up an ancient potato chip and snacked for our viewing pleasure:


Later in the early evening it rained quite hard for about 45 minutes or so. During this time the four of us (and Charlie) took shelter in their car. We shared a bit of Fisheye Shiraz to help the time pass. As soon as the rain died down we hopped out and started to cook dinner. This led to building a fire and having more wine, which led to burning everything we could find in our vehicles that would burn. When we got down to the last of the few bundles of wood we brought, then we scavenged the cars. Of course, I had a bunch of old tissues. Here are the wine drinking pyros (well, three of them are represented - Scott is not pictured):


Sandy found two old National Geographics in our car and we did burn those but I don't recommend it - their glossy pages are stinky to burn, reminiscent of plastic...

The fire died out and we retired to our respective tents. When we woke up this was the view from the tent:

About ten minutes after this it clouded up and rained hard for about 20 minutes...