Mother's Day Hike 2012

Made a fast dash up to Steamboat Springs so Cathy could visit one of her students.  I actually came along for the ride and since it was just the one kiddo, Cathy suggested a hike.  Of the choices that I got to decide from I found one that was out of the way of heavy foot traffic. The trail head was 15 miles down (or I should say up) a dirt road and at just over 10,118 ft.  The trail head was at the end of the road near Stillwater Reservoir and at the foot of Flattop Mountain.

Being Mother’s Day in Colorado means bringing shorts and winter gear.  I had a collection of caps to wear.  I had a big floppy sun hat, a baseball cap and a watch cap in case the weather went down the toilet.  Well we were in flush mode that day.  Not only did I not have snowshoes to finish up our hike we had thundersnow to deal with.  It started snowing towards our turning point but when thunder rumbled, it was time for us to reverse our tracks.

Well it is Spring in the High Plains.  Read in the interwebs that Spring is two weeks earlier than anytime in this century in England.  It is predicted to be warmer this week end there than Bermuda.  I spent my whole Spring Break with Vertigo and nausea,  Yeah!!

But I digress the weather here is in the 70′s and will be all week.  Out walking to clear the cobwebs and came across this motel.  The color was great but the blue sky and  blue of the sign fit better in Black and White.

Sp 2012 has started off with a flurry of activity but no snow.  Break was long but not long enough and I’m back into the swing of it.  Currently fufilling clinical hours at Longmont United Hospital and truely enjoying the experience.

The Flickr set of the Mills lake hike that was just posted

Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

So we went out with our friends Carol and Mike and went for a hike in the mountains.  We have been trying to get out once a month and do a hike.  We have also try some of the Volksmarching, doing 10K’s.  This hike was a ten kilometer hike with a 750′ elevation gain from the parking lot.  If this was earlier this spring I would be a basket case today but I feel pretty good about what I accomplished.

I took along the trusty G9 and my iPhone 3GS.  I had the Contax T2 in my bag but it never saw daylight.  I like film but the immediacy of digital keeps me satisfied for the time being.

An adapted image on the trail to Mills Lake

So Photoshop comes thru again.  Don’t need to hump the view camera or even the Bronica and a case of filters with me.  The sky has its faults but I won’t be printing any larger than 5×7 if I can help it so who cares.

Mesa-Verde_Panorama5, originally uploaded by dgsmyth.

View from Mesa Verde National Park looking West

How much is that bride in the window?

Saw this in the thrift store window while walking in downtown Greeley.It just caught my eye and I thought “are they really thinking they will get people int to the store because they see this?”.  Guess what?  I kept on walking…

Made a resolution to get out at least once a month for a hike with our friends Mike and Carol. For June we shot for some place near Boulder 9for the ease of location). Mike had printed a bunch of options and I saw the Lost Lake trail near Nedarland.

The trail was up past the High School and was partly crowded by 10 am. We set out and right away the snow run off was in high form. The jeep trail leading to the trail head was a raging creek. As we progressed higher the weather turned nicer and the snow on the trail got deeper.

I definitely recommend this hike

ps we never made it to the lake as the snow was too deep to traverse

Took a short walk with the missus the other day and a few block from the house is this nice little park with over priced homes. Go figure right?

So I ended my forties on a high note.  Took a motorcycle run with my friend John up back roads of Larimer County and down the Poudre Valley Canyon on motorcycles.

John and I had a blast.  When I am up to more challenging riding, I will mount a video to the bike and show the roads.

Here is the link for the video