Happy July!
Sleeping in is a good thing. A habit I can live with. We got up, cleaned up last nights mess, and got on with the day. Once again, the morning is bright and clear and cool. Waking to snow covered mountains, long green fields, forests, deer – it’s just perfect. I’m sure many would have this image of their heaven.
Today is an ‘open’ day – actually they all are open, but there are some planned events. Breakfast is cereal for me, brats for some – find you own! Our ‘plan’ for the day is to go hiking with the boys.
As most plans go, this one got started a bit late. We intended to hike in the morning, largely because the afternoon weather can often include showers. But this lead to that, and we spend the morning chatting and just mulling around. I got a tour of the ‘apartment’ where Kaui and Luigi are staying when they get here this afternoon. We finally got ourselves together and out around noon.
The boys were glad to see us. I noticed their blanket was missing from their cell – turns out there had been some diarrhea last night. Poor boys! But they seemed fine now, and off we go!
Our first stop is for a snack/lunch at the Railroad Car. This is sort of a practice run – the Railroad Car is where we sometimes go for the fireworks. We get some form of ice cream, curly fries, or something and have a great view of the show. Not many do this, and I’m not sure why. It’s great. The Railroad Car is a throwback to a past era – if they ever allow a McDonalds in town (NO!), the Railroad Car is doomed. It is exactly the kind of business that McDonalds destroyed. They do great ice cream, fair burgers, and the service is fairly fast. Ordering, however, is slow, and there is often a long line waiting to order. The Railroad Car looks like a caboose (remember those?) (I miss them), and they have an incredible amount of business. Best of luck to them.
After the Railroad Car we head back up the mountain, past the cabin turnoff, to the first of two turnoffs to camping/hiking areas. The sky is very threatening, and when we get to the trailhead drops begin to fall. After a brief walk, read the signs, etc., we decide that starting a hike in the rain is not a good idea. So we pile back in the CR-V and head further up the hill to the next turnoff, where incredibly it looks to be clear. Weather in the mountains is variable and unpredictable. The drive to this trailhead is very long, about 45 minutes of rough rocky road. As we moved along the sky became less and less threatening – not clear, but it didn’t look like a downpour was imminent.
When we got to the trailhead there was a volley of rather deafening proportions. There were four young men with rifles doing their thing. I don’t know if they were shooting at something or just shooting, but I’m happy to say that they got in their truck and left just after we got there. We heard one move volley while we were hiking, and that was it.
The hike was great. A little more difficult because, we think, of the increased altitude. We are probably around 10K feet. We’ve done this hike before, several times, and it is a nice hike up to a lake, very picturesque. Today though the lake eludes us – we got up past the new wooden bridge to some fairly deep snowdrifts. I tried crossing one, and punched through up to my hip. So we turned around and came back. It turned out to be a short hike, but very enjoyable. There was a ton of water pouring down the mountain. The boys had fun cooling off belly down in the very cold water, and drinking. They really seemed to enjoy the hike – all the new smells!
We drove back, dropped the boys off at the play pen, and headed back to Luther and the puppies. Looked like a storm was brewing on the horizon, but we had been nicely spared. It was an hour and 45 minutes from the trailhead back to Dunham’s.
The news when we got back was 1) Waits’ friends Mark and Kay would not arrive today – fuel pump issue, and 2) Kaui and Luigi were already later than expected. It was around 5pm, I think. So naturally we got started drinking and other things –snacking, of course – get your mind outta there! And then the storm hit.
I can only try to describe the storm. From Dunham’s you can see forever, and we were able to watch the whole storm as it approached – the cells of lightning and the heavy rain cells, watching the whole thing unfold is just incredible. It wasn’t a bad storm – we didn’t get any hail, and the winds weren’t too bad. But there was a strong wind, a lot of rain and lightning. It lasted for at least 45 minutes, and then again, watching it recede over the mountains was great too. Another thing that I can’t capture on film very well, the clouds that the mountains hang on to, that get trapped in drainages, and form misty magical looking fingers on the mountainside – it’s just beautiful.
Kaui and Luigi got in! Yippee! After that event settled in we had a great dinner – Jane and Gary put together a wonderful Mexican meal – I went back for seconds (again). After dinner it was drinks, talk and other stuff – there you go again – and for some reason I crashed before 10! All in all, it was a wonderful day.
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