Upslope and falling

Here we are in the Rockies just mindin' our own business and moving along. We had a grand hike on Monday with Lee and Joe that took us from Bear Lake up to Lake Haiyaha. The wind was whipping and whirling and when we got to Haiyaha Joe clocked the wind at about 10 mph with stronger gusts. The scenery was beautiful, but the temperature with wind chill was a meagre 2 degrees. We took pictures and quickly retreated from the lake shore! From there we descended via the unimproved trail to the Mills/Loch junction and then back to Bear Lake. Alberta Falls, a huge roaring concern during the summer is frozen and bubbling through ice on its way to the valley. Beautiful.

Tuesday we had a beautiful sunrise and Pam took some great shots. Tuesday evening our weather forecast had three scenarios: Storm coming from Pacific Northwest...we could get no snow, 2-6 inches, or 12 or more. So we worked with Lee and Mare to cook dinner for neighbors Jim and Ima Matthies. By 3:30, the snow was beginning to fall. Our Highlander was down in Lyons having some work done. Fortunately Lee and I were able to go get it before much snow had fallen. We got back up to Estes and picked up Jim and Ima. We had a great dinner and lots of laughs. Jim and Ima told stories about their early days in Little Valley and we all reminsced about songs and singers we liked. Then we drove our friends home. The snow was already pretty deep but our truck handled it like a champ.

This morning we woke to a full upslope snow storm. The weather is coming from the East...in back of us and has banged into the front range where it is now dumping all it has been holding. Mare called just about 30 minutes ago to say that she had measured the drift on their deck railing...15 inches and it's still coming down. The snow is expected to taper off this afternoon and then start again this evening or tomorrow morning. Lucy loves it. While I was out shoveling she was frolicking, jumping and trying to bite the shovels full of snow. When she came in she looked like a snowballed monster. This is definitely her weather.

Well, this is a new blogspot for me, so I'm testing it out. I hope that I can put up the pictures of our hike, the sunrise and our current snow to go along with this. We'll see. In the meantime, know we are happy and snowed a bit in. Love to all of our family and friends. Bonnie, Pam, Lucy Blu