Feeling every bit of my 68.5 years, I'm going to attempt to catch up since my last post. To say the past 3+ weeks have been jam-packed, mostly fun filled, and laced with all we love and honor about living in the mountains doesn't even begin to tell the story.
The week after our Mt. Audubon hike, Pam and I hiked on the west side of the Park. Our destination was a place called the Little Yellowstone. After a five mile walk and climb, we really found not much that looked anything like Yellowstone at all. Thinking that a previous hard rain and landslide had eroded whatever the view had been, we shrugged our shoulders and turned back. About .2 of a mile down the trail we came to a sign that said, "Lulu City .8." Knowing it wouldn't be much out of our way we took the detour. Lulu City was a mining town of about 200. Now it is only a washed out spot in the Colorado River. But in one of the marshes nearby, we spotted a moose. She was "grazing" her way across the bottom of the marsh. Slowly and carefully, we showed ourselves. When she didn't seem to mind, we walked toward the edge of the marsh and sat down. For 40 magical minutes we sat with "Lulu." She was beautiful. We had never seen a moose so up-close-and-personal. The only sound was the wind in the grasses and Lulu slurping, bubbling, and dripping as she came up with one mouthful after another of juicy marsh plants. She was so close that we could see the water course off her eyebrows and eyelashes. What a gift we were given this day.
We had two weeks of working on the Tundra where the weather and clouds closed in. Visibility by 3 in the afternoon was about 3 feet as we were no longer subject to the clouds, but in them...along with rain, sleet, lightning, hail, and a bit of snow. The next week however, we were treated to a spectacle that few ever get to see. As we drove the first round of our patrol, we came upon 13 Big Horn rams grazing by the side of the road. Although we were kept busy for the next 4.5 hours directing traffic by this "Sheep Jam," we were also able to observe and photograph these animals up-close-and-personal. Most visitors were happy just to slow down and take a picture. Others went to the nearest pullout and walked back to spend some time. We had a lot of grand conversations. The next day we discovered that Betty Brockelman's sister Joyce and her partner, Mark, were two of our sheep jammers. We had a great dinner with them and a laugh about our encounter. It is unusual to see one or two sheep on a trip through the Park, so this again was truly a gift day.
The highlight of our summer was the visit of the Liebings: Mark, Olivia, and Daric. They were here for 8 days. Here was our schedule: Day 1--arrive, water fights, drive in the Park. Day 2--Hike to the top of Kruger Rock overlooking Little Valley. Lucy got to go too, but BB and Lee had to work at Bear Lake. Day 3--a visit from the Gilchrist family. John is now chair of the Kinetic Wellness Department at NT. They came for an afternoon of play, Jeeping, dinner at Lee and Mare's, and a general great time. We loved catching up with John and Bridgette and meeting Johnny, Joey, Heather and Hannah. A big shout-out to y'all!! Olivia's comment as they drove off, "I can't wait to see all of them again." Day 4--a trip with Lee and Mare to the Animal Rescue Park near Denver. This is a huge park with large carnivores that have been rescued because of terrible or inappropriate treatment by humans. They can never be returned to the wild, but have a pretty good life here. There are lions, tigers, wolves, bears, foxes, mountain lions and more. Rescued from small cages in someone's basement, circuses, lives in a 4X4 section of a horse trailer, most come with injuries that have either been healed or treated at the park. We returned to Estes Park for a banana split making party at Kristi 'n Lyn's. Next was a hike to the top of Deer Mountain with Auntie Lee. The summit is a near 360 view of the Estes area, and once again Olivia and Daric proved to be superb hikers. Day 6 we packed into the car at 4:30 a.m. and drove to Buena Vista for rafting on the Colorado River. Neither Olivia nor Daric was sure that this was something they might like. Rafting sounded a bit scary, but we showed some pictures, Kristi told a story of rafting with her brother, and the lure of possible water fights with other boats convinced our kids. With our great teacher-guide Stan, Olivia and Daric soon learned to love rafting. They became great paddlers and by the end of the trip were shouting, "This has to be a tradition. Wait until next year!" In addition to getting thoroughly doused going through rapids, both Olivia and Daric jumped off a 20 foot cliff into the river. Way to go!! For our last full day of activity, we went on our traditional horseback ride. Olivia and Daric are really good horsepeople. Mark and Lee are good too. Unfortunately, Gma Pam and I ended up with blistered keesters. Oh my! Then it was time to go to the airport. Before leaving, Olivia asked for one last Jeep trip up the dirt road behind us. Both Daric and Olivia got to drive through a stream and we left for the airport full of the mountains.
During the recent Perseid meteor showers, I was trying to learn some night photography. Although I have only one meteor picture to show for my time spent under the stars three nights running, I did learn a lot. Maybe next year I will be better able to capture the meteors as they streak across our sky.
And yesterday...Pam and Lee and I worked our regular shift at Bear Lake. As we strapped on our radios, we began hearing immediately that there was a body recovery going on up on Long's Peak. The day before a 24 year old hiker/climber left his girlfriend at the keyhole and began the last two miles of the summit route on Long's. When he got to a part called the Narrows (maybe one foot wide trail) the route was icy. He slipped and fell 120 feet. Despite the efforts of a nearby Park volunteer who was also on the mountain, the young man died. The wind that evening was too great to allow rescuers and a helicopter to bring him down, so they began again in the morning. Before the recovery could be effected, word came down that a technical climber on the face of Long's had fallen 50 feet. The fall was severe enough to cause multiple injuries and to break the man's helmet. All resources were then directed to the other side of Long's to effect a rescue. Listening on the radio to the resources, personnel, and effort it takes to bring someone down alive from a bad fall is just amazing. Climbers, trail managers, climbing rangers who are also EMT's. By 11:30 a.m. the first climbing ranger had reached the accident victim and his two climbing partners. During the rescue we learned that Lee's great-nephew Tommy Caldwell was also climbing that day and he came over to the accident to give his assistance to a successful rescue. We assume that all arrived down off the wall and into a shelter about 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening. We have had no further news as of the writing of this blog.
Now our thoughts and efforts turn toward readying ourselves for our upcoming trip to Uganda and Rwanda with a short visit to Amsterdam on the way. We have wanted to see mountain gorillas for a long time, and on this trip we hope to do that, as well as seeing a part of Africa we haven't visited before. We hope that all of you are well and that you've had a good summer.
And so it goes in the mountains...You can see Catching Up pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnpostpics/9531338029/in/photostream/
We love to hear from you...so keep those emails coming!
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