Eliza, Willow (our golden retriever) and I left Denver early Saturday morning. The back of my truck loaded with snowshoeing gear (which we didn't get the use, unfortunately), games and lots and lots of tasty food. We were headed up to the Estes Park YMCA, where we had rented a cabin for a long post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.
We began with a good hike through Eldorado Canyon outside of Boulder. Eldo is usually a rock-climbers mecca, but between the ice, snow and breathtakingly cold rocks, we had the canyon more or less to ourselves. Willow snarfled away with her usual abandon and seemed somewhat surprised that none of the squirrels wanted to come down and play with her. The sun was bright and direct on the trail, so our path was melting and clear – but everywhere else remained blanketed with six or seven inches of new snow. Beautiful.
A few hours later we all piled back into the truck and continued up into the mountains. We got to our cabin just before dark, met our friends and headed out on yet another hike – this time a riverside amble in the growing twilight. Just as we were thinking we needed to head back to beat the darkness – a giant spotlight of a full moon rose above the mountains, casting bright silver moon shadows. Our walk home was as slow and leisurely as possible, as none of us were eager to leave the moon light.
Back at the cabin we started cooking – I prepared two giant pots of chile (one veggie, one not) and Eliza whipped up some of her excellent cornbread. Some other friends of ours were staying elsewhere in Estes Park that night and they all came by for dinner, bringing a fresh batch of Pat’s homebrewed beer (a java-stout, which was amazing as always). We had all put in a full day of hiking, so the food went fast.
After dinner we broke out the big box ‘o games (I used to own a game store and have lots and lots of strange and wonderful games) and broke into ever-changing configurations of game-playing and spectating. We were all tuckered out by the late hour of 10pm or so, and that was the end of that.
We were up early the next morning for a big pancake breakfast. After piling on our many layers of warm and waterproof cloths we were ready to hit the trail head. There isn’t much I can say about the hike itself. Rocky Mountain National Park is so breathtakingly beautiful that words inevitably fail me. You’ll just have to take my word for it – it was great!
We hiked up Glacier Gorge, past Alberta Falls, to “The Loch”, a fantastic alpine lake nestled in a vast bowl of towering cliffs and under the watchful eye of Andrews Glacier. The lake was frozen as solid as can be, and before long we were all taking running leaps out onto the ice, slipping and sliding across the frozen water and laughing like children. Even with the icy wind whipping across the lake at us, we couldn’t bring ourselves to stop sliding – “okay, ONE more time….okay, THIS is the very last one…” I can’t speak for anyone else, but I definitely rediscovered the twelve year-old boy inside of me – and I have the bruises to prove it!By the time we were ready to head back down the mountain, the sun had returned with that particular glow that only seems to happen on perfect late-afternoons. The rocks were warming up (relatively speaking) and we paused more than once to just lay on the rocks and bask.
Hours later we were ready for more chili, more games in front of the crackling fire and then dinner number two – homemade pizza! By the time we finished with the pizza none of us could keep our eyes open anymore and it was bedtime again – at around 9:30 or so.
And so the cycle continued until it was time to come home again last night: back to the world of voicemail, email, laundry, bills and staff meetings. I have to admit, I always feel a certain amount of reluctance (and even dread) when it is time to come back to the world again – but here I am at the office, full of energy and excitement and gratitude. I have so much to be Thankful for (my soccer team even won this week, for a change!!). I feel so alive – just filled with the wonder of things.
No comments:
Post a Comment