Sunday, September 10, 2017

The Big Hike

Hello from Texas. We made it home today, arriving with mixed feelings. Love where we live in the winter (Fort Worth, Texas), but will miss our Colorado home and sweet little mountain town where we spend five months out of the year. Before I switch gears on you, I simply must tell you about my Tom's hiking club.
You see, Tom is one of the organizers of a weekly hiking group in the summer. The club is made up of both men and women, but I am not a regular. I only made  it on the first hike this summer.The regulars are pictured here on the biggest and longest hike of the season....put together by my Tom. In this picture they had just been dropped off by a shuttle service operated by a sports store in town. They are about to hike parts of the Colorado Trail starting at about 12,000 feet high in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado
They headed out with Tom leading the way on what at first seemed like a easy level walk
but pretty soon...there was a lot of up! Notice anything?
Yes, that is a snow field in the shape of a heart in the distance
They came across three moose along the way, including this young bull moose,
and some interesting formations, like the above that they refer to as The Clay Pots.
Finally they arrive at the high mountain lake that was their destination
and four miles further they arrive at the Falls. It has been seven strenuous miles to get here, and then another five miles down to where they had left vehicles to drive back into town. The hike ended up being 12 treacherous miles....It was not exactly what my Tom had remembered. He did admit that he was much younger when he did this hike the first time...like 21 years younger!!Everyone did finish (you don't have a lot of choice). ....and they have all recovered. Hopefully  in the future it will become a fond memory.

If you are ever in Lake City you are welcome to join the hiking club on a hike (hopefully and easier one :)
Sorry...I do not know who to give credit to for all of these wonderful pictures documenting the hike.


4 comments:

  1. That is a wonderful hike, but I can imagine you have to be rather fit to make it up there.

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  2. That was a tough hike but the scenery must have made it worthwhile.

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  3. Dearest Janey,
    Welcome back home in Texas!
    That was quite a hike of 12 miles in such rough terrain... Yes, we cannot kid ourselves about age differences of 21 years!
    It is funny as both of us bike, I have adapted to following my own pace and than getting off my bike and wait till Pieter catches up again... That way we both enjoy it most. The same difference in age as you mention in your post!
    We had our treat of Irma even here in Georgia. No damage at our home or property but only 8 hrs without power and 2 days without Internet/TV.
    Mainly big trees fallen on power lines and also on homes, cars. Devastating for several people and worse in Florida.
    Our friends in Miami are fine and also the ones in Venice, they only lived through a couple of days without power. Miami friends no power outage!
    Other friends from Lakeland I have not heard from... Hope things are okay.
    Sending you hugs,
    Mariette

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