We managed to accomplish my annual camping trip in the Rockies this week after missing it last year due to excessive mundane life obligations. Home renovations, kids, projects and other miscellaneous activities just ate up all my time. I had a reservation in Moraine Park campground like always, but ended up cancelling it due to irreconcilable scheduling issues. It seemed odd, since I was technically supposed to be retired as of around February, 2015.
But anyway, we got it done this year – “we” meaning me and Jax, We headed for higher ground only the day after Carolyn and Ron departed following a 10-day stay for their 2016 summer vacation. They were only really “here” less than half that time, out driving all over Colorado trying to see as much as they could in a short period of time. Taking them on a little tour of the park last Thursday was really cool because I got two opportunities to breathe the clean air this year AND Carolyn and me got to re-create a 50-year-old photo of us sitting along Raindow Curve, taken by our parents on a trip to California in the early 60’s. It more than made up for missing it last year.
This pic was along the Buchanan Pass trail out of Camp Dick, south of the park. It’s a 9-mile hike to the pass through some amazing and even dangerous terrain (link to trail details). I had to leash Jax more than once when he was excitedly running around too close to the edge of a 100-foot cliff. He was having a GREAT time:
We did two other “dog friendly” trails the day prior to that and maybe a bit less than half the Buchanan Pass hike before I ran out of steam due to aging joints despite taking Tylenol at the trailhead. It looks like this one may join the north side of Bear Lake on the list of trail goals I am no longer able to complete. The National Park anti-dog trail policy doesn’t really bother me any more, because I’ve already hiked most of them and the National Forest and Larimer county regions nearby have all the same stuff with far fewer tourists clogging up the scenery. Here’s a link to the web page with all the photos from our 4-day hiking trip. Pup (and me!) was worn out by the time we headed back down via road 7 and some fun cutting curves with the Bimmer on new Ohlins coilovers:
