From the Forest Itself Comes the Handle For the Axe
Ok, sorry, I know I am a little behind on my post for this week but things have been crazy around here lately. Just a little bit of summer madness in effect keeping life interesting. To top it all off, we realized last night that no one has seen one of our cats in two days. Both of our cats are of the indoor variety, but the male likes to hang out on our back patio whenever we are out there. We figure he must have snuck out Monday night when I was out grilling dinner and we unknowingly shut the door on him, locking him out for the night. With everything going on, we didn't notice his absence Tuesday and it wasn't until we grilled out again last night that we noticed he wasn't on the patio with us hanging out. We searched around the house and he was gone. No sign of him in the surrounding area, either. The humane society was closed by the time we tried to call, so I am going to call when they open up today to see if they picked him up.
He looks like this if you happen to see him. He's a black and white short hair domestic who answers to Tom. He is pretty big, about 3 years old and has black spots on his nose. Let me know if you see him around. I know two little girls who are pretty upset that he's gone.
Speaking of two little girls (and in lighter news), we took them on a hike last weekend up in Rocky Mountain NP. We usually hang out in the southern end of the park, but this time we took a jaunt in the northeast section of the park instead. We did a four mile roundtrip hike up to Gem Lake and back. Both girls did extremely well, especially considering that it pretty much consisted of straight up, straight down hiking.
I really liked this hike, even with it being a little bit shorter than I usually go for. First, there were some amazing views like this one above. Way off in the distance you can see Twin Sisters on the left and Long's Peak & Meeker on the right. That's the town of Estes Park below. It was a little more cloudy than we usually see on a Colorado summer morning, but that was actually good since it helped cool things off on what would have otherwise been a scortching day.
There were a ton of cool rock formations around here. The northern part of the park is known for its good rock climing and bouldering spots and on this trail you could easily see why. These rocks are just begging to be scrambled.
Gem Lake was pretty sweet. It is actually kind of a crater lake surrounded on all sides by amazing rock outcroppings. It was very cool to just hang out on the rocks, have a snack, and soak in the beauty. You can tell that this is a well-visited spot, as the pikas around here were very tame and literally begged on their hind legs for food. The girls thought that was cool.
After we ate, my almost 8-yr old and I decided to do some bouldering and scrambled up one of the rock walls. We got pretty high up there (much higher than even what the picture shows) and the 360 degree views from the top of one of the rock peaks were absolutely breathtaking. The rock formations on the top of the ridge were even more amazing than the ones we had seen below. My daughter loved it and showed absolutely no fear of being so high up, jumping from rock to rock. I even had to call her back several times so she wouldn't get too far ahead. I'm pretty sure her mom would never forgive me if I let her fall off a mountain ledge. So, we got as high as we could go and then turned around to go back down. My daughter was very proud of herself and was very excited about climbing that high up and all of the cool rocks and things that she saw up there. Then she got stung by a bee at let out a scream that could be heard througout the whole valley below. I'm pretty sure they could hear it down in Estes Park, even. The Mrs. flipped out since she heard the scream but had no idea what was going on. But the wee one was brave and made it back down ok. A few (lot) of tears were shed, but eventually she calmed down and her spirits came back as she decided to wear her badge of honor with pride.
He looks like this if you happen to see him. He's a black and white short hair domestic who answers to Tom. He is pretty big, about 3 years old and has black spots on his nose. Let me know if you see him around. I know two little girls who are pretty upset that he's gone.Speaking of two little girls (and in lighter news), we took them on a hike last weekend up in Rocky Mountain NP. We usually hang out in the southern end of the park, but this time we took a jaunt in the northeast section of the park instead. We did a four mile roundtrip hike up to Gem Lake and back. Both girls did extremely well, especially considering that it pretty much consisted of straight up, straight down hiking.
I really liked this hike, even with it being a little bit shorter than I usually go for. First, there were some amazing views like this one above. Way off in the distance you can see Twin Sisters on the left and Long's Peak & Meeker on the right. That's the town of Estes Park below. It was a little more cloudy than we usually see on a Colorado summer morning, but that was actually good since it helped cool things off on what would have otherwise been a scortching day.
There were a ton of cool rock formations around here. The northern part of the park is known for its good rock climing and bouldering spots and on this trail you could easily see why. These rocks are just begging to be scrambled.
Gem Lake was pretty sweet. It is actually kind of a crater lake surrounded on all sides by amazing rock outcroppings. It was very cool to just hang out on the rocks, have a snack, and soak in the beauty. You can tell that this is a well-visited spot, as the pikas around here were very tame and literally begged on their hind legs for food. The girls thought that was cool.
After we ate, my almost 8-yr old and I decided to do some bouldering and scrambled up one of the rock walls. We got pretty high up there (much higher than even what the picture shows) and the 360 degree views from the top of one of the rock peaks were absolutely breathtaking. The rock formations on the top of the ridge were even more amazing than the ones we had seen below. My daughter loved it and showed absolutely no fear of being so high up, jumping from rock to rock. I even had to call her back several times so she wouldn't get too far ahead. I'm pretty sure her mom would never forgive me if I let her fall off a mountain ledge. So, we got as high as we could go and then turned around to go back down. My daughter was very proud of herself and was very excited about climbing that high up and all of the cool rocks and things that she saw up there. Then she got stung by a bee at let out a scream that could be heard througout the whole valley below. I'm pretty sure they could hear it down in Estes Park, even. The Mrs. flipped out since she heard the scream but had no idea what was going on. But the wee one was brave and made it back down ok. A few (lot) of tears were shed, but eventually she calmed down and her spirits came back as she decided to wear her badge of honor with pride.
So, that was quite an adventure. But overall, it was a pretty good day and I was very proud of how well both girls did. Bee stings aside, I heard no complaints. There's more to this world than video games and Cartoon Network. I'm happy that the girls enjoy experiencing it and I hope that they take away a respect for nature that can last a lifetime. Even when it stings a bit.
posted by john at 8:13 AM
5 Comments:
Oh, I cry too when the bee stings. Luckily for me, I have the greatest bee hunting dog in the world. If there is a bee anywhere in the yard, she'll seek it out and destroy it. Doesn't seem to matter how many times she gets stung either. Its totally worth it to her. Sorry to hear about your kitty. Maybe with a little luck, he'll show up and be just fine.
Oliver, Harmony's cat snuck out earlier this summer. We couldn't find him that night. But the next morning he practically jumped into my arms as I was heading toward my vehicle to go to work. He had decided that the wilderness (aka Lakedrive's 300th block) wasn't as much fun as he had anticipated. Other than all of the whiskers being oddly crimped on his left side, he was in good shape. Good luck finding Tom
Well, it's been a week now and still no sign of him. We had a couple of leads and supposed sightings but we still couldn't find him. I hung up flyers, walked every street in the neighborhood, checked the pound, and everything else but no kitty. It's sad, but it's time to get realistic about his chances of coming home. At least he wasn't found on the side of the road like one of our previous felines. This way we can live in the happy illusion that he was found by another good family and is happy being well loved and cared for by someone else. That's a lot better than some of the other possible scenarios.
Oh, and I hate bees, too, but I love honey so they get a pass. Wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and other stingy things however do not produce any wonderfully tasty substances and can feel free to buzz off, if you know what I mean...
There is good news John. I've spotted Tom. He's on vacation. Here he is lounging on the white beaches of Michigan.
All joking aside, I hope you find him. It sucks to lose an animal.
Thanks, LSD, I feel much better knowing that he is just taking some much needed R&R. 'Cuz the life of a cat is quite stressful ya know...
That pic reminds me of an old joke: Why is Xmas like a cat on the beach? Because they both have sandy claws!
Ok, I admit that was terrible. But your picture was great, thanks.
Even though you are really, really far away, the pictures of your hike could have been taken around here. We have hikes in a provincial park up here that are around an old mountain range that is barely there any more, but have a history of being bigger than the Rockies. The remaining lakes and rocks look just like that. Way over here!
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