Tuesday night’s full moon was a hard night for me. Not sure why it hit me so hard but I was an emotional mess all night long. I didn’t sleep much, cried most of the night, and took a nose dive into the muck pond. Luckily by morning I was out of the muck pond and feeling better. As always Jim was very gentle and kind with me even though he doesn’t understand the pull the moon has on me.
Thomas left at 6:30 Wednesday morning to catch the shuttle to the airport. Jim drove him down to the gathering area for the shuttle. Thomas had a long adventure to get home due to a storm in the DC area but he finally made it home much later than anticipated.
I took a lazy day Wednesday, We hung around the cabin and didn’t do much. I was emotionally drained and didn’t have much energy. I took a short nap in the afternoon and woke up feeling rested. We went into Estes Park for dinner and afterwards took a nice long walk around the Y Camp grounds. The day ended much nicer than it started.
Today we were up rather early and drove up to Park and Ride area and took the shuttle bus up to Bear Lake. We walked around Bear Lake and than walked up to Nymph Lake. Nymph Lake had lots of water lilies on it and was beautiful. I liked it better than Bear Lake although Bear Lake was beautiful too.
We then drove up Trail Ridge Road and walked the open tundra opposite the Ute Trail. The wind was gusty today and gave me a good workout. We climbed up a hill and found a rock in a bit of a sheltered place and stopped and had a snack and enjoyed the view. Came back down after a bit. My bunions did not like the uneven surface of the tundra. I was grateful I had my walking sticks with me as they kept me from blowing away a couple of times. We walked about four miles today altogether.
We stopped at the Forest Canyon Overlook and than drove back to camp. On the way to our cabin we stopped at Jim’s brother’s cabin to make plans for dinner together tonight and then stopped at a friend of Jim’s cabin for a short visit.
After dinner tonight at Jim’s brother’s cabin we will have to start packing as we will be leaving Estes Park in the morning. We are going to the Sand Dunes tomorrow and will end the day in Antonito, CO. Saturday morning we have a train ride from Antonito to Chama and then will ride a bus back to Antonito. We will spend the night Saturday in Raton and drive to Stillwater Sunday.
I’m sorry to see our time come to an end here. It has been a wonderful respite place. I love the weather here and am grateful I have missed the heat wave back home is having. At night I have to put on sweat pants here to stay warm enough. Don’t think I will need them when I get back to OK and KS.
Almost have the third set of tea towels finished. I made eight dish rags and ran out of yarn. At least I didn’t waste all my time here.
Didn’t see much wildlife today. We spotted a female herd of elk while at the Forest Canyon Overlook but they were quite a ways away. There was a deer in the front yard this morning. We didn’t get lucky enough this time to see a bear.
I told Jim next year we need to plan on staying for four weeks instead of only two. It takes me about a week to adjust to the higher altitude and four weeks would give me three weeks of hiking time. Escaping the KS heat sounds wonderful again. It will be much more fun next year to hike when my feet are fixed and they won’t be yelling at me.
Grateful my dip into the muck pond didn’t last long, grateful for all the beauty I saw in Mother Nature today, and grateful for hiking sticks!