Old Fall River Road

We very much enjoyed this week’s trip up to Estes Park! Jennefer has been wanting to show me the Old Fall River Road, which goes up into Rocky Mountain National Park, and ends at Trail Ridge Road, and has some pretty yellow Aspen foliage to see in the Fall. We were fortunate to get there just before the road closed for the season. We stopped along the way, to make the short hike down from the road to Chasm Falls. 

We loved the peaceful feeling of this pretty pond, with the Fall River bubbling down into it.

The Old Fall River Road is mostly dirt, although there are some remnants in places, of the original paving.

Pretty stand of yellow Aspen along the road, with the mountains in the background.

Nearly to the top and end of this road, which joins up with Trail Ridge Road just ahead, not far from the Continental Divide. That's a visitor center on the ridge line above and to the left.

 

We passed some beautiful mountain lakes.

Starting a short walk up the path from Trail Ridge Road. This path goes above 12,000 feet, which can take your breath away, if you push it. We were in fairly good condition, after living and hiking in the local Denver area, so we were able to stroll along to the end of the trail and back. The high altitude Tundra is so delicate, it can take years to grow back from people leaving footprints, so they encourage you to stay on the paved trail.

The Tundra Community Trail is a skinny little paved trail through the Rocky Mountain high tundra, up to the Roger Toll Memorial.

 

Spectacular view from the trail up above 12,000 feet.

We were feeling a little chilly in the breeze at altitude, but I talked her into stopping for a selfie before heading back down.

 

There are lots of cute little chipmunks up in the Rockies. They want to come close, but we didn't reach out to pet them, and they respected our non-contact policy.

 

We saw this pretty Stellar's Jay along the road, on the drive down the hill.

We had a nice view of some deer along the road. This was also the season for the Elk to be out and about, but we didn't see much of them, until we got back down to Estes Park.

 

The Sheep Lakes had some pretty yellow around them.

We went for a walk at Estes Lake, and found ourselves with an up-close Elk viewing opportunity. They were resting comfortably in various places around the lake.

 

Pretty path around Estes Lake.

 

Our first view of Estes Lake from the trail, with Mount Olympus in the background.

 

Pretty fence line along the trail at Estes Lake.

Another closer look at Mount Olympus near Estes Lake, with some fisherman wading in the Big Thompson River. This river had a serious flooding incident in 1973 that killed 144 people, and destroyed many homes and vehicles on the nearby highway. It's normally peaceful and beautiful, as it was today.

 

We loved seeing this Osprey at Estes Lake! We even got to watch it diving for fish.

 

Several elk lounging on the Frisbee Golf course.

 

We saw this water discharging into Mary's Lake, while driving down to Lilly Lake for a hike.

Starting our hike at Lilly Lake. This hike was recommended by Jennefer's cousin, who lives up in Estes Park.

 

Lilly Lake from the trail above.

Little bits of color along the trail around Lilly Lake. Most of the Fall color in Colorado is yellow, so it's extra fun to see other colors around.

 

Some rare red color along the trail.

 

Another pretty Aspen tree along the trail.

 

Looking down at Lilly Lake through a stand of colorful Aspen.

 

Looking toward the mountains through a stand of pretty yellow Aspen.

 

Jennefer's birding eye spotted this Clark's Nutcracker in a dead tree along a side trail we were exploring.

The techie in me is really enjoying the new Garmin GPS watch I got for my birthday. This one has topographic maps stored in it, which are a lot of fun for someone who loves maps, as they can be helpful in staying oriented, especially when the trail peters out in the rocky places where there are no footprints to be seen. In this snapshot, we're just working our way back toward the lake, after taking that side trail.

 

Nice view of Lilly Lake from the far end, where the higher trail comes down from the hillside and joins the flat trail around the lake.

 

Nice elevated trail through a large marshy area along the lake shore.

 

Pretty rocks and colorful Aspen east of Lilly Lake.

 

Lilly Lake was glassy smooth at times.

 

We saw some more pretty yellow leaves, when we got back and were walking around Lake Estes the next day.

 

Hard to spot deer down by Lake Estes.

 

More fisherman in the Big Thompson River.

Looking south from the Lake Estes trail, I think we spotted Longs Peak off in the distance. That's one of the few 14,000 foot mountains that are visible from the Front Range flatlands.

 

Pretty view of rocky mountains from Estes Lake.

 

More pretty yellow leaves near Estes Lake.

 

Last picture of some pretty yellow fall color on the Lake Estes trail, before heading home.

A little closer look at Longs Peak, from a turnout on the Peak-to-Peak highway, on our way home.

 

We kept enjoying lots of pretty yellow colors along the road, on our drive home

 

Last picture of fall colors, before I put my camera away, and focused on the rest of the drive home.

Hudson Gardens walk

A daytime peek at the Hudson Gardens Halloween display, while just going for an afternoon walk. And a rabbit, just for fun.

Pumpkin time

I had my first "pumpkin" theme food of the year, this week - a specialty pancake from Snooze Eatery. Delicious! Jennefer recently heard on NPR that white males are the majority consumer of pumpkin spice anything. Oh well... I guess I'm guilty as charged, although I do recall being lured into the pumpkin spice world, by a female, many years ago. I usually make a point of getting one of those pumpkin spice lattes sometime during every Fall season. They're so overly sweet, that one will usually be enough to carry me through the entire season.

Bike ride

Nice cool Saturday bike ride. Glad to have that 70° Fall breeze to cool me down. Also saw a few hints of Fall colors along the trails.

Cleo kitty is gone

Sep 13 afternoon: Cleo fell asleep for the last time, this afternoon, in Jennefer’s lap. Our lives will never be the same.

Cleo lab work

Sep 13 am: Terrible news this morning, from Cleo’s bloodwork follow-up. The lab results indicate that she has so many things wrong in addition to the stomach tumor, such as her kidney failure that is now advanced, and severe anemia exacerbated by a stomach bleed, that she’s probably going to be in a lot of discomfort for the rest of her life. They’re recommending euthanasia. Jennefer is a mess.

COVID-19 exposure

Sep 12: And now, to top off the day, I just learned that I was exposed to COVID-19 by a friend with “cold symptoms.” We were both wearing masks, and he’d rolled open his car window, so there’s some chance that those teeny little germs didn’t make it through both our masks. We’ll see…

Update Wednesday 9/20 evening: Day 8 since my/our COVID-19 exposure, and still no fever or other symptoms. Every once in awhile, we feel flushed, but we never have an unusually warm temperature. We’re calling that bullet well and truly dodged.

Cleo kitty vet visit

Sep 12: Cleo kitty is glad to be home from the vet, after taking her there, to troubleshoot appetite and other issues. She’s checking every corner of the house, to make sure nothing’s changed in the last two hours. 

We were hoping it was just a bad reaction to being stung by a wasp that got into her food bowl a few weeks ago, but no, it’s probably a lot worse than that. They think they saw a mass in her stomach on today’s X-Ray, but aren’t sure if it’s cancer. 

Tomorrow’s unscheduled activity will be a trip to an animal ER that can perform an ultrasound, to get a better sense of what’s in there. Jennefer’s having a really difficult time right now…

Ride Bear Creek Dam

Gorgeous 32 mile Wednesday bike ride up to Bear Creek Dam. Love all the dense growth by the river, which makes for lots of shade and a pretty ride. Enjoyed another fun view of Denver from above Bear Creek Lake. It seemed cooler than usual for this time of day, but it heated up surprisingly well (🥵), after I’d been riding for an hour or so. I ran into yet another trail closure, sheesh. The good news is, they’re improving the trail, so… whoopie!

Good Sam Ride

Longish (for me) 32 mile Thursday bike ride. Such a delightful trail. I was glad to be the Good Samaritan on this ride, and offer up my biking multitool to a guy whose handlebars were loose and rotating down, and really messing with his riding. I was doing pretty well, until I turned around, and I suddenly felt really tired. I need to remember to take food, if I think I might be gone awhile. All I had was 8oz of Gatorade and 30oz of water, and I was definitely having troubles with my pace, on the second half of the ride, heading back home. I was dragging... the good news, is that I made it home intact. Honestly, the trail is so nicely hidden from the neighborhoods it passes through, that without thinking about it, I probably passed several places that I could’ve bought something great to eat. That’s all on me.

Peaches came!

We’re excited about this box of Palisade peaches we ordered months ago. Can’t wait for them to ripen!

Friday Crash

Crashed. Argh! Yet another biking mishap, in the same week! Much worse than Wednesday’s flat tire. I thought I was doing a good job of navigating an eroded part of the trail, until I suddenly found myself on the ground - one of those wtf moments. 

I managed to collect some road rash on my elbow, arm and hip, and apparently a big set of abrasion stripes up my back. Oh, and somehow my glasses got smushed, and no longer fit anywhere close to correctly. 

I did take a more pleasant photo of McLellan Reservoir on the way home from my spill.

 ---  Update: Headed to the Littleton ER to see if I broke anything… Spoiler: this experience and increasing shoulder pain feels a lot like my broken collarbone did back in 2007… except this time we couldn’t find an Urgent Care that would take an X-Ray on short notice.

 --- Update: Waiting on results of a CT scan of my shoulder, and an X-Ray of my elbow. Apparently they do more, when you’re over 65… 🤷‍♂️ 🤦‍♂️

 --- Update 7pm: According to CT and X-Ray analysis, nothing’s broken! Woo hoo! Just a little crunchy in the shoulder, is all… 🤔 Oh, and did we mention that you have nodules in your lungs? 🫨

 --- It looks like I’ll be sore for some time. She wrote me a script for some muscle relaxant, not sure if it’ll help much, but I’ll start out with it as recommended, and go from there. Maybe add an OTC pain med, if it goes any higher. And, IYKYK, planning to parallel the relaxant with MiraLax and lots of hydration…

 --- All in all, it seems like I mostly got away with it this time. 🎉 Maybe I get partial credit, for promising myself in 2007, that I would do my best to twist around and try not to land on my elbow or shoulder next time. That thought must have gotten burned into my muscle memory, as I only have a vague recollection of doing that, and then finding myself sprawled out on my back.  

--- Update Sat-3pm: It was a little rough this morning, but by this afternoon, pain is vastly reduced and mobility is much increased, whew… 😅

Wednesday flat

Wednesday’s bike ride started out as a fun longish adventure down the South Platte River trail, to Confluence Park. I’m still dealing with the occasional trail closures and detours due to construction, and believe it or not, some tree cutting this time. I made it down there, grabbed a snack from the local vendor, rested and drank some Gatorade, then headed back up the river. 

About halfway back, my rear tire deflated rapidly to flat in just a few seconds. So much for the fun part. I have plenty of experience, repairing flat tires with my “good old” 52 year old road bike, but not this new gravel bike. Lots of things are different with the new bike, starting with a whole different way of getting the wheel off, then learning about the new rear derailleur clutch, and the new and important (and dare I say, tricky) process of mating the tire bead with the rim. 

I was having zero success at first, simply examining the tire for evidence of what punctured it, when, as luck would have it, a very competent Good Samaritan stopped to help. He was a wizard with these new bikes, quickly diagnosed the leak that wouldn’t hold pressure for even a few seconds, rapidly had my wheel off, tried inflating the tube and realized the leak was invisible, and replaced the tube with the one he carries. Thank goodness for Venmo, which allowed me to reimburse him for his fancy lightweight spare tube, which is now *my* fancy lightweight spare tube. 😉 

After I got home, I was able to submerge the tube underwater in the sink, and immediately found the teeny tiny hole that was letting air out faster than I could pump it in. The glueless Lezyne patch in my new tire patch kit appears to have worked perfectly. So now I have a second spare tube, as I’m planning to stop at the bike store and get a new tube today. Even though I’ve done it many times in the past, the general consensus seems to be, to avoid riding everyday on a patched tube.

There are many fun sights and sounds on this route, but sorry to say, the only photo I took on this adventure, was of this pretty Snowy Egret in the South Platte River, near the beginning of my ride. 

Here’s the photo I took of my patched tube, including the part number, so I would know what to replace it with.

Longest ride to date

Beautiful 95° Wednesday for my longest bike ride, since I started keeping track. I covered a little over 42 miles, and I think that’s about my personal limit, at my current level of fitness. Here’s my view looking back down the hill, after I started climbing the Bear Creek Dam. 

Looking forward up the steep hill toward the top of the dam. This climb had me using the lowest possible gearing on my new gravel bike, and I was glad it went that low. 

Looking over Bear Creek Lake, and toward the town of Morrison and the Red Rocks amphitheater, from the rest area at the top of Bear Creek Dam. It was nice to find some cool shade with a breeze. I wore the special water-retaining gel scarf that Jennefer got for me, and I’m certain that it helped keep my body temperature cooler than it would have been. It was still plenty hot, though. 

The trail along Highway C-470 has some long straight stretches, and a few non-trivial climbs and descents. There’s also the downside of being next to a highway, with the associated sights, sounds, and smells. But I’m willing to endure it, at least for the few times a year that I get out that way. 

I was surprised to run into this significant trail closure, and especially disappointed, since the detour would have prevented me from getting to my planned climb up and over the Chatfield Dam from where I was. So I found myself braving the shoulder of the busy highway 121, for the short hop necessary to get to a quieter service road that took me into the park. 

Made it to the top of Chatfield Dam, and seeking shade under one of the picnic tables in the overlook area. I do enjoy the view of all the various boaters on the lake from here. 

Heading South on the gravel road on top of the dam, on a quest to intersect the Highline Canal Trail. This kind of rough rock and gravel trail, makes me glad that I opted for a gravel bike. It’s still not all that comfortable to ride on, but the bike is far more controllable. Staying in the narrow ruts is a great goal, as that area has been beaten down smoother by many other riders. 

Here’s the map of my ride. My route was affected by several trail closures and related detours, all but one of which I already knew about. 

My Garmin Connect app tells me that I ran out of stamina about 20 minutes before I got home. I’m not in a position to disagree, as I was pretty wiped out. I made use of all the liquids I brought along, finishing off the 16 ounces of Gatorade and 22 ounces of water, over the course of the ride. Maybe some food carbs would help that, on a future long ride. 

Boston night lights

Boston night panorama photo from our room. Love city views at night!

Kayaking in Maine

I loved kayaking in Maine with my brother-in-law and my cousin’s husband, from our vacation spot, out and around in Winnegance Bay. 

Arrived in Maine

Foggy and cool morning on the Maine coast, as we begin our vacation with my cousin. We were happy to get through our travel day without any major hassles, considering what my sister and brother-in-law are going through. 

We had a foggy arrival at Boston airport yesterday afternoon - the clouds were so low, I was kinda surprised they got us in there.

Tuesday riding adventure

I tried a new route on Tuesday’s bike ride on my new gravel bike, to avoid the C-470 trail closure I knew about, by continuing across the Chatfield Dam and connecting with the Highline Canal Trail.

I enjoyed a brief interaction with a freight train engineer (you know - boys and trains), shortly after carrying my bike across the tracks. 

The trees at the Plum Creek edge of Chatfield Lake are partly under water, due to the recent spring rains. The rangers are letting a lot of water out of the dam into the South Platte River, which makes that part of my ride even more scenic. 

I found yet another construction closure, of the Highline Canal Trail, at a high-risk at-grade crossing of Santa Fe Drive. It looks like they’re putting in another trail tunnel, which should make this crossing way safer and more fun. Today, however, I found myself struggling to find a safe way across this busy 4-lane highway, but patience is key, and came through for me yet again, when a large gap in traffic opened up.

Trail closed!

My first ride of the season, on my new bike, after deferring too long. I guess with all the road construction going on right now, I shouldn’t have been surprised to find my regular route on the C-470 trail closed. 

The detour only shortened my ride by a mile, which I didn’t mind a bit. A new bike didn’t make my legs any stronger, but having a wider range of gear ratios helped me handle the hills better, even after my sedentary phase since October.

New gravel bike!

There’s something new in our lives! A new “Scott” 22-speed gravel bike for me, 52 years younger than the road bike I’ve been riding. 

 

Maybe it will help me be less anxious about heading out on rides. Thanks to Jennefer, Sid, Brighton, my financial advisor, and the helpful store salesman, for the moral support in deciding to do it, and actually finding something that works for me!