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Sunday, July 2, 2017

freedom day and a twofer

Happy Independence Day weekend!  I guess many Americans are already celebrating.  It's always a bit "inconvenient" when the fourth falls in the middle of the week, but we should be grateful for the holiday.

My summer tutee is a college woman who is from a country other than the U.S.  We were looking over our schedules for this coming week, and noted we couldn't meet on Tuesday.

"Oh yeah, it's "Freedon Day", or what is it?" , she said.

"Independence Day", I answered (knowledgeable tutor that I am...)

"Oh, right", she replied, "We don't have that in my country!", she said with a laugh.  She, in fact, is a quite strongly opinionated and independent woman and certainly knows what the holiday stands for even if she gets the name wrong.  It's safe to say she likes living here.

And I like living here too!  So thanks to those rebels who got the ball rolling on that one.

Speaking of the good life, Chaco and I made another trek to the mountains yesterday.  I know of a few people, mostly younger than I am, who just love climbing the state's 14ers whenever they get a chance.  Now I think I'm starting to understand the "addiction".

Yesterday we enjoyed a beautiful hike up Gray's Peak and then shuffled on over to Torrey's Peak before descending back down again.  This is a popular route, known as "Gray's and Torrey's", which allows climbers to bag two lovely 14ers in one triangular day hike.

SOURCE
Gray's Peak on the left, Torrey's on the right
This is an extremely popular hike, and if we'd had our act together, we probably would've driven up the night before and camped.  But it was really a Friday evening spur of the moment decision, and at least we had our act together enough to leave in the wee hours of Saturday morning and make good time to the trail head.

Despite the crowds, we both really enjoyed this hike.  Plus, the other hikers were all very friendly. I went passed a little boy with the smallest pair of YakTrax I've ever seen strapped to his little backpack.  Precious!

Behind Chaco, heading up to Gray's Peak
I really enjoyed the views and variety of terrain.  It was very rocky for good portions of the climb compared to Mt. Elbert.  We also enjoyed some snowy areas, but they either weren't as bad as Elbert or I'm starting to like them.  We did encounter a couple of hikers who were a bit freaked out by the snow and thus held up the hikers behind them a bit.  I didn't mind since I could sympathize with them, and I was just happy that I wasn't the freaked out one.



12 comments:

ShadowRun300 said...

Had I not had quite an active weekend myself, I would be quite jealous. As we were out, I was thinking how I'm almost as happy outside here, as I am when I'm in Colorado. Lots of areas to explore.
That being said, I'm still planning a trip back out to the mountains. Because look at those views......

Abby said...

YAY! I'm glad you got out to play and explore. Well deserved.

Jimmy said...

Nice two in one shot, my question for you is did you get your new shoes yet?

Linda Hensley said...

Having grown up in a valley, I tend to see everybody else's ground level as an accomplishment. In Cleveland, that's about 700 feet. and no snow in summer. You win on the altitude thing. Good for you to have the hiking bonding time together! Love your Sound of Music pic :)

Marcy said...

Two 14,000-footers -- wow! To an East coaster, those heights are mind-boggling. I love your summit pics :)

Abby said...

Yes, I did get the new shoes, Jimmy! They're marvelous :)

Abby said...

It is kind of fun - and work! - to find snow in summer. I'll take the win :)

Abby said...

I guess it is pretty high up from the East coast view. Does it help to know that our hike started above 11,000 feet?

LL Cool Joe said...

The view at the top of the mountains look amazing, it's a shame that strange woman in the hat holding up a piece of cardboard, got in the way in both photos! :D

Abby said...

HA! But isn't it all about the hat?

Ginny said...

I'm not used to seeing snow while hiking. Like Marcy said, our hiking is a little different here on the east coast. Nice pics!

Abby said...

I still miss the fall colors on the east coast! Here, we have snow in July and Aspens and more Aspens.