Thursday, July 7, 2011

Stats for the day:

·          65°F at 9am at 7600 feet (Mary’s Lake Campground, Estes Park, CO)

·         Total trip miles to date: 3836.3

·         Mid-afternoon thunderstorms avoided: 1

·         Giant holes ripped in shorts without knowing: 1

When my mom speaks of Estes Park there is one story that sticks out in my mind: the Coleman campstove blowing off of the table because the wind was so strong.  I now know what she meant.  so strong it sounded like a train (just like how people describe the approach of tornados)!

Our campsite in Estes was just outside of the park (our late arrival the evening before made us make a conjecture that all of the first come, first serve campsites in the park would be taken), and we really liked it (right next to Mary’s Lake), so we decided to stay at the same campsite and simply drive into the park for the day. 

We drove to the Continental Divide and on the way down from the Divide stopped to hike the Tundra Trail.  Upon getting out of the car, Matt immediately laughing, trying to get my attention, and calling me to stop and come back to the car.  I thought he was just trying to give me a hard time and make me paranoid, but then I reached down to touch my behind and realized the entire back of my shorts had ripped!  There was no sudden movement to cause it, no loud rip to alert me, not anything!  After a quick wardrobe change, we headed to the tundra.  If I wanted to give him an excuse to not ever have to do it again, I’d say that Matt’s laundering skills must have caused the rip. BUT, I like that he helps, so I’ll blame the rip on the fact that I’ve been doing so much rock climbing and hard hiking that it just wore out the fabric.

Note my navy shorts.

And now they're khaki.

The Tundra Trail had lots of fun facts along the way and on top of the rocks at the summit (I use that word loosely), there was a cool compass rose that included info on various features in each direction, many of them beyond the state of Colorado. 

After some elk watching, we headed to do the hike from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake, passing through Nymph Lake and then Dream Lake.  There was a small delay because of Matt’s feet.  He’s been quite the trooper dealing with some extreme blisters and cracked heels.  (We’ve been through quite a bit of moleskin and liquid bandage.) But I love him so much, I hiked back to the vehicle to get some medicine and then back to where he was (it was only an extra mile, but a mile with quite the elevation change), and he powered through the hike.  And I’m glad he made it because we saw some beautiful lakes and hiked the last mile on snow!  Quite the change from the sand and dust of the desert!  Emerald Lake was still pretty full because of the late snow melt, and you could still see snowboarding tracks on the mountain beside the lake.

Dream Lake

On the way back to our campsite.

We finished the hike just in time for the raindrops to start falling.  So, the evening consisted of hunkering down in the tent with wedding magazines and notepads to start brainstorming! 

Math thoughts for today:

·         The tundra and its specimens really impressed me.  There were lots of facts about how long it takes for organisms (and maybe even micro organisms) to grow.  I think growth/decay models about populations for these organisms would be great to compare to those of organisms that grow a bit more quickly.

·         The reflections in the lakes were just what I had been hoping to find!

Shout-outs:

·         I took a picture of a great family from Des Moines (Iowa shout-out!!!), AND they had family who’d graduated from Briar Cliff in Sioux City.  Briar Cliff is where my parents (and LOTS of my aunts, uncles, pseudo-aunts and uncles) went and have worked.