Jamie's 26th Birthday Hike

Here's our early morning hike from June 9. It was Bryce's attempt to see wildlife, coming from Texas, where the only thing living is either a rattlesnake or living in AC. As you can see, there was a lot of snow. The dancing animal dressed in black is the only living wild thing we found.


I take that back, there might have been two wild things. And no, this isn't supposed to be a scene from X-men.
The weather was great, and the view was even better. Unfortunately, because of the snow we couldn't follow the trail. It was under a few feet of snow. So we made up our own path. And this is what we found.

Check out these mountains...

and these cliffs...
Don't worry, this was all in the "NO SKI ZONE"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuYFZtw3_Mo

After reaching the top of this little ridge, scarred and battered, we documented the occasion by not taking a picture, apparently.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvdq5NrcXGM

After an hour or two of hiking we looked out and saw the a couple of the lakes that we were supposed to be going around, none of which we actually did. Instead, we climbed straight up the hill giving us access to this sweet shot.

And a few more.

And yes, I'm still just as prone to accidents as always.

With that behind us, and now at the top of Rockies, the fun could finally begin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LbosFAUroo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RjvYXAfvsw

The goggles made an excellent find. You'd be amazed what you can find on a ski slope in June.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRaAJyjWoGw

Finally, someone that doesn't look ridiculous.

After a bit of hiking, we made a killer find...

This was just before dropping in for the final run of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAWKmPU49Oc

We could have spent most of the hike here, if we weren't going back for cinnamon rolls.

A familiar sight around my brothers. Luckily, I think I dodged this one, unlike Cris's long shot at Christmas. See the January 8th post on his blog.

Sadly, after a few hours of hiking, this was the only evidence that we found of anything living passing close. Of course, if there was anything close enough, they were probably scared to death from all the noise we were making.

Our hike eventually came to an end, in front of the same lake/swamp where we started.

If you look close you can find a turkey in here. I couldn't see it when I took this picture, I was going off of Bryce's word.

This may be a duplicate, but it makes our hike seem a lot longer. Or maybe we did the same loop twice.

The final lake again, this time with just the mountain and lake.

Thanks for the sweet hike, Bryce. We'll have to repeat them someday, maybe in the Catskills next year. Cris, mark it on your calendar so you can make it.