How I Spent My Summer Vacation - By Mr. Lyke

Hello, it's back-to-school time for me and I feel rested and refreshed and ready for another year thanks to a fabulous summer break.  My previous post documented my trip to Australia in the first half of the summer and this one will finish off my summer adventures with my visit home to Denver.

In Denver I enjoyed spending time with family and friends, including several who visited from out of state.  Thanks to all who made time and/or scheduled trips so we could get together!  Together we enjoyed meals, drinks, walks, music, and camping in the mountains as you will see below.

My dad, John, and his longtime fiancee, Rita, at dinner at Poppies on S. Colorado Blvd.

Brad, Nichole, Dave, and myself at Nichole and Dave's place for a bbq.

Me, Brad, and Dave wearing tie dyes sent by our mutual friend Frank.  Thanks, Frank!  Great work!

The next day Brad and Dave and I went car-camping at Caribou Flats up above Nederland (which is in the mountains above Boulder) where Dave and I lived for a year in the mid 1980s along with his brother Jeff.  It was a rainy afternoon and the dirt roads we thought we were going to drive down to find a camping spot were gated off by the forest service so we ended up camping in pretty nice spot just off the parking area.  This picture is of Brad in Nederland on a stop during our drive up.

Though the evening we arrived was chilly and damp, the next morning dawned sunny and glorious and we did a little hiking around and exploring.  This picture is looking back east down the valley toward Nederland.  If you look at the little (in the picture) stone ruin on the road on the way down you'll see the location of an upcoming picture.

Just over Dave's right shoulder is where we camped.

Here's the ruin of the stone building from a couple pics back, and above Brad's head you can see the parking area where the previous two pictures were taken and off which we'd camped.  This ruin is from the gold-rush town of Caribou, which at one time had a population of thousands, I believe.

Dave found an old mine...

...which he was able to get into through a hole in the siding and explore.  (That's his light at the back of the tunnel).

There were also beautiful wildflowers, the first of many.

Back in Denver we were joined by friends Reid...

...and Dan, and his son, Colton.

We met up for brunch at a fish and chips place across the street from Sloan's Lake.

Even Max showed up on his motorcycle.  We also saw our friend Nick, but unfortunately I didn't get any photo documentation of him.

Me and Max.

Colton.  My how fast those kids grow up!

The next day Reid and I went for coffee and a leisurely stroll along Clear Creek just where it flows into Golden.

The river was high and I saw some people getting in with tubes for a float, which I was tempted to do as well except this was no Australian river.  It was quite chilly!

Reid phoning his family back in Iowa.

The next morning I went on a hike with my mother up Butler Gulch, the trail head for which is just off the first hairpin turn on Hwy 40 after you go through Empire on your way toward Berthoud Pass

Doing pretty good for 82, Mom!

The lower part of this trail does a lot of climbing and can be pretty strenuous if you're trying to get up above timber line.  Eventually Mom told me to go ahead by myself and she'd see me later on my way back down.

Just emerging from the trees at timberline here and enjoying the Indian Paintbrush, which presented themselves in a variety of hues (compare the loan red one in the center in back with the more purpley ones in the foreground).

At one point I thought I'd have to turn around when it started drizzling slightly but that immediately cleared and it became a beautiful morning.

I thought there was a lake at the head of the valley and the trail left the stream so I left the trail and started grass-whacking my way up the slope.

Did I mention the wild flowers were abundant and glorious?

Getting near the top of the valley now and still no sign of a lake, but I've re-encountered the trail.

Nope, no lake at the top, just the remains of a snow field.

Heading back down now I'll follow the stream at first.

Wow, my phone is so convenient and takes such great pictures.  I'm really thankful for it.

I left the stream when it plunged down a ravine and traversed my way back around the knob I was on to the trail (eventually).  You can see it (the trail) in the center of the picture above.  Down where the trail goes back into the trees is where I'll find Mom waiting for me in a couple more pictures.

In the center of this picture are some mine tailings and old rusting mining equipment.  Dave, where are you?

Rejoining the trail.

Some kind of Astor?  They were everywhere.

There's something on that rock up ahead.

Oh, it's Mom!

Looking back the way I'd come.

Lunch break (that's a sandwich in my right hand).

Once more without the hat and sandwich.

Columbine, the state flower.

Continuing down with Mom.

Goodbye wide-open views.  Hello again, trees.  I told you it was pretty steep!

Didn't we take this same picture on the way up?

This is the backyard of my house in Denver...

... where I was visiting my friend, former neighbor (twice) and doctor, and now renter, Nell.

I helped Nell with some pruning (my favorite) one afternoon and she hosted a nice dinner for me and a small group of mutual family and friends (thanks Nell!).  Then it was time to go backpacking with my boys!

Back in Nederland again (near where I'd camped with Dave and Brad) the weather was again threatening rain, as you can see in this picture looking west toward the continental divide.  We stopped at the grocery store here to get some canned soup for dinners.

By the time we made it to the trail head it had started to sprinkle so we had to implement the emergency rain gear plan (modified plastic trash bags).

All ready to go!

I was able to re-use my trash bag from my camping trip with Dave and Brad.  How satisfying!

Of course the rain almost immediately stopped as we began to climb.

Again, the beginning of the trail is quite steep.  Max was recovering from mononucleosis and I'm an old man so we took several rest breaks.

This is the south fork of Boulder Creek out of the Hessie (another abandoned mining city) trail head headed up toward King Lake and Rollins Pass.  Behind the boys you can see some old train trestles from the Rollins Pass stretch of the railway approaching the continental divide.  That's abandoned now since it was replaced by the Moffat Tunnel which runs under the divide and comes out at Winter Park.

Owen was very patient with us.

In addition to wildflowers there were also mushrooms.

That first day's hike was quite strenuous, about 6 or 7 miles in length with a lot of elevation gain and heavy packs.  As we approached our goal (King Lake) it started to drizzle again and was getting late in the day.  We quickly set up camp during a break in the rainfall then collapsed in the tent and took a nap.  Eventually, just before sunset, Owen got up and heated a couple cans of soup.  I was so exhausted I wasn't even hungry.  The thought of trying to digest food seemed overwhelming but I forced down about a third of a can of soup.  Max had the rest of that can and Owen had a whole can.  We had had to make due with a slightly slanted and lumpy site for our tent so none of us slept too well that night.  However, in the morning we woke up...

...here and it was glorious!

The boys were still asleep in the tent so I got busy making coffee and taking pictures.  This one is looking back down the valley we'd hiked up the afternoon before.

And this is where we'd arrived.  If you look close you'll see a lake in the picture above.

Easier to see the lake here.  We thought this was King Lake but we were mistaken.  On my map app it's labeled 'unnamed lake' so I have named it "Broken Pump Lake" due to subsequent events.

Max emerges from the tent.

We needed to pump some water since we'd drunk up most of what we'd brought and we were planning to go up from here to the continental divide and camp there so there wouldn't be any more water sources until we came back down again.

But one of our two pumps broke completely and the other seemed to be broken until Owen figured out a way to make it work with the help of a second person.  Nice work, Owen!

Meanwhile, not knowing Owen was going to make it work, I was looking around for alternate water sources.  To the west of us was the continental divide and if you look close you can see a little stream running out of the snowfield below it into the lake.  I figured that water should be safe to drink so I went over there and filled up my water bottles.

This is a view back to the east from near my water-bottle-filling spot.

Eventually we got all packed up and headed up the trail toward Rollins Pass and the divide and on the way we passed the real King Lake.

After we got to the divide the trail continued up some more, much to my exhausted dismay, but when we got near the top we had a lovely view back down to King Lake and the valley we'd come up.  Owen appears to have sprouted antennae.

This is one of my favorites.  Looking north along the divide.

Lunch break!  The trail here was somewhat flatter, which was a nice break.  Packs were still heavy and Owen was carrying a 10 L water bag he'd filled (about 22 lbs not including the rest of his water and gear, which included our tent!)  Owen was MVP backpacker this day for sure.  Have some more peanut butter on your carrot, Owen.  Washed out in the background you can see the other side of the Winter Park valley.

Max had departed on a side trip to look over the edge of the cliff to the right in this photo.  Owen and I stayed behind to rest.  This is looking north along the divide again, about half way between Rollins and Devil's Thumb passes.  I believe the peak above Owen's head is North and South Arapaho Peak but it's hard to be certain because it's a different shape from this angle than I'm used to seeing it.  The low point in the divide (just below Arapaho peaks) is Devil's Thumb Pass, where we'll go back over to the east side the next day.  Tonight we'll camp on a little knoll you can see in this picture if you look down the slope from the pass and see where the trees start and look at the dense line of trees on the far edge just before you get to the rock slides and follow that to the break in those trees.  At that point there is a little protuberance like another little mountain but it's actually grassy and flat on top.  That's where we'll camp.  Lower down (behind it) the dark line of trees starts up again.

A lovely spot to camp, and a nice place to lie down, take a rest, and read a book (something both boys seemed unusually anxious to do).  Thanks, by the way, for the loan of the tent, Darcy.  It was perfect!

After a brief drizzle during which Owen put the rain fly on the tent the sun came back out again, conveniently, so that we could enjoy a glorious sunset and have a campfire with the wood Max and I had collected.

Looking down (west) towards Tabernash and Hwy 40.

Sun is getting lower.  Owen is preparing bratwurst roasting sticks so we can eat the pack of bratwurst we'd intended to eat the first night but had been to exhausted to prepare (not to mention it was raining, there was no firewood available.  Also you aren't supposed to have fires east of the divide in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area but that probably wouldn't have stopped me by itself since everything was so lush and damp.)

Looking east you can see the divide where we'll have to climb up to the next morning to go over the pass and back down a different trail to the Owen's truck.

Okay, let's get that fire going and cook some brats!

End of second day backpacking.

Bear with me, gentle reader.  Like a tired hiker I'm gradually approaching the end of this blog post, with one more day of this backpacking trip to complete then a few loose ends to tie up.

The morning of the second day dawned beautifully again, as was the pattern.  The clouds didn't roll in and start spitting raindrops until late morning.  Looking west here from our knoll you again see across the Winter Park valley.

This is the pose I saw Max in which originally caught my eye and caused me to boot up my phone (for the camera) to take some pictures but by the time I was ready he was done tying his shoe so he obligingly recreated the picture I'd originally wanted to take.

Time has now passed and we've packed up our tent and struggled back up to the divide to Devil's Thumb pass.  We're hanging out here before we start down the east side.

This is from my camera.  Behind us you can see the valley we'll be hiking out in, which is not the same one we came up.

Here's my favorite pic from this trip.  It's from Owen's phone.  His doesn't have the crack which lets moisture fog the corner sometimes like mine does (see picture above this one) and we're also better centered.

Looking back the other way (to the west).

East again.

There were some other hikers up there so we asked one of them to take our picture.  Colorado is beautiful!

Okay, I guess we have to put our packs back on and head on down eventually.

But we can stop for another picture as we pass another hiker on the way.

Heading down Devil's Thumb Pass.  That's Devil's Thumb Lake in the background.

Stopping for lunch at the foot of the pass.

Over Max's right shoulder you can see the trail we'd come down.

Back on the trail again the boys found a rock they wanted to boulder on.

I didn't mind dropping my pack and taking pictures.

Ho hum: more beautiful wildflowers.

Max is outstanding in his field.

Jasper Lake.  It's starting to sprinkle again.

Wow, we've still got a long way to go down, despite already having descended quite a ways.

 Our original plan was to spend one more night camping, up near Devil's Thumb Lake.  But Owen suggested we hike down lower so we'd be closer to the truck and have a shorter hike out on the fourth day.  I had a feeling that if we got closer to the truck we'd end up deciding to head all the way out and back to civilization, which is just what happened.  As we were hiking along and debating this Max suggested that if we went back we could see a movie.  And I added that we could get hamburgers.  Since it was raining at the time the choice appeared to be between another raining afternoon and night lying on the ground or a hamburger (and beer for me!) and a movie.  Guess which one won?

Heading out of the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area.

Even though we were out of the wilderness area we weren't yet back to the truck.  We hadn't realized on the way in that we could have driven about another mile on a 4WD road which we'd hiked instead.  Max and I were ready for a break and a can of soup so I suggested that Owen could go get the truck and bring it up to get us which he was kind enough to do.

Waiting for Owen at the end of the 4WD road.

Back in Boulder on our way to see "Dunkirk" after showering and changing at Owen's house.  Look how clean everyone looks!

The end of a super trip!  Thanks, guys!

Near the end of my time in Denver I was able to spend some time with my old high school friend Greg Bumpus and his family.  We started with Brunch at Lucille's in Boulder followed by a stroll along the mall.

Shaharzad and Greg Bumpus and their son, Kayvon.

Going for a hike at Chataqua on a strangely misty Colorado day.

Misty flatirons.

Driving back from Boulder to Golden on Hwy 93.

A hike in Golden Gate Canyon with Susan Freeman

Waiting for pie in Perkins with Greg following a jam at Randy's.

Walking along the river in Morrison (what river is that?) with Greg, Shaharzad, and Gretchen and Alan Goral after brunch.  Greg and Alan and I are now planning to rendezvous in Japan for a week during my Fall break!

Visiting the Steffens one more time the night before I left, finishing my trip more or less where I began, and hanging out trying to be helpful as they install a new (replacement) microwave.  That's Nichole and David's son Ethan manning the cordless drill.

 Well, that's it for the official timeline.  What follows below are the "special" pictures which I can do using different modes of my camera such as panorama and fish-eye and such.  When I download my pictures those 'special' ones get put at the end of all the others and I'm too lazy to go back and insert them in sequence so this is a pop quiz.  If you've been paying attention you should be able to figure out where each was taken (if you care).

And finally a video (which also ends up at the end of all my photos)...

Adieu!  (and don't say geshundheit!)