I'm back and haven't been probed by aliens!

Or eaten by wild hummingbirds or other dangerous wildlife.

But, we did see a bear, or rather, Husband saw the bear.  It was just far enough away that with my weird bad eye I couldn't see it.  Thankfully.  Especially since it was on our trail.

But I digress, slightly.

We left on Sunday morning and went to our favorite camping spot just east of us going towards Crested Butte and Kebler Pass area.

Then we hung around and set up camp and all that stuff you gotta do when you're camping; set up the tent and get the sleeping bags in, get water set up, camp chairs and tables, locate the food, and most importantly, toilet paper!

Home sweet home

Then on Monday we decided to go on a hike.  We were camped right at a trailhead, and we've hiked it before, but it connects with another trail and does a loop that ends up right back on the road to our camping spot.  So I pointed out that it would be fun because we wouldn't have to go down the same place we had just gone up, right?


Start at top, hike to bottom, go across to side and hike back up.  Easy peasy.

It was a beautiful day, and we made it up to the part of the map that says "Navajo Gulch" in about 2 hours, and had lunch in a beautiful meadow.

Then we hiked down to a place that was marked "Navajo Cabin", and I was surprised when we found this:

An actual cabin!  I Googled it and still don't know what it was used for, but it is waaaay out in BFE!




Well, let me tell you, that was the easiest part of the hike!  From there, it was up, up, up.  But I did get some great pictures on the way up:

The dogs scared a couple of elk on the way, but all I saw of them was a quick butt flash in the binoculars before they took off for quieter places.

Oh, and see those storm clouds?  Yeah.  They caught up with us on the way down and we had to take shelter under some pine trees while the worst was going over.

Right after I took this picture it REALLY started raining!

There's nothing like being stuck under a tree with a dog that's afraid of lightening.  Really, everyone should try it.

Turns out, we ended up resuming our hike while it was still raining.  Husband was worried we'd still be hiking when it got dark, and I was pretty much thinking the same thing!

That's Husband and Scaredy Dog on the way back down

When we got to almost the end of the trail where it meets the road, we stopped and looked at the view from across the valley, and that's when Husband said:

"Do you see that bear?!"

Fracking bear was right on the trail where we needed to go!  Luckily for us it moved on by the time I got myself unfrozen from playing dead and we had resumed hiking.  But we made sure we made lots of threatening noises, I'm sure bears are totally shitting themselves when they hear the clacking of hiking poles together.

By the time we made it to camp, there was just enough light to get dinner and a fire going.  And open some beers because hiking is strenuous!

Total miles hiked?  22.8!  We hiked around a whole mountain!

I insisted the next day that we do nothing more strenuous than keep a fire going to dry out our hiking boots and drink beer.

Finally, our last day, Wednesday, we took our bikes out up the road for a couple of hours.  Unfortunately, my front tire blew a leak about 20 minutes into the ride:

Husband to the rescue!

Then we headed back home.  Ahhhh, time for a shower!



Remember, it's just a ride.