Trail Time

What to pack for our day on the ATV? An ice chest with a picnic lunch was a given but I really didn't know what else to bring?

I finally decided to wear a small fanny pack and take some sunscreen, chapstick, tylenol (just in case......) and kleenex! And when Glenn came downstairs with a heavy sweatshirt on and another sweatshirt on top of that, I clearly asked him if he was going to change into a t-shirt instead - and darn it, he took my advice and did!!

I ended up wearing a t-shirt and ONLY put a sweater on top of that because Glenn said it was pretty cool outside - and threw a zip-up sweatshirt with a hood in the car and we were off! I had checked the weather for Teller County and it said between 54 and 65 degrees!! Pretty big range there but I opted that the temperature was going to get into the 60's! So my vision was of rolling through the mountains in our t-shirts - WRONG!!

I wasn't sure where we were going but we drove over to Park County, pretty close to 11 Mile Reservoir over a lot of bumpy roads (where I proceeded to spill my coffee all over myself - where are those darn to go cups when you need one!!) and soon we were where we supposed to be! I opened the car door and my first thought was : WIND - I forgot about the darn wind!! My 2nd thought was that we were in Park County, not Teller, and it was a heck of a lot colder there!

OH well - Glenn unloaded the ATV off the trailer which was pretty quick, I climbed up on the back behind him and we were off! And at that point I realized we had forgotten a MAJOR item, gloves for Glenn (and me!!) It was pretty windy since we were on the flats and even though the sun was out in full force, it was early enough that it was still pretty cold out! Riding the ATV at a fairly fast speed was COLD, VERY COLD!! I had my hands in Glenn's sweatshirt pocket and they were cold so I could just imagine what his hands felt like - popsicles I'm sure!!!

Glenn assured me the wind would lessen once we got into some trees and he was right - we only had about 15 minutes of super cold and then it was warmer............

Around the first bend, what did we see but 4 antelope on the hillside - of course my first reaction is to grab my fanny pack to get my camera but alas, does Becky have a camera at this point???? NO!!! (more on this in another blog) SO I mentally took a picture of the antelope (insert antelope pic here) and we continued on...........

I LOVED riding the ATV - the air was fresh and clean, the mountains were beautiful and the aspens were all budded out!! Around the next turn was this small, beautiful lake (insert lake pic here) so we stopped to get out of the wind and spent some time there!

In back of us were the Sangre de Cristo mountains with a ton of snow still on them (insert mountain pic here) and in front of us was the Pikes Peak range. It was all gorgeous!!

We drove and drove, stopping when we wanted to and just enjoying the beautiful day!! After our picnic lunch, we actually laid down in the grass and Glenn slept for a while! The sun felt SO GOOD on us and I almost fell asleep myself!

There were a few gates we had to open and close so when Glenn would jump off to open them, I would drive the ATV on through and at the end, I drove it on the last stretch which was pretty smooth! (insert pic of Becky driving the ATV)

We checked out a few camping spots along the way too but of course one of my favorite spots was a tough place to get to! The trail there was so steep and rough that I had to climb off while Glenn got the ATV up the rocky part and I can't imagine trying to bring a truck in there with a camper on the back!

All in all, one fantastic day and I can't wait to go again - next time though, we WILL bring gloves and extra clothing, just in case............and I WILL have a camera by then!