It's All About The Aspens

After ATVing at Sargents, we packed up and headed for Buffalo Peaks, outside of Buena Vista.  We had seen on the way over that the colors were pretty vibrant over that way so I was excited to get there!

Monarch Pass had changed even in the couple of days and it was beautiful driving the pass!  We found a great wilderness spot by late afternoon and set up camp!  Glenn got some firewood and we even had a fire that evening!

Early Thursday morning we headed out - it was warmer than the previous days but still chilly so we dressed warmly!  Unfortunately the day was windy - very windy!  But the colors were gorgeous!!

 Once again, there was plenty of orange in some of the leaves!

We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and ended up putting on about 50 miles that day!

No fire that evening as it was just too windy!  We both felt a little wind burnt after riding all day!!

Our plans were to move to the other side of Buffalo Peaks on Friday morning and ATV about 1/2 day over there before we headed home.   But dark storm clouds moved in pretty fast that morning and we weren't excited about getting caught in the rain so headed on home!  An excellent fall trip!!

Fall Colors

The 3rd week of September - usually peak week for the aspens - and our fall trip had been on the calendar for months!  We left early Monday morning with the 5th wheel and ATV and headed over to Snowblind Campground which is at the base of Monarch Pass.  By staying there, we could do both the Sargents area and the Pitkin area!

It was kind of nice to have a fire pit and a picnic table - we don't usually camp in campgrounds but this one is a Nat'l Forest one and the only other people there were the host and 2 sets of hunters!

Glenn has rigged up a solar panel for the 5th wheel which is really nice - with all our sun, the panel can recharge the batteries during the day!

After setting up in the campground, we headed up Old Monarch Pass - there weren't a lot of colors up that way but it was a fun drive as I had never been on that road!

We woke up to 26 degree weather on Tuesday!!  YIKES - turn that furnace on!!  We dressed warmly and I had 6 layers on my upper body - I was STILL chilly at times riding that ATV!!  But it was all worth it because we found the aspens!!

We did Black Sage Pass and then over to Pitkin!  And were excited to drive through a campground that we THOUGHT didn't have spaces big enough for us - turns out they have a LOT of drive through spaces which will be perfect for us next year!

 Although we were about a week early for peak aspens this year, there was still plenty of color to see!

I love the fact that the road crew didn't cut down this aspen but made the road around it!

As usual, I couldn't stop taking pictures!  The aspens have me hooked this time of year!

Wednesday morning we also woke up to the cold - because we were down in a valley, it took the sun a while to get up over the mountain!  We asked the camp ground host if we could keep the 5th wheel there longer than the normal checkout and he said it was no problem!  We trailered the ATV over to Sargents and went down some of my favorite trails of aspens!!  GORGEOUS!!

To Be Cont'd......................

Keppy Fun

WOW - another weekend with kids and grand kids!!  Since the Keppys' had just returned that week from Gary's grandmother's funeral in Iowa, I really didn't expect them to come down for the weekend - but they did and we were sure glad!

Check out (what's left anyway) of what Jessi brought down for us!!  Gosh they were good!!  Especially with a great cup of coffee!

 Gwyn of course had fun playing outside and running around!  She has Papa and I at her beck and call!  I love her cowboy boots!

 A couple of weeks ago I remembered I had an old game in the closet that I really enjoyed playing so got it out and we played it - Tripoly!!  And yes, there's an extra one as Kylan came out and spent the nite - the boys were SO excited to see each other!  Jessi and I enjoyed our "special" coffee that morning!

Gwyn loves sitting on the counter and helping me cook!

 These 3 had a ball over at their "fort" - they borrowed an old rag and made a sign for it!  We all checked it out and it's cute as can be!!

Somehow Jessi and I never got to our books this time - too much to talk about I guess!  It was a great though short weekend and we always love seeing them!

Short But Sweet

Company for the weekend - but a very short weekend!  Robby had to install a new computer at his moms' place so they decided to come down for a couple of nights!  Aleah had a soccer game Friday night so it was pretty late before they drove in!

Robby headed into his moms' place the next morning with the kids - Jill and I grabbed a quick cup of coffee on the deck before we headed in to visit a little bit and have a picnic lunch!  I had told the kids they could pick out a couple of items at the Dollar Store so they were thrilled to do that!

When we got home, I went into the bedroom to change and a deer stood up right by the window - it was a buck that was shedding its' velvet and was pretty cool looking - the kids got to see him and when Glenn came in later, he brought some feed up so the kids could get pretty close to him!

 The kids thought that was pretty neat to be so close to the buck!!

We played a couple of games with the kids that evening before they watched a movie - and by 9:30 the next morning they were out the door headed home as Parker had his first baseball game!!

But first I snapped a couple of cute pictures!!  Aleah and her American girl doll had matching outfits - sweet!!

 And Parker had brought HIS American boy doll down - Jackson!!

So even though it was short, it was great to see them!

It's Game Time For Rayna

Tryouts for the Woodland Park volleyball team were held a couple of weeks ago - we were sure hoping that Rayna would make the team since the competition was tough but she made the JV Varsity team so we were very happy for her!  Glenn and I have missed watching her play since last year she was out the entire year after tearing her ACL at the beginning of the season!

We missed her first home game as it was during hunting season but this last week she had 2 home games and we were there watching in the bleachers!  It sure seemed strange to be back in the Woodland Park gym - I'm not sure we've been back in there since the year Jessi graduated - and that was to attend many band concerts!  So it felt good to be back there!

Rayna played setter most of the time and did a great job!!  They won both times on the 2 nights so that was fun to see!

 I love to watch this girl serve - she makes it look effortless!

Good Luck this season Rayna!!

Home Wildlife

It's fun watching the deer come around, especially the bucks since they are still in velvet!  They'll be dropping that velvet soon and I'm sure we'll hear the bugling start also!

Most of them are pretty tame - you can feed them right out of your hand if you choose to!  And they also like Glenn's shrubs and flowers so many times we are outside shooing them away from those areas!

While I was having my morning coffee out front on the deck, this guy came by!!

We do love the wildlife!

Wait For It..................

It's almost here................those golden aspen trees..................just waiting for me!

Patience - the trees take their time turning - but a few branches couldn't resist being FIRST!

Wait for it!

The Freezer Is Still Empty

Glenn continued to hunt - I continued to relax!!  Friday night Glenn walked in about 9:00pm that night and looked utterly defeated!  He was sitting in his tree stand and a cow elk came down off the mountain - it was a perfect shot - only Glenn froze and couldn't pull his bow back far enough!  He said his adrenalin kicked in, his heart started beating crazy fast and he could hardly think!!  Needless to say, he did not get the elk and decided he was DONE doing archery!  This had happened about 10 years ago also - same problem - when you're hunting deer it's called "buck fever" so I guess I'll call it "elk fever".  I felt bad for Glenn but it doesn't bother me if we don't have the meat - I'm a beef lover from way back growing up on the farm....................

Saturday morning I went with Glenn to see where his episode had happened and where his deer stand was up in the trees!  And then I realized why it took him so long to get home at night!!  It was a LONG drive on the ATV and then a steep, steep hike down the side of a canyon!!  I don't do well going down, especially when there's not a trail!

Here's the tree where Glenn's tree stand is! And yes, that's Glenn up there too!

 That tree was WAY too high for me - I don't do heights well!!  But Glenn seemed to scale it pretty fast!  He had moved his tree stand to this tree about 1/2 way through hunting season - when he moved it, he forgot his gloves so he came home with badly scratched hands on one side and lots of sap on the other side!

 I took this picture because the bluffs that you see have special significance!  On TOP of the bluffs, is where Glenn and I always stop and have lunch when we're ATVing!!  And now we were at the bottom!

Just a peek at how steep the so called trail is heading back up to the ATV.

WHEW!  What a workout going up that trail and wondering how Glenn did it daily!!

We packed it all up and headed home Saturday afternoon - a great camping week and even though Glenn didn't get an elk, he still had fun!

Archery Season Has Started

Time for Glenn to practice up on his archery skills because hunting season has opened!!  He had put in for the Sargeants area for archery which was fine with me as I love camping over that way!

The plan was to leave early Monday morning, as Sunday was our annual homeowners' association meeting and our annual 4-H Foundation picnic - the plan wasn't followed!!  Glenn decided he wanted to head over early Friday morning to make sure he got a good spot and I could drive over on Monday morning!  And then the plans changed again as friends Dick and Jane decided they wanted to go camping over there too so they would pick me up on Monday morning so I wouldn't have to drive over!  For some reason, I'm not good with change - but it all worked out just fine!

Glenn left me a message on Sunday where he was camped (and no, it wasn't our #1 spot as it was taken but it was our #2 spot) and Dick, Jane and I headed over on Monday!  It was good to see Glenn and catch up from the last 3 days!  Dick and Jane set up camp a little ways from us.

I figured Glenn was going out early morning each day to hunt but he decided it was fine to just go early afternoons every day so we would ATV with Dick and Jane in the mornings!

My hunter before he headed out! (I think he needs a clean t-shirt!!)

 One day we did Marshall Pass with Dick and Jane - always a pretty drive!

 After we got back home, Glenn said to come outside and look at this spider - YIKES - it was BIG!!

 We had our larger cooked meal at lunchtime and then just ate leftovers in the evenings as Glenn didn't get in usually till about 9:00!  I read a lot and enjoyed having the neighbors large generator that I could turn on and actually watch movies while I did Swedish weaving!!  My idea of relaxation!

The night before Dick and Jane left, we saw this gorgeous sunset!

Our friends left Thursday morning - Glenn and I went out for a ride before he left to hunt and then it was back to my book!  I'm reading an excellent 6 book series which is set during Hitler's reign and World War II.   To Be Cont'd...........