Animal sightings both big and small

The mountains around Steamboat always have fun observations of the faunal type. While riding near Buffalo Pass on the Continental Divide trail we came near a mom moose and her baby. Click on the image for a close up. Needless to say we didn't want to stress them out nor did we want mom to get angry with us. After a hasty picture we were on our way.

However, back in camp the mosquito population was quite healthy. In this case however, we did not care if we stressed the poor little buggers out nor were we worried about any attack besides the near constant biting. Below, Fran is modeling one of our new head nets that enabled us to keep the bites limited to the rest of our bodies. This is the first time we have ever had to resort to netting. It appears that Northern Colorado has had a wet spring and a bumper crop of the secondary consumers.

Nothing like a bike ride to feel like a kid again

Our search for a flat handled road bike ended successfully last week as we found the only size small Specialized Vita in western Colorado. We decided that we both like the flat handle bars for both comfort and for its similarity to our mountain bikes. Unfortunately, it appears that the bike manufactures misjudged their orders both last year and this year. This translates to it was pretty difficult to find a bike to even try out. After traveling to the nearest city and trying a handful of brands and models we decided on a powder blue, girl specific, flat handle bar road bike from Specialized.

Just opening up an one more fitness venue here on the western slope.

between adventures

Last week between adventures we hosted two of our youngest nieces for a short visit. We visited a nearby national park, a ghost town and a restored mine. We also threw lots of rocks into creeks, rode bikes to ice cream shops and watched deer wander close by.

Checking out a ghost town

Watching wildlife
Throwing rocks
A good time was had by all.

A divergent adventure

Just about every state requires teachers to take a few classes every five years to be re-certified as a teacher in a public school. Because I teach most summers, I have been a bit behind in collecting the required credits. So...this year I decided to take a class very similar to what I teach, that is doing geology in a very pretty part of the country. In this case it was along the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument.

While I was in class, Fran flew into the SF bay area and played with our grandson and visited our son and daughter-in-law.

Rafting through Split Mountain
The start of the Split Mountain anticline
One happy baby
Reliving those days at the swing in the playground.
One happy grandmother