I Think I Have Altitude Sickness

Well, here we are, high in the Sangre de Christo Mountains in cool and refreshing Colorado. We had a great day, but am I tired! I think maybe the altitude got to me a little. This morning Greg and I went fly fishing. Actually, it was Greg who did the fishing. I pretty much spent a few hours tossing my line back and forth into the water, listening to the fish laughing at me. We were on the the Arkansas River about 60 mile north of Greg's house (which I will henceforth refer to as "our house" now that Greg has gone back to Houston).

After we returned from our fishing trip Greg left for the airport in Colorado Springs and Vicki and I headed out for our first hike. We hiked one of the trails in the lower reaches of the mountains behind our house. The combination of 9,200 feet elevation and uphill walking made for a fairly challenging two hours. Tomorrow we're going to drive over to the mountains on the other side of our valley - the Wet Mountains - and check them out. The majority of the trails on this side are hikes of at least five miles (one way) and they are very steep. Word on the street is that the Wet hikes are a little easier and a little shorter. We'll find out tomorrow. Our plan is to get started early, with our first stop at the Amish bakery in Westcliffe for sustinance.

Sunset from our back door.

Taking a break from our extreme hiking expedition.

Horn Peak - 13,250 Feet - An ominous presence out our back door

and everywhere else we go.

From the less exciting news department, yesterday Greg and I spent most of the day building some shelves in the living room. He wanted the shelves to look "rustic" so we built them with 2x12 boards. I'm not sure that they came out exactly as envisioned. Possibly a little more rustic than anticipated. We had issues with tools, and not having the ones we really needed to finish the job correctly. I was making cuts with a circular saw that should have been made with a skill saw. It was a little like doing surgery with a chain saw.

Tonight just after sunset there was a thunderstorm across the valley with some spectacular lightning strikes. Apparently the Wet Mountains get their name because it tends to rain more on them than on our side of the valley. We tried to take some video of the storm with Vicki's camera, but neither of us could figure out how to do video instead of still shots. We'll study up in time for the next storm.