Today we completed yesterday’s hike. Now we have hiked the entire 14-mile round-trip of the Mesa Trail.

The weather was cooler than yesterday. But we had bright sunshine all day. Great for photographs.

Yesterday we went from the north trailhead of the Mesa Trail to the Mallory Cave Trail, a distance I estimated at 6 miles out and back. Today we hiked from the south trailhead on Eldorado Canyon road to the point where we stopped yesterday. That’s about 8 miles round-trip today.
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We knew the snow was coming when Karen arrived here last Monday. We had a great day to hike in the mountains on Tuesday, when we went to Emerald Lake.

But after the snow came down, we remained on the prairie until today. After hiking the South Boulder Creek Trail on Friday, we walked through Tantra Park and the undeveloped University of Colorado property nearby on Saturday.
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Yesterday was so cold and cloudy in Boulder that Karen and I didn’t even consider going to the mountains. But we wanted to get out after not leaving my apartment once on Thanksgiving.

So we hiked along the South Boulder Creek trail from Marshall Road to the Recreation Center and back. Good thing we wore our warmest clothes, because the temperature in the morning was only 23. It reached an official high of 27.

Hiking as fast as we could, except over a few patches of ice, we went exactly 10 kilometers, in other words 6.2 miles, in practically no time. At least it seemed like that since we were together.
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When we got up yesterday morning three inches of snow greeted us in Boulder. We had perfect weather for me to try out my new snowshoes and gaiters and for Karen to try out the new Yaktrax (coiled crampons) that I bought for her visit with me.

Ever since August, when I wrote “Rocky Mountain Low” at http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/12991/rocky-mountain-low/. I have been thinking and talking about how I would get around once the snow arrived. It was late this year, and yesterday’s snowfall was the first of the season.

With snowshoes I am no longer limited to the treadmill this winter. Using them was surprisingly easy to get used to.
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Karen chose a beautiful late fall day to begin her visit with me here in Boulder. I picked her up early Monday afternoon at Denver International Airport. The day was not only sunny but set a record high of 76 degrees for the day.

The weather prediction called it the last warm day of the season. But we got a reprieve Tuesrday before the cold front arrived. It reached 68 degrees here in Boulder.

When we got up Tuesrday morning, it was such a beautiful day that we knew that we had to head for the high country. I called for information at Rocky Mountain National Park and found that the road to Bear Lake was free of snow and that the trail from there up to Emerald Lake had only a little ice. It wasn’t until the late afternoon that the storm was coming in.
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Snow blotted out the trail. I didn’t see or hear anyone all day.

But in the past few days somebody else had blazed a trail up toward Forest Lakes for me. That left me feeling less alone in the wilderness. I was just giving thanks for being able to follow in someone else’s footsteps, when they stopped. I backtracked, but still couldn’t find them.

He or she had given up.

But I wasn’t about to surrender to the elements. According to my GPS receiver, I was too close to the lake to quit. But I probably would have without that high-tech guide.
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The high country hiking season is coming to an end for everyone else. I had the trail all to myself – and the wind – today.

At this season we have barely enough hours of sunshine to complete a long hike between sunrise and sunset. But I am running out of short hikes through country new to me.

If I had hiked at the pace I set at the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have been off the trail before 7 or 8 p.m. this evening. So before I set forth I made sure that the batteries in my headlamp worked.

I was up at 4:40, and when I left Boulder it was pitch black. I reached the Lawn Lake Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park at 6:40, just minutes before sunrise.
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Some snow was falling on my favorite mountain trails this morning. So I stayed close to home for today’s exercise.

Studying a map, I found a trail that I had never hiked before, which by now takes some doing. My boots have trod practically ever mile of the day hikes within 50 miles of Boulder. While today’s trail sounded and was in fact dull, it matched the dull weather. Some sprinkles fell.

It was cool enough to wear gloves, but not windy. And this is at one of the windiest places around here. So windy that the National Wind Technology Center is right across the road from today’s hike.
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Good thing that I didn’t have to file an itinerary for my hike today! I would have had to refile twice.

I intended a moderate 4-mile hike to Gem Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. I’d never been there, but assumed I knew my way around the park after a lot of hikes there. But before I carefully studied my map I was several miles away from the lake.

No problem, I thought. What’s the nearest trail? It was the 9-mile Ypsilon Lake Trail.

OK. A beautiful day, warm in brilliant sunshine, so that’s where I changed my plan to go. One little problem was that I had a very late start, because I hadn’t intended to hike nearly that far. It meant coming back in the dark.
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One of my principles is to always keep my promises. Including those that I make to myself.

Yesterday when I set out prematurely on the Ypsilon Lake trail and had to turn around, I knew that I needed closure. So that’s where I went today.

I was up at 5, out the door at 6, and at the trailhead by 7. That make a lot more sense than starting my hike to Ypsilon Lake yesterday afternoon, because most of it would have been after dark.

Including my wandering around the lake, making various other detours, and looking for the trail when it wasn’t where I thought it should be, today’s hike was 10 miles. I got back in 8 1/2 hours, well before dark.
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