Rent’s due. So I put my check in my hip pocket and my camera in my hand and walked over to the office.

The shortest route from my apartment to the office would be over Tantra Lake. But since the ice on this lake has already melted, that would be a slow swim.

As I walked around the edge of the lake instead, I saw these two bullfrogs basking in the early morning sun.
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Blue Lake has been calling my subconscious mind to come back. I hadn’t been there for at least two years. And worse is that I don’t have any pictures recording that hike.

I’ve wanted to return for a long time. But when I checked with the Forest Service a couple of weeks ago, they told me that the trail was still impassable. Today I took a chance that the snow had melted. I did see a lot of snow and ice nearby, but the trail itself was clear, although it was often muddy.

Blue Lake is in the Indian Peaks Wilderness sitting about 11,400 feet high in the mountains. The trailhead starts at about 10,500 feet and climbs gradually in the first mile to Mitchell Lake at 10,700 feet.
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The bobolink is a distinctive bird of the open grassland near where I walked today. It’s the only American bird that is black underneath and white on the back.

I’ve never seen one along the Bobolink Trail or anywhere else. I did see a beautiful little yellow bird today, although I didn’t whip out my camera fast enough to capture its image.

I did find some beautiful wildflowers. I was surprised, because it’s late in the season for flowers on the plains.

The Bobolink trail runs along South Boulder Creek just to the east of Boulder. It was the closest trail to the house where Catherine and I lived. It’s shaded, scenic, easy, and flat. So we went there often.
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Maybe it’s because I am shooting pictures of every beautiful thing in sight and keep a sharp look out. But I don’t remember the trail to Cub Lake or the lake itself ever to be as wonderful as it was today.
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Summer rain finally came to Colorado. After a winter of lots of snow, we had no rain all spring and summer until now.

All of nature welcomed the end of the drought. Myself included. Even though I was midway through a 7.6 mile circuit hike. The hike took me up to the foothills and through Walker Ranch and the upper canyon of Eldorado State Park.

While the wildflowers opened their petals for the rain, I bundled up. I put on my parka not so much to cover my clothes and body but to protect my electronics — my camera and hearing aids.

The rain started as I sat on a rock at Eldorado Falls to eat lunch. It didn’t stop until several hours later when I got back to Boulder.
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Today’s not a hiking day for me because my exercise will be my resistance training class at noon. But as soon as the sun was up I hit the trail anyway.

It was easy, because I just walked out my door and around to the other side of my apartment. That’s where Tantra Lake is.

I wanted to photograph frogs and turtles. I knew the lake had them, but before yesterday I hadn’t noticed them there. But when I walked back from the restaurant for lunch with Barry I passed by the lake and saw a big frog and a big turtle.

I didn’t have my camera with me, because it was loading the pictures that I took yesterday on the Meyers Homestead Trail into my computer. It’s a process that takes at least an hour because I am shooting in the uncompressed RAW format. The next time I will be sure to take at least my older camera with me wherever I go!
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Because I had agreed to meet Barry at 12:30 for lunch, I knew that I had to get an early start on the day and couldn’t go far from home. I decided to hike the Meyers Homestead Trail at Walker Ranch and got there before 7. The trail is just eight miles from here — but a world apart from civilization.

This is the Meyers Homestead Trail because Andrew Meyers homesteaded this land in 1890. Here is where he lived:
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The trails aren’t in any of my hiking guides. They are on the flat high prairie of Colorado and are more pastoral than natural. The Denver freeway is just to the east.

But my apartment is just to the west. It’s the one easy hike from my apartment.
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This year the wildflowers are later than usual. So I made one of my favorite hikes later than usual.

Last year I hiked to Arapaho Pass on July 18. This year I waited until July 19.

This was the view last year from the pass, which is on the Continental Divide at 11,906 feet:
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Early this afternoon I went out for a bike ride along the South Boulder Creek Trail. I was amazed at how many wildflowers that I saw so close to home as I whizzed past.

I didn’t take my camera for several reasons. Photography from a bike isn’t much better than from a car and the weather was overcast and the light at midday wasn’t so good anyway.

Tomorrow I’m planning a big hike. But I determined to get back to South Boulder Creek Trail as soon as the weather cleared. It did this evening.

This is a flat trail at the very edge of the high prairie that I hiked a lot before I reversed my arthritis. For the first couple of years that I lived in Boulder it was painful to walk up or down. Being deprived of the mountains is probably one reason why I have to go back to them all the time now.

This trail is also pastoral. It is in fact ranch land and during the winter cows safely graze along the trail. But I saw a lot of nature here today.
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