Brian Hays came out for the weekend to check out Grad School up at Colorado State. Then, his plan was to come down to chill with Jacqueline and I for a few days. Having not hung out with Brian since last summer, I was excited to see him. When the time came for him to show up, though, I was coming down with a sore throat. We were hoping to do an epic mountain climb in the winter or something of that sort, but with my health we decided to lay a little low. So Brian and I headed up to Estes Park. (Jacqueline had to work) On the way, I got to talk to Brian's new girlfriend Angela. She sounded nice, but it is hard to tell on the phone.
He also got a call from Annette offering him the job with backcountry at Zion for the summer. Brian took it and I was rather disappointed because not even a thought was put into the fact that I was sitting right next to him hoping for a job there also. Oh well, who knew what the future would bring, but at least I was going to get to do it with my sweetheart working away at Ruby Tuesdays. We got to the park and used the old "I work for the Park Service" to get in for free. Then we drove up to Bear Lake and went to Mills Lake. This was a hike that I have done many, many times after working trail crew. On this day, though, being sick made it brutal. Especially since it was February in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was definitely below freezing and windy as usual. We made it up to the lake, but that was about the extent of the hike. The mountains around were beautiful and it would have been great to do a winter ascent of one of the peaks. I was not having it on this day, as with a cold, this was about as far as I was going to go. Brian made the best of it as he used the ice as his personal slip and slide getting both speed and distance. I tried it to after a bit of coaxing, but I could not quite get the momentum going on the ice of Mills Lake. We headed back down and took the long way rather than the fire trail that we took up. It was sad that we did not get much more out of a chance to scale some Colorado peaks in the winter. Hopefully there will be another chance for that, but it is hard to tell when that chance will come around again.
He also got a call from Annette offering him the job with backcountry at Zion for the summer. Brian took it and I was rather disappointed because not even a thought was put into the fact that I was sitting right next to him hoping for a job there also. Oh well, who knew what the future would bring, but at least I was going to get to do it with my sweetheart working away at Ruby Tuesdays. We got to the park and used the old "I work for the Park Service" to get in for free. Then we drove up to Bear Lake and went to Mills Lake. This was a hike that I have done many, many times after working trail crew. On this day, though, being sick made it brutal. Especially since it was February in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was definitely below freezing and windy as usual. We made it up to the lake, but that was about the extent of the hike. The mountains around were beautiful and it would have been great to do a winter ascent of one of the peaks. I was not having it on this day, as with a cold, this was about as far as I was going to go. Brian made the best of it as he used the ice as his personal slip and slide getting both speed and distance. I tried it to after a bit of coaxing, but I could not quite get the momentum going on the ice of Mills Lake. We headed back down and took the long way rather than the fire trail that we took up. It was sad that we did not get much more out of a chance to scale some Colorado peaks in the winter. Hopefully there will be another chance for that, but it is hard to tell when that chance will come around again.
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