Wednesday, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and got to see the same mountains we saw when we visited in June during our road trip. Again, before we got to our hiking trail, we saw a huge herd of elk grazing in the valley. Our hike was only 2.3 miles out to a small mountain lake, but the trek was 96% snow covered, which felt like walking in sand, uphill.
There were no trail markers that we could find, luckily the many footsteps of past hikers was easy enough to follow. They had packed down the snow, leaving you unaware that you were walking at times 2 feet over the ground. Stepping slightly off the 1.5 foot wide path left you without a leg.
We got to the top of the trail and ate our lunch on the side of Cub Lake, on large rocks basking in the sun. Crossing to the rocks would have been a challenge, had the lake not frozen up. The marshy grass at the outlet shaded the hard ice underneath, so we were able to cross without dunking our feet.
By the time we finished our sandwiches and crackers, a cold wind quickly brought dark clouds over the mountains and straight for us. Lucky for us we were done with lunch, and started out descent.
Thursday was St. Patrick's Day. Sarah and I went letter boxing around a nice bike trail that circled the east side of town. After grabbing two, we found our third at the New Belgium Brewery. Inside, we each received 4 tokens for glasses of any of their 8 beers they had available for tasting. It was quite a popular place, understandably. We may return on my birthday to go on the tour of their facility.
That night, we went out on the town to see the green mobs pile into the bars, especially those that were Irish. We decided on going to a bar we looked up where Great American Taxi was playing, featuring the violin player from Railroad Earth! I dawned my green Railroad Earth shirt and went to the show, which was quite a small venue (I saw a much larger venue in Boulder headlining Taxi on the front).
Yesterday we visited the Boulder commons. It reminded me a lot of Ithaca, NY. Many shops lining the long central courtyard, which was FILLED with entertainers. From fire eaters, to blue grass bands, to didgeridoo players, and an amazing street drummer, who I wish I was able to take a video of the first 7 minutes of his performance, but I only caught a little at the end. He was making quite a bit of cash!
