snow-shoeing along Peru Creek

The Keystone/Breckenridge area got about 2 feet of snow over the last couple of days, which made for really great snow-shoeing. Most of the trail, we made use of some x-country ski tracks which had been set by a skiier before us.

However, toward the end of the trail, the skiier had turned around (before making it to the end), but Joanna and I decided it would be fun to continue -- and break our own trail (for about another 100 yards; we didn't make it to the end of the trail, either). I was really glad that I'd brought my ski-poles along! I would have even preferred my larger snow-shoes (for more loft). It was a ton of work, and great fun.

When we stopped for lunch, I took this photo of the trail that we'd broken.

This was our view as we headed back toward the trail head... as you can see, it was a perfectly gorgeous day.

what a difference a day makes!

We just spent the last two days up in Keystone with friends -- it was a great trip. The first day, we went snow-shoeing with Mark & Joanna on the Boreas Pass trail. This is a picture of Baker's tank - a historic landmark on the old narrow-gauge railroad trail. I will refer you to my October 3rd post (2010), from the last time Tom and I were on this trail. It was a vastly different landscape this time!

I have now x-country skiied, hiked, and snow-shoed on this trail. They were all superb.

Today, while Tom & Mitzi, Tom, and Mark went skiing/snow-boarding, Joanna and I set out snow-shoeing again. What an awesome day! It was warm & wonderful.

our lunch-stop view

Our final destination today was Bierstadt Lake. Tom and I tried to get here last March, but there was so much snow that we spent about an hour looking for the trailhead -- so ultimately we didn't get all the way to the lake.

This year, we hopped right on the trail -- and easily made it to the lake. We snow-shoed around the lake, and stopped for lunch at the lakeside. I really cannot imagine ever getting tired of Rocky Mountain National Park, in any season.

it doesn't get any better than this

We had a PERFECT day of snow-shoeing today. It was sunny, breezy but not really windy, and gorgeous.

Tom, Mark, Joanna & I went up to RMNP for the day -- and all agreed that spring-time snow-shoeing is the BEST.

We had so many spectacular views....

And of course, I love the aspens -- even when they're bare.

looking for directions?

Imagine that -- we found this sign post because Tom stepped on it. Ha! Once Mark cleared it off a bit, it was obvious, wasn't it??

The SS Bessie Jean

We just returned from Phoenix, where we had a great time visiting friends & family. Our first event was to visit Jennifer (sadly, Henry was in CA -- so we missed him again). We spent the day lounging by the pool, drinking sangria. (Ok, to be fair: the girls had sangria, the boys had beer.... the sangria wasn't manly enough -- although it was truly delicious. It was a Bobby Flay recipe, which I found on Footnetwork.com; I highly recommend it.)

Henry recently did a remodel job where he acquired a bathtub. He plugged the bottom, and turned it into their Redneck Yacht. I took it for a cruise around the pool -- great fun!

We also enjoyed Sarah & Erik's annual Belgian Party, although I didn't take any pictures. Maybe because I was too busy eating pomme frites (I had 3 plates) and belgian waffles (I ate 2 1/2 of those, too). Tom was busy tasting the wonderful selection of beers. This year, the theme was Belgian-style beers that were made in America. Tom's favorite was an Avery beer (yeah, Colorado!) called the Reverend.

We finally found the Jenny Creek Trail

The last time Tom & I tried to snow-shoe on the Jenny Creek trail, there was so much snow that it took us about an hour to get on the right path. Ultimately, we didn't make it very far.

Our winter has been very mild -- in fact, this was our first snow-shoe outing of the year. We returned to Eldora, and found the Jenny Creek trail without any problems. We had a lovely day with our friend, Mark. We snow-shoed farther than we had ever attempted before: 8 miles, with about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. We were good & tired by the end of the afternoon.

As you can see, it was gorgeous. This was the view of the bunny-hill on our return.