Other Activities with Adam

After we had a night to recuperate from our backpacking adventures, we shared some other great Boulder activities with Adam. Wednesday morning he and Dan went for a bike ride while I had a job interview (yes, I got the job and accepted...it's elementary music 20 minutes south of here in a town called Superior). When I returned Adam and I went to the North Boulder Rec Center so he could lift weights and I could do my weekly swim. In the afternoon we went up Boulder Creek so Adam could do some fly fishing.


On Thursday Adam wanted to do "a climb" so we did a hike up Bear Peak here in town. Though this mountain is in our backyard, it is still quite a hike. We started at NCAR and hiked the Mesa Trail to Shadow Canyon (the hard way up). After climbing nearly 3,000 feet through a cloud that shrouded most of the peak, we reached the very wet summit. Our seven mile loop was completed by going down the Fern Canyon Trail.

Adam went fishing again in the afternoon and Dan and I went to Neptune's that night to see a film on a 1968 climb on El Capitan. It was amazing watching these climbers hammer in pitons and use what were then modern techniques which today are incredibly outdated.


Adam desperately wanted to see an elk, so I dragged him up to Rocky Mountain National Park where there are plenty! We followed Trail Ridge Road through the park and at about 11,500 Adam spotted three elk way off in the distance. He took some pictures, but was hoping for a closer view. We saw some marmots and pikas, but it still wasn't enough. Fortunately, as we were heading to Fall River so Adam could do a little fishing, we saw two female elks and a baby. Adam proceeded to catch a small brookie before we headed out.

Then, the best thing happened! We saw two bighorn sheep cross the road! They were so cool and only about 100 feet from us. I've never seen sheep so close! We stopped and took our couple dozen pictures and then traveled towards the exit. Once again, we stopped and were pleasantly surprised. There was a 10-point bull elk on the side of the road. We then noticed there were 7 other elk on the other side of the road and proceeded to watch most of them cross to meet the first one. Just incredible!


To wrap up the day we met up with Ann and Sean at Southern Sun for dinner. It was delicious, even if we had to wait a very long time.