Snow and Sun hikes

The local mountain called 6.5" of new snow overnight, out of nowhere. The forcasters have been amazingly imprecise (wrong) this year, just like last year. A 40-50% chance of 1-2" results in high winds and almost 7" up high. Huh? I ain't complaining though. I got a surprise last minute invite to the Eiseman Hut outside of Vail in the beautiful Gore Range next weekend, so the more snow the better. I'm really excited for this trip with the Frozelaps because this hut is famous for having the best terrain of any hut in the 10th system and I've never been there before.


The Guppies on a hike this morning, 54 degrees and sunny. Jessie is turning into a more hyper mini-Monkey; that is becoming obvious now on my hikes with extendable leashes. She wants to follow every animal track and scent thru the snow and is more happy to turn the opposite direction of the plan. "Home is left? Let's go right!" Bear is a different story and gets tired pretty quickly, comparatively, and is looking for "milk duds" (elk poo) all hike long.

Count Basie getting out and about on the lower part of our hike with Rikki. We did the ridge loop, uphill this time, and he was loving the new snow and sun. At 12 years old and a rather big shepard mix, he's amazingly strong and fit and still pulls The Monkey's 'walk-slowly-back-to-the-house' act seemingly tired but just really wants to stay out hiking all day. We spoiled him with his own chicken, cheese, and rice burrito this week - put it on a plate for him to "find" on the coffee table.