First thing's first...I stopped to get myself some Starbucks this morning, and I decided to pick up another avocado for lunch. It looks and feels like a really, really good one. I bought four rinky-dink avocados about a week ago that felt almost ripe, and I was angry and sad to discover that they were not at all almost ripe. I got to eat one and a half of those avocados (one half of one was absolutely perfect, while the other half was a rock-hard disaster. I didn't understand, but I ate the bottom half, anyway); I was tempted to eat the not-ripe ones out of sheer spite, but decided better against it.
I went to Rocky Mountain National Park on Thursday with Kristen. What adventures did I have, I hear you asking aloud. Oh, there were definitely adventures, because I can't do anything like a normal person. Let's go through them in order, shall we? We'll take a written jaunt through the entire day.
First of all, I beat the traffic into Denver. Yay! I had to leave at 6:20 to do it, but I did it. I got to Kristen's at a little before 8:00. She was running behind, so I sat on her couch while she made sushi rolls for our picnic lunch, because we do picnics with stylish elitism. We hit the road at about 9:00 (I was champing at the bit to leave. I like keeping to a schedule when I'm excited to be somewhere, and I get extremely antsy when I get off schedule), stopped at Whole Foods to grab some drinks and things, and then we were officially on our way at about 9:45. Hooray!! It was a gorgeous drive through the forest and the canyon, and I sort of regretted saying I'd drive, because I couldn't just stare off into the scenery and forget myself. I wasn't following behind anybody, though, so I zipped around all of the turns and sped along the roads. That more than made up for not being able to look around in awe. Kristen was highly displeased, and she kept a firm hand on the Oh, Shit bar.
We stopped on Bear Lake Road where the construction forces your hand into parking or turning around. I grabbed all of my camera equipment, Kristen grabbed the backpack with the goodies, and we set off along the trail next to the river. Kristen thought that if we followed the river, we'd wind up at Bear Lake. This was definitely not the case. We wound up on private property, and all of the cabins were kind of rough looking. I felt like I was in Deliverance, and Kristen kept making banjo noises. We decided to turn around and catch the shuttle to Bear Lake, because neither of us wanted to wind up like Christopher McCandless. Or shot due to trespassing.
There I am, cheesin' it up in the shade, because it was devil ass hot out. Due to the heat, I decided that dipping my legs in the river would cool me down immensely, so I found a nice spot to do just that. I took off my shoes and socks, straddled a tree, and let the freezing cold water do its job. Everything was going swimmingly (FORESHADOWING!) for five or so minutes, and when I felt sufficiently cooled off, I braced myself against the ground, swung my leg around, and totally fucked the landing. Instead, I toppled backwards and made a hole in the river. I slammed up against two rocks, pinched my back between them (I have a nasty bruise on my side), and hollered, because HOLY FUCK GLACIAL RUN OFF IS GOD DAMN COLD. I practically flew out of the water, and managed to only be soaked from my boobs down. Despite hurting myself, this ordeal struck me as positively hilarious. I let my clothes dry out on my car and ran around in a bikini that I thankfully had in my car (well, I didn't actually run around. I just sort of sat in the backseat of my car, laughing at my own clumsiness and stupidity. Of COURSE I was going to fall in to the river. How I didn't realize that when I decided putting my feet in the water needed to happen is beyond me).
After I put my real person clothes back on, we drove up to the campground and got on the shuttle for Bear Lake. Which was a thirty minute drive straight up the mountain. Kristen and I looked at each other and congratulated ourselves on giving up the idea of walking to the lake. Aside from being jostled about, it was a fantastic drive up. We reached the Bear Lake campground, and we watched almost all of the people on the bus with us take the trail toward Bear Lake. Score for me! I had no interest in Bear Lake. I made a beeline to the Emerald Lake trailhead. I had been looking at pictures of spots at Rocky Mountain National Park for quite some time, and this was the one I was most excited about. I was pretty excited about Haiyaha Lake, which forks off about two miles from Dream Lake, but there was absolutely no way that was happening yesterday. I will definitely be going back on my own, when I'm in charge of the pace of the expedition, as soon as possible. Moving on! The trail to Nymph Lake, the very first lake on the trail, was paved, so Kristen made it up to that lake in decent enough time (still excruciatingly slow for my tastes, but nothing could be done about that without me sounding like a complete and total fitness-y asshole that cares not for my friends who are out of shape). We stopped so I could take some photos:
Look at me, arting super hard. And here's the picture I was taking:
I took a few more pictures around Nymph Lake (I'm definitely going to break this into two posts. I'll do the second one later tonight after the gym, then dinner with Tosh), Kristen caught her breath and stopped looking so red and close to death, and then we got back on the trail, heading up to Dream Lake. Thankfully, there were lots of trees, so I didn't feel as hot as I had earlier. I love the shade!
I saw a couple hunched over, intently discussing something or other. The girl looked like a young Ms. Frizzle (which truly delighted me), and the fellow looked like a very stereotyped version of a scientist. I didn't pay them much attention other than mild interest in what the people around me are doing, but they do become part of the day later. I deviated from the trail to take some pictures of a ground squirrel dashing to and fro with various edibles (those didn't turn out very well at ALL), and then I wandered even further to take some pictures of a trickle of water on the side of a rock (those didn't turn out well, either). I caught up with Kristen when I had frustrated myself enough because the pictures weren't turning out, and we pressed on. I came up on the couple again, and the woman had her face pressed pretty closely to the rock. I told The (Boy)Friend later that it looked like she was snorting coke. I was very curious about what she was doing, so I asked her. And her answer absolutely made my day. She said, "Oh, we're geologists! We're just inspecting the rocks!" And the nerd in me squealed with glee. My friend Reid is a geologist, but he's in Scotland at school. I don't get to go out and do anything science-y with him. So I got super excited, and asked her all sorts of questions. She showed me the rocks in her eyelet, explained the glacial valley to me (I pretty much knew everything she was telling me, but that didn't stop me from playing the part of her pupil), told me about the Geologist Society Symposium that she and her fellow geologist (I'm pretty damn sure they were a couple, but I never outright asked, and they never stated either way) had recently attended at Garden of the Gods, and then she chatted me up when she saw all of the equipment I was dragging around. I showed her a few of the photos I had taken so far, and she ooh'ed and aah'ed, asked me how long I had been a photographer, how I got into it, etc. Kristen was silent, and looked eager to keep going, so very begrudgingly, I sad my goodbyes, and told them meeting them had made my day. They in turn told me that meeting such a lively photographer made THEIR day, so I left in a cloud of delight. I ran into them several more times, they told me about how they were geocaching, but that this particular version of geocaching wouldn't give you specific coordinates for the treasure until you posted a picture of yourself in the general area and answered a trivia question about where you were. I thought that sounded SO FUCKING COOL, so I promised myself I would go home and get into geocaching plus trivia myself.
When I ran into them at Dream Lake, we saw some fish, and I got to tell them that they were Cutthroats, the state fish of Colorado, and how you're only allowed to catch one per license. I only told them that because they asked what the fish was and I happened to know, but I felt super awesome about it just the same. They watched me set up my camera and take a few shots, and they both expressed how amazing the places they get to see are, and if I was at all science minded, I should change my major and travel the world taking photos of the things I study. I was damn near swayed, and ready to call up the school and demand my major be changed immediately, but then I remembered all of the maths, and I was disappointed at myself for not being brainier.
It was about 4 pm when we got to Dream Lake, so the sun was pretty much at zenith. And I forgot my lens hood. So the photos I was taking at Dream Lake had sun flares, and I felt angry at myself. I had made so sure to have a fully charged battery and an empty SD Card, and all of my lenses (I didn't even use my fifty! Not once!) that I completely spaced my lens hood. Blast! The pictures I took there are mildly salvageable, though. So it's not a total wash.
We left Dream lake and continued up the trail, finally, to Emerald Lake. There's a HUGE glacier that you have to cross to get there, and that was a bit hairy (I almost fell on my way down, but I didn't! One point for me!), but amazingly cool. It's also waterfalls pretty much all the way up. I wanted to get a milky water shot, so I took of my shoes and socks again, put the camera on the tripod, and stood in the middle of the freezing water, taking long exposure after long exposure, desperate to get it right before hypothermia set in. There was a dipper there keeping me company, bobbing his little head and delighting me. I took a picture of him for The (Boy)Friend, who saw a few dippers having a dance party on Friday on his way home. My legs had lost all feeling and were super fucking red by the time I was done. I had been standing in that water for ten minutes. But again, I was cooled down, and the temperature of my body no longer felt like Solar Flare Degrees. Kristen had gone ahead of me (she told me earlier that she knew to keep going if I stopped for pictures, because I would catch up and pass her in no time at all), so I ran up the trail stairs (suck it, Incline. If I can do that hike at a pretty moderate pace, I am SO coming for you), caught up to her, and, as predicted, passed her. And when I reached the lake, I was the only person there. It. Was. Stunning. I can't even explain it, but I was so happy to be there. It was the happiest, most at peace I've felt in over a week. I didn't want to let that feeling go. It was fairly quiet, there was only low whistle as the wind blew over the water. I really, truly felt like I owned the entire world. Kristen caught up with me five minutes later, so I figured I should just take some photos and then sit around and enjoy it.
Exhibit...um...C? D?
Very suddenly, I realized that I had to pee. Of course I did, I had sucked down a gigantic bottle of water on the two mile hike up. I bolted down the mountain, leaving Kristen behind, because if I didn't, the scene would have been ugly. I made excellent time, though! And I was even more convinced that I can do the Incline without it being a serious deal.
Kristen found her way down, and we sat down together to wait for the shuttle back to my car. There were two young girls behind me, and I heard one of them go, "Oh my god, what IS that?" And my gut turned into a stone. I knew, I knew, I KNEW they were looking at my back, and all I could picture was some gigantic spider, wielding daggers in each leg, poised to shank me and steal everything on my person. However, I'm also super bad about not wanting to look like I'm eavesdropping, so I didn't turn around. I just sat there, frozen and terrified, listening to them chitter and debate on who should warn me that doom was traipsing across my back. It took them a solid three minutes to finally say, "Hey, lady, there's something on your back." Abject terror. I turned around and actually managed to look fairly casual, saying, "Oh? Can you get it off of me?" And then I saw the antennae crest over my shoulder, and I screamed. I screamed like that aforementioned spider had finally started to needle me with his daggers. I stood up, ripped my shirt off, threw it on the ground, and ran around like a fucking maniac, yelling the entire time. I felt like Donna Noble, this huge fucking bug had been sitting on my back, feeding off of my time. And it was gigantic. I could see my shirt moving as it walked out from underneath it. I stopped screaming and looked at it, and then I said, "OH! It's just a beetle! Kristen, hand me my camera." And I took a picture of it. After putting my shirt back on, of course. I felt mortified with myself for behaving like a child. And then I thought about how hilarious that must have looked, and I kept laughing aloud at myself. Not to stave off that weird, embarrassed feeling, but because I genuinely thought it was hysterical. Much like falling into the river earlier that morning.
Here's the last ordeal of the day:
I got onto the shuttle to head back to the car. Kristen and I actually got to sit down this time, and I was beat. I thought that I would rest my eyes for the thirty minute drive down the mountain. I'm sure it would have been a very pleasant nap. Oh, except the window flew open, and my body did its damnedest to fling itself right out after it. The emergency latch on my window hadn't been fastened properly, so I spent the duration of the ride holding the window inside the pane, wishing I had chosen Kristen's seat.
That's pretty much all of the exciting bits of my trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. I'll post some actual photos from the day later this evening, but anything that goes into that post will be purely descriptive.
I'm going to leave the office and head down to the gym for a quick run, then Tosh and I are going to Crave for a dinner that will negate every single workout I've done for the last three weeks. And I can't. Fucking. Wait. I even bought some of that Lactaid Ultra stuff as a precaution, since I haven't eaten dairy in weeks and weeks. I'm fully planning on having the booziest of booze milkshakes, and a big, fat cheeseburger. I'm going to skip the fries, however. Because, obviously, it's for health reasons.
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