A Full Day

For a day that was on the verge of turning into being uneventful, it sure ended up being one that was full of everything!  With a couple of late night then early morning emails, the day was saved!  My experience has been that last minute, down to the wire plans, can for a large percent of the time turn out to be treasures and today proved that point.

Ms-D-No-Stopping-Me and I set out to "embrace today"!  Leaving the city early paid off as we were the first snowshoers of the day on the Chester Lake trail.  Seeing blue sky, feeling no wind, sensing the warm sun, we knew we were in for a full day! 

full of color

The first portion of the trail is uphill in the forest and it's along here that I am always full of anticipation knowing once you reach that first alpine meadow, the scenery will be beautiful.  While there was a good amount of snow in the forest, the meadows were windswept.  We dropped our packs and spent photography time here where Mount Galatea and Mount Chester were at their best.

full of beautiful scenery

We were thankful for a day full of sunshine!  If you saw us playing with our shadows, you would think we never saw one before.   The conversation sounded like this "stand here", "do this", "put your arm like this", "I can't see your hat", "move closer", "how about this", "with our poles"!  We had long shadows, short ones, wide shadows, funny ones and crazies too!

full of sunshine

We were full of cheer!  High on life itself today!  The snow and the mountains turn me into somebody I remember being like when I was five years old.  The splashes of color sure looked nice against the new white snow.  Speaking of new, the new pink hat was a hit for my friend.  I'm thinking its a keeper!

full of cheer

We passed by Chester Lake and snowshoed up to the elephant rocks.  We followed a trail to the back side of the rocks which was a different way then I have ever gone.  It gave a whole new perspective on their size and quantity.  This was a meadow chalk full of gigantic boulders.  We explored around them and then found a spot facing the sun where we set up our dining spot.  It was extraordinary to be here without wind!

After lunch we took the usual route back down to the lake and even broke out our crazy carpets to make for a quicker and fun ascent.  Not only was it my first snowshoe of the season, it was also my first crazy carpet trip.  Like all sports that you have been away from for awhile, it takes time to get the speed back and polish the technique to get it up to snuff.  I'm back in training and it feels good!

Today was full of so much fun!

While November started out balmy and unseasonal like, it sure took a quick turn near the end to the point where I was complaining about the cold and the snow.  Not any more!  I am ready to embrace winter!  Lucky me living so close to my playground in the Rocky Mountains!  I'm already looking forward to play time again!