Colorado Trail - Day 3 and the end of Segment 2

Like I said it rained overnight.  I heard nothing.  I sleep with earplugs and was in my sensory deprivation chamber otherwise known as my sleeping bag.   We only had 5 miles to hike today so we all slept in and took our time getting back on the trail. 

I wandered around and explored.  Jody showed me the cactus growing all around.

Once again, just about ready to bloom.
Sorry guys, can't stay to see you bloom.

We ended up dumping water rather than carrying it.
We should have drank more yesterday.  Oh well.

No campfires this year!
It is so dry.  Hopefully all the other people who venture into the woods know not to build fires.

It was chilly this morning (see my gloves) and as the day went on, it got chillier.

See the hill in the background?

Now you don't see it.
The fog bank and colder air started creeping in.

This guy has had a tough life but is still growing.

This strange looking moss/fungi was all over this tree.

A pasqueflower staying closed due to the chilly weather.

Heading out of the woods and into the burn area.

Wild geraniums!  I like these.  Not as much as columbines but they are very pretty.

A cluster of trees on the horizon survived the fire.
They look like sentinels standing guard. 

These bushes were everywhere.  Some had pink flowers, some had white flowers.
Many of them were covered in a type of web worm.

Colorado Loco flower.
Super pink!

Jody and David up ahead. 
Once again the trail is visible for quite a ways.

The foggy/misty weather moving in.
Temps are dropping.

With no trees you can see the lay of the land and all the rock formations.
With the scrubby bushes it felt like we were walking on the moors in England.

Cheery Golden Banner or Golden Pea flower.

A cute little cairn on a boulder.

Looking back at the cairn and the weather moving ever closer to us.

Another great view of the rock formations.
It was eery looking and beautiful all at the same time.

Once the fog rolled in with all the dead trees it looked like we were walking through Middle Earth and towards Mordor.

Remains of a trunk...
A trunk with a few nubs of limbs left...
A lone tree still standing after the fire.

Jody taking a pic of the fog.
It is feeling much more damp now.

It's not steep going up or down.
The trail just kind of rolls around over the hills and it is very easy walking.
It's not hot, it's not windy.
It's really rather pleasant.
I'm sure it is awful when it's hot and windy but today it was great!

All three of us took a pic of this stump.
Here is my pic.

More picturesque flowers along the trail.
Stooping down to take these shots and then getting back up can be uncomfortable.
That's why I only do them early on in the day.

Another pretty rock formation which we would not have seen if the trees had been there.

Skullcap flowers. 
Very fuzzy.  Caught my eye.

Heading towards the trees.
Wildflowers sprinkled along the way.

The trail turned into a ditch for a short period.

Aaaand we are not back in the forest yet.
Still hiking through the burn area.
Wow.  Miles and miles of forest burned away.

Sand lily.  These were all over.
Like little stars sitting on the ground.

A cool bug eaten stump.
Makes me want to make something like this out of pottery.
Or paint this picture.

The mist has turned into spitting rain.
It's starting to collect on everything.
(Dave your bottle looks like it's about ready to fall out)

The sign which was posted to let people know you can get water at the fire station.

I pointed out the building and said that must be the fire station.
Dave and Jody weren't so sure until we heard the sirens.
Then we were all sure it was.

A sure sign that we are at the fire station.

That's a nice truck to have to fight forest fires.

A view of the station.  Pretty big.
The water is of course on the far side of the building.

I took this photo for Alan to see.

It started raining harder so we put our rain gear on.
Jody is lost in her Frog Toggs.

It was cold, raining so I knocked on the door and thanked the fireman for the use of the water and noted that my husband is a fireman in Omaha.  He invited us to come in out of the cold weather.  Score!!
We sat inside and warmed up and had a nice chat with the guys.  It reminded me of being at the Papillion fire station hanging out with the guys as they wandered in.  It is a volunteer station and they do have a large area.  They told us about the kind of calls they go on and complimented me on having a SPOT locator. 
I gave them a $20 donation which is what I do at every fire dept I come across on a hike.

We head back onto the trail and it kind of follows the highway.
Saw this spinal cord hanging on a tree.
Just had to take a pic of it!

Sorry little guy, looks like you are marked for death.

We came upon an area where tree harvesting was done.
Not sure if this is part of the pine beetle control, to help remove dead trees for forest fire management or just logging.
Could be all three.

We came up on quite a few areas like this.

I wonder why 3 orange and one blue.
Triple marked for death?
Blue means it's a boy tree?
Who knows....

And yet another area of stacked trees. 
Kind of depressing.

And then we are here.
At the trailhead.  The end of our hike.

Little Scraggy.  The start of Segment 3.

This is where I will pick up the trail again on June 23rd.

Looking down the trail.
Hoping it isn't miles of harvested trees.

The three of us waiting for our shuttle ride back to the car.
(my two colored eyes again)

I know you aren't supposed to build cairns but I was bored and we are basically in a parking lot.

The temp is about 45 now and feels like it's getting colder.

Then it starts to rain harder so we moved into the only shelter available.
The toilet porch.

Nothing like having a snack on a toilet porch.
Jody was getting cold so she put on her complete Frogg Togg outfit and turned into a walking blueberry.

Steps for day 2.  Mileage is wrong.
I bet the calories burned are wrong too.
It's funny to see now how few steps I did after lunch.
That was the uphill part.  

Day 3 steps.  Didn't take a screen shot of day 1.

Our sweetheart of a shuttle driver arrived and just in time before the heavy rain began.
On our way down the temp dropped to 37 and it turned into snow.
We all agreed we had great weather and great luck with everything.

The storm that rolled over us the day before created havoc in the front range.
It rained so hard it washed this large rock down the street under the wheel of the car!

Our house for the night had chickens in the back yard.

And beautiful alliums. 
I need to get giant alliums for my yard.

David was a gentleman and gave me the king bed.

The homeowners had a beautiful front garden.
We think they were staying in the apartment over the garage behind us.
Not sure because we never saw them.

The view of the mountains on our way to dinner.
Whew!  Sure am glad we are out of there.

Yep, radar confirms there was snow in the area.
All in all it was a great trip.
We had good luck with the weather, campsites, nobody was hurt and we had a good time.
Looking forward to coming back.