Weekend Review

Saturday - Coached with F4. I got in 8 miles while my runners did a time trial and then we headed around the res for an extra 5. It was my first run since Canada and things were going great until about 6 miles. At that point I would have been happy to have been done :)

Saturday night - Date night. Well, sort of .... My girl friend counts bats for Boulder County. Yes, bats...the flying rodent things. :) She needed a helper and I happily offered. She after signing the release. "We need to sign a release?" I asked...."Yes, we have to hike up a mountain, then climb up to the cave, then after we finish counting, we have to climb and hike down in the dark."

Ok, I'm in :)

We started at MCAR and hike for about an hour. Our distination was Mallory Cave. (Pics on the way). It's a very cool hike. At one point you feel like you are hiking through Middle Earth looking for the ring. It's about an hour up to the cave. Then a scramble up rock face to the cave. The view is worth the hike. You can see Denver, Boulder, Rocky Flats, seems like you can see the entire Front Range.

We had dinner and then settled in to count bats, One! One bat, hahahahahaha...Two, two bats, hahahaha.... The problem was that the bats have all moved. There were no bats to be counted. A little disappointing for sure. But the hike and climb worth the view. And the bufflo chicken wraps we had for dinner were yummy.

Now for the hike down...but first...we have to slide down/skoot down from the cave. In the dark...quite the adventure :) The walk through the dark woods was great. I enjoyed it more than I quessed I would. The woods at night are definitely an other-worldly place. She kept stopping and shining her light around. I asked what she was doing, "Looking for glowing eyes". So much for me being at ease and enjoying the walk. "Glowing eyes that belong to what exactly?" I asked with a nervous laugh. "Orcs, of course" she replied as she started back down the trail. Gotta love a kidder. Orcs....sure.

Sunday started rainy, so we laid around all day. Then back to the cave. No bats again :(...but as we were walking out, under the full moon, which lights the rocks and mountains more than you would believe, we found a couple of Boulder Tree Monkeys. Yes, the rare BTM. We came around a corner and there they were, a couple of people up in the trees, whispering and giggling. Strange town this. Then at the same moment that we were chatting with the BTMs, a fox trotted out across the trail. Cool critters, the fox, not the BTMs. :)

Kia Kaha