Paradise Found

I think it was Wordsworth who coined the phrase; "The earth laughs in flowers". If this is true, I've been in one never ending laugh fest in the mountains of Colorado.

Just when I was starting to think the peak wildflower season was over, Mother Nature proved me wrong. Last week John and I went backpacking for 2 nights up at Jasper Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Carrying a 35lb. pack was definitely a humbling experience! The pack wasn't bad

while standing still in the living room. But it felt a little heavier once we started heading up the trail! Luckily John and Kodi had infinite patience with my slow pace, and we all had a good time hiking 5 miles in to the lake.

Thunder started voicing itself about 20 minutes before we got to camp. By the time we started setting up the tent, it was just starting to rain. We got the tent set up in no time, made ourselves something hot to drink and snuggled up in the tent to read. Reading quickly turned into napping for both of us, and we spent the afternoon lulled to sleep by the sound of rain on our tent.

The next morning was clear and beautiful. Kodi and I got up first and got some good swimming in first thing in the morning. Kodi was doing the swimming and I was doing the stick throwing! Afterwords John and I relaxed on a rock in the sun with our coffee.

Mother nature is a very good landscaper. We had wildflowers in our front yard, wildflowers in our backyard, wildflowers around our breakfast rock... The natural beauty of the Colorado high country in the peak of summer is truly indescribable. We camped next to the inlet of the lake in a fairly secluded spot. The stream from the lakes above us coming into

Jasper was right next to us. We had beautiful waterfalls, wildflowers and a high mountain lake just steps from our tent.

I was feeling a little lazy on Thursday, so I stayed at camp keeping the wildflowers company and reading while John and Kodi went exploring. The boys bonded on this trip. After almost 3 hours they both rolled into camp looking a little tired and very happy. They had

hiked wayabove our camp and had great adventures. I'm glad I've found them both such a good playmate!

Thursday afternoon John and I decided to go up to the falls above our camp and have a little wine and cheese. John was nice enough to put a 1.5 liter bag of wine in his pack on the way up. I think we had the nicest spot for happy hour in Colorado that day!

Friday we headed back down to reality. We saw a lot of people heading up the

trail for the weekend and were glad we avoided the crowd b

y camping during the week. We hit Kathmandu in Nederland on the way back to Boulder for the all you can eat Indian Buffet and ate ourselves almost into a food coma! You can really work up an appetite in the back country.

Unfortunately my summer adventures in Colorado are coming to a close. Tomorrow I start heading up to British Columbia for new adventures in Canada! Kodi is going with me, but we both are going to miss our friend John. It's time for Kodi and I to have fun alone for awhile.

I'm sure the wildflowers will still be going strong in the mountains of Canada. I'm looking forward to seeing how the earth laughs up there!