Great mix of things today..    we began with a really nice 3 hour hike up Castle Rock.. it’s only a few miles south of here   The clouds were starting to gatehr for rain.. but we decided to try to beat the weather..w hich we almost didi .

.. (btw.. I want to apologize.. I’m having some trouble with my iphone camera.. some of these pictures are even worse than usual)

 

the trail started through aspens..

  

We found tons of mushrooms.. including what we think was aminita

 

 

eventually we came across a really cool old cabin on elbert creek

 

Inside were emeergency provisions for anyone who hppened to get caught there in bad weather.. nice !

 

We found a cool old frame and put a samstone in it ..

We left the cabin and headed up into a beautiful meadow full of wild flowers..

 

 

 

The trail here aren’t marked all that well.. we came to a fork.. and as yogi berra said.. we took it.. we headed up hill in the hopes of finding the top ..

 

The whole place made us feel like ‘The Sound of Music’..cabin, mountain , flowers.. check !

 

 

 

we just needed singing ..

raya ended up with flowers in her braid

we kept climbing..

 

and eventiually came to the top.. the views were amaing.. it was a sheer drop on three sides..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we ate a quick lunch becasue the clouds were coming in fast.. and we didn’t want to be up there in lightning.. the lightening here is pretty scary.. yesterday we saw it nearly hit thee horses in a field..

 

Uh-oh.. thunder.. we packed quickly.. then began our one true mission. to lunch a samstone from the top.. we had 10 feet of surgical rubber tubing and a sling that max and gabe had made,

 

loading the samstone

 

ready

 

set

 

GO !!!.. it was out of sight !

a few more pics then it started to rain .

 

we started to run.. not because of the rain.. but because we wanted to be off there if it started to lightening..  

 

i was rainign pretty hard .. s we slipped through the mud.. it was a hoot !

then it turned to hail.. and it HURT !.. it was still fun though .

 

 

we made it back to the cabin.. the hail on the roof was an amazing sound.

 

The hail really piled up

 

ut was then when we niticed Sam spelled backwards in nails.. cool !

 

The hail and rain stopped.. then we made our way down the trail to the car.. three hours exactly.. not bad..

 

from there we headed down the road and stopped at a local honey place.. the highlight there was samples of tasty honey wine (mead) and a view of a see through bee hive..

 

meet the queen..   here she is laying eggs

 

we then stopped across the street at a very nice organic meet, cheese and egg place.. it turns out their son is currently in Jericho VT.. He’s in the biathlon program for the Vt National Guard..very small world as ever..

here are some of their pet goats.. cute !

 

we then headed home.. it was raining hard.. for a while which was actally nice.. then we slowly made our way back outside. the boys set up a throwing tomahawk target.. abe had brought it in his luggage .. wonder what that looked like in x-ray ?

 

 Gabe and I started making a glider out of styrofoam.. it needs work.. bt first test flights were encouraging. (ish)

Then a lovely dinner of burritos, corn, salad, mead, max grilled beef..   and cake !

later max tstd out his fire baton that he made from stuff at the hardare store.. it was amazing.. more pictures/movies from that tomorrow..

right now.. i need to sleep..

nite all, nite sam.. we miss you as always.. on these trips

-me