"The baby is a big girl!"

That's what Amelia said the other day, about herself. Very true.

A quick list:

Amelia loves to pretend: to be a baby, a zoo animal, a teacher, a "scanner at the museum" (?), and lots of other people and things.

She is into mixed media collage:

I have picked up a lot of beads lately, and we have been through about 30 tubes of glitter glue. Two words: Dollar Tree (for the record, 10 tubes in a package).

She has been on some hikes:

She asks "why?" about  25 times an hour.

And, although there is more I want to say, she is awake.

Mount Sniktau

Dean and I went on our first Amelia-free hike yesterday! It was probably the longest period we have spent together away from her since she was born.

We climbed Mount Sniktau. It was a morning of false starts. We had planned to go on another hike, one that involved driving up to Guanella Pass, a pass that just reopened after being closed for over a year due to an avalanche. Yikes. But when we got to the road for the pass, there was a sign that said it was closed from 8-11 and 1-3. This was about 7:30 am, and we knew we would have to be back to the car by around 12:30 to avoid being stuck there till 3. We decided to go to Sniktau so we wouldn't have to be rushed.

It was a good choice. First we spent about half an hour hiking on the wrong trail, and then we started out hike on the correct trail, up a steep "hill." A very steep "hill."



This picture does not capture the steepness.

If you read the description of the hike on the link above, it sounds pretty easy. But it's Rocky Mountain easy, which to people like me means it's still pretty hard. I had a difficult time on the beginning of the hike. Even though it's "only" 13,234 feet high (really, website author? "Only"?) I got out of breath pretty quickly. It's a crazy out of breath feeling, too, not like you have been running too long, just like you took about 5 steps and you can't catch your breath. But Dean was patient and we finally made through the first section of the climb, up to a point at about 12,500 feet of elevation. We hid from the wind behind some rocks, had a snack and enjoyed the view.





Then we got started on the second leg of the trip, to "point 13,152."



It was cold! And very windy.



We climbed along this ridge. It reminded me of a black and white cookie, which should give you a clue about how many times we stopped to eat a snack.

After the initial climb, the hike was much easier, even though we still had a climb. I think the beginning was so hard because I wasn't used to it. Once I got through the first climb I was more in the hiking zone.



These mountains are a winterscape. This is Torrys Peak, a 14er.



This is another shot of our trail along the ridge.



This is a view of interstate 70 from the summit. You can see the Eisenhower Tunnel, tiny from this view.



After another snack and rest at the summit, we made our way back down the rocky trail. On our return trip, we noticed tiny patches of wildflowers. Such a harsh place to live!



We got back to the car around noon, so we drove through the town of Dillon to eat lunch (delicious portabella and pepper cheese"steaks" and fries!). It's a lovely little town beside a lake, much warmer than the mountains so close by. See the avalanche paths on the mountain in this picture?

Despite the challenges, or maybe even because of them, it was a really nice day. It was great to hike with Dean without worrying about Amelia or listening to her make her Marge Simpson "get me out of this backpack" noise. (And this hike was definitely too cold and windy for her--plus she had a fabulous time with her Ewee and Inna). I couldn't post yesterday about the hike because I had what I deemed exposure exhaustion. The sun, wind, cold and elevation really take something out of you. But the feeling of being at the top of a mountain after a long climb is like nothing else. It's a kind of freedom. I am glad I have a partner whose idea of fun is climbing tall mountains, because otherwise I might not do it, and I would be missing out on something incredibly beautiful.

Winter Hike

We went to Roxborough State Park yesterday for a little winter hike. Amelia had skipped her nap so she was fairly happy to doze in her carrier.

The park features a line of jutting rocks that look windblown. They are all tilted at the same angle. We went on a hike that took up through a few of them, then up above for some great views.



Starting out







The trail was very muddy. We learned what happens when the dry Colorado clay gets soaked with melting snow: it turns into cement.



View of the rocks from the "summit"--I don't think we were very high, but we had a great view.



Denver and the plains. Can you see Denver? Tiny city to the left. Interesting clouds to the right.



Nice afternoon light.

It was a very pleasant hike. Amelia was sleeping for a little over half of it, and Dean and I were silent while she slept. I hd a nice time taking pictures and thinking hiking thoughts. Somehow you think about different things, or think about things differently, when you are just walking. After Amelia woke up, she looked at the scenery and munched on a triscuit for the rest of the hike. So all in all it was a success. A good afternoon.

Mount Bancroft

As you can see, I am still trying to catch up on documenting all of our summer hikes and such. Toward the end of August, we hiked up Mount Bancroft with Jim, Luli, and Opal. After a bumpy ride to the trailhead--oh, wait, there was no actual trailhead. This was a trail-less hike. So we basically walked straight up the side of the mountain. As we got started, Dean's description of this hike changed subtly from "It won't be hard!" to"It won't be that hard!"

As we climbed to the first ridge, we passed all these different parts of an old car: the engine, doors, wires and other assorted weather-beaten plastic and metal pieces. I thought that would make an interesting poem somehow.

After awhile, Dean, Amelia, Luli and Opal left Jim and I behind. Therefore, because the sleeping Amelia was being held hostage from me, Mount Bancroft's summit is the only Rocky Mountain summit I have actually reached so far. Jim could attest that I did it after a fair amount of complaining. But when I got to the top it was definitely worth it. There is a reason people go all the way to the top of tall mountains: it's beautiful up there!

Here are some pictures of my ascent, our rest at the summit, and Amelia sleeping in her backpack.






A note to other parents who might backpack with a baby: Amelia slept for much of her trip up the mountain and the entire descent, probably close to 3 hours, and we found out at the bottom that that was probably too long for her to be still in her backpack. She was cold, and it seemed like her hands and feet were asleep.

The trip down, without a trail with switchbacks, was challenging. But we made it! It was a fun hike with family, certainly one I will remember for awhile.

Camping With A, Part 3: Mount Elbert

I am still trying to catch up on documenting all of our summer fun.

After our first night of camping with Amelia, we headed for Mount Elbert, Colorado's tallest mountain.

This is a picture of Mt. Elbert from the car window.



I took it the afternoon after the Windsor Lake hike. I was more than a little intimidated.

But Dean assured me that even though Mount Elbert is obviously very tall, it is a relatively "easy" hike because it is also a fairly long, so you gain the elevation over a long distance. We weren't sure we could make it, but we decided to give it a try.

It started off well, flattish and woodsy. We did have to stop after about 20 minute to give Amelia some milk, but then she fell asleep. So we kept going up, up and away as she snoozed. Her sleep is a real motivating factor to keep going. We kept passing a man and his son and their dog, then they would pass us. As the trail got steeper and steeper, the man got more and more tired. His son kept leaving him behind and they would communicate on walkie-talkies. (Well, probably not walkie-talkies really--the 21st century version.) It made me feel better that someone else was having a hard time on the hike, although actually I felt pretty good, much better than the previous day.

After we passed the tree line, the trail got even steeper. You could see a summit in the distance. Dean said it was a false summit. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't.

Here are some shots from after we passed the tree line.





Finally, I got very so tired and hungry that we had to stop, even though Amelia was still asleep. She woke up and we had a little picnic.



Then we packed up and started off again, but we didn't get much farther. Amelia was complaining about being in her backpack and needed a longer break. And I was tired myself. We were still pretty far from even the false summit, so Amelia and I decided to play in the grass while Dean kept going for a little while.

He kept going for about 20 minutes, then passed some descending hikers who told him he was still pretty far from the top. Since the weather was looking a little questionable, with dark clouds in the distance, he decided to turn around.

Here are some pictures from he took while we waited.







Amelia had a fun time standing and playing with rocks and flowers.



In the meantime, the man and his son had passed by me and Amelia. The man, panting, sort of flung himself in the grass beside the trail, and the son kept going.

When Dean returned we went down, down, down. Amelia slept again for most of the descent, but woke up and got fussy toward the end. We were probably pushing the limit of how long we could realistically hike with a baby. We entertained her with songs, but we were all glad to get back to the car.

It was an ambitious hike, and we didn't make it to the summit. But I am gad we tried. We will not have another chance until Amelia is old enough to hike it herself, unless Dean and I go alone, because A will probably be too heavy to carry that far next year.

It was very beautiful. I do think I could have done made it to the top, too, which made me feel good.

Camping with A, Part Two: The Campsite

We lived in a tent with Amelia for two days.

Here's the site before the tent was set up.



Amelia loved playing in the tent and throwing herself around on the air mattress.



As one would expect, her sleep in the tent was not great. She actually did pretty well the first night, if you don't count being woken up by a barking dog an hour after she fell asleep. The second night, she cried a lot and loudly, and so we let her sleep in the air mattress with us. Unfortunately the air mattress had a slow leak, so we slept--to the extent that we slept--in a sort of U with baby A in the trough.


We were glad to see the mornings come. But it was chilly in the mornings, so Amelia wore her 80's legwarmers.


We had a great view.



Overall, we enjoyed camping. Dean and I are more used to backpacking than car camping so we were excited to have loads of things we couldn't have taken on a backpacking trip, like the aforementioned pillows and a bottle of wine. But we still made a long list of even more stuff we would take if we went again, like Amelia's high chair (she spent mealtimes crawling over her food in search of rocks to put in her mouth) and perhaps a soundproof box for the Pack and Play (haha).

Camping With A, Part One: Windsor Lake

So to continue the story of our busy August, after Liz and Oliver left, we packed up for our first camping trip with Baby A. Armed with a car full of essential gear, including an air mattress, the Pack and Play, a sleep sack, and our own wonderful pillows, we set off for Whitestar Campgound, a few miles outside of Leadville, CO.

On the way to the campground, we took what was described in a certain guidebook (and by a certain other person in this family) to be "short," "easy," and "beautiful" hike to a lake.

Beautiful: yes.



Short: I'll concede to short. It was about a mile.

Easy: Um, no. The mile was straight uphill. Up, up and away.

So on the way up this mile, I began to get grouchy, very very grouchy. I generally get at least somewhat grouchy at some point during most hikes, around the same time I run out of breath. But I also usually get over the grouchiness very quickly, either by slowing down, taking a break, or getting Dean to encourage me. He is a pro at making it sound like we really are almost there. But this time, I think I was discouraged by the fact that this "easy" hike was so brutal. Finally I realized that Dean was very out of breath too. The guide book's author, quite simply, is a dirty liar.

To be fair, it really was a short hike. And I suspect that if I did the same hike today I wouldn't think it was quite as hard, because I am more used to climbing up Colorado's various slopes. But at the time it was really hard. Note to guide book authors: short and easy are not the same thing. I will take a long, flattish hike over a short, steep one any day. Not that I am likely to find a long, flat hike anywhere around here. Unless I can convince Dean that we need to hike the eastern plains...

Anyway, it also really was a beautiful hike. There were tons of wildflowers.







And toadstools.



And this cave.



And the lake was very beautiful. The water in these Rocky Mountain lakes is very clear.



When we got to the lake, Amelia and I had a little picnic while Dean climbed to the top of the ridge above the lake, so he could see over the Continental Divide. Then we went down, down, down, and made our merry way to the campground.