Category Archives: outdoors

We’re recovering from jet-lag

5 on the shore

We just got back from a jam packed week in New England visiting Barry’s family.  This photo he took is my favorite of the nearly 400 photos we have from the trip.  We were quite an anomaly trekking through airports and train stations and big city streets with our crew of 4 boys and a girl.  We visited the birth place of a prophet, the home of a silversmith, people we love, and the ocean.  Over the next few days I’ll fill you in on some of the highlights as we try to get back to real life and set our biological clocks back to Denver time.  (The kids were all up before 6 this morning because their bodies thought it was 8!)

the cloud project

I’ve been really fascinated by the Colorado sky this summer.  It is so big and expansive that you can see so much variety.  From where we live we can watch the clouds congregate on the mountains and make their way toward the plains, and in the evening light they are quite a site to behold.  There are so many times I’m driving around on errands wishing I had my camera to document the towering layers, but I never have it.  I can stand on my back porch, though.  Here are some of the heavenly sites from right outside my window.

altocumulus

These high clouds are altocumulus.  There are 3 basic types of clouds.  Cirrus clouds are high and wispy, cumulus clouds are the mid sky cotton balls, and stratus clouds cover the sky low and like a blanket.  It gets a bit complicated for me from there because from those 3 divisions they’re categorized into 10 basic kinds of clouds because most clouds are some kind of combination of the 3 basics.

stratocumulus stratiformis

These are cumulostratus– kind of cottony, kind of blankety.

stratocumulis stratoformis

Our very favorite library book on clouds has been Tomie dePaola’s Cloud Book.  You just can’t help but love Tomie’s illustrations and humor along with real, sound information.  The Man who Named the Clouds is about Luke Howard, the man who first devised the way to categorize and name clouds.  It starts with his childhood and shows how following your passion and studying hard can really affect the world.  I also need to get myself my own copy of The Cloud Book by Richard Hamblyn.  It’s a nature guide for naming clouds full of lovely photos and explanations of why clouds are called what they are.

Have you been looking up lately?

the llama trip part 2

I’ve been hesitant to post about our second day of hiking with the llamas.  A couple of years ago I made this post and got some comments and e-mails from people upset with the harshness of my post– they come here to be inspired and uplifted.  Well, in real life hard things happen, so if you don’t want to know about the heartbreaking tragedy that happened that second day of hiking, then skip this post.
embarking on a day hike

We woke up the second morning to beautiful weather.  Barry had planned a day hike up to the next lake, but I wasn’t sure I could make it with a baby on my back.  He talked me into it though, so we packed up the llamas with light loads of lunch and jackets in case it rained and headed up the trail.  It was steep.

on the trail

It’s hard to tell from these photos where the trail is, but if you look carefully you can see it  going diagonally toward the big rock face.  We needed to go up and around that rock face.

coming up

Barry decided to let Jonah lead Turk while he led Tecate and Two Socks.  Brenna and I were slow, so we didn’t see exactly what happened, but we heard falling rock and squealing, saw Logan frantically running toward us yelling that Turk was lost, he fell off the trail and they couldn’t see him.  Barry came down toward us as well, then went in search of Turk.  I huddled the kids I had with me around and we prayed that Barry would find that sweet llama, that he wouldn’t be in pain, and that everything would be all right.  After what seemed like forever Barry came back, ashen faced.  He had found Turk.  He had fallen 200 feet straight down a cliff and didn’t survive.

I can’t tell you the flood of emotions of that moment, of that day.  I was so thankful Jonah was all right.  When Turk slipped on the rock Jonah had to make the decision to let got of his rope and let him fall.  It was so surreal and shocking for all of us, but I think for him most of all.  One moment Turk was trucking up the trail, the next he was gone.  Completely gone.  I felt so horrible that we killed a llama.  What would the owners say?  How would they feel?  We made so many mistakes.  A child should not have been leading a llama over a cliff.  We shouldn’t have even taken all the llamas for a day hike, should we have?  And what was that feeling of not wanting to go on that hike in the first place?  Was that inspiration that I ignored?  Should I have been more insistent that we not go?

our basin

We went back to camp, prayed, and talked about the day.  We decided that the owners needed to know what happened, so we would cut our trip short and headed back.  Luckily we had packed pretty light.  Tecate and Two Socks could carry most of what Turk had between them, and what we couldn’t fit in their packs Barry and I would carry in ours. The kids would have to  help some too.

the speedy ones hiking down

It was a hard hike out.  My pack was a lot heavier, the kids a lot whinier, my heart a lot heavier.  And Hunter kept pulling my hair!

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It was still beautiful, though.  I tried as much as I could to ignore the pain in my shoulders to find it and record it.

so s l o w

I had to just keep moving one step at a time.  I tried to stay back with Brenna, but my patience was a little thin, so I just kept her in sight and she took tiny, tiny steps downhill.  She sure did look cute in her pink turtle neck and big straw hat, though.

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down several switchbacks from me

We went down and down, switchback after switchback.

pro leader

Jonah cheerfully helped Barry lead the llamas down.  He’s the best little hiker.

done

And then we were finished.  I held back the tears until the last big stream crossing, but then my tired shaking limbs couldn’t hold them back any longer.  I cried the rest of the way down.

the end

Now that I have a bit of distance from the whole ordeal I can say it was a good experience.  The first day of hiking was idyllic.  And then we learned a lot.  We don’t have to do things the hardest way.  I’ll wait until I have teenagers to attempt so steep a climb again– boys who I don’t have to carry on my back, who maybe can even carry a little of my load.

We’re sorry Turk.  Thank you for your service.  You were such a good boy.  You didn’t eat when we were slow on the trail.  You were the easiest llama for the kids to lead.  You got us up into some of the prettiest mountains we’ve ever seen.  Thank you.

the llama trip part 1

We left at the crack of dawn with a 6 1/2 hour drive ahead of us.  It was a rather uneventful drive.  We started listening to  the Oliver Twist audio book (we couldn’t survive road trips without audio books, I tell ya) and made several potty stops as we had an unfortunate stomach funk making the rounds through the family.  Poor Logan was throwing up the night before and I was feeling pretty yucky as we drove.  Colorado is a beautiful place though, and as we closed in on the San Juan mountains I couldn’t believe how jagged and beautiful they were.  The towering clouds that formed over the mountains were amazing to me.  I wish I had taken pictures, but I was waiting for my 24 hrs of queasiness to be over.

Molas Lake campground

We camped that night in what Barry read was the most scenic campground in Colorado.  It’s right on Molas Lake right outside of Silverton, CO.  Scenic it was– and cold and rainy.

near twilight

The next morning we got up early to pack our llama packs.  With all of our stuff laid out on the tarp we could see, and hear, the wall of weather coming toward us.  We hurriedly broke down tents and stowed everything in the van before the torrent began.  We had to postpone our 8 o’clock meeting with the llama guys until the downpour let up.

learning the ropes

At about 10 the rain let up to a drizzle.  Barry used their garage to finish packing where it was dry and llama guy Mark showed me the ins and outs of llama saddling.  I loved those llamas.  I’m just an animal lover to the core.  I remember watching my grandpa groom and saddle his horses as a little girl wanting so bad to be a part of the care taking, but too shy or self conscious to ask.  It’s kind of silly, but strapping the saddles on the llamas was like living out that childhood wish.  They were good boys, those llamas.  Turk was the white one, Two Socks the dark one in the middle, and Tecate the big guy in the foreground.

The men hooked the trailer to the van, I put the llamas in the trailer and we were headed to the trail head.

cheese

The drizzle stopped when we got there.  It stayed pretty cloudy as we hiked, but not another drop fell!

the very beginning

Llamas can carry up to 80 lbs.  We didn’t have them loaded down that heavy and they were ready to walk as quickly as we’d let them.  Unfortunately I had to be a pack animal too so that Hunter had a way to get up the trail.  Truth be told, I was not nearly as cheerful a packer as the llamas were.  I just couldn’t get comfortable and felt so off balance because with a kid in a hiking pack all of their weight is at the top of the pack so you feel it on your shoulders.  No matter how I adjusted I couldn’t get all the weight down on my hips.  I seriously think I may have been more comfortable with a SweetPod because the baby sits low and most of the weight is on the wearer’s hips.  Anyway, enough of my whining.  It was a beautiful hike, which I can say cheerfully now that I’m looking at the photos and not actually doing it.

leading the line

It was really steep though.  We gained about 1800 feet of elevation in a little over 2 miles.  Switchback after switchback, one foot in front of the other.

Logie and Turk

The kids were great.  Brenna tended to hang back with me, but Jonah can just motor on and keep up with whoever there is to keep up with.  The llamas were great too.  They were great followers no matter who was leading.  We let the kids take turns leading all three, we separated them a few times so they could each have one, and Barry led them all on the really steep parts.  They were definitely my favorite part of the hike.

Brenna and Two Socks

After climbing up and up and up we got to this little basin and set up camp.

camp

It really couldn’t have been more beautiful.  We had a little meadow to stake the llamas out in and big logs to sit on surrounding our camp fire.  Hunter loved just sitting in the dirt and scooping it up into his lap and wrapping little sticks with leaves.

stick wrapping

He wrapped this stick in a leaf so intently he didn’t even notice me nearby with the camera.  He’d get the stick covered and say, “Bup.  Bup.” (which is how he says “wrap up”) over and over.  He was incredibly dirty, but incredibly happy the whole time.

brothers

If I were to do it again I would definitely invest in some kind of packable toilet.  Digging holes for 5 kids is a lot of work, pretty gross work when you’ve got a stomach thing working its way through the family.  I’d probably just get one of these seat lids that fit on a bucket and several bags.  The bucket could just have stuff packed in it and would fit in a llama pack no problem.  We packed out plenty of poop as it was because our potty learning Ian just could not relax enough to go in a hole.  Both he and Hunter were in disposable Pull-ups or diapers the whole time.

I’d also find a roll up table and pack some food in a cooler.  I had no idea we could bring a cooler if we had wanted to, having been trained well by my parents to pack lightly for backpacking trips.  The luxury of llamas is that you can bring stuff– even real food if you want. So, if you’re ever crazy enough to try this bring milk!  Bring lettuce!  Hey, you could even have ice cream!

I would remember card games.  Doh!

Another thing– I’d check the weather better.  We were in much higher mountains than I had backpacked in when I was a kid living in Idaho.  Idaho is pretty dry and gets warm during the day.  Colorado is cooler and wetter up in the mountains.  We were fine  (you don’t go through too many clothes when you don’t ever take off enough clothes to change your underwear, which was the case with all of the males I did not personally have to diaper and clothe I found out as I went through things to do laundry when we got home.  Gross.), but an extra sweatshirt and maybe even long johns for everyone would have been nice.

llama camp

So, that’s the first half of our trip.  I honestly didn’t like lugging a baby up a mountain, but it sure felt good to take him off my back in the heart of pristine wilderness, set up camp, watch the llamas chomp to their hearts’ content, and see how happy my children felt about doing something so hard and being somewhere so beautiful.

Thank you Bill and Mark for sharing you sweet llamas with us!