Sept 15 Sept 22 Oct 1 Oct 6 Oct 20 Oct 27 Nov 3 Nov 17 Nov 23	Wednesday, November 23 We decided to hike on Tuesday this week since the forecast for Wednesday would be really rotten - cold and windy - and the rest of the week would be taken up by Thanksgiving. It’s been snowing in the mountains for the last few days and the snow would continue for several more days, so we stayed in the foothills. Today’s hike took us to the Flatirons area, just to the west of Boulder. Since we didn’t have far to drive, we stuck around home until about 9 and were still on the trail before 10. It’s a four mile round trip hike. The first mile is fairly smooth and wide and not too steep. Steep enough to require a couple of breaks, but not bad. The photo on the left shows our first rest stop on this open stretch. I had turned around while catching my breath to look back over Boulder. The photo on the right shows the Flatirons beckoning. Our destination is on the extreme left of the photo, near the top. The Flatirons get their name from their resemblence to old fashioned flatirons, resting on an ironing board - sitting on their back portion with the iron part sticking up in the air. This formation was formed over 8,000,000 years ago during the mountain building stage of this part of the country when the rock strata was tilted on end. The trail then took off up the side of one of the Flatirons... Lots of rock steps and switchbacks. If it had been any steeper, we would have required climbing gear! Well, maybe not, but it was as steep as any trail I’d like to tackle. The photo on the left shows the beginning of the steep portion of this trail. It's still reasonable here. We were in the shade for most of the four miles and there were a few icy patches from the recent snow flurries. It was a slow hike. We took almost 4.5 hours to hike the 4 miles... The last quarter mile dropped down precipitously before climbing back up the other side of this small valley. The photo on the left shows me sliding down a portion of this small descent. Since I was sitting down anyway, I decided to take a picture of what was spread out in front of me. That's the photo on the right. Then I wondered how I was going to get back up this section... Turns out I had taken the wrong path around a boulder and the other side was much easier... We reached the arch (photos to the left and right) about noon and spent some time admiring the view before eating lunch. . . . . The photo to the left shows the view from under the arch looking north towards the third Flatiron with Boulder spread out below it. The photo on the right shows the view from the other side of the arch looking out over south Boulder. Unfortunately, the only rocks flat enough to sit on were in the shade, so it was a cold lunch. And I found out that, once my gloves cooled off, it took quite a while for them to warm back up! We didn’t linger long at the arch - it was too cold. Soon we were making our way back down the trail, reversing the path we had taken to reach this spot. The photo on the left shows some of the steepness we encountered. This was near the base of the arch, but was typical of many stretches of the trail. The photo on the right shows the one icy patch of trail. There had been enough dirt kicked over the ice that it wasn't treacherous, but we still walked carefully over it. We were almost back to the smoother portion of the trail when I heard a noise behind me. The dirt Carl had just put his weight on gave way under him and he had slid part way off the edge of the trail. He picked himself back up and we continued on. He'd wind up with some road rash and some nice bruises... As usual, the downhill portions of the trail were harder to take than the uphill portions. The uphill treks tire the muscles and cause the heart to pound, but the downhill portions beat up the joints, especially the knees... We were back at the trailhead a little after 2 and home by 2:45. And in the hot tub by 3... It was a nice sunny day and completely calm. Couldn’t ask for nicer late fall hiking weather! Addendum the following day: Man, the quads are sure complaining today. And the whole body’s just plain tired! It was quite a workout!