Sept 15 Sept 22 Oct 1 Oct 6 Oct 20 Oct 27 Nov 3 Nov 17 Nov 23	Friday, October 1 Well, our Wednesday hikes got derailed this week. We were planning to hike on Wednesday, but, Tuesday evening, as I was flossing my teeth, one of my oldest crowns popped off! So, I had to get it reglued the next morning... By the time they were through with me there, it was too late to head out. So, we rescheduled for Friday. Friday was another beautiful autumn day in the Rockies. We left here about 8, taking a different route to Rocky Mountain National Park again. This shaved about 20 minutes off of the Boulder route, so we’ll use this one more often. One problem with hiking of Fridays is the increased presence of younger children - don’t they have school??? And the increased number of people. It was too pretty a day for staying home, so there were a lot of people on the Cub Lake Trail. Some were getting a jump on the weekend, I assume... The hike was prettier than it was last week. Not a cloud in the sky until we were almost back to the parking lot. The only down side was that the open spaces in the trail were very sunny and got a bit warm. Maybe I should have worn my lighter hiking pants... The photo on the left shows the Big Thompson River near the trailhead from almost exactly the same place as last week's photo - quite a difference! The photo on the right shows a pine root twisting along the hillside along the side of the trail. Most of this trail is fairly flat, with a few places where it took a shortcut over a ridge rather than going around it. However, the last portion of the trail is pretty steep (relative to the first part of the trail), switchbacking through the colorful aspens. The photo on the left above shows this grove of aspen from a distance. At the time I took this photo, I didn't realize our trail would climb through them! The center photo shows the shady portion of the trail through the aspens. The photo on the right shows the majestic colors aspen takes on in the autumn. We arrived at Cub Lake at noon, exactly! So, we found a fairly flat rock to sit on at the edge of the lake and ate our lunch. The photo on the left shows me just after taking the shot on the right. Cub Lake is overgrown with water lilies, which, I'm sure, look prettier at other times of the year... We were soon joined by a couple of chipmunks and a duck! They were used to begging for food and even nibbled on our boots! The photo on the left shows the duck preening and acting like she's ignoring us. The photo on the right shows the duck approaching Carl's boot. Seconds later, she tried to eat his bootlaces! We threw an apple core out for the chipmunks and soon saw one of them running off with it in its mouth. The core was almost as big as he was! I couldn’t run anywhere with that big a load (compared to body weight)... After a nice forty minutes there, we packed our lunch debris and headed back down the trail, returning to the parking lot at 2:20. From there, we drove over to the Moraine Park Visitor’s Center where we got some answers to questions that had occurred to us during the hike. What was the big bird that’s mostly black with white markings and a very long tail? A black-billed magpie. Where did the glacier run and how was the debris deposited. That’s a longer explanation... So, we headed back to town, stopping for smoothies along the way and spent some time in the hot tub before dinner. Another good day in the mountains. Next...