Sept 15 Sept 22 Oct 1 Oct 6 Oct 20 Oct 27 Nov 3 Nov 17 Nov 23	Wednesday, September 15 Carl feels that his feet have healed enough to try hiking - he had bunion surgery this summer. The right foot was operated on almost four weeks ago and the left on almost nine weeks ago. So we got up early and drove to the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park to try one of the easy trails we had spotted earlier this summer. We spent some time the evening before finding our hiking stuff. Most of it was easy to find, but one of the water bottle holsters proved elusive. Finally found it in the duffle bag with the rest of the assorted backpacks... After a quick breakfast, we packed a lunch and our jackets (just in case) and headed out a little after 8. West on I-70 then north on US 40 then north on US 34 and we arrived at the trailhead a little after 10:30. This is one of the hiking trails shared by horseback riders and has only a 350 foot elevation change in the first four miles. Since that was farther than we intended hiking, we thought it would be fairly flat. Well, it was, after the first quick climb up a small ridge to the next level.... Most of the trail parallels the Colorado River, which is small enough in this area to almost step across without getting one’s feet wet at this time of year. The three photos above show the mighty Colorado River as a mountain stream. The center photo has Carl sitting on a log that has fallen across the river. It was a very pleasant hike through the spruce, fir, and aspen forest. Occasionally, it would open up into a mountain meadow. I wish I could convey the wonderful feel of this day. It was a little cool, but comfortable. The air was so fresh and invigorating. There was a slight breeze making the treetops sway (occasionally it would gust and try to knock our hats off, but that was okay). The photo on the right above shows me setting up a shot. I didn't realize Carl had taken this picture until a couple of days later. The center photo shows Carl sitting by the side of the trail waiting patiently while watching the waters of the Colorado River. The photo on the right shows Carl waiting patiently again with some nice aspens looming in the background. We stopped and rested a lot... The aspen were just starting to turn at the higher elevations, which added to the color as we walked along. Although this is a popular trail for spotting moose, we didn’t see any, just squirrels, chipmunks, and jays. About 12:30, we stopped for lunch. We had arrived at the Shipler cabins, or what’s left of them. These one room cabins were built by Joe Shipler to stay in while he worked his silver mine, which is nearby. There’s not much left of the cabins. The photo on the left shows what's left of two walls in the main cabin. The photo on the right shows the view out of what's left of the door. We ate lunch sitting on what was left of one wall of the cabin that was more intact (the wall in the sunshine in the photo on the left). As we were finishing up our apples, a couple of gray jays flew down and watched us eat. I didn’t want to make any sudden moves, so missed taking their pictures. They probably would have continued posing if I had tried... They were sitting on the log in the foreground of the photo on the right. Since they were so patient, we threw our apple cores nearby and the jays attacked them. These cabins were 2.4 miles from the parking lot, so we decided that was enough for our first Colorado hike, especially since Carl still wasn’t up to full hiking speed yet, so we turned around here, returning the way we had come. These two photos were taken on our way back to the parking lot. The photo on the left shows one of the mountain meadows with an arm of the Colorado River running through it. The photo on the right shows a colorful stand of aspens near the trail. . . The photo on the left is the last one I took today. It shows some daisies along a fence that was at the side of the trail near the parking lot. We returned to the car about 3 and drove home, hitting rush hour traffic once we hit the Denver roads, so it was almost 6 by the time we got home. We immediately hit the hot tub.... Next...