Two New Trails

View from the summit.  Mummy Range in Rocky Mountain National Park is visible in the background.

Last Friday, August 31, I helped the Trails Committee for my community install some rock steps on a particularly steep portion of one of the trails that threads through the open space in our community.  I had not yet walked this trail, and I was impressed with the scenery, so I returned yesterday (September 4) to walk this trail (called Maroon Bells) and another trail I had not previously explored, the Asbury Trail.

The view from the top of the Maroon Bells Trail is spectacular.  The Mummy Range, off to the south and across the Poudre River canyon, is visible in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Some of the Mummy's slopes still have a little snow from last winter.

Ranch and forest land adjacent to the open space in my community.

The stone steps the Trails Committee volunteers installed last Friday on the Maroon Bells Trail

At the eastern end of the Maroon Bells Trail, I picked up the Asbury Trail, which I had not previously walked.  This rocky, difficult trail travels along the contours of a steep hill with a full southern exposure; it was hot and challenging.

Cairns marking the Asbury Trail

As I rounded a bend in the Asbury Trail, I startled three magnificent mule deer bucks in full velvet.  One deer ran off, but the other two allowed me to capture their picture.  Since there's no hunting in our community, the deer are fairly tame and don't run long distances even when caught off guard.

Two of the three mule deer bucks I startled along the Asbury Trail

I took these images with my cell phone and enhanced them with Canon's PhotoProfessional program.  The originals are relatively low density images, so there's only so much improvement the program can make.

Shambhala Mountain Center Open House

Detail of the Great Stupa, south side

Last Sunday afternoon, September 2, Kali and I visited the Shambhala Mountain Center, located about seven miles from our house.  The center has an open house on the first Sunday of each month to introduce visitors to the center and its programming in meditation, Buddhist studies, and massage.  Kali and I know next to nothing about Buddhism (we watched the two-hour PBS series about the Buddha), so we were open and receptive.

We first had lunch in a large tent, joining participants from some of the center's organized programs.  After lunch, we walked to another tent for an introduction to meditation.  Kali had had had instruction in meditation on several previous occasions, but this was my first time.

Following the meditation instruction, the large group of open house visitors walked two-thirds of a mile to the Great Stupa, the reason most people come to the center.  A guide briefed us on the basic tenets of Buddhism and the iconography of the stupa.  Kali and I agreed that the entire experience was much more engaging than either of us had anticipated and that felt like we had made a good investment of our time that afternoon.

By the way, I took the images accompanying this post with my cell phone, then enhanced them with my Canon PhotoProfessional program, but there is only so much that can be accomplished with inherently low-density images.

Open house visitors walking to the stupa

Approahcing the stupa from the north

Approaching the stupa

More detail of the south side

Volunteer Wildfire Mitigation

On Saturday morning, September 1, I volunteered with the Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV) for a third time to help with a wildfire mitigation project.  This project is located on the Ben Delatour Boy Scout Ranch in the Roosevelt National Forest in north-central Colorado.  The WRV crew consists of experienced sawyers who fell small diameter (12 inches or smaller) ponderosa pines, and "swampers" like me who gather up the limbs, branches, and bucked-up trunks and place them in piles (which I like to call pyres) that will be burned when there is snow on the ground.  This is really strenuous work carried out on very steep slopes, so I'm exhausted when the day is over.

The image accompanying this post was taken at our staging area.  This area was subjected to a prescribed burn in 2017, and some of the trees behind the vehicles were damaged in the fire and may die.  The area where we were working on Saturday is visible in the background of the image on the steep, wooded hillside across the Elkhorn Creek valley.