both matt and i have significant others who are out of town this weekend, so we went looking for some adventure today in the form of a hike. our original trail choice called for some river fording, but one toe in the heavy-snow waist-high rushing runoff and we set out looking for plan b. we found it in estes butte.

two miles into the hike, we stopped to take pictures at a small overlook and to adjust our clothing to the conditions, at which point we heard a bear. i think it was telling us to move along in its best throaty growl. we obliged. bears are throaty. and big.

12 miles, a fair amount of gain over three summits (one of which was done twice), some bear tracks, and some bear growling (but luckily no bear sightings). and after the initial climb on a bunch of switchbacks (3 miles), it turned into a ridge trail for the next six, before we headed back down.

the hike, represented in elevation (garmin finally released software for osx).

matt saw this frog on the way back. unclear how. the lasik surgery must have worked better than expected and now matt is bionic.

my pictures from today are shit, but here’s a view from the higher peak (6000 feet).