Day 4 I sit here typing today’s entry as all the kids and Amy are passed out. A fun day it was indeed. We got up and had big bowls of oatmeal to get ready for the days hike. Since it was Memorial Day we expected large crowds in Rocky Mountain National Park. It actually wasn’t crowded however. Initially, we were going to repeat a day hike we did last year, but Amy felt the kids got tired and bored on that one. We decided instead to do a loop hike to an Alpine lake called Bierstadt Lake. The first portion of the hike had quite a bit of uphill trail segments. To the kids credit they seemed to handle it well. Harris rode on Amy’s back while Grant and Alex hiked. They were excited to hike this time because they were able to wear the new Camelback water pouches they had. Once we got up to the lake, the wind was whipping around something fierce. We stopped for lunch and froze while we quickly ate. There was still snow up at that altitude, so of course Grant wanted to have a snowball fight and of course I obliged. We did this for a bit too long as my hand began to ache and throb. I convinced Grant it was time to stoop and we continued on. The second half of the hike was amazing. It was a series of switchbacks along the side of the mountain that afforded some amazing views of the mountain range with its snow capped peaks. We had to stop several times just to take in the views. We slowly made our way down to the shuttle bus stop which took up back to the parking area. Halfway on the hike Harris actually wanted to walk and probably hiked almost a mile by himself at 9000 ft elevation. Not too bad for an almost 2 year old. We decided to take a drive along Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road is a road that goes along the Alpine Ridge in the park and is very narrow and winding but has some spectacular views. We arrived at a scenic overlook high in the mountains on a sheer cliff. We stopped and watched a family of idiots climb over the security wall and horseplay on the 3 foot ledge in front of that that dropped of into oblivion. The foolish risks some people take never ceases to amaze me. They climbed back over the retaining wall and then got back to their car. I then heard the father screaming and swearing loudly. “Who locked the doors ^#&^#%%” . Then the wife responds. “Oh, no the dog did it”. These people left the keys in the car high up in the mountains miles from anywhere with a Chihuahua in the car to horseplay. Apparently, the dog stepped on the door lock switch and locked it up. They were SOL. The boy was at the window screaming at the dog to please open the door. We sat for a while and watched this comedy unfold and then proceeded on down the mountain. We again witnessed human stupidity. I was going the speed limit of 35 down the mountain road. Some idiot began to tailgate me and then for some reason decided to pass me going around a blind curve in a no pass zone. Once he passed I noticed he had Texas plated and it was from Round Rock Toyota. Idiot. Embarrassing to Texans. We continued on out of the park and went back to the fishing pond. Today our luck was different. The winds had died down and the fish were biting. We managed to catch a couple. I went to trade in one of the rods and the guy gave me one with a spoon. This was like cocaine to these trout. I hooked one and let Grant try and land it. He got a little too excited and jerked the rod so hard it pulled the lure out of the fished mouth. The lure flew back and ended up buried in his scalp. I investigated it more and the hook was pretty well embedded in there. I went and asked one of the fish workers to loan me a pliers to work on this. I went back to Grant who had a very frightened look on his face. I told him to take a deep breath and pushed the hook through. I clipped the barb off

and removed it. Kudos to Grant for being tough. He didn’t even cry. I guess all that training good for something. Grant and Alex made up for this setback by catching 7 fish. They shall make a nice supper tomorrow. We went back to the campground and played a bit of put putt golf roasted marshmallows and got the kids to bed. Tomorrow there is more hiking to do. Pictures to be posted when I get a better internet connection.