Ditch Day

Paul and I decided to take today off of work. We have a couple of days to use and my day at work today was going to be long so...we just didn't go. The weather cooperated with us and we decided to go hiking. Well, I gave Paul some ideas and he decided we should go hiking. (On the list was: Blackhawk/Central City, Estes Park, hiking, or bike riding on the Poudre Trail.)

We went to the Round Mountain trail which is up the Big Thompson Canyon a little ways. Neither Paul nor I had ever been on this trail so it was new to both of us. It is a 4.75 mile trail to the summit of Round Mountain. I thought we'd do our normal hike, go until we get tired. Paul had other ideas. He thought today should be the day I actually make it to the end of the trail. I'm glad we made it all the way, although I would have been pretty happy with 4-6 miles of hiking today instead of 9.5. The trail was pretty empty, we only ran into 3 other people in our 5 hour hike. This must be the advantage of hiking on a Monday. The scenery was nice. There were many great views of Loveland, we saw a herd of deer and the weather was perfect. The only downfall was we had to rush to get home and take Maddy to her vet appointment, oh and now we are moving VERY s-l-o-w-l-y due to our very tired legs. Here are a couple of pictures from the summit.