Tom and Jerry Windows

Today's work included a lot of training sessions that were mandatory, including a rundown of our backcountry overnight next monday-tuesday. As we loaded into the van, we realized the seven of us couldn't fit into five seats, so I drove with Alissa to the training. It was great getting to spend some time with her one-on-one since she's only in the office half the week and we began bonding over driving automatic, The Office, etc. She also stopped me on the way out to the car and said thanks for writing this. She found the link on my facebook and said that it really has helped her realize how she has changed since her first summer here (she's been here seven seasons and is a music teacher in Colorado during the school year!) and she wants to try and get it back to the same excitement when she started. That comment totally made my day. I don't really write this for other people. I know other people read it and I love the comments, but as I've said this is kinda my journal for this summer. Knowing that I can make that kind of an impact on someone without trying really puts things in perspective for me though and I really appreciated her saying that.

Last night while getting ready for bed, Kendall and I decided to go on a hike after work today and invited Christina (our new roommate who is super cool!) to come with us. Kendall met me in the office at 4pm when she got off and was able to change in our bathroom. When I got off at 4:30pm I did the same, and we waited for Christina since she got off at 5pm. We didn't hear from her and sent her a message as we started driving towards the mountain.

Let me tell you about this hike. It's called Eagle Cliff Mountain. The whole thing is covered in trees except for the very top which is granite and looks like an eagle's perch. The other important fact: there is no trail. We drove towards the YMCA and through some resorts to park as close to the base as we could, made sure we had coats in our packs, and began the bushwacking. About an eighth of the way up (this thing seemed to go forever!) we saw a couple people who were in NPS uniforms and were obviously using binoculars and a GPS of some sort. We saw some elk beyond them and figured that was what they were looking at so we tried to move to the side a bit instead of going straight up. Instead, the man waved us over and let us look through his nocs at a white hawk nesting up closer to the peak. After watching that and getting warnings about ducking if we heard her making noises at us so we wouldn't be bloody by the time we got back down, we continued our trek up the side of this thing.




After many stops to catch our breath, we made it to the top and had a great 360 degree view of the area, including park HQ, Estes Park, mountains, lakes, roads...the works. We could see our house way down and some trails that go back behind our house that we are going to check out soon too! We took tons of pictures, and every time I went to put my camera away, something else would catch my eye. The clouds were blowing around quickly in the sky, so the lighting kept changing. Just before we were getting ready to go, the sun shone through the clouds in a way so that you could see the beams the entire way down to where they touch the earth. Standing so high above everything makes that seem even more larger-than-life than it usually seems. We tried taking pictures, but gave up because that is just one of those things you can't capture on film. It reminds me of a line from a Format song: Pictures only prove you can't convince.

We finally decided to head down, and rather than go the gradual "pseudo-switchback" way we improvised on the way up the mountain, we opted for the "straight-down" method. We immediately saw my car at the bottom and that's when I realized I locked the keys in the car before we left. It was one of those feelings that just overwhelms you to the point that you are almost knocked down and you don't even need to check your bag because you know exactly what happened regardless of any reasons why you didn't realize you forgot them at the bottom of the mountain. We tore my bag apart looking for them, and then hoped they were just on the ground down by the car.

We went down in creative style ranging from two feet to down on all fives (butt included) which turned out ok minus one slip from Kendall when I tried pointing out a flower. As we kept going, the darkening clouds seemed to tell us we were about to be poured on and the mountain lion/bear warnings about the area began freaking me out as we passed some dry bones in a couple different areas. When it started flattening out near the very bottom, we found a family of deer that were frightened away and eventually made it to the car where there were no keys.

Our only real option at this point was to hike all the way to our house, so off we went. We were doing ok and still beating the rain when we came up to a creek. We just looked at each other and knew we had to figure out some way across it. Kendall opted for the stick that didn't look like it could hold the weight of a mouse and made it while I "rock-hopped" across some pretty submerged rocks. After about half an hour, we made it home and got the spare key and Kendall drove us back to where I had left my car.

When we got home, we showered and made a big spaghetti dinner and just sat down to watch three episodes of The Office because we figured we deserved it. We also threw a batch of chocolate-chip cookies with extra white chocolate-chips on top into the oven because we figured we deserved those too. We still hadn't heard from Christina at this point, but she walked in at the end of the third episode.

She had been on a SAR (Search and Rescue) since 2:30pm this afternoon. Talk about an exciting second day of work! She's on the Wilderness Crew but they were called out to help with some fallen climbers. A group of four was out climbing some of the ice in the central area of the park when I guess something slipepd and the leader ended up with a broken ankle and the fifteen-year-old ended up hurting his neck. Both had to be carried out from the trail, and the misison seemed pretty intense. After hearing about her adventures with the rescue, ours sounded a little more childish, but as I said earlier, it's all about putting things in perspective.

All the windows in this house are set up with Tom and Jerry windows. You know the kind--Tom would get Jerry close by and pull the cord so Jerry would be wound up inside of the blind. I think about perspective every morning when I am getting ready and open my curtains and look out the window at the mountains. Every morning they are different yet the same and it just depends on the way that I am looking out. If I look at just the mountain, of course it's the same thing each day. If I take the whole picture into account though, the sky changes and cars on the road down by the park change, even animals through our yard can change. I guess everything in life is all about the big picture-little picture way of loking at things and it depends on the perspective you take that helps alter the way you see them.