Grand Finale

Ive celebrated my last days here at shadowcliff; They're kickin' me out! The last day for guests was Saturday, and we will have closed the building for the winter by this evening..
Its been a great trip though, and Ive had only three days over the last (8wks?) that I was not able to hike. Ive done well over a hundred miles on my feet and went from a very long four-mile hike on day one to a leisurely 26-mile day!
The Wikipedia article on Atmospheric Pressure gives a first-order approximation to the decline of oxygen with elevation, 5% per 1000 feet
At Grand Lake itself, there is only 58.3% the amount of oxygen as at sea-level. At the top of Mt Ida, to which I climbed twice just last week, the Air would be approx. 35.6%... sounds too low to me, but it may explain why I have so much trouble catching my breathe up there...

I got the opportunity to go sailing a couple of times; A friend of shadowcliff, Law, invited the staff to his 22ft sailboat on Grandby Reservoir.
Jan and Libby joined the first outing- We skipped around the lake- around islands and such- for about three hours, missing a storm by less than one!
The second time, just the other day, it was only libby and I. We had enough breeze to get us about half-way across the lake, and then nothing. We floated on glass for half an hour, and then saw the wind break the calm on the far side of the lake. I told law about Beaver lake- which seems to be much clearer and larger than grandby. Libby held the tiller when we saw another still boat bend suddenly to our side. It's sails flapped violently and uncontrolled and the black mark of the wave on the surface of the lake swallowed a third boat.
It was our turn and the sailboat bent over about 30 degrees- sending everybody worried hands searching for a sturdy support. We zipped across- I sat on the high-side of the boat with law; Libby was trapped just inches from the water by the long tiller. Waves splashed over the front and the right side of the little boat slide right on the water- we were inches from flipping until law let the sails loose. -
we put the main sail at 50% and flew back to the marina. I drove us back and libby took hold of the Sails.. She got scared a couple of times, but I bet my heart was beating faster! I certainly felt frightened the few times the water came aboard-
'Done a good handful of hikes since the last map, but most of them were South and west of the map.


A toilet stool from the early 1900's -outside of a little village near monarch lake. Cool!

Mt Craig, (BALDY) at the end of the valley as seen from one of my favorite places in the park.

I'll miss 'em!

Mountains over grand ditch- far above the Colorado river! Got some nasty hail and snow on that hike, two weeks ago.

We've had some good hail at shadowcliff, too! The storm that left our porch white hit us last week- Laura and I drove through a similar one on trail ridge; Almost hit a moose! !

Theres Kate! Libby, Jan, Kate and I took an afternoon to go climb on an Aluvial Fan in the Park; The blow-out was caused when the lawn lake damn failed. Kate compared the area to a PLAYGROUND.