Of Mountains and Moose (and more)

Due to a fortuitous reconnecting via Facebook, Peggy and I had guests this weekend. Jen and Mike (Peggy and Jen were high school classmates) visited us from Western PA, and wanting to be the good hosts, we planned some Colorado-style activities. The one went better than anyone could have planned... a nice, little, only-slightly-uphill 5.5 mile (roundtrip) hike to Lake Isabelle. Here are some pictures from the hike. (There is more text after the pictures.)





































































(Pictures, left to right, top to bottom: Peggy and I on the shores of Lake Isabelle; Jen and Peggy on the shores of Lake Isabelle; Chloe hamming it up; a small cascade and some wildflowers along the trail; a look back at Chloe, Peggy, Jen and Mike, and the great background; a bull moose along Long Lake (x3))

The moose sighting was awesome! We were about 25 yards away from it and it couldn't have cared less that we were there... it was just munching away on some shrubs and grasses. We couldn't stick around to watch it too long because there was some thunder, lightning and rain making its way to our location pretty rapidly. (Sidenote: we apparently stuck around a little too long anyway... shortly after leaving the moose, the wind and rain reached us and we had about a 15 minute hike in the rain.)

We eventually got back to the car, took off our wet wind and rain gear, and began to leave the parking lot. As I drove off, Peggy yelled, "Back up! Back up! Back up!" And as I did, two more bull moose could be seen... these were a little further away (so no pix), but they, too, were out grabbing a mid-afternoon snack.

We were all delighted in the three moose sightings (one doesn't see them everyday, so seeing 1 is great... 3 is absolutely spectacular!) and as we continued driving away, Peg said, "Boy... about the only thing we need to see now is a bear."

No one knows what she had for breakfast that morning, but Peggy's powers of prognostication were off the charts for about 7 miles before reaching home, we caught a brief glimpse of a black bear up on a hillside.