Green Mountain

First Day back on
Green Mountain

Yes, that's me. Four days shy of three months after my second knee replacement. (Thank goodness I only have two.) And I'm back on Green Mountain.

This is as high as we went. You can see the trail across the draw. The trail head is around the left side of the ridge and down hill.

Scott and I spent a little more than an hour hiking. We didn't go to the summit. We will one day, but this was quite enough for my first foray. Even though the trail we chose was one of the lesser steep ones, it was still steep enough. My knees did great, but breathing, that was the hard part. It'll take a while to build my endurance back up.

Any place else, cloudy skies would be dreary, but this sky was magnificent.

I'd forgotten how unstable I feel at heights. I'm glad I had my hiking poles with me. I'd also forgotten that feeling of near panic when I hear a mountain bike approaching. I did remember to get off the trail on the uphill side. That way if they caused me to fall, at least I'd fall UP hill.

Not many trees, but lots of flowers. Different flowers for different seasons. I missed the spring flowers, but there were plenty of summer ones.

  

         The yellow bloom is Prickly Pear       This is Dwarf Lupine, a close              

    The white is Bind Weed, anathema     relative to the beautiful plant          

to wheat farmers everywhere.             I planted this spring and              

                                            promptly killed.

Birds were also abundant. Western Meadowlarks, Black-billed Magpies, the ubiquitous American Robin, and one I'd not seen before the Western Tanager. The Tanager was fiercely defending his territory from a much larger Magpie.

 Bird Photos from The Cornell Ornithology Lab, All About Birds

Scott on the trail
patiently waiting for me.

Every little bit of the way I'd comment on how beautiful it all was and how glad I was to get to see it again. After two guys passed us on their bikes, Scott said that I also got to see MAMILs. which I misheard as mammals. I know coyotes and mule deer and the occasional mountain lion can be found on Green Mountain, but we'd not seen any of them. In response to my confused look he explained, "Middle-Aged Men in Lycra."

Looking down on Denver as it disappears in the haze.

Our town is between Green Mountain and Denver so we didn't have far to go home.

Happy, Happy Feet!

P.S. Although I seldom travel far from home, living in the midst of vacation-land as I do, let me recommend a blogger friend of mine who does travel and blogs beautifully about her travels -- Anabel Marsh, The Glasgow Gallivanter.