Seeing the Invisible
I just came in from getting a few shots of the stars, Milkyway and surrounding area at night and it is simply gorgeous. When you look up at the stars and just think about the thousands upon thousands that are in our night sky, it’s a little humbling. Definitely causes you to be drawn closer to the Creator and His amazing ways. There truly isn’t anything like it… With my camera I can capture more stars than the naked eye can see and I can also capture space gases so the final result is just incredible.
Onto the day: this morning we all woke up pretty early and after a good hardy breakfast(thanks to the wonderful people who are allowing us to stay at their home for the week, Warren and Bev), we were on the trail around 8:30am. Talking over breakfast about the trails around us we had decided we’d all go over to the Rainbow Trail about 5 minutes away and hike in a few miles and then hike out. It was a perfect morning out with very few clouds and a little cooler temperature which made for wonderful hiking. As we hiked up the mountain the surrounding mountains grew in magnitude and we hiked to a number of picturesque vistas. Was a fabulous way to start the morning.
After dropping off Warren and Bev back at their home, we headed up to the trailhead of Boss and Hunts Lake Trail. We arrived and found that the road to the trailhead was mainly for Jeeps and recreational vehicles, so what was just going to be a nice 4 mile hike, ended up being an additional 1.5 miles on the road to get to the trailhead and then 2 miles up the trail. The ascent was all uphill and filled with rocks and boulders. We’re learning, time wise, you can’t judge a trail by distance. Elevation, condition of trail and steepness are necessary factors. Needless to say we truly got our exercise in for the day! The trail started out around 10,400 ft passing beside Boss Lake and ending at an emerald hued Hunts Lake at 11,467 ft. A nice reward but it certainly was a workout.
We didn’t really see too many people on the trails, but one interesting fellow that we ran into was named Frank. Frank was a younger guy probably around Austin’s and my age and he hiking with his dog. He seemed like he wanted to talk for a bit so we stuck around and learned that he was an artist of a sort. Originally from New York, he was now living in Salida working on a project that he was hoping to get a Kickstart program up and running for. The project?, making insect burgers for people to eat! Yes you read that right, INSECT burgers… We really didn’t know what to say to that, but he proceeded to let us know that they are a big hit overseas and the West is the only place that doesn’t have them. So, keep an eye out. We’ll see what becomes of his project and if it becomes a “hit” or not. Personally, you wouldn’t be able to get me to buy something along those lines. I would have to be in a dire situation and it would have to be my only choice! We had a good laugh about it after we were down the trail a ways. It’s good to have ideas…
After hiking up hill all the way to Hunts Lake, we turned our sore bodies back around and started making our way back down the trail. Deciding to alter our trail of descent, there was a service road that you could access between the two lakes bringing you right down to the road we had parked off of. The only issue was that if you followed the service road to where it connected to the main road you essentially would be adding another mile of hiking, since the road headed West for .5 miles. So, instead of having to go in the opposite direction too long, we decided to go cross country. Austin had looked at his map and it appeared only to be a 100 ft difference between our location and the main road if we cut through the woods, so not bad at all. It wasn’t too bad at first but soon it became a very steep slope and difficult to go down. We didn’t have to go down any cliffs or anything, but it turned out to be more like 400 ft difference in elevation! We made it, though, and after a short hike back to the truck, we were on our way back to basecamp.
Tapping into strength we didn’t know we had, to capturing stars beyond the naked eye, we truly experienced that which is beyond.
Tired, a little dehydrated and hot, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying the company of our hosts. Tomorrow will be a lighter day welcomed by all of us.
