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Wow. Could it be? Is that calendar right? September already?! Seems like no sooner had we gotten ourselves unpacked from our June trip that it was time to load back up and head west again. And to that I say… WOO-HOO!
I know I usually like to kick off my day 1 reports with some sort of over-descriptive, rambling, minutia-laden account of our drive out to Estes, but I'll spare you all this time around. Aside from a masterful display of evasive driving by yours truly while dodging a deer between Norton and Oberlin (due in no small part to the new set of tires installed the previous week) the journey was pretty much uneventful.
We made spectacular time, probably the quickest trip out to date, and hit town right around noon. Our first order of business was stopping off at Estes Park Mountain Shop to get Ally a pair of hiking boots. Which, considering her track record with past shoe-shopping excursions, was also accomplished in record time. Next we hit the Grumpy Gringo for lunch and checked ourselves in at Workshire.
Not wanting to waste any time, we headed right into the park, got ourselves a shiny new annual pass and made our way up towards Hollowell. After squeezing through the first elk jam of the weekend, I noticed an annoying "tick-tick-tick" sound coming from my side of the car. Assuming one of those brand-spankin' new Firestones had picked up a rock, I told Jen to pull over so I could pop it out, because that sound was driving me crazy. So we stopped at the next pulloff. Only thing was, there was no rock. None at all. Weird. Oh well! Must have been nothing. I guess I was just being paranoid since these tires were less than a week old and my previous set had more holes and patches in them than John's underwear drawer. So you can imagine my surprise (and probably most of the curse words I used) when I saw the GIANT BOLT HEAD sticking out of the rear tire on the passenger side.
OH. GOODY.
So we turned right back around and headed straight for Big O Tires. Who, in a display that would put our local service station to shame, got us right in and fixed up in no time at all. Okay, in a little over an hour. But still pretty dang impressive.
So, with that bit of steel-belted drama behind us, we headed BACK toward Hollowell en route to Mill Creek Basin. This hike was on our list primarily because it seemed like it would be a good place to see some fall color. There really wasn't a whole lot though, but I wasn't all that surprised. Nevertheless, it was a terrific little warm-up hike with just enough complaining from Ally to keep things exciting. But that, coupled with our delayed start and sunset fast approaching, meant that we only ended up going as far as the junction before turning around. Still, the hike was fun, the scenery was gorgeous and the weather was beyond perfect.
The moral of this story? Tires, schmires. Who cares? We're in Rocky, baby! Let the long weekend begin!
