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)Now fast forward through a few weeks of running and getting ready as best I could for our attempt at Chiefs Head.....
It was a Thursday that I was leaving and I had everything ready a couple days in advance. All I needed to do once I got home from work was to load up the truck, kiss Jenny and the kids goodbye and head out. On the way out of my neighborhood my next door neighbor kids each gave me a single finger solute as well as complimented my truck in a sarcastic way finishing off their well wishes to me with a seven letter word in reference to me.
Ahhh, even that couldn't take away the excitement of the beginning of a trip to Estes Park/RMNP! The drive felt unusually long and my eyes got quite heavy a few times. I'm not sure if that way due to driving that late in the evening after a full day at work or being bored with the few stations playing pop "music" through central Nebraska. The pop music seemed to all have a common theme, i.e. cheating on your girlfriend and having as much sex as possible. The only reason I gave pop a chance was due to the fact of being sick of the overplay of Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and other country-pop types.
I arrived at Casa Cooper and shared the ever popular and highly prized "Glenn's PAstout Oatmeal Stout" with Jim and Lynda (Although I think Jim's not much of a beer guy so they're probably Lynda's). I quickly made friends with Keisha, the great German Shepherd of the house, and chatted the night away with Jim and Lynda as we poked fun of many people on the forums such as John, John, John, Randy, Mongo, John, and well....John.
I left early the next morning and took Jim's suggestion of highways into Colorado eventually ending up in Ft. Collins via highway 14. It was a very nice and relaxing drive. Cracker, my truck's name (because it's white), was doing fine as well. I made sure to regularly tell cracker how proud I was with the great way he was running and how well he was taking care of me. He told me I should burn many of the towns down on the way out there, but I mostly ignored him.
Once I got to Loveland, I started scouting out good places to refill on gas on the way back out of EP. Ouch! $2.80+/gallon
As I drove through the Big Thompson Canyon I felt bad that Jenny couldn't be there with me to see how great the canyon looked with brilliant aspens here and there.As always the anticipation of breaking out of the canyon into Estes Park and being greeted with the sight of Hallett and the divide was great!! The joy was familiar yet felt as close to new as it could....if that makes any sense
I parked and hit the library to kill time while I waited for Glenn to arrive in EP. I greeted everyone on the forums from the library and made sure to leave the internet browser with the forums loaded and displaying on the monitor for the next person to stumble across. While I was at the library on the computers I noticed Jo was there and headed over trying my best to not seem like a stalker. Unfortunately for me Jo's natural instincts kicked in, and kicked me. After she got a good look at me doubled over on the floor, and amidst everyone at the library pointing and laughing at me, she realized it was me and helped me over to a table where we talked for a tiny bit. Luke wanted to get home in a hurry to watch a cool video they'd checked out at the library.A couple hours later Glenn arrived in town and we shot the breeze on the corner of Elkhorn & Moraine. After I talked his leg off we decided to check in at Rams Horn and then we headed into RMNP for a good warmup hike.
Our first hike was to The Loch, then over to Lake Haiyaha, and finishing back to the trailhead via Dream and Nymph Lakes. I had never been to Haiyaha before and enjoyed it. I'd read others accounts that poo-pooed it due to it's difficulty in its photographic opportunities, but I really enjoyed it for its role as a destination. Man, there are some huge boulders there!! We were also introduced to the sound and sight of the helicopter delivering rocks and such to the trail crews working nearby. After we finished up our hike we headed into Safeway to get a few things to eat for the weekend.
Back at the pimpy Rams Horn pad we shot the breeze for a bit, poked fun at John and a little at Jen. We decided that our hike for the next day would be to Black Lake and beyond. So we hit the sack and dreamt happy little hiking dreams, and for me there were occasional dreams of midgets riding around on scooters wearing buttless chaps and honking an "ooooooo-gah" horn while they drove by laughing at me.
The hike the next day was great! Once up past Black Lake we decided we hit all the lakes we could while up there. We still have to figure out/confirm a few things that we've become confused about with certain lakes up there.....but that'll be in the trip reports for that day to come later....
We beat ourselves up and hobbled many times on the way back to the trailhead. We knew we would be terribly late for the planned get together at the brewery so we didn't even bother trying due to how late we were and how beat up and tired we were.
Once back at the pimp pad, Glenn got a call and realized he'd have to return to Pimpsburgh. So the next day after he left I went in to the park and just winged it trying to hit places that I'd usually not. I started out with Hallowell Park and hiked all the way up to Upper Mill Creek backcountry campsites. I snagged photos of those as well as photos of Mill Creek Basin campsites for the backcountry campsite directory DeeCeeM is putting together. I did encounter a father and son the were packing up their stuff to move on as I was getting pics of a john for John. I'm sure they thought I was weird.
After Hallowell I hung out at Sprague Lake and shot the breeze with an old-timer (the grandfather in a large family that was visiting the lake). He was very nice and interesting to talk to. He noticed my shirt, a Fatheads shirt, and commented on the Pittsburgh connection he had. He said he'd grown up very close to Pittsburgh in a town that I can't remember the name of now. I told him he should stop in at Fatheads the next time he makes it back home. He said he would, and we wished each other well as I left to go up to Bear Lake.
The parking lot at Bear Lake said it was full, but I had hope since a ranger approached me and directed me to the second from last parking space being newly vacant. I pulled in and as I was getting all my stuff out I noticed a couple ladies hanging out behind my truck near their car which I had parked right next to. "RMNPforums.com huh?", the one lady said. I replied that it was a cool site and that she should check it out. She then let me know that she was a member and that she was the one and only Understory (aka Dawn). So it was yet another opportunity to shoot the breeze with good people in the park as we took a leisurely stroll around Bear Lake.
I finished out my time in the park that day by hiking up the Rock Cut area. I'd never bother to go up there before and found it to be an interesting place. After that I got hungry for some pizza and headed to the nearby Dominos and then back to the pimp pad. After some failed attempts to get in touch with other members in town I snagged a PAstout Oatmeal Stout to have with the pizza, then hit the couch to watch the Bears smear the Seahawks and fell asleep for the end of the game.
After I woke up from that nap I decided to make use of the rest of the evening by getting my laundry done at the clubhouse laundry facility. While switching laundry out I noticed that pool still had water in it, so I checked and sure enough it was heated!!!
Of course I could let the opportunity pass by for swimming so I skinny dipped the night away while the laundry was drying. The hot tub was very nice too, so I rotated time between the hot tub and pool. It was very cool be swimming the very beginning of October in Estes Park looking up at a sky filled with stars!!I wore myself out swimming and grabbed the laundry and headed back to pimp central, aka the Rams Horn cabin. I got to shoot the breeze with DeeCeeM on the phone before I called Jenny to end the night. Overnight the midgets in my dreams weren't as nice as they were in the first dreams....but that's another story. I woke up and headed home early the next morning and had a great drive back home.
Mega thanks to Glenn for inviting me out to hike with him. Glenn, it was a ton of fun man!!
--Aaron
(kidding about the skinny dipping....I had a leopard spotted g-string speedo)
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Fox p.s. The midgits didn't join you in the hot tub did they? 
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