Day 2 - 7/1/2019. KODA’S Birthday
We woke early enough to check the skies and I saw stars and returned to bed. We officially got up at 0515, walked The Boys, loaded the truck, dressed in warm clothes, made coffee and headed to the Summit.
We arrived at the summit 0645, the temp was 39F and the wind was howling, my guess is 34-40. There were some older goats and what I am guessing were yearlings. I wondered if they were some I had taken photos of last year. Soon a momma Mt Goat and two kids arrived. I took about 250 photos, while The Boys stayed in the truck and observed. They behaved really well as I think Koda was very interested in what those big white things were.
Many more photos available by following this link -
Soon we were ready to head down the hill and make some breakfast.
This year there is definitely more snow up high but less than I expected. However, this year there seems to be an abundance of Marmots and we did locate a spot to find Pika.
Back at camp, we made breakfast burritos, and took The Boys for a couple walks. The fridge is being a pain. UPDATE!!! A little tinkering and I got it working.
Koda has been enjoying his birthday with walks, meeting people and other dogs. He gets very excited and has enjoyed being petted. He is still receiving the comment “LOOK AT THOSE BIG PAWS”.
Dinner was hamburgers, tomatoes, and potato salad. Koda and Kenai had puppy ice cream, which was peanut butter and bacon flavored. They seemed to enjoy it very much. The clouds are rolling in with occasional thunder, so The Boys got a camp ground loop walk, where Koda met new campers. We returned to the camper and it was time for us to have some ice cream.
Early to bed in prep for an early morning.
Day 3 - July 2nd, 2019.
We were up and at um early maintaining the morning regime of walk The Boys, make coffee, and head up the hill. The weather conditions were much better this morning with temp at 38F and calm winds.
More photos were taken and the goats seemed to want to stay in the shade. There were two mountain sheep there this morning. Yesterday we did observed an area where the habitat looked great for Pika and there is even a rare wide spot in the road where we pulled off. We saw a few pikas running about and I was able to get a couple photos. Maybe tomorrow we will spend more time there and get out the 600mm lens.
Back at camp we made pancakes with bacon for our breakfast. We walked The Boys, took showers and got on fresh clothes. We then drove into Idaho Springs to the Visitors Center. This is a nice visitors center for the local community and the USFS, very nice exhibits interpreting the local area’s highlights, such as mining, geology, and history.
We then went to a grocery store as Lynn was in need of coffee flavoring. Next we filled up diesel truck, and headed back to camp.
When we arrived at camp the skies were dark and there were angels bowling. Lynn took The Boys for a walk and I packed up our stove and cleaned out the truck. We are getting brief sprinkles and have planned our meals so they can be cooked easily inside. Tonight is some of our vegetable beef soup.
Yep, you guessed it, more pup walks and then bed. Fearing the 4th maybe a very busy day, 7/3 might be our last summit morning. Then we will just relax on the 4th and hike some of the trails.
Day 4 - July 3, 2019
We were up and at um early again, walked The Boys, Made Coffee, dressed warmly and headed up the hill.
On the way up we observed a herd of about 80 elk crossing the road just above timberline. Sadly there was not a good place to get off the road so we continued up the hill to the summit.
At the summit there was a person walking two dogs and scaring the goats off. Finally he left and the goats returned. We keep The Boys inside the truck and they are content to just look at the goats.
There were three goats very interested in the underbelly of our truck near the rear axel. They were crawling underneath and I am guessing licking road dirt.
While I was sitting waiting to photo more goats, one yearling came right up to me and licked my pants. Another photographer captured the event and will be sending me the photos he took. I have found one can just sit there calmly and the goats will pretty much ignore you.
Again many many photos were taken as the weather seemed warmer compared to the other mornings. The summit temp was 45F and a breeze of about 15MPH.
We decided to make our way down to an area I am calling Pika Point, a location where one can pull off the road and there is a nice rocky area which is perfect Pika habitat. Yesterday I saw several scurrying about but today there was only one to be found. But there was a marmot sunning himself in the area. After the one Pika decided he had enough sun and disappeared, we continued down the hill.
Back at Base camp we got into cooler clothes as the temp was now 57F with nice clear skies. The Boys were walked and we cooked up a breakfast of French Toast. More pup walks filled the day, as well as down loading the mornings photos, sorting and some editing. Actually this is nice as I will have less to do when we get home.
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