June 6, 2009

‘Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.’ (Genesis 1:11-12)

….. and what an earth He created! We hope you take some moments to disconnect from the busyness of life and indulge in a moment of calm and beauty. Springtime in Colorado is filled with many cloudy and rainy days when there isn’t a drought. This is certainly one of those years as is evident in the pictures from our trek into the wilderness on Saturday June 6th. To see this incredible photo set go to our picture website at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/howethru

Look under "Reynold's Park." There you can browse and download. This photo shoot is the best we have ever done with both of our perspectives mixed in from behind the lens.

This day was special as it was the first Saturday in many weeks where it was sunny and gorgeous out. You see, I was having some quarrels with the Lord (useless) and had whined that He needed to shift the storm cycle so that the nice days would fall on the weekends! They had been falling during the week every time curbing my efforts to get us out. My loving wife of a year & 2 weeks (Yes, flies by quick!) and I had to celebrate our 1st anniversary spread out over 3 weekends due to weather. Saturday was the day to celebrate the outdoor part. After all our long friendship took its turn into courtship and marriage while hiking and rock climbing.

After looking over some new areas and doing research for some closer places, utilizing the power of the internet & Google Earth I ran into Reynolds Park, part of the Jefferson County Parks. Their website is:

http://co.jefferson.co.us/openspace/openspace_T56_R18.htm

It is tucked in an out of the way place near the almost ghost town of Foxton, southwest of Conifer, population 2, Halleluiah! It is close to Pine Junction. We love this place! It is a remote hiker only system of trails. We took a 3.7 mile loop according to my Garmin GPS that started down near South Foxton Road and winds up heavily wooded trails with thick undergrowth. It is an “easy” to “moderately” difficult hike gaining about 800 feet all told; again according to my Garmin.

All along the lower trail we crossed many streams. With the density of the vegetation and multiple coursing brooks running down the draws we stopped many times to get photos. We took 260 pictures and I have filtered out 127 of them. We tend to take multiple shots slightly adjusting the Canon Power Shot S3-IS to vary lighting and focus. Debra has a gifted knack for taking close ups blurring either the close in or the farther out while focusing the image elsewhere. I have picked up a lot of those traits but she is the Jedi Master! I tend to do best with the wide open landscape shots. I am getting the message that I need to invest in a telephoto lens for more flexibility.

The wildflowers up there were numerous and deeply colored. With all the rain and runoff everything else falls into multiple shades of deep green. The views at the climax of the climb were absolutely some of the best on a lower altitude hike I have seen. More about that later.

Pictures 104 & 105 we had to team up on. We caught a small purple-blue butterfly fluttering about. But when he / she would land its wings went straight up together and no color could be seen; probably a defense mechanism. Checking a website devoted to butterflies and moths (yes, they have such a thing) the closest thing I could find for the area was a “Hops Azure” and who knows what that name means. If you are curious the website is:

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

Being the persistent person I am, the only way to get a shot of it was for one to take the shot and the other to move to get it to start to fly! We didn’t think we captured it but when I downloaded the photos there it was! Debra got the critter focused and I did the “moving” and the signal to snap and she caught him in flight with his shadow on the ground. Check it out!

As far as the views go from the top, see pictures 65-90. You climb the trail and suddenly come out of the woods and there it is! Pike’s Peak & the Rampart Range to the south & west and to the east a tiny slice of the plains. There was hardly a cloud in the sky but it was rather windy making it feel a bit chilly. We spent some time on “Eagle’s View” as they call it and you can see why they named it that.

The view wraps 180 degrees. If you want a hike that is fairly easy, a great workout with both lush vegetation as well as the reward of a fantastic view this is one of the best I have been on. The maximum altitude you hit on this falls in at about 8500’ so it isn’t a lung buster.

We took the “Oxen Draw Trail” up until it joined the “Raven’s Roost” & “Eagle’s View” trails and then went up the “Eagle’s View” and I would recommend that unless you want a steeper climb. When we circled the top and came back around the loop we took the “Raven’s Roost” Trail and it was a much steeper trail down. Could be a bit hard on the knees but trekking poles took the pain of that away.

It is ironic that you use the trekking poles coming down the way you would your snow ski poles. I am an ace at that but if I snow ski people die!

Many of the pictures that Debra took were along the theme of life and death. She had been thinking about how spring shows both the new life blooming as well as the dead things of the wild and how that correlates into us as people who are dead without the saving grace of Christ but when we accept Him we have new life.

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

Well, weather permitting we should be hitting the mountains a lot more as summer quickly approaches. We are still shooting for the 1st 14’er of the year by the end of June but we know the saying: “We plan and God laughs.” Stay tuned……