More From Hayward – de-I, Sherpa

After the exertions of Saturday everyone slept in Sunday morning. Even I didn’t get up until 8:45 which is about as late as I’ve slept in as long as I can remember. T the Oil-guy made a fine breakfast of pancakes, Canadian bacon and eggs. We decided to go for hike. Wife’s sister had researched an area about 45 minutes from us where there was a nice rise and a great view. I call it a rise because with the full arrogance of a westerner who hikes in “real” mountains, going on a hike taking us up 500 feet to 1,500 feet in altitude isn’t really going up a mountain. That having been said, it was a very nice trail with lots of shade and surface that for the most part was much more forgiving than the loose rock and hard pack I’m familiar with. While we only went 3.5 miles round trip, I made up for it by packing up and down most of Wife’s camera equipment including her tripod and her incredibly heavy telephoto lens.

This far north the leaves are already in full color change. When we got to the top there was an incredible tableau of color for miles in front of us. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it in my memory of recent times. Wife had a great time taking her shots and used every lens so I felt my efforts were rewarded. On the way down there was a side trail to a waterfall, a very interesting structure that looked like it was formed by a slab of rock that had fractured and dropped leaving a narrow passage for water to flow down. The children of Sister-in-law the elder and T who love being out-of-doors were climbing all over and exploring the stream.

We didn’t get home until 6 PM. Sister-in-law had wonderful beef and barley soup ready for us (memories of my Mom) so we were able to eat quickly which was just as well since we were all ready to crash. T and I suffered through the Bears loss to Dallas.

Special note to Lakeview Coffee – you are in for a loooonnnngggg season. You might want to think about some sort of support group with son-in-law Tim de Buffalo.