Fall Foliage

We finally had a chance to drive up into the mountains to look at the aspen trees. The plan was to shoot up a lot of videotape, and then edit it into a documentary about xanthophylls and anthocyanins...or maybe something about DB Cooper, alien abductions and Bigfoot. It would depend on what sort of footage we got. So I loaded Tanner into the car, along with my camera, extra tapes, spare batteries, tripod, water bottles, and all the other stuff that delineates you as a geek, rather than an ordinary tourist.

The tentative goal was to take Highway 285 up to our property at Elkhorn Ranch. We have a boatload of aspen trees, gorgeous pines, and occasionally a few columbines; it's a very picturesque place. And the road up there is surrounded by aspen groves that tend to be absolutely spectacular at this time of year. There's nothing quite like flaming yellow swatches among deep green pinery lining the slopes of majestic mountains, is there?

Of course, you have to hit it at the right time of year. Too early and the leaves are still green; too late and they've either turned brown or fallen off, making the mountain look more like a mange victim than an artistic masterpiece. We discovered that we had missed the absolute color peak time...but not by much. There were a few bare patches, but still plenty of dazzling color.

But the weather didn't cooperate. For the best photography, you need a bright sun at the right angle...and our day ended up being gray, overcast, and breezy. The diffused light made the pictures somewhat dull, and the wind made it too darn cold to get out of the car for very long. And being in "creative artiste" mode, rather than drawing upon our Boy Scout heritage, we had chosen to wear shorts, t-shirts, and Erich Von Stroheim monacles rather than sweaters, hats, and gloves. Ergo, our artistry suffered in the interest of self-preservation.

Still, we had a very enjoyable drive, and did see some pretty nice examples of Nature's autumnal handiwork. This photo is at the summit of Kenosha pass.We turned off on the first dirt road on the west side of Kenosha, which I'm pretty sure is the road we drove up to camp on when Tanner was in the Scouts. It was a cold November campout, where we did a moonlight hike on the Colorado Trail, and each earned our "Polar Bear" patches for camping when the temperature was below 0°F. We enjoyed reminiscing about it.We decided not to go all the way to Elkhorn, though. It was too cold, we were tired, and our all-knowing Congress hadn't yet taken the necessary steps to fix the stock market and lower gas prices...so we turned around and headed back to Denver.

Tanner's buddy Kallas was celebrating his 19th birthday, so the kids were going to meet at his house to drink Mountain Dew and eat Totino's pizza rolls, or whatever kids do nowadays. I told Tanner I'd take him there -- wouldn't want him to miss out on the lively discussions about how cool it is to get older, right? (Oh, they'll learn the truth about that, all right, but why not let them enjoy their youthful perspectives while they can.) But no one was there yet, so we took the time to zip over to Boulder Running Company to get Tanner a pair of running shoes.

As you know, I work hard at running; I train regularly, study the sport with some intensity, and strive to improve my abilities. But I still totally suck at it. Tanner, on the other hand, has never trained in any conceivable way, but can show up at one of our track workouts wearing cargo pants and clunky dress shoes...and run circles around me. By now, though, I'm used to dealing with those frequent blows to parental pride that come when you realize your kid is better than you at stuff -- so my reaction is not to curse him for making me look bad; it's to encourage him to get serious about the sport and see what he might be able to accomplish. And step one in this process is to get him some proper footwear. Which we did.

He's planning to come to the next track practice. I'll let you know if the new shoes make any difference. Until then, get out and look at the trees, have a stimulating conversation with your loved ones about chlorophyll-cycle impacts on the local economy, and keep your eyes open for Bigfoot.

Have a great day!