I talked to my friends Marie and Dane this weekend, and they both were down for some snowshoeing. Since it was a Monday, I knew most of the trails and stuff would be relatively uncrowded. We made some plans and I got excited.
There is something about being in the mountains that makes everything better. The fresh air, the lack of people, the utter calm…I love it. And well, we all know how Tals feels about our excursions!
We met up at my place, loaded into my car, and headed into the hills outside of Boulder. I was thinking that Brainard Lake would be a good place to go because it is beautiful and while usually crowded, would not be too bad on a Monday. I took the long scenic route through North Boulder so that we could drive through the tiny town of Ward.
For most of the world who has never heard of Ward, it is a pretty comical little town. I think it would better belong in the Twilight Zone cause it is kind of weird! I refer to it as “where cars go to die” because there is a seriously disproportionate number of broken down cars on the side of the road. Considering there are only like 100 people, I think we counted at least 30-40 broken cars. Makes me laugh every time!
Anyway, once we got to Brainard, we headed away from the common trail and started to tromp out our own path. There were a few people there and I didn’t feel like leashing Tally. Sometimes people get weird about dogs, so I chose to just stay away from anyone other our group.
Breaking our own trail was tough going! At one point, I made the executive decision to hike into this open space of snow, and before I got three steps in, I fell into the snow up to my hip! Tals had bounded ahead of me and she totally sunk. She couldn’t get out and was floundering around, kicking her little paws everywhere. Made me laugh because I kept thinking about how tired she was going to be when we got home. VICTORY!
I can never get this dog to pose! Look at her: she is totally trying to bound off into the snow!
After awhile, we looped back the way we came and headed into another section of the woods. There were some downed trees, so we were kinda trying to balance in our snowshoes while walking across the wood piles. I wish I had been thinking more clearly because I turned around just in time to see Tally’s little head disappear under the snow. She had fallen into a tree well and was totally drowning in the snow.
You have never seen me move so fast in snowshoes! I ran over to her and found her about four feet underneath. I was able to grab her collar and pull her out safely, but she was definitely a little shaken. She hung around me for a few minutes before realizing she was A-ok. Then she was back to bounding!
After about an hour and a half, we decided to head back down to the city. But of course, we first swung through Nederland so we could stop off at the Wild Mountain Smokehouse Brewery. It’s a mellow restaurant/bar that totally has a hippy vibe. In fact, it is pretty representative of the entire town of Nederland! We had some beers, and then headed back down the mountain. As far as I’m concerned, this was the perfect way to spend a Monday!