A Slice of High Altitude Heaven

Shyla and I grabbed the opportunity for a day high above the trees, almost in the clouds, last week. For this mountain dweller who is used to seeing no one on the trails that we use daily, the start of the hike was a bit of a shock. My favorite high mountain trail has been *discovered*. I passed so many people that the simple act of saying hello had fallen out of favor.

Fortunately, we have a secret technique. We start late, on a day when the chance of storms is almost nil. So, we see people who are coming down from their high hikes as we head upward.

We had a glorious day after we finally left the crowds behind. We had the alpine area completely to ourselves.

Indeed, I could see way down the valley that we'd driven up, and I thought it looked like it was raining down there. It turns out that it was, and it was beautiful up high!

We crossed a high mountain pass...

... and continued onward to a lake that is fed by snow fields that last all summer long. Despite the freezing water, Shyla was glad to swim!

She shook after each dip even more crazily than usual.

Look at her crazy eyes in this one!

All too soon, it was time to head downward, wistful about the ending to one of summer's priceless gifts. We stopped for one selfie - my kind of selfie that has me and Shyla in it! I have similar ones of me and Angel K in my archives. These mountain summer days are to be treasured and remembered.

Neither one of us really wanted the day to end so we kept stopping to play on our way down. Staying out into the evening is one of summer's luxuries.

We stopped to gaze at the flowers when we descended back below treeline. The bees were nestled into every yellow flower that we saw. I wonder if they spend the night that way, drinking the pollen from the flowers throughout the night.

Now, I am paying the "price". In the past, I've had major spine surgeries. They helped my pain and nerve-related weakness immensely but they didn't bring back my spine's ability to withstand the jarring forces of downhill hiking. So, my back hurts today, as I knew it would.

It's a small price to pay.