How on earth did I forget my camera?

Actually, I know how I forgot my camera. I went to bed thinking that Ellen and I would start hiking at 7:00. I even got up at 5:45 and was looking forward to a leisurely morning reading the paper and drinking coffee. So I was surprised and not ready when Ellen knocked at 6:00. I threw everything together (except for my camera) and we left. First, we stopped at Einstein bagels and Starbucks for some breakfast food. Then came the hard stuff. We walked up Baseline to Flagstaff (if I had my camera, I could have gotten a good close up of a humming bird in a flower) and then we went up Flagstaff. We even walked some extra on that trail because I thought we were at the top and started walking on the road, but we were still a couple hairpin turns down and so we had to follow the road back to where it crossed the trail again. I'm glad we got back on the trail, we saw a group of 5 deer, including a fawn.

At the top of Flagstaff, we followed Ute trail over to Gregory Canyon. We then went up Ranger Trail (and saw real rangers, how weird is that?). We got to the top of Green Mountain at 10:30. That would have been a good photo-op too, but luckily the register wasn't missing or vandalized so our signatures are proof that we made it. We talked to the rangers there, and found out they were leading a group hike of all three mountains. I was all ready to follow them but Ellen gently put her foot down. She's smahrt like that.

I wanted to loop somehow, so on the way down we took the Green Mountain West Ridge trail. This was a very short (1.2 mile) mild trail that put us at the tippy-top mailbox top of Flagstaff Road. We decided our boys could probably hike Green Mountain from that trailhead, we'd just have to decide if we are up to it.

We walked down Flagstaff Road 1/2 a mile and then took the Long Canyon trail back to Gregory. Long Canyon was tough. It was just steep enough to really hurt going down. Gregory Canyon was long too. And to say how steep it is, the Flagstaff Road is 7 miles long, but the cross country hike was 3 1/2 miles. We went back though Chautauqua Meadow and then back down Baseline.

We had lunch at Einsteins and then headed home. We ended up being out for 8 hours and walking 13 1/2 miles (and we only had to walk 12, what over-achievers we are!)

Mileage: 327 miles, 102 to go
Pledges: $700