Into the Mountains

As usual when traveling this direction, I was wide awake at 4am.  Another surprise awaited me as I got up to use the bathroom.  In the dark, I crashed into the wall and then the doorframe for the bathroom, and then nearly fell into the bathtub.  Standing up was just not working.  This and waves of nausea and the room slowly spinning around me told me that the Ménière's disease reared its head again.  Not sure if this was just some random event or caused by the altitude (currently at 6400 feet).  At least this was a fairly mild episode.

Some years ago I was diagnosed with Ménière's disease after a few rather violent episodes of vertigo.  The first one occurred quite suddenly while scraping the snow off the windshield of my car after work.  The whole world spun crazily around and I had to sit in the car for twenty minutes until the spinning stopped.  I was rather sick to the stomach for several hours afterwards.  Several more episodes followed in the weeks afterwards, and the doctor told me that these can occur rather suddenly and that I could probably go for years between bouts.  Well, it’s been years.  I just hope this is not a new trend.

I’ve started a collection of diseases and syndromes. On the plane yesterday, my Restless Leg Syndrome was driving me crazy. 

After checking out of the hotel, the first stop was Garden of the Gods.  We were here many years ago when the boys were younger but I remember very little about it.  Saturday in the middle of the summer means the place is very crowded.  We were early enough to find a parking space at the visitor center and we took the shuttle down to the drop-off between the rock spires.  We hiked around for a bit, slowly because of the elevation.  The day was warming rapidly, to an eventual high of 92, so we’ll get any hiking done early while it is still cool.

It was getting really hot as we hiked the trails around the rock formations.  This hike is good practice and a step towards altitude acclimation before we hike at even higher elevations tomorrow.

We picked up groceries at a local Safeway and stopped to eat lunch at a park along the road towards our next destination.  We just needed shade and a table.  And we found shade and a table.  Next to several pickleball courts where a bunch of people were playing in 90 degree weather.  I like pickleball, but would probably not be playing in this heat.

The driver of the shuttle bus told us to go to Helen Hunt Falls.  “It’s free and it’s way less busy than some of the others,” she told us.  So we drove the winding road up Buffalo Canyon to the falls.  Trails were steep and we had to take it easy because of the elevation, but we were treated to some great views and the sound of the babbling creek and the cascading water.  It was a rather small falls, but a great hike.

Next stop was Florissant Fossil Beds, a valley containing lots of petrified trees, including the stumps of some ancient Redwood trees that grew to be nearly 300 feet tall.  Another mile-long hike here and the pictures don’t do justice to the size of the stumps.  This particular one is 12 feet in diameter.

We stopped at another grocery store in the tiny town of Fairplay, the things that need refrigeration like eggs and milk.  Then we drove to our AirBnB, a house hidden in the trees a few miles from Fairplay. This will be our home base for a few days while we explore the area.  From above, the house is in the far lower right.

This place is at an elevation of 10,450 feet.  And we can tell.  Just going up the stairs to the upper level makes us winded.  The nice thing about this is that the evening air is cooling nicely. Should be good sleeping weather tonight.