And Then...

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors
for you where there were only walls" 

-Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987

Multiple phone calls, text messages and skyping hours led to me flying to Glenwood Springs, Colorado just two weeks later to spend time with this amazing person... And our 10 day adventure was chalked full of memories to treasure forever:

Glenwood Spring, Colorado

First night in town we dined at Zengh Asian Bistro, which their gluten free sushi menu offered many delicious entrees to choose from.  Oh, and we found the best red wine ever: 14 Hands, Hot to Trot. 

We soaked for hours in the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool, of which  the smaller therapy pool is kept at 104 degrees.  The larger pool is around 92 degrees.  The pools are heated from a natural hot spring that provides a soothing therapeutic soak, as well as an opportunity to make many new friends.  The hotel offers a live web cam to view the pool.  You should check it out!

Peter and Cheryl on Top of the Mountain!

To celebrate the full "Wolf" moon, we snowshoed up Sunlight Mountain at night.  There was no need for the head lamps because the moon was so bright and beautiful it totally lit the way, so much so that we had moon shadows!  This six hour adventure took us up 2010 vertical feet to the top, to an elevation of 9,895 feet. Many enjoy all that the mountain has to offer during the evenings and come skiing, snowboarding or snowshoeing, like we did. There is a Ski Patrol shack that is open over night and offers a warm, dry place at the top to hang out before the trek down.  So we sat, enjoyed a great snack of salami, crackers and cheese and a bottle of wine, while visiting with a handful of other night adventurers.  Our trek down in the 10 inches of fresh power was a golden opportunity for snow angels, laughter and the ability to pick stars out of the sky and put them in our pockets to save for another day.  It was 12 degrees out and 1:00am by the time we made it back to the truck.  This was definitely one of the most rare and unique adventures I have ever experienced! What a perfect night!

The View from the Red Hill Trail

Hiking Red Hill's Mushroom Rock Trail was fantastic!  The view was wondrous, especially catching the Aspen glow reflecting off Mount Sopris as the sun was setting. Sitting above Mushroom Rock, watching twilight fall over the town of Carbondale offered a kaleidoscope of sensational photo opportunities for us.

The hike was gorgeous and we met many people of all ages running and hiking the trails that crisscross up and around the "hill".  One thing I enjoy so much about hiking is how friendly most people are while out on the trails.  Smiles and hellos are freely shared.

Hanging Lake's Amazing  Frozen Waterfall

Our last adventure took us up to Hanging Lake and Sprouting Rock.  A gorgeous 3 mile hike up through a deep canyon called Dead Horse Gulch lead us to the most amazing frozen waterfall suspended above Hanging Lake. The trail was pretty easy overall, with only the last bit pretty steep.  There are handrails as you climb up the last bit of the canyon wall to get to the lake. Standing alone and looking at the lake and the waterfall brought deep, primitive emotions of awe and thankfulness for the beauty that this Earth holds.  I wanted to just sit and stare...

Sprouting Rock Waterfall

A short trail that took us up and around Hanging Lake led to the Sprouting Rock waterfall cascading from the face of a rock cliff.  Phenomenal!  It would be hard to find the words to describe the beauty of the ice formations at the base of the waterfall.  It was worth the climb to see the mirad of colors, shadows and shapes.

We were hiking in the afternoon, and on the way back down the trail the sun went behind the southern canyon wall.  When this happened we were caught up in the magical glow of the sun reflecting off the huge northern canyon wall. You could feel the warmth. The glow was so bright that we even had shadows... To have a shadow where there are no shadows was an incredible experience!

Doing life together for those 10 days could have been so very awkward.  But it proved to an opportunity for us to realize that we want to build that "bridge" between our lives that are so far apart from each others...   But "how" seemed to be the biggest question, with no answer, when our lives are so far apart from each other.  Where do we go from here?

-Cheryl