Brighton Blade 3-11-09

Exploring Colorado's Backcountry
By Krista Clinton

My husband, being from the flatlands of Texas, is obsessed with the mountains here in Colorado.

I like them, don’t get me wrong, but I’m from Canada and I’ve seen beauty like this before. It’s not a bad thing, his mountain obsession, it just means that we spend a lot of time talking about them, looking at them and visiting them.

In the beautiful weather of late January, my husband decided that he was going to take all of us for a hike. Immediately I had visions of us hanging cliffside and scaling large boulders. I was scared for my children. I sulked at most of his suggestions and while taking a bath that night decided I would tell him to go by himself and he could enjoy the mountains and come home and tell us all about what crazy fun he had.

I’m a praying person though, so I prayed about it. Immediately this thought came into my head: Shut up! Say yes to your husband. Make some lunches. Put on a smile. And have a good time! I wasn’t sure if it was God or not but I decided to buck up and go along for the ride. Hindsight would lead me to believe it was God.

Jimmy took us up to Walker’s Ranch in Boulder on the most magnificent hike I’ve ever taken. You can do a 7.8 mile loop, or a 1 mile walk to South Boulder Creek or a 1.75 mile the other way to the waterfalls. With three children on their first hike we decided to do the 1 mile walk to the Creek.

The kids were awesome. It was a great hike down, a full mile. I was pretty impressed. We stopped to take pictures but none of the children needed to rest on the way down. We were fully rewarded at the one mile mark by the beautiful South Boulder Creek. We heard the rushing waters first and then ran up to the sight ... breathtaking!

We had brought a picnic lunch with us and lucky for us, there were picnic tables right beside the creek. The kids had a blast tossing rocks, checking out big ice chunks and just getting plain dirty. It was a perfect place to rest up, eat up and gain the much needed energy to get back up the trail.

I was impressed with the kids’ walk down, they were doubly awesome back up because they had to walk the whole mile back uphill. That’s a lot of work for a 3-year old, a 5-year old who hates exercise and a 9-year old. Not one child complained.

I don’t think this did anything to curb my husband’s obsession and I have to admit that I’m dying to get a babysitter so that we can go do the full 7.8 miles, just the two of us. I’m pretty sure there will be lots of springtime hikes in our future. And I’ll be much more willing to go next time.