14 weeks postop, Bill hiked up North Rock Creek on his new hip, camping at a beautiful unnamed lake, then over a not-so-friendly pass to Bighorn Creek
 Google Earth view showing the pass  1. The weather was superb for the entire trip  2. Left: Bill and Jack Rhicard (Jack accompanied Bill for the first several miles). Right: swamp pyrola   4. We watched her nibbling on pond grasses for a half hour. Her calf was up the hill in the forest.  5. A bit farther on, three bull moose came trotting along in close file. We all stopped, looked at each other, and decided to move off the trail (one of the 3 is just visible in the trees). A few minutes later, a few equestrians trotted by, which explained the hurried pace of the moose  6. The Alfred M. Bailey Birdnesting Area (where Bill learned to band birds from ornithologist Dr. Susan Bonfield)  7. First view of the headwall of North Rock Creek  8. Boss Mine dump - lead and silver were mined here until about 1930  10. No trail much of the way. Hard going...  11.   14. Right: fringed gentian   17. Getting easier nearing timberline  18.  19. Lots of rock fields to cross.  20. A rough start to life, but things straightened out...  21. First view of the pass over to Bighorn Creek  24. Paintbrush and chiming bells  26. white columbine...  27. ...and nearby, the more common blue columbine, with elephant flowers nearby  28. left: bog orchid. right: ?   29. bistort  30. wall flowers  32. Looking back down North Rock Creek  33. left: A huge rockfall just occurred, gouging out the face of the mountain - now a lighter color. I heard 20-30 after-shocks (rock falls) all day long. They sounded like thunder.   35. First view of the lake (I came in too high, and not on purpose)  36.  37. I had the place all to myself...  38. ...which was good, as here I am bathing in the lake, which doubled as my 14-week postop checkup with my surgeon, Dr. Craig Hogan. The scar looks pretty good, I think, and the new hip worked flawlessly. In fact, when I got home, I was sore everywhere in both legs except my new hip. Nice work, and thanks, Dr. H! (been working on that tan all summer)  42. I couldn't walk around the lake - the combination of krummholz and willows was impenetrable.  43.  44. Next morning. On the trail by 8 am. Destination: the pass.   45. There are 3 ptarmigan in this picture  47. First view over the pass - 9:20 am. Mount of the Holy Cross on the left. Vail ski slopes center and right  48.  49. Looking back down North Rock Creek.  50. Looking north along the spine of the Gores  51. The previous, zoomed.  52. The climb down was not fun. I came down this gully in a five point stance  53. Looking back up to the pass  56. mossy pond with monkey flowers  57. Many open parks with glacially-smoothed boulders  58. star gentian  60.  61. "the cabin" - I don't know its history  62.  63.  64. A trail appeared below the cabin, and a good thing, for Bighorn Creek valley is a very rugged place - impenetrable (at least by me) without the trail  66.  67. End of the trail. Sixty thousand steps, according to my Fitbit. Marshall met me with the truck and we drove back to the cabin  |