April 2, 2026

The mountains got over a foot of snow yesterday. We got .12” of rain here. Very meager. But, we needed the precipitation most in the mountains. This morning I walked around here a few miles. The wind was very strong even though it was warm. My ears were hurting by the time it was done…which never happens to me. This afternoon I went up to the forest boundary on Dave Wood to walk another couple miles. It was still very windy. I wore my earmuffs this time. It was too warm for them but I wore them anyway. I tried to take some videos but even with the heavy tripod it seemed shaky. We will see what they look like on the computer. I walked over the valley and onto the Simms side and had enough of that wind and headed back. The parking lot was slimy and the Jeep slid around a bit. It wasn’t bad walking though. Tonight we went to church. Ryan came and joined us. At bedtime the wind is still howling. It’s spring I guess. Haha

 March 29, 2026

Beautiful day again. Today after church and lunch we headed up over Log Hill. We stopped and walked a bit on the Escarpment Trail. There was some wind as usual there. We then headed up East Dallas to see how far we could go. Surprisingly we made it clear to the Blue Lakes trailhead. The road was mostly dry. That is the earliest I’ve ever made it to the trailhead. I read yesterday that this years snowpack in the San Juans is the lowest in history. I believe it now. The mountains look like it’s the middle of June. Hopefully we can get some moisture before it’s too late. I took some photos by the creek. It was beautiful up there and there were quite a few people but nothing like the busy times. 

 March 27, 2026

Today we headed over to Sanborn again.  We had a picnic of fire roasted hotdogs down by the Middle Sanborn Reservoir.  We met Dylan on the way.  He was coming back from looking for turkeys.  He found some and got a video of a Tom coming in pretty close.  The Pasque flowers are in bloom.  They're not as big this year due to drought.  The only wildlife - kind of - we saw was a horny toad.  Finding critters over there has been meager this spring.  I think it's because it's so warm.  The San Juans snowpack looks like the middle of June or so in a normal year.  We are still praying for snow up there.  God knows what He's doing.