"I’m used to it now, the waiting. An incomplete, unhurried emergence of understanding, sitting with questions that are sometimes never answered." from Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
June 2023
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Books read:
Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young-Lutunatabua
No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Trails walked:
Misc. Trail Ridge Road hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park (May 31st)
Mountain Lion Loop in Golden Gate Canyon State Park (June 8th)
Inner Canyon Loop in Castlewood Canyon State Park (June 14th)
I still remember the moment I realized that talking and thinking about ideas in addition to people or events was a thing that would interest me. It wasn’t in college as it may have been for many. No, for me it was sometime in the mid-1990s. I was picking up my daughter from her friend’s house. Her friend was the daughter of two gay women which was a bit of a novelty in our neighborhood at that time. The moms were super smart and interesting and the day that I picked up my daughter there was a large group of their friends gathered around a table talking. They drew me into their conversation for a bit, which at the time was about the new women’s basketball league that had formed called the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association). They wanted my opinion on why the women had to have a ‘W’ in the name and the men didn’t have to have an ‘M’. Why not change the NBA to MNBA? After my deer in the headlights look, they carried on the conversation, digging into various reasons and touching on women’s rights, sports, misogyny, and on and on. I was confused, but a bit energized by the discussion. I wanted to stay longer and see what other ideas they were talking about, but my daughter was set to go and I said my goodbyes. At that time in my life I was busy with work and raising a family. We had good friends and family dinners but the conversations were normally pretty easy going and we rarely broached any really important topics that weren’t about our kids or our jobs or what was happening in the world of sports or entertainment. It’s probably why many of our conservative friends at that time had no idea that my wife and I were not conservative politically. I thought about that moment several times over the years and dove into trying to understand the world a bit better. I took community college courses in history, art and ecology, plus it’s around the time that I started traveling internationally for my job (mostly to Paris and Tokyo). International travel does wonders for resetting your mind about ideas especially when it involves dinner conversations with people from many different countries. I think that that’s where my education still began, to paraphrase Tom Russell’s great song Modern Art (See this month’s Songs of the month). I’m still on my quest to understand the world I live in. I may never fully succeed but I’m loving the journey.
Cormac McCarthy passed away this month. He’s one of the few authors whose books stay with me. I reviewed his two latest books in this blog, but most of them I had already read before starting this monthly purge of my mind. Blood Meridian was his masterpiece as far as I’m concerned, but it’s brutal to read. The Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain) is beautiful. No Country for Old Men and The Road are both chilling and the movies that got made from them were not bad. I’ve yet to read his first few novels from the 60s and 70s so I’m glad I have that to look forward to. He was a bit of a recluse which is not at all surprising. The world lost a master writer.
This month I read books on climate, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s World War II years, and a novel about a tragic life in the deep south. My rambling took me to hikes along Trail Ridge Road, two state parks, and a couple of thigh-burning hikes near Boulder.
Irish physicist John Tyndall or Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius have historically been credited with discovering the greenhouse effect, demonstrating that gases trapped heat, and that this effect could and did take place in the Earth’s atmosphere, contributing to a changing climate over time. However it seems that Eunice Foote had presented a paper at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1856 that predated both Tyndall's and Arrhenius' work. Foote's work demonstrated the effect of the sun’s rays on different gases theorizing that this had taken place in the Earth’s atmosphere to affect its climate. She was not permitted to present her own paper (she was a woman for cryin’ out loud); so it was read for her by Professor Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution, who started by protesting that science should not discriminate on the grounds of gender. Foote’s work wasn’t fully acknowledged until nearly 100 years after her death as modern scientists were able to uncover the work she had done. In 2022, the American Geophysical Union instituted The Eunice Newton Foote Medal for Earth-Life Science in her honor to recognize outstanding scientific research. I love discovering these people who were so ahead of their time but whose work was stifled due either to their sex or race. It’s a lot like the way American history has started to unravel a bit as more information is uncovered that tells the truer story. Foote's work is now recognized as the earliest known scientific research to demonstrate the existence of greenhouse gases and their potential to effect changes in climate; and the publication of her paper in the 1856 edition of the American Journal of Science and Arts is now acknowledged as the first known publication in a scientific journal on physics by a woman.
Song(s) of the month: Tom Russell
Singer-songwriter, painter, novelist, and essayist with 38 records and six books to his credit; I’ve been a Tom Russell fan for years. I first “discovered” him on a song he and Nancy Griffith performed in the mid 80s called St. Olav’s Gate, which I liked so much I learned to play it badly on guitar. My wife and I saw him at the historic Rhythm Room in Phoenix many years ago. He’s a terrific storyteller live. Rolling Stone magazine once said of him “The greatest living folk-country songwriter is a man named Tom Russell.” And the Montreal Gazette once said, “Tom Russell is the best songwriter of the generation following Bob Dylan.” So why have most people never heard of him? I’ll never know the answer to why artists like him never “make it big”, but I have a feeling he's perfectly fine with that. When asked what most people wouldn’t know about him, he responded, “I taught criminology in Nigeria and learned woodcarving and jammed in bars with King Sunny Ade, and saw the greatest cowboy I’ve ever seen—one lone cow herder, on foot, herding three dozen Zebu cows through the heart of Ibadan, one of the largest cities in Nigeria, with just song commands. “It’s a magic song,” said my friend, “that only he and the cows know. God gave him the song.” I’m trying to learn it. For the last 50 years.”
Here's another story he’s told many times that I love: It's August 29, 1965 in Los Angeles, and The Beatles are just arriving at The Hollywood Bowl for the first of two sold-out concerts there. But who's that teenage kid getting in the way of their car? "I'd snuck in posing as a security guard," Russell recalls. "I jumped in front of their limo right when they pulled into the Hollywood Bowl and I just started screaming orders at everybody. The gates opened magically and I took them right to the edge of the stage, then opened the limo door. In my mind, Lennon said something like, 'Couldn't have done it without you, mate!'.”
He's a special artist that more people should know about. I didn’t include any of the songs on this month’s list from what I consider his masterpiece album, The Man From God Knows Where. It’s an epic telling of Norweigian and Irish immigrants as generations of families sailed to America and established new lives in this new land. Do yourself a favor and find this album in a record store or online and give it a listen or two. Meanwhile, here are just a few of the many other songs of his that I love. He’s still making great and meaningful music after 50 years of songwriting. I’ve included the title song from his 2019 album, October in the Railroad Earth.
St. Olav’s Gate: I had to include this one as it was the song that introduced me to Russell. The music is a waltz and anyone who has travelled internationally and gotten their hearts broken will be able to relate. Sample lyrics:
Here's to the ladies you love and don't see again The night is warm whiskey, the mornin's a cold bitter wind The blue eyed madonna leaves town while the drunken man waits Leaves him standing alone in the shadows of St. Olav's Gate
This is the version he sings with the late, great Nanci Griffith whom I profiled in my August 2021 blog:
Gallo de Cielo: Like many of his songs, this is an epic song that could be turned into a movie. His descriptions of the landscape and the people involved in the Mexican “sport” of cock-fighting are incredible…and the Spanish guitars…it just transports you to a different place. I suppose it’s no longer a politically correct song, but it’s great none the less. Sample lyrics:
Carlos Zaragoza left his home in Casas Grandes when the moon was full No money in his pocket, just a locket of his sister framed in gold He rode into El Sueco, stole a rooster called Gallo Del Cielo Then he swam the Rio Grande with that fighter nestled Deep beneath his arm.
I love this live version from The Long Way Around:
Haley’s Comet: He wrote this fun song with Dave Alvin of The Blasters. Another “story song”, I can see it all happening as he sings it. Sample lyrics:
There was no moon shining on the Rio Grande As a truck of migrants pulled through town And the jukebox was busted at the bus depot When Haley's Comet hit the ground
This is another live version from The Long Way Around:
Modern Art: This may be my favorite song of his. It’s sort of his autobiography in song. It’s clever, funny, and gives you an idea of his life in the context of history. Sample lyrics:
Well, in Nineteen Sixty-Four the Beatles came Yeah, I snuck in the Hollywood Bowl right up on stage And that's where I saw Bob Dylan's show When he sang Desolation Row And somehow I was never quite the same
Tonight We Ride: A western cowboy song that also is no longer politically correct even though it’s likely historically correct. But who cares, because that accordion and the Spanish guitars place you on a horse with these rough riders in their adventures.
Sample lyrics:
Tonight we ride, tonight we ride Tonight we fly, we're headin' west Toward the mountains and the ocean where the eagle makes his nest If our bones bleach on the desert, we'll consider we are blessed Tonight we ride, Tonight we ride
Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall?: Need more accordion in your life? You’re in luck! Russell lived near El Paso by the border for several years and wrote many songs about the border. This may be the best. It’s tongue in cheek but also a pretty accurate song about immigration and building a wall on the border. He said he got lots of hate mail after he sang this song on The David Letterman Show, but as he says in the song: Now I ain't got no politics, So don't lay that rap on me.
Sample lyrics:
Who's gonna build your wall boys? Who's gonna mow your lawn? Who's gonna cook your Mexican food When your Mexican maid is gone? Who's gonna wax the floors tonight Down at the local mall? Who's gonna wash your baby's face? Who's gonna build your wall?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBJkQ7VbkyI
October in the Railroad Earth: He’s still got it. This was from 4 years ago. The title song is based on a poem by Jack Kerouac and sort of tells the story of Kerouac’s life. He’s a great writer of other people’s lives and wrote great songs about Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran, Dave von Ronk and Charles Bukowski among others. The whole album is great and like many of his albums tells the story of America.
Sample lyrics:
Old bums with tattoos from Singapore Boxcars, iron wheels giving birth Drowsy afternoon flophouse of “old warped wood America” October in the Railroad Earth
Misc. Trail Ridge Road hikes – I completed this trip on the last day of May but I’m officially calling it a June hike😉. The iconic Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park had just opened for the summer on the previous Friday, so I wanted to hop on it as soon as possible after opening. I took the opportunity to walk some of the smaller hikes along the road that I’d not yet done, in addition to one medium length hike along the shores of Shadow Mountain Lake. It was a long, beautiful, rainy, sunny, snowy day that included moose, coyote, elk, and deer. The snow along the upper portion of the road was stacked up higher than my car on both sides and many tourists were getting out of their cars to take pictures of the giant snowbanks high over their heads. I never tire of this drive as it’s one of the most beautiful in the country. Here are the trails I walked, many of them touristy, near the road walks except for the last one:
Hidden Valley: There used to be a ski resort here up until 1992. These days many die hard skiers still come up here and walk to the top and ski down the now-non-groomed ski runs. I saw a few of them out still today. I didn’t walk to the top because I hadn’t brought spikes nor snowshoes, but I walked until the snow stopped me. The walk includes the nice half mile nature trail near the large parking lot. I saw a ranger staring at a shrub and had to ask her what she was doing. She told me she was watching her favorite creature in the park: A goldenrod crab spider! Of all the animals in the park, this was her favorite! It was pretty cool. There were 3 of them, all different colors, and each of them had some sort of prey in their grasp; fly, butterfly, and some other unfortunate bug. The nature trail is a pretty trail in this valley that anyone can walk. On my drive from here to Lake Irene I spotted a well fed coyote walking the tundra near the Alpine Visitors Center. The coyotes up here are sure burlier than the skinny coyotes in Arizona!
Lots of snow and water
Without snowshoes, this is where my hike ended
View of the old ski run
Healthy coyote on the drive to Lake Irene
Lake Irene: Although the lake is only a quarter mile from the small parking lot, it was tricky to get to. There was a very large and mushy snowfield to walk through to get there. There were other folks in the parking lot, but they all had decided not to risk it. But really the only thing you risked was a bit of post holing which turned out to be not so bad. The lake is pretty and still had ice covering around half of it.
Lake Irene half frozen (half unfrozen?)
Large Moose on the drive after Lake Irene
Coyote Valley: This was a nice 2 mile walk along the fast-flowing Colorado River in the beautiful Kawuneeche Valley. I spotted two moose from the car a couple of miles before the trail’s parking lot, so I hoped to see more on the walk, but it wasn’t meant to be just yet. But it’s a nice walk none the less, and I managed to dip my hand in the river knowing that 1,000 miles downstream my daughter was on a raft trip in the Grand Canyon on this same river. I was sending her a nature hello.
Interpretive sign
Colorado River horseshoe bend
Great views as you wander along the Colorado
Adams Falls: The East Inlet trailhead is just east of the town of Grand Lake. There are several great and long hiking options from this trailhead that I hope to complete someday. But today was just a short half-mile walk to see the water raging through the small opening that creates Adams Falls. The falls were named for Jay E. Adams, who built a home near here in the late 1800s. The nearby Mount Adams (63 feet shy of a 14er) was also named after Jay E. Adams. The falls were incredibly loud and gushing on this day.
Lots of info
Wouldn't want to go down this in a barrel...
Adams Falls raging
Flowers were blooming
East Shore and Ranger Meadow Trails: The town of Grand Lake borders not only its namesake lake, but also the larger Shadow Mountain Lake. The western shore of Shadow Mountain Lake is fully developed with homes and businesses, but the city planners were thoughtful enough to preserve the eastern shore as a pristine wilderness. It’s a bit over 3 miles from the East Shore trailhead to the dam on the southern shore of Shadow Mountain Lake. The walk is beautiful, with the lake to your right and forests and gullies to your left. At the dam I decided to take the Ranger Meadow loop which added a bit more mileage but was the highlight of the walk. The meadows here are beautiful and green with all the rain. It rained on me for most of the walk, but I was well prepared and comfortable. There was not a soul on this part of the hike. Around halfway through the meadow I spotted two moose maybe 20 yards away. This is always a heart pumping moment because you never know for sure how they will react. In nearly every case they will either ignore you or run away from you. But in rare instances they will attack humans. These two continued munching for a bit and then decided I might be a threat, so they scampered away. The best-case scenario because I got to watch them for a bit and then got to watch these huge beasts running somewhat gracefully into the trees. That was fun. The next section wasn’t so fun. The trail petered out and was lost under 4 inches of marsh water and I couldn’t see where it continued. My choices were to go back, adding more mileage, or plow ahead and get my feet soaking wet. I opted for the soaking wet part since they were already wet from the rain. I was a bit worried about spooking a mama moose from her nesting ground because this is the time of year their calves are born. Luckily this didn’t happen, and I finally squished my way through the marsh and rediscovered the dryish trail which eventually brought me back to the East Shore trail. My drive back home included a moose jam where several cars were watching a large moose cross the road…to get to the other side. It also included getting snowed on back near the Alpine Visitors Center. So rain, sun, snow…welcome to the Rockies in June (well, the last day of May actually).
Nice interpretive sign at the northern trailhead
It's part of the Continental Divide Trail
This sign is extremely accurate!
Typical of the walk along the lake
Lots of flowers and views
It's like I was in New England...or old England
Outlet on the southern end of the trail emptying into the Colorado River
Shadow Mountain Lake shadowed by clouds
Nice walk into the green
Huge meadows...
...containing huge moose
Young moose headed into the trees away from me
Trail was a bit, um, moist
This is where I just gave up and plodded through
Moose crossing on the way back home
One last look from a highpoint on Trail Ridge Road
Not Too Late edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young-Lutunatabua – I try to read a few climate books each year, but not so many that it consumes me. This book of stories, edited by these two amazing women is exactly what anyone working as a climate advocate needs. As anyone in this realm knows, it can be despairing. In the light of all the scientific evidence (the science is settled; climate change is caused by the fossil fuels humans have been emitting and it's a major problem impacting the people on this planet) there are still people denying its occurrence and delaying the necessary action. This is mainly due to disinformation from companies desperate to maintain their billions in profit, along with their donations to politicians to keep their hopes alive. This wonderful book of stories from around the world is inspiring and gives me the hope to carry on with this work. The two themes throughout the essays from climate scientists, activists, and writers are hope and love. There was one essay that I would recommend skipping: Decolonizing Climate Coloniality by Farhana Sultana. I got completely lost in her academia-speak. Maybe there are other professors that understood what she was saying, but her message gets lost in all the thesaurus words she uses. I think my favorite chapter was Bigger Than the Easiest Answer Interview with Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner. She recited a poem in 2014 at the United Nations Climate Summit that really moved me and is just as relevant 9 years later. Check it out here. There are many great lines and you really need to fully read the stories to gain the most impact. I’ve created a Google Doc here with all the lines I liked which were too numerous to post. And here are a few to whet your appetite:
The cost of solar dropped 90 percent between 2010 and 2020, and wind is not far behind.
There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair. —Donella Meadows
If you’re reading this, for all intents and purposes, you are doing so on a planet that is fundamentally different from the one you were born on.
you are living through the most profound moment in human history. Averting planetary disaster is up to the people alive right now.
If we consider all the power built in 2012, around half of it uses clean energy. Fast-forward a decade, and, by 2021, more than 85 percent of the new power built that year runs on renewables. That’s real progress. We should celebrate it and keep pushing.
In 1957, if we wanted to run an American household on solar power for a month, it would have cost around $300,000. Today, it’s just $30. Over the past decade alone, solar costs have fallen by 90 percent.
On Navajo and Hopi lands in the Southwest, about fifteen thousand families live in homes without electricity. Native Renewables, an Indigenous-led grassroots organization, is installing solar panels and battery storage in these homes and training Indigenous people for clean-energy jobs in the process.
To live with hope in a world that seems determined to race off a cliff: this is the real radical choice.
“Wherever human beings are, we at least have a chance,” James Baldwin reminds us, “because we’re not only disasters; we’re also miracles.”
The novelist Haruki Murakami wrote in his Kafka on the Shore, “And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
the maxim of the Pacific Climate Warriors: We are not drowning. We are fighting.
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. —Ursula K. Le Guin
Fear and imagination often can’t be in the same room.
The present is always a place that was unimaginable at some point in the past.
Bill McKibben has long said, when people ask him what’s the most significant thing you can do for the climate, “Stop being an individual; join something.”
It is a complex experience to work on a book about climate hope while actively growing my first child - Thelma Young Lutunatabua
Mountain Lion Loop in Golden Gate Canyon State Park – As part of my 2023 effort to utilize my $29 State Park Pass that’s included in our Colorado vehicle registration, I went to check out this pretty State Park on a beautiful morning trying to beat the afternoon thunderstorms we’d been experiencing. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has temporarily renamed this trail John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High Trail in celebration of the 50th anniversary of that great song. One of Colorado’s two State Songs (the other is Where the Columbines Grow), I featured it in my July 2019 blog because that was the month I drove a moving truck to Colorado to help my son and daughter-in-law move up here from Arizona. With the extra side trips of City Lights Ridge and Windy Peak, the loop ended up being 9.4 miles with 2,430 feet of elevation change. There weren’t many folks out today; I saw 3 hikers and 2 trail runners. So it was very peaceful. The entire park was wet and green making it feel more like a New England hike. From City Lights Ridge I got a nice view of Golden and of the snow-capped peaks to the west. I stopped by a place called Forgotten Valley that was homesteaded by a Swedish family in the late 1800s. Some buildings and informative signs told their story of this place that reminded them of home. I decided to summit Windy Peak which was a thigh burner but totally worth it for the spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains. This was my brunch spot (too early for lunch) as I took in the views and warily watched the storm clouds moving in. The last part of the loop (I went clockwise) was along Deer Creek which was raging with runoff. There are some great-looking campsites along this creek. As I walked the last mile over a small hill, the rain finally came as it was early afternoon by now. Luckily it was just a light sprinkle which helped cool me off as I walked up the hill. I saw deer and turkey on this hike but no mountain lions. It’s a beautiful place with several other trails that I may walk some other day.
Why was this turkey crossing the road?
Nice gesture to temporarily rename this trail
Evidently it had hailed here the day before
Nice views towards Golden from City Lights Ridge
..and also views of the snow capped Rockies
Bucolic cabin in Forgotten Valley
Nice views from the porch
So green and lots of flowers
View from Windy Peak
More views from Windy Peak
Had to head upstream to find a dryer crossing
Several bridges cross Deer Creek on the hike
Sometimes a log just works better
Trail paralleling the creek
The last stretch
Inner Canyon Loop in Castlewood Canyon State Park – Another week, another state park! Just east of Castle Rock, this interesting little state park has a huge variety of terrain to explore. From pine and aspen trees to desert cactus to red rock cliffs to riparian areas to scrub oak, housing innumerable birds. I took a fun 7 plus mile hike that explored all of these areas by combining the Lake Gulch, Dam, Creek Bottom, Rimrock, and Inner Canyon trails which formed a sort of figure eight path. One of the more interesting features of this park are the remnants of an old dam that was built in 1890 to provide a secure source of water for agriculture and livestock. Made of local sandstone, the dam leaked from the start, but the builder assured everyone that it would be fine. Well, it was, for 43 years, until it wasn’t. In 1933 the dam burst, sending 1.7 billion gallons of Cherry Creek in a 15-foot wall of water towards downtown Denver. Miraculously (thanks to fast thinking by telephone operator Nettie Driskill whose efforts to alert people downstream likely saved many lives that night) only two people perished in the flood along with hundreds of livestock. Due to the uplifting of the plateaus here, Cherry Creek, which originates near the park runs north towards Denver. It meanders through Denver where it eventually empties into the South Platte River just behind Union Station.
The day was mostly in the 60s and partly cloudy. It was a rare non-rainy day in early June this year. There were quite a few folks out enjoying the park. Lots of high school kids out for the summer were swimming and fishing and there were families out on picnics and easy walks. A group of young park volunteers were doing some trail maintenance. There was a bit of up and down as I climbed on top of mesas and then back down to the creek level, but I’d say it was a moderate hike overall. There are several parking areas along the trail where one could park and walk for a much shorter distance. The grassland was filled with tall, green grass from all the rain we’ve had in May and June, and Cherry Creek was running fast. Another highlight of the hike was a great view of the 20-foot-tall Cherry Creek Falls which was raging like a mini Niagara Falls on this day. Around two miles of the walk was along the rim of the canyon on the east side of Cherry Creek. It reminded me a bit of West Clear Creek and some Sedona area hikes in Arizona. Great views of the park, precipitous drop offs, small springs with waterfalls, and deep crevices where I saw some rock climbers enjoying themselves. It was another surprising and fun day in Colorado.
How green is this valley? It was a lake from the late 1800s until 1933 when the dam burst
Cherry Creek. This area reminded me a bit of Arizona
Dam remnants
Lots of trail work
Nice riparian trail along Cherry Creek
Broken dam from below
Cherry Creek Falls
So many birds in this scrub oak section
Great views from these cliffs
Mountain views from the cliffs
Natural gargoyle
Flowers everywhere
Lonely tree shot
Narrow slot canyons from on top
There were rock climbers clambering out of this hole
Really pretty
Trail art
Another lonely tree shot
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin – At 759 pages, I spent the better part of three weeks with this book. It was like sitting in the front row of history with the great Doris Kearns Goodwin as your guide. If everyone were to read Goodwin’s history books, our world would be a better place because she paints it so well that you can’t help but remember its lessons. How soon we forget. Winner of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for History, the book covers the period between May of 1940 until Roosevelt’s death in April of 1945; although stories from before and after this period are interspersed throughout. There are so many takeaways from this book. We were nearly as politically divided then as we are now (for more on this, check out Rachel Maddow’s excellent podcast: Ultra). Eleanor Roosevelt was even more incredible than what you’ve heard on her human rights record. In addition to the drama of war and politics, there was quite a lot of romantic drama between FDR and Eleanor; I’m not sure either could have survived today’s social media barrage. The friendship between Churchill and FDR was real and heartfelt by both men. The toasts between the big three (Stalin, Churchill, and FDR) at Yalta perfectly summarized the war: Stalin toasted Churchill as “the bravest governmental figure in the world,” the courageous leader of a great nation that had stood alone “when the rest of Europe was falling flat on its face before Hitler.” In reply, Churchill toasted Stalin as “the mighty leader of a mighty country that had taken the full shock of the German war machine” and broken its back. Stalin then saluted Roosevelt as “the man with the broadest conception of national interest; even though his country was not directly endangered, he had forged the instruments which led to the mobilization of the world against Hitler.”
Eleanor was the yin to FDR’s yang during the war years. As FDR was ready to throw out all the gains from the New Deal in order to create the war economy and bow to the pressure of large corporations, Eleanor kept pushing him for reforms (for women’s rights, Negro rights, Japanese-American rights, Jewish refugees, and labor rights). The period of time between May of 1940 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 showed FDR at his best, politically. He was getting intense pressure from the UK and Russia to support the allied cause against Hitler but at home, most people wanted to take an isolationist viewpoint with the ravages of the first world war still impacting most citizens. He knew that Britain wouldn’t survive Hitler’s bombing without help, but very few in his administration supported this. He made several executive decisions, against his cabinet’s advice, to convert American manufacturing plants into munitions plants. The auto manufacturers, among others, were against this as it prevented them from making money on selling cars. But he was able to set up programs to compensate for this with lots of Republican backlash. These efforts to retool American factories were key to Hitler’s loss. We were able to provide enough materiel to the UK to help fend off Germany’s attacks, and then to provide Russia with enough weapons and tanks to fend off Germany on the Eastern Front. Both Stalin and Churchill agree that without this support they would have been defeated by the Germans. Additionally, FDR started increasing military conscription and worked on retraining factory workers, including women to prepare for war (even though there was still very little appetite for it). When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, we were ready militarily for our entry into the war, mainly because of FDR’s astuteness.
Roosevelt was a master at talking with the American people. His fireside chats which began in 1933 as he explained the economy in layman’s terms helped galvanize the populace to sacrifice at home as much as their sons and daughters were sacrificing in the military. He was so beloved that even those who despised his politics openly wept upon his death. Eleanor wrote a great summary of her husband and his country: “In the early days, before Pearl Harbor, Franklin was healthy and strong and committed to the Allied cause while the country was sick and weak and isolationist. But gradually, as the president animated his countrymen to the dangers abroad, the country grew stronger and stronger while he grew weaker and weaker, until in the end he was dead, and the country had emerged more powerful and more productive than ever before.” Another takeaway I got was that even with all the racial tension we’ve lately experienced and the setback of women’s rights since Dobbs, we have come a LONG way in both of those areas since the 1940s. Take a look at these six quotes from the book for a feel of the times and to see how far we've actually come (which is not yet far enough):
Army War College Report on “Negro Manpower” issued in 1925. “In the process of evolution,” the report observed, “the American negro has not progressed as far as other sub species of the human family. The cranial cavity of the negro is smaller than whites. The psychology of the negro, based on heredity derived from mediocre African ancestors, cultivated by generations of slavery, is one from which we cannot expect to draw leadership material. In general the negro is jolly, docile, tractable, and lively but with harsh or unkind treatment can become stubborn, sullen and unruly. In physical courage [he] falls well back of whites. He is most susceptible to ‘Crowd Psychology.’ He cannot control himself in fear of danger. He is a rank coward in the dark.”
After visiting the White House on a tour, one woman gave Eleanor unsolicited advice. “Instead of tearing around the country, I think you should stay at home and personally see that the White House is clean. I soiled my white gloves yesterday morning on the stair-railing.”
“California was given by God to a white people,” the president of Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West proclaimed, “and with God’s strength we want to keep it as he gave it to us.”
“Anyone who hears Delta Negroes singing at their work,” a cotton trade journal in Tennessee intoned, “who sees them dancing in the streets, who listens to their rich laughter, knows that the Southern Negro is not mistreated. He has a carefree, childlike mentality and looks to the white man to solve his problems and take care of him.”
‘So see Mr. President if you can’t put a stop to Mrs. Roosevelt stirring up trouble down here telling these people they are ‘as good as the white people.’”
April 1943, Catholic World argued that “women who maintain jobs outside their homes . . . weaken family life, endanger their own marital happiness, rob themselves of man’s protective capabilities, and by consequence decrease the number of children. The principal evil in women’s work is that it alienates the life of the wife from the life of the husband and gives marriage as much permanence as the room sharing of two freshmen at boarding school.”
Here are some other lines from the book that I loved:
in 1940, the U.S. Army stood only eighteenth in the world, trailing not only Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and China but also Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
By the end of June (1940), only a third of the American people believed Britain would win the war.
The question whether Missy’s (LeHand, his assistant) love for the president was a physical one has been the subject of many conversations within the circle of Roosevelt’s family and friends, and opinion varies widely.
“Joe Lash had a strong streak of idealism and a kind of romantic melancholy which she (Eleanor) adored. I believe she sort of fell in love with him that summer and began to feel like a young woman again.”
Jimmy observed, “although historians have never really looked into it, there is a real possibility that a true romantic relationship developed between the president and the princess (Martha of Norway).
In 1938, when confronted with a segregation ordinance in Birmingham, Alabama, that required her (Eleanor) to sit in the white section of an auditorium, apart from Mrs. Bethune and her other black friends, she had captured public attention by placing her chair in the center aisle between the two sections.
In part, Franklin tolerated Eleanor because she represented the more generous, idealistic side of his own nature, the humanitarian values he himself held but felt unable to act upon in the context of the Southern-dominated Congress.
“I have only one purpose, the destruction of Hitler,” Churchill explained to Colville before the speech, “and my life is much simplified thereby. If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”
the Germans were already finding that moving mechanized forces through the vast plains and thick forests of Russia was “very different than moving them over the boulevards of Belgium and France.”
Pearl Harbor: Before the third wave of Japanese planes completed its final run, thirty-five hundred sailors, soldiers, and civilians had lost their lives. It was the worst naval disaster in American history.
both chambers approved a declaration of war, with only one dissenting vote—that of white-haired Representative Jeanette Rankin of Montana… Isolationism collapsed overnight.
By the end of December, as the siege of Leningrad entered its seventeenth week, more than three thousand Russians were dying of starvation every day.
In a single day in December, more than fourteen thousand German soldiers had to undergo amputation as a result of frostbite. Now it was Germany’s turn to experience the desperate suffering of war.
The population of Detroit had exploded since 1940, as some three hundred thousand whites and fifty thousand blacks migrated from farmlands in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana in search of employment in war plants. Thousands of workers were sleeping in boxcars, tents, church pews, and jails.
Speaking to a group of Washington church women shortly after Pearl Harbor, she had argued, “The nation cannot expect the colored people to feel that the U.S. is worth defending if they continue to be treated as they are treated now.”
“I am not agitating the race question,” Eleanor replied. “The race question is agitated because people will not act justly and fairly toward each other as human beings.”
The key challenge she saw, after visiting England’s day nurseries, was to set up similar programs in America, for “it was useless to expect women to go into factories without making arrangements for care of children.”
Japanese internment camps: No matter how hard the WRA tried to make the camp look like an ordinary community, it was a penitentiary, imprisoning people who had never been convicted of doing anything wrong. No matter how enthusiastic the teachers, it was impossible to teach the principles of American democracy to citizens and residents whose fundamental rights had been taken away.
If ever there was a country unprepared for the war, it was the U.S. in 1940. And yet now, only four years later, the United States was clearly the most productive, most powerful country on the face of the earth.
Lieutenant Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg had tried to assassinate Hitler. At the last minute, however, the briefcase holding the bomb had been inadvertently pushed to the far side of the room, and Hitler had survived the blast.
Only two hundred of the 20,700 Japanese troops on Iwo’s garrison remained alive at the end of the battle; so humiliating was the thought of capture that hundreds, perhaps thousands, committed suicide, some by leaping into the Suribachi volcano.
On April 30, 1945, as the Red Army advanced on Berlin, Adolf Hitler hastily married his mistress, Eva Braun, and then committed suicide with her in his underground bunker. A week later, a newly assembled German government surrendered unconditionally. When Eleanor heard Truman, Churchill, and Stalin proclaim the surrender of Germany on the radio on May 8, she could almost hear her husband’s voice making the announcement. “V-E Day was a curious day,” she confessed to Maude Gray. “It was sad Franklin couldn’t have announced it. I felt no desire to celebrate.”
The most destructive war in history had come to an end. The best estimates put the number of deaths at an unimaginable 50 million people. The Soviet Union lost 13 million combatants and 7 million civilians. The Germans calculated losses of 3.6 million civilians and 3.2 million soldiers. The Japanese estimated 2 million civilian and 1 million military deaths. Six million Jews had been killed. The number of British and commonwealth deaths is calculated at 484,482. With 291,557 battle deaths and 113,842 nonhostile deaths from accident and disease, the United States suffered the fewest casualties among the major nations.
As women’s expectations shifted, divorces multiplied. In 1946, the United States would experience the highest divorce rate in the world, thirty-one divorces for every hundred marriages.
the Roosevelt years had witnessed the most profound social revolution in the country since the Civil War—nothing less than the creation of modern America.
More than 20 percent of the entire population had taken part in the great migration. They had moved from the farm to the factory, from the South to the North, from the East to the exploding states of the Western rim. And there would be no return.
In 1940, only 7.8 million Americans out of 132 million made enough money to pay taxes; in 1945, that figure had risen to nearly 50 million in a population of 140 million.
Eleanor Roosevelt remained an important political figure until her death in 1962, at the age of seventy-seven. She was a leading force behind the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948
Bear Peak Loop near Boulder – I decided to torture myself today and climb Bear Peak. The approach from Fern Canyon is brutal with 2,500 feet of elevation gain in 1.7 miles. Luckily the day was cloudy and cool for June. It was only me and a few college kids up on top…and one of them had already thrown up from the hike. I began at the National Center for Atmospheric Research which has a very large parking lot to accommodate hikers for all the different trails up here. I used the NCAR and Mesa Trails to reach Fern Canyon and then plowed my way up those 1.7 miles and 2,500 feet of elevation, trying not to pass out. The view from atop Bear Peak is incredible. You see all the snow-capped Rockies spread out before you. The last few feet to the top includes some bouldering, but you can stop before this part and still enjoy nice views…but then you wouldn’t be able to officially say you made it to the top and touch the survey marker! Instead of walking back down that steep path I opted for the gentler West Ridge trail which then connected to the Bear Canyon trail back to NCAR. To give you an idea of the difference, NCAR to Bear Peak via Fern Canyon is 3 miles while the walk back via the West Ridge trail was nearly 6 miles. No animal sightings today other than a gopher(?) snake along the Bear Canyon Trail. This is a great training hike for climbing the big mountains later this summer.
Nice views of Boulder near the start of the hike
Views west near the top
Steep and scrambly
Great views from the boulder strewn top
Stunning
Survey marker on top
Flowers everywhere
I liked this unusual looking one, it's called a miner's candle per PlantNet
Peaceful waterfall scene in Bear Canyon
Green from all the rain
Almost back to the car
Gopher snake?
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison -Wow this was a great and harrowing read. Sort of a cross between Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing. It was a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. It's listed as a novel, but based on what I've read the author had personally experienced many of the abuses suffered by "Bone", the book's young protagonist. "Bone" is the nickname given to young Ruth Anne Boatright who was born to a 15-year-old mother, Anney. Bone is the narrator of the story. The setting is in the rural and urban areas around Greenville, South Carolina, where the author is from. Bone's mother Anney suffers many tragedies, including suffering serious injuries in a car accident while pregnant with Bone; she was in a coma upon delivery which prevented her from making up a story to the doctor so that her child wouldn't be stamped as illegitimate, or a bastard from South Carolina. Anney married two years later at 17 and had another child, but her husband died in a car accident driving while drunk. She eventually met Glen who would go on to abuse Bone physically and sexually for years, culminating in a violent incident that ended up separating Bone from her mother.
The entire Boatwright family was a mess. Born into poverty, the uncles were all drunks and in trouble with the law, even though some of them had hearts of gold for the young cousins. That was probably a theme throughout the book, that humans were generally good, but social, economic, and racial situations can turn the best of people into the kind of person from which most of us would avert our eyes. Even the aunts, if not total drunks because they had to look out for all the kids they were having, had their own tragic faults, especially when it came to choosing and standing by their men even when it was harming their kids (Tammy Wynette knew about this). There was at least one aunt, Raylene, who seemed to stay away from all the drama, and this is who the young cousins would reach for in times of desperation. There are so many difficult scenes to read in this book but one scene that stays with me is when one of Anney's sisters, Alma, has a breakdown. We only see the aftermath, but that aftermath tells you everything you need to know about trying to raise a family in abject poverty in the South.
For its many difficult depictions of rape and abuse, the book has been banned several times in different cities. The author has shown up at many hearings and protests trying to protect the right for all people to read something that is honest and powerful no matter how young they might be. It's what helps to spur discussion which could perhaps help to spur a change for the better. The author wrote this regarding book bans and censorship: "What I feel every time I encounter censorship is grief, and shame, and despair—and not just when it is my book that is the subject of the matter. I have felt it with every book I have seen become the target of such actions, books that I think literally helped save my life—such as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye or Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird...What banning books does is continue the denial, extend that damage, and block any way for us to come together and address the reality of violence within our families and communities."
Here are some lines:
knotty roots rose up out of the ground like the elbows and knees of dirty children suntanned dark and covered with scars.
the aunts—Ruth, Raylene, Alma, and even Mama—seemed old, worn-down, and slow, born to mother, nurse, and clean up after the men.
that’s what Earle is, a hurt little boy with just enough meanness in him to keep a woman interested.
Mama decided maybe it was time to start trusting me to keep us both alive while she was at work.
People no longer talked about how beautiful she was, but about how beautiful she had been.
I’d read about it, heard the joke. “What’s a South Carolina virgin? ‘At’s a ten-year-old can run fast.”
Woman makes babies the way you make biscuits. All the time pregnant with some little whey-faced empty-eyed child of God.
Bone, your mama’s the kind gets us all in trouble to begin with. Like something out of one of them stories they tell in Sunday school, supposed to be a lesson to the rest of us.
People were better off learning to rely on themselves and each other, instead of running around praying for what they weren’t going to get.
I hated Aunt Raylene’s jokes that we were all peasant stock, descendants of women who used to deliver babies in the fields and stagger up to work just after.
Above me Mama’s face and Raylene’s were almost touching, both of them trembling and holding on as if their lives depended on each other.
Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.
Green Mountain Loop near Boulder - I guess I didn't punish myself enough last week on Bear Mountain. I've hiked Green Mountain before, but from the more moderate West Ridge Trail. Today I went up via the Amphitheater, Saddle Rock, and EM Greenman trails which climb around 2,400 feet in 2.5 miles. I never get tired of starting a hike at Chautauqua Park. It's so incredibly beautiful, especially this year with all the rain we've had; the grass was growing higher than my head in some places and I'm not THAT short. After huffing and puffing my way up to Green Mountain, I stood at the top where someone has erected a really cool metal rendering of all the snow-capped Rocky Mountain peaks that you can see from up here. I studied all the peak names for a bit before heading back down. I made a loop by taking the Ranger and Gregory Canyon trails back down to my car. Trails like this are the reason why homes are so expensive in Boulder...and also why there are so many world class athletes here. Crazy people were RUNNING up these trails that I was using all fours to climb at some points. Beasts.
The Flatirons from Chautauqua Park
These beautiful poppies create a nice foreground
Into the forest
Up, and up, and up
...and up
Gnarly trail
Let's see, what peaks are those?
Close up
It was on top of this pile of rocks, which explains why I didn't see it the last time I was here...
Misc. Trail Ridge Road hikes – I completed this trip on the last day of May but I’m officially calling it a June hike😉. The iconic Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park had just opened for the summer on the previous Friday, so I wanted to hop on it as soon as possible after opening. I took the opportunity to walk some of the smaller hikes along the road that I’d not yet done, in addition to one medium length hike along the shores of Shadow Mountain Lake. It was a long, beautiful, rainy, sunny, snowy day that included moose, coyote, elk, and deer. The snow along the upper portion of the road was stacked up higher than my car on both sides and many tourists were getting out of their cars to take pictures of the giant snowbanks high over their heads. I never tire of this drive as it’s one of the most beautiful in the country. Here are the trails I walked, many of them touristy, near the road walks except for the last one: 
Not Too Late edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young-Lutunatabua – I try to read a few climate books each year, but not so many that it consumes me. This book of stories, edited by these two amazing women is exactly what anyone working as a climate advocate needs. As anyone in this realm knows, it can be despairing. In the light of all the scientific evidence (the science is settled; climate change is caused by the fossil fuels humans have been emitting and it's a major problem impacting the people on this planet) there are still people denying its occurrence and delaying the necessary action. This is mainly due to disinformation from companies desperate to maintain their billions in profit, along with their donations to politicians to keep their hopes alive. This wonderful book of stories from around the world is inspiring and gives me the hope to carry on with this work. The two themes throughout the essays from climate scientists, activists, and writers are hope and love. There was one essay that I would recommend skipping: Decolonizing Climate Coloniality by Farhana Sultana. I got completely lost in her academia-speak. Maybe there are other professors that understood what she was saying, but her message gets lost in all the thesaurus words she uses. I think my favorite chapter was Bigger Than the Easiest Answer Interview with Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner. She recited a poem in 2014 at the United Nations Climate Summit that really moved me and is just as relevant 9 years later. Check it out here. There are many great lines and you really need to fully read the stories to gain the most impact. I’ve created a Google Doc here with all the lines I liked which were too numerous to post. And here are a few to whet your appetite: 
Mountain Lion Loop in Golden Gate Canyon State Park – As part of my 2023 effort to utilize my $29 State Park Pass that’s included in our Colorado vehicle registration, I went to check out this pretty State Park on a beautiful morning trying to beat the afternoon thunderstorms we’d been experiencing. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has temporarily renamed this trail John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High Trail in celebration of the 50th anniversary of that great song. One of Colorado’s two State Songs (the other is Where the Columbines Grow), I featured it in my July 2019 blog because that was the month I drove a moving truck to Colorado to help my son and daughter-in-law move up here from Arizona. With the extra side trips of City Lights Ridge and Windy Peak, the loop ended up being 9.4 miles with 2,430 feet of elevation change. There weren’t many folks out today; I saw 3 hikers and 2 trail runners. So it was very peaceful. The entire park was wet and green making it feel more like a New England hike. From City Lights Ridge I got a nice view of Golden and of the snow-capped peaks to the west. I stopped by a place called Forgotten Valley that was homesteaded by a Swedish family in the late 1800s. Some buildings and informative signs told their story of this place that reminded them of home. I decided to summit Windy Peak which was a thigh burner but totally worth it for the spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains. This was my brunch spot (too early for lunch) as I took in the views and warily watched the storm clouds moving in. The last part of the loop (I went clockwise) was along Deer Creek which was raging with runoff. There are some great-looking campsites along this creek. As I walked the last mile over a small hill, the rain finally came as it was early afternoon by now. Luckily it was just a light sprinkle which helped cool me off as I walked up the hill. I saw deer and turkey on this hike but no mountain lions. It’s a beautiful place with several other trails that I may walk some other day.
Inner Canyon Loop in Castlewood Canyon State Park – Another week, another state park! Just east of Castle Rock, this interesting little state park has a huge variety of terrain to explore. From pine and aspen trees to desert cactus to red rock cliffs to riparian areas to scrub oak, housing innumerable birds. I took a fun 7 plus mile hike that explored all of these areas by combining the Lake Gulch, Dam, Creek Bottom, Rimrock, and Inner Canyon trails which formed a sort of figure eight path. One of the more interesting features of this park are the remnants of an old dam that was built in 1890 to provide a secure source of water for agriculture and livestock. Made of local sandstone, the dam leaked from the start, but the builder assured everyone that it would be fine. Well, it was, for 43 years, until it wasn’t. In 1933 the dam burst, sending 1.7 billion gallons of Cherry Creek in a 15-foot wall of water towards downtown Denver. Miraculously (thanks to fast thinking by telephone operator Nettie Driskill whose efforts to alert people downstream likely saved many lives that night) only two people perished in the flood along with hundreds of livestock. Due to the uplifting of the plateaus here, Cherry Creek, which originates near the park runs north towards Denver. It meanders through Denver where it eventually empties into the South Platte River just behind Union Station. 
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin – At 759 pages, I spent the better part of three weeks with this book. It was like sitting in the front row of history with the great Doris Kearns Goodwin as your guide. If everyone were to read Goodwin’s history books, our world would be a better place because she paints it so well that you can’t help but remember its lessons. How soon we forget. Winner of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for History, the book covers the period between May of 1940 until Roosevelt’s death in April of 1945; although stories from before and after this period are interspersed throughout. There are so many takeaways from this book. We were nearly as politically divided then as we are now (for more on this, check out Rachel Maddow’s excellent podcast: Ultra). Eleanor Roosevelt was even more incredible than what you’ve heard on her human rights record. In addition to the drama of war and politics, there was quite a lot of romantic drama between FDR and Eleanor; I’m not sure either could have survived today’s social media barrage. The friendship between Churchill and FDR was real and heartfelt by both men. The toasts between the big three (Stalin, Churchill, and FDR) at Yalta perfectly summarized the war: Stalin toasted Churchill as “the bravest governmental figure in the world,” the courageous leader of a great nation that had stood alone “when the rest of Europe was falling flat on its face before Hitler.” In reply, Churchill toasted Stalin as “the mighty leader of a mighty country that had taken the full shock of the German war machine” and broken its back. Stalin then saluted Roosevelt as “the man with the broadest conception of national interest; even though his country was not directly endangered, he had forged the instruments which led to the mobilization of the world against Hitler.” 
Bear Peak Loop near Boulder – I decided to torture myself today and climb Bear Peak. The approach from Fern Canyon is brutal with 2,500 feet of elevation gain in 1.7 miles. Luckily the day was cloudy and cool for June. It was only me and a few college kids up on top…and one of them had already thrown up from the hike. I began at the National Center for Atmospheric Research which has a very large parking lot to accommodate hikers for all the different trails up here. I used the NCAR and Mesa Trails to reach Fern Canyon and then plowed my way up those 1.7 miles and 2,500 feet of elevation, trying not to pass out. The view from atop Bear Peak is incredible. You see all the snow-capped Rockies spread out before you. The last few feet to the top includes some bouldering, but you can stop before this part and still enjoy nice views…but then you wouldn’t be able to officially say you made it to the top and touch the survey marker! Instead of walking back down that steep path I opted for the gentler West Ridge trail which then connected to the Bear Canyon trail back to NCAR. To give you an idea of the difference, NCAR to Bear Peak via Fern Canyon is 3 miles while the walk back via the West Ridge trail was nearly 6 miles. No animal sightings today other than a gopher(?) snake along the Bear Canyon Trail. This is a great training hike for climbing the big mountains later this summer.
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison - Wow this was a great and harrowing read. Sort of a cross between Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing. It was a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. It's listed as a novel, but based on what I've read the author had personally experienced many of the abuses suffered by "Bone", the book's young protagonist. "Bone" is the nickname given to young Ruth Anne Boatright who was born to a 15-year-old mother, Anney. Bone is the narrator of the story. The setting is in the rural and urban areas around Greenville, South Carolina, where the author is from. Bone's mother Anney suffers many tragedies, including suffering serious injuries in a car accident while pregnant with Bone; she was in a coma upon delivery which prevented her from making up a story to the doctor so that her child wouldn't be stamped as illegitimate, or a bastard from South Carolina. Anney married two years later at 17 and had another child, but her husband died in a car accident driving while drunk. She eventually met Glen who would go on to abuse Bone physically and sexually for years, culminating in a violent incident that ended up separating Bone from her mother. 
Green Mountain Loop near Boulder - I guess I didn't punish myself enough last week on Bear Mountain. I've hiked Green Mountain before, but from the more moderate West Ridge Trail. Today I went up via the Amphitheater, Saddle Rock, and EM Greenman trails which climb around 2,400 feet in 2.5 miles. I never get tired of starting a hike at Chautauqua Park. It's so incredibly beautiful, especially this year with all the rain we've had; the grass was growing higher than my head in some places and I'm not THAT short. After huffing and puffing my way up to Green Mountain, I stood at the top where someone has erected a really cool metal rendering of all the snow-capped Rocky Mountain peaks that you can see from up here. I studied all the peak names for a bit before heading back down. I made a loop by taking the Ranger and Gregory Canyon trails back down to my car. Trails like this are the reason why homes are so expensive in Boulder...and also why there are so many world class athletes here. Crazy people were RUNNING up these trails that I was using all fours to climb at some points. Beasts.
