Birthday hike & bugling elk

Daphne celebrated her birthday last Tuesday, and her birthday wish was for she and I to drive up to Estes Park to take a hike with our friend Sharon.  The particular hike Sharon suggested is a six mile in Rocky Mountain National Park - up a canyon in Moraine Park, across a river, then back down again.  Only one week earlier we'd driven up to see Sharon with our girls, and it was blowing an arctic gale.  On Tuesday, the weather was as perfect as anyone could hope for - warm, clear blue sky and a gentle breeze.  You'd almost think someone had dialed the day in for Daphne (she must be living right).  We had a beautiful hike.  We ate lunch at Cub Lake (covered in lily pads), sitting on a rock at the edge of the water.  Several ducks paid us a visit, and they are obviously used to being fed because one of them practically sat in my lap waiting for a handout. 

The Aspens are just about at their most brilliant, and this weekend  - today actually - we're hoping to drive up to Kenosha Pass where there are huge Aspen groves that should be spectacular. Anyway, the hike was pretty strenuous - six miles is a good hike by anyone's definition, especially at this altitude.  Daphne was starting to feel pretty "rugged" and proud of herself for making it up to the top of the trail. . . until we passed several groups of elderly women in their 80's who were shuffling along with their walking sticks.  Oh well, so much for pride!  Daphne's birthday present (other than the hike and time with Sharon) was the
full set of the TV series on Daniel Boone that was
produced back in the 50's.  She absolutely loves it, and now I've got to compete with Fess Parker (who plays Daniel Boone) for her affections.  I personally think she's smitten.

Several mornings a week around 7 am I drive around this area looking for the herds of elk, and hoping I can get some good shots of the bulls in rut.  Yesterday I went out with our friend Danny, who used to live next to us when we rented a house out in Bailey.  Danny is an avid hunter, and he has several elk calls - both a bugle call and one for the cows that sounds like some kind of loud bird.  We drove around until we spotted a herd grazing on the Evergreen golf course lawn.  There's a big bull that I've found several times, and he is distinctive by the curious crooked tine he has on the end of his right antler.  This particular bull is very aggressive during the rutting season, so I always have to be careful not to approach him too closely.  I was taking pictures of the same bull a couple of days ago, and met up with a man named Allen who's been following him for years.  Allen told me that a woman was attacked by a bull elk last year as she got out of her car in her own driveway.  Apparently,

she was on her cellphone and wasn't paying attention, and she didn't see the bull elk just outside her car.  As she exited the vehicle the bull charged her and gave her one rake with his antlers.  Looking at the size of the antlers on the left, you can imagine how easily she could have been killed.  She apparently suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen, as well as a broken nose.  I'm surprised these kind of attacks don't happen more often when consider how many bull elk there are in our area, and in what close proximity they have to humans every day.

I will be leaving a week from today to conduct a crisis management training in San Marcus, Texas with Cypress Creek Church.  I'm excited about this opportunity, especially as I'll be able to spend some time with Mike and Myra McCoy since Cypress Creek is their home church.  The last thing I need to work on for the training is also the most difficult - to create a crisis scenario exercise for the group on the last half-day of the training.  I want the exercise to be as realistic as possible, because the goal is to get the participants to "feel" the stress and tension that a true crisis invariably creates.  This particular church sends teams to Kenya almost every summer, so I should be able to come up with something good considering that I lived there for eight years!

My Nephew Aaron, his fiancee Minette and my nephew William are all coming up to spend the night with us tonight.  We haven't had any time with Aaron  - on his own - ever, and we've never gotten to know his fiancee. Should be a fund day!  I'll have to exercise great self-control to choose to spend time with them and not watch the Auburn-Clemson game this evening!  They are the priority today -- and I can always watch the reply later in the evening, as long as no one calls me to comment on the game ;)