Thursday, June 26, 2008

Day 7 - Missions accomplished

View day 7 pictures

Another relaxed "what do you want to do today" day - ahhh. We've done all of our desired and favorite hikes - so we thought we'd go back and revisit the Piedra River one that we cut short due to hunger on Sunday. We wanted to get to the "footbridge over the Piedra River" that the hiking guide talked about. We gave Ben/Zack/Joe the option to come along - and they opted for snoooooze.



On our way there - we took another shot at the Geocache that we didn't find earlier. Hooray - we found it. Our first geocache. Isaac and I found it just where the clue said it was. (Want to know more - go to http://www.geocaching.com/ and do an advanced search for Pagosa Springs, CO. The cache we found is called "lunch date")

Amy took some spectacular pictures from the cliffs edge while Matt promised not to watch and tell her not to "get back here where it's safe". She spied the trail along that river that we were planning to hike.

With those missions accomplished - we hit the trailhead of the Piedra River hike and made it to the footbridge (built in Alexandria MN) over the river. The "river" is actually several forks of itself that join up in this beautiful mountain meadow. The metal footbridge (suitable for horse and man) spans one of these smaller forks.

This hike was a great combination of up and down, magnificent meadow and craggy cliff, river's edge and hundreds of feet above the river. Shining examples of God's incredible creation were there to see for everyone. Photo ops that didn't appear on the way to the bridge just jumped out at us on the way back.

We took pictures of the ledge Amy was on as she took those initial spectacular panoramic views, too. We tried to use the GPS to tell us how long the trail was - but since we weren't on a road - it just told us the difference between the coordinates (as the crow flies). Some help that is. But the hiking guide says it's 3.5 miles to the footbridge - and we felt every foot of it (except Isaac who led the way and wondered why it took us so long).

When we returned - we picked up our half-gallon of Pagosa Brewing Company root beer. We boiled brats in other Pagosa Brewing Company beer (Honeymoon Ale that we'd bought the day before) and both were delicious.

Wednesday evening was another mission accomplished. Golf in the mountains. We played the Pinon course at the Pagosa Springs Golf Club (they have three 9 hole courses). Ben suggested we play Best Ball to help hurry things along. Good idea - as the 9 holes we did play took us 3 hours!

But it was fun and we got some great pics. The scenery surrounding the course just makes it a very special place to play - even if you don't know how to play.

Sadly - our time here is drawing to a close...a mission we don't really relish accomplishing...

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