Trav's Travels: Covid Quarantine in Estes Park

4/30/20 Day 1 of covid quarantine

Because my parents are in the higher risk category for covid and we had the potential to pick it up during our stay in LA, we quarantined in their basement for 2 weeks. Their basement has a bathroom and a door to the outside world. Mom provided us with a table, an electric stove to make eggs and such, electric tea kettle, and a large cooler to be our refrigerator. We would make our own breakfast and lunch, but mom would cook dinner. She'd drop it at the bottom of the stairs, we'd then grab it after she had left and return the dishes later in the evening. What a luxury for us! The only complaint was that sometimes the portions were small. She was trying to thin us down after our McMurdo fattening.

I don't have some amazing prose I will write about this time, I mostly want to jot down some things that were memorable so that I have a way to remember them later.

Note that Rocky Mountain National Park was closed until my birthday, May 27th. Thus, I hiked a lot of smaller peaks in the area that I normally wouldn't have ever done before

So here are the highlights during the quarantine:

-Hiked to the top of prospect mountain for great 360 view of the valley and the continental divide

-Hiked Old Man Mountain for more great views. It's a cool granite area. There are caves here, but I couldn't find them

-Hiked up Lily Mountain, which borders the park. Lots of snow and lots of pasque flowers. Had to run a bit at the end to make it home in time for dinner. I sent Elisha straight down a shortcut to get to the highway whilst I ran to the car

-Hiked Deer Mountain. This was technically illegal as Deer Mountain is in the park. However, we didn't take the standard route and instead took the trail that starts near my parents' house by Kent Mountain Adventure climbing school. There is of course the sign saying you're entering the park, but there was not the covid closed signs one would see at other park entrances. Lots of snow and lots of postholing. Quite windy on top, but great views

-Hiked up on the 4WD roads of Pierson Park, which is in the National Forest. Not particularly scenic as its in lodgepole, but saw some nice mtn lion tracks. Normally we use that area, when there is no snow, for mtn biking

-Hiked one of the YMCA trails to Bible Point and did the whole loop. Back at Dorsey Lake we got charged by a crazed bull elk. (Chronic Wasting Disease???)

-Hiked the YMCA trail along the stream up to the tunnel where water is piped over from Grand Lake

-Biked on the Boulder Bike Paths and the Boulder Creek Trail. We couldn't go to the top b/c of construction. We ordered take out Half Fast Subs and ate them on the beautiful lawn of the Quad on the CU campus. We also ate ice cream at the end of the day!

-On Elisha's birthday we had a Cinco de Mayo party with my parents (Social distanced). Tacos, dips, margaritas, and other things.

-One day we ordered Cinnamon rolls from the famous Cinnamon roll place in Estes. You must order the day before because demand is so high. When the sweet rolls it our lips, we understood the reason for the high demand!

-My parents have their big TV with dish down in the basement, so we did a fair amount of TV watching: bachelorette's "listen to your heart". Also watched re-runs of Buff games, including the 62-36 game against the cornchuckers.

-Worked on some major job applications for USFWS

-Walked around Lake Estes and watched the elk on the golf course.

-Hiked up Triangle Peak in Glen Haven in sleet and rain.