NoCo/Indian Peaks

Haggis & Chips

 

50/50 mix of guys sporting their family tartans.  Might have been outnumbered today.  Whole lotta man skirts.  Folk music, Highland dance, Scottish sports & FOOD.

Walked thru the crowded Clan tent, to find out EVERYONE is Scottish this day.  23andme must have missed my Highland ancestry.  Guy opened his secret Harry Potter Book of Tartans & revealed I am Family Dundee.  Good to be Scot – if only a day 🙂

Mesmerized, stood/gawked watching two of the Games’ early sporting events.  Stone throw & Sheaf toss (hay bale pitch).  BIG guys; BIG guys in kilts.

FOOD.  Bellied a plate of traditional haggis & Chips then jockeyed for a seat in Estes Park’s Fairgrounds arena.  Opening Ceremonies.

Family Clan march, multiple troops of bagpipers, festival Speeches & a military flyover.

Day’s WOW moment.  Military trumpet, first line of ‘Amazing Grace’.  Moments later its single voice accompanied by tens of bagpipes.  Backdrop: our Colorado Rockies.  Magic.  Found myself holding my breath.  Life imprint, moment memorized.

 

 

Festival & Highland Games

 

Opening Ceremonies

 

Amazing Grace

 

 

 

Estes Park, Colorado

 

Who doesn’t love a parade?  Friend invited [me] to tag along Saturday.

Scottish Highland Festival?  ABSOLUTELY.

Neighbor Larry arrived in native Scot regalia.  You think you know a guy.  Man skirt?

 

Estes Park Fairgrounds, festival gates open at 11.  PARADE MARCH down Elkhorn an hour-half earlier.  Closest I personally come to being Scottish: wearing PLAID the next THREE seasons.  Probably more BRAWNY MAN than BRAVEHEART.  LOL>

Bring on the BAGPIPES!  Show me some KILTS!  LOVE LOVE a parade.

Each clan sported their own unique FAMILY plaid.

SCOTLAND the BRAVE played — over & over & over  ♪ ♫ ♬

GREAT weather, GREAT energy, GREAT time!

Thanks neighbor 🌞

 

 

Every man dies, but not every man really lives – Braveheart 🏹

 

Scottish Highland Parade (Part I)

 

Scottish Highland Parade (same song/one song mix)

 

Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival

SEPTEMBER 6-9, 2018

 

For more than three decades, Estes Park has been the backdrop for one of the nation’s largest celebrations of the heritage, the sounds, the tastes, and the arts of the Scottish and Irish cultures.

 

Held annually the weekend after Labor Day, Estes Park’s Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival is the largest gathering of its kind between the Mississippi River and California, and traditionally hosts bands – from the marching kind to the rocking kind and everything in-between – hailing from Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and, of course, the United States.

 

With jousting knights, dancing girls, hoisting athletes and calling bagpipes, groups and families of all ages will catch the Celtic spirit at this festival – surrounded by the scenic peaks of Estes Park!

 

One of the weekend highlights is the free hour-long parade on Elkhorn Avenue, Estes Park’s main street. Bagpipes, drummers, dancers, clans in tartan, Dogs of the British Isles, brass military bands and precision drill teams give a preview of what can be seen on the festival grounds.

 

 

Whole lotta high-altitude running first half of June – past 3 weekends, nothing under 8000ft.  Body feeling banged up after a busy Marathon Start to 2018.  Right heel in particular.  Bouncing back slower, plantar fasciitis not better/struggling.

Day or 2 or 3 needed to refresh, mentally spent.  Lotta effort push/push/pushing, focused on a single goal.  Bighorn now the past, leaves ya spinning/no direction, in-between goals.  Same thing after finishing my 50 States in 2016.  Like opening holiday gifts.  So much planning/purchasing for family/loved ones, decorating home/hearth, cooking Christmas dinner…blink, it’s December 26th.   Not quite ready to talk New Year’s.

Hike high, get small, quiet-wonder intervention.  Peaks covered in last season’s winter.  Lakes & streams overflowing with snowmelt; impromptu waterfalls borne for the summer.  Just what the doctor ordered 😊

4am Sunday start, trailhead parking fills by 6.  Backpack outta the front closet.  Pup couldn’t have been any more excited.  Followed me room to room, back of my heels.  No Pup left behind, not today.  LOL>

Hwy 119 thru Boulder Canyon, across Ned center, first right toward Eldora, Hessie Trailhead.  Other waiting hikers all layered UP, chilly 34 degree Start.  FAAAANNNTASTIC!  More perfect?  20 minute delay – for MOOSE (Momma/calves).  Expecting rain mid-afternoon, just a quick up-n-back peak peek today.

Power-hiked to Lost Lake.  Less than a mile in, nothing strenuous.  GREAT place for a picnic.  4 miles more to Jasper, day’s second alpine lake.  Bit more secluded, distance blessed.  Ticking off trail signs, careful not to miss a poorly marked left & inadvertently bushwhack to Diamond (been there, done that).

Early hiker chatter now gone, replaced with the whoosh of rushing water.  Alpine flowers, green mountain meadow, tall lodgepole Pine.   Good to feel small again.  Surrounded by peaks, tall evergreen & remnants of last season’s snow.  Just me, my dog & whatever food/water I’m carrying on me back.   Negativity flush.

Pup off-leash leading the way, trekking over large drifts of white.  Twice was not be able to find the path (left/right/up & over/or valley descent below) but luckily Ro can always tell.  Great nose.  & Always back to check on Papa.  Treat reward, good Pup 😊

Mile-half to Devils Thumb Lake.  Drifts dissipated, pushed thru stretches of scratchy willow [Moose candy].  trail below hidden/obscured, slopped thru mud – but not Bighorn mud.  Perspective, never lost a shoe.  Wind blew cold.  AWESOME feeling in June.

Devils Thumb Lake on my right, three sides capsuled by peaks.  Planted myself on a long flat rock.  Pup disappeared, chasing marmots.  Alpine groundhog chirps sharp/short/shrill bouncing off canyon walls.  Smell of burrito/Pup raced back, marmots no longer of interest.

Called it b4 the Pass, clouds racing in.  Good to feel small again.  Just a dot on the immense nature-scape backdrop.

One/two/THREE alpine lakes, FIRST HIKE of Colorado summer.  Bring it on! ❤

 

 

Indian Peaks Wilderness