Rocky Mountain Backcountry

We spent two chilly nights in the wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Forest. Just upon waking after the first night Brad noticed this right next to our camp

Yes this is a femur. Brad was convinced it was human but I believe it is animal because it is so stocky. None the less our camp was a feeding ground for something large which was not comforting.

When we checked the bear box there were no signs that anything had touched it. The days were scattered with rainshowers, overcast skies, and bursts of blue skies with puffy clouds. The weather seemed to be constantly changing. The mornings were so cold that our fingers got numb while we were packing up. Our camp was right next to a field just at the beginning of a forest. This was nice because at night the moon was right over the clearing and it was framed by pine trees on the left and a mountain slope on the right. I think elk frequent this area because not only did we see a few cautiously checking us out. But there were droppings everwhere!!! We cooked dinner on the second night atop this huge rock. It was really nice except there were a billion mosquitos who thought we were there dinner. We hiked around following the sound of falling water for a few hours. We saw a shelf fungus that was atleast two feet long. Can you imagine how long that must have been living undisturbed by humans? The ground was pretty soft and we slept pretty well. Brad heard a large bump in the night and he doesn't know if it was an animal or a tree?!? I am glad I slept soundly through that or I fear I would not have been able to get back to sleep. We did make a sugar cube out of a packet of sugar in the raw and a few drops of water. It dried nicely and we had a slightly mushy sugar cube. As we walked past the place where the horses had been a few days before you can imagine my dissapointment when they were not there. I decided to leave the sugar cube on the fence for my horse freind. A few hundred feet up the trail there the horses were. We quickly went back to get the treat and I climbed the wooden fence to get the attention of the horse. Once she looked up and noticed my outstretched hand she bagan to nudge my way. Slowly at first but when I started to speak to her she came all the way to me and ate th sugar our of my hand. It was awesome. She nudged me gently as if to ask politely for more. But we had to be on our way. We both pet her neck and away we went.

Enlarge this and tell me if it doesn't look like an animal. This spooked us pretty bad because this view is from where we had our bear box hidden. It didn't move so we think it is a rock or an uprooted tree. Yikes - it was scary... I thought it was a bear! We did see a Bigfoot crossing sign in Colorado so maybe this is a picture of the ellusive bigfoot. Perhaps we should publish it and make enough money for gas to get home =)

This is our Rock Kitchen. Talk about a window view! There were a few pretty nice flat spots that made pretty good chairs for both of us. Actually comfortable as far as rocks go. We hung out here and and watched the trees for a while before and after dinner.