There’s been some lovely hiking along the Rabbit Ears range, high up on the ridge following the divide.

We’ve been pretty lucky with the thunderstorms so far, today we had one though, so took the long route around Parkview Mountain adding an extra 5 miles onto the day… Pretty easy walking on forest roads though.

Well I think I’d dissagree with the naming of this place, felt pretty summery here to me.

Quite hard to see (might be impossible Mike…), but somewhere on this picture is a lady moose. Seen a couple of these so far, none of the fellas with the big horns yet though.

Me and Paul left Nicky and our big packs in Grand Lake while we raced round the 25 mile Rocky Mountain National Park loop as a day walk. Felt great to be bounding along without heavy rucksacks and the views from Flat Top Mountain were great.

This is a bit of a hiking holiday tradition of ours – when in a place with lots of games, we like to play them all in an all day sporting/drinking contest. Grand Lake had plenty  on offer, so here’s the results of the Colorado International Kings of Sport.

First event was Champion Shuffleboard. It’s a pretty good game, a bit like crown green bowling and curling. Cookie came in 1st, Paul 2nd and Nicky 3rd.

Ten pin bowling. The bowling alley in Grand Lake is old school, we had to keep score with pencil and paper. Finally at last I understand how the points for strikes are worked out though! Nicky had a storming finish at came in 1st, Cookie 2nd and Paul 3rd.

Shooting alley, this event was a bit dubious as a lot of the targets were bust… But with 12 hits Cookie was 1st, Nicky had 11 and came 2nd, Paul had 10 and was 3rd.

Pool. This was a really close contest, after the first round ended up even stevens, we had to have a re-match. In a nail biting finish Paul was 1st, Nicky came in 2nd and I was 3rd.

Pinball. On the Indiana Jones table with Cookie got a whopping 56 million and was 1st, Nicky got a respectable 23 million and was 2nd, finally Paul got a bit of a work shy 13 million and was 3rd.

Crazy Golf. This course was pretty crazy – monkey’s going up and down on strings, conveyer belts carrying balls around the course and allsorts. We were pretty drunk by the time we got to this final event too. Cookie was 1st, Paul was 2nd and Nicky was 3rd.

Scores on the doors. So with 2 points for a 1st, 1 point for a 2nd and zero for 3rd, the final scores were – Cookie 1st with 9 points, Nicky 2nd with 4 points and Paul 3rd with 2 points.

We’ve just had the best steak in the US so far :) unfortunetly I forgot to take the camera… But the bill still looks good enough to eat! I had a 12oz New York strip, Paul had Elk for the first time (not the last time either I think), Nicky had buffalo. Washed down with a couple of bottles of good plonk, I very much doubt whether this meal is going to be beaten.

Iwoke at 5.30 to howling winds so i could bag a few mountains and break the back of the 45 miles to Grand Lake. There was no trail to follow so i had to pick my way up and down the boulder fields of both Parry and Bancroft peaks before picking up the trail at the base of James’s Peak. I decided to avoid a ridge described as boarder line rock climbing due to the high winds but it meant an extra 1000 feet of down them up. Bugger!! I finaly summited James’s Peak which was the last of 3 13ers before lunch. I followed the ridge of the divide until Devils Thumb pass where i nailed it down a valley for a further 10 miles. The following day a few miles from town i was met on the trail by Cookie and Nicky who were armed with beer and fresh fruit. That was all i was thinking about for miles so a good end to a tough day. I can understand why many people solo hike but its not my cup of tea. Paul

Shortly after leaving Cookie and Nicky at the pass i set off for the first time as a solo hiker. I agreed to meet them in Grand Lake in 48 hours so i set off, climbed Mount Flora and set up camp. I looked over the maps, terrain and the 45 miles i had to do. This was going to be a tough few days.