While I was still in South America over the summer months my
brother Doug was in contact about a September visit to Colorado for some hiking
while he’s still more or less a free man, a last hiking hurrah in the Rockies
with his bro . He’s getting married in November. I left the lodging planning up
to him while I came up with some varied hiking possibilities over three or four
days. In the past we’ve climbed several fourteeners together, but we’re both
getting to an age where a single fourteener climb is hard enough let alone
trying to do two or three back-to-back over several days.

Doug arrived in Denver mid-morning and had arranged a room
for the night in Breckenridge. I thought the several hour hike to Mohawk Lakes
would be a nice one and doable in several hours in the afternoon. Mother Nature
had different plans, though. The mountains had their first light snowfall the
night before. We several miles along the Spruce Creek trail south of
Breckenridge but found the trail to be far too icy to continue once we started
on steeper slopes in shady areas. It was good a walk of several miles to stretch
our legs before some real hiking. We took the night in Breckenridge fairly easy
in preparation for our more strenuous hikes in the days ahead, in contrast to
our usual boozy reunions. Doug was quite unimpressed with the Italian
restaurant he chose in Breckenridge, one not memorable enough for me to recall
the name, but he’s from the East Coast and a bit of an Italian food snob.