"Take A Hike"

Seeing how yesterday was my 35th birthday, my wife thought it was a good idea to tell me to 'take a hike'...literally. For my birthday, Megan and Abby volunteered to take care of cleaning up the cabin so we could leave and take care of the kids while I went and attempted to scale a mountain...again literally.  The peak that is most prominantly visible from the cabin is Horn Peak, with an elevation of 13,500 ft. I had asked earlier why no one talked about hiking that one. I kind of had hoped that I could one day do it, never thinking that my 35 birthday would be the day.

So a little after 6:00am, I loaded up a bag, took a picture of the trail with my phone, hand wrote some instructions, and hoped on the ATV to drive over to the trailhead. 

To the peak was 4.5 miles, but like several mountains out here, there is also a false peak, which was a 4.2 mile hike. Considering I haven't run in a few months and am still nursing a sore ankle from an accident less than a month ago, I was pretty happy to make it 4 miles in and only a thousand feet or so from the false peak, especailly considering the hike was categorized 'strenuous'. That was no joke. 

It kicked by 35 year-old butt. I also took too little water and was thinking the whole time about needing to get back to help pack up and leave.

Pulling out, our destination for the evening was Dodge City, to do a little Wild West learning. Of course, along the way we had to do a little exploring.

(Junkrassic Park, Cheraw, CO. Guy designed stuff using old farm equipment.)

We found dinner in Syracuse, KS, at an amazing restaurant called:

It uses all local ingredients and serves amazing food. My Bison Burger was great and GBG loved her chili.

Back on the road again.

We had to stop at the Gray County Fair, that we passed on the road.

In spite of having to move the clock forward an hour as we moved back into Central time, it was an amazing day and a birthday I will not soon forget.