We have a couple of favorite hikes in CO. We have done this one for, I am guessing, each of the 9 years we have been in Breck. We have a friend, Joe, who is up there for summer. He has a terrific mining cabin that has been in his family for a long time. After a brief chat with Joe the Mattson family was on our way up the mountain. We were headed to the top with our picnic lunch. Unfortunately, we were not that far into it when it started to rain...then harder and soon a steady stream of folks started coming down the mountain. We took refuge under a tree and what was initially going to be snack time while we waited out the rain turned into lunch time in a downpour. The pictures don't do it justice, but trust me when I say it was raining!! And getting cold. Regrettably we opted to turn around and head back down. Joe was more then accepting of a wet, cold family at his door. He welcomed us in with a warm fire, a mug of hot tea and conversation until we were ready to trudge back to the car.

The bummer of it all was the outside temps were in the low 50's by this time. My camera was cold and trying to take a photo in the toasty cabin presented a challenge. You can barely see Jacob taking a turn, with Joe's guidance, putting another log in the stove. And just for grins, you will see that although my hair was not looking swell I was not drenched either...thanks to my handy dandy pink umbrella. I went from being the city slicker
to the person of envy the more it rained!