Black, Black, Black (18 July)

An old celtic song, that was made famous by the black singer Nina Simone, goes „black, black, black is the color of my true love’s hair”. And the Smothers Brothers did a comic version “black, black, black is the color of my love’s true hair” (because it was died). BLACK was the theme for our day, but not in any way negative!

In the morning, after a few frustrating phone calls, we were able to chase down a replacement for our poor van. Unfortunately, the dealer only had an SUV, so that meant we would have to be inventive in getting the bikes and our luggage in. And yes, the car is BLACK.

We returned to our hotel with the new car, changed clothes and drove into the BLACK Elk Forest to hike up to the Hardy Mountain Lookout. This is the highest mountain east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Swiss Alps. The 7 mile hike (out, up, down and up…and back) wound its way through forest, past meadows and often was quite swampy. The weather was just great with some clouds and a nice breeze.

Beginning the way back down (and up and down), we saw two BLACK horses hitched to a rail, and no one around. We were playing with the idea of taking them, until we saw the dog doing guard duty. So we walked.

We then drove along the scenic Needles Road, among the fantastically formed spires and columns of rock and reentered the Iron Mountain Road which afforded us so much excitement yesterday. At the scene of the awful hail storm we could see piles of branches and leaves strewn along the road and in the parking area of the scenic outlook. People were walking around and wondering what caused all the destruction!

This area was just bare forest floor before the storm

Well, the friendly lady who owned the motel we stayed at in Sundance this evening told us of the hailstorm that went through there two weeks ago. Although no one was injured, all the cars and most of the homes suffered severe damage. So, we count ourselves lucky!!