Blogging Chicks has asked us to share a favorite autumn memory, tradition, sport, etc. One of my all-time favorite pasttimes is to ride my motorcycle and during the autumn season it is breathtaking. I love all the colors that blend together that truely make this season many peoples favorite. God's autumn pallet of golds, many shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, and browns is spectacular to behold. It's a time of fun and fantasy (holloween) and a time of fellowship with family and friends (Thanksgiving). Many feelings and sensations are felt at this time of year.

While I love driving the streets on my motorcycle, I have found a new tradition to keep going at this time of year. Motorcycling does give us some exercise, but not a really good workout. So another favorite pasttime of mine is hiking. With the changing of the season my family wanted to get up in the mountains and hike one of our favorite trails, Waldo Canyon. It's located in Pikes Peak National Forest. It's rated moderate and is about 7 miles. It has a 2,000 ft elevation during the hike. We invited another family from church that we really enjoy doing things with and on Oct 1st we all stopped at Subway to get some yummy subs and drove up to the trail head.



In the above photo is my husband at the trailhead. We were very excited to get going and see the changes that autumn has brought into the mountains. It was slightly overcast and perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold.

Above is the one of the many, many spectacular views about 3 miles in on the trail. This trail is not for the faint of heart as there is a significant elevation increase.

Above is our group of intrepid hikers still gaining elevation. We aren't even at the halfway mark yet. We have made a few stops already to catch our breath and drink lots of water along the way.


Above is my husband and son strutting the trail, lol. We are just over halfway done. Now while my husband and I love this trail for the views and exercise, our son has many times informed us how he's not really fond of this trail. We have taken him on this four times now this summer and each time he does so much better. He love Subway subs, so we bribe him with those to get him on the trail, lol.
We are on the downslope now and on the home stretch (about 3 miles to go and mostly downhill), lol. Here we see the spectacular colors of autumn the best. This picture doesn't do the brilliant yellow colors justice.


We see more autumn colors past the halfway mark then at the beginning. My husband is telling me to quit taking pictures and get the lead out, lol. I'm just drinking in all the colors and loving the views all around.

It is so tricky to try and catch the brilliant colors of autumn in the mountains. We almost missed it this year. The colors were starting to fade, but at least we caught part of it. We have decided that, weather permitting, we hope to be able to do this trail every fall. The weekends before and after we went rained hard. So we felt very lucky to go the weekend we did. The hike took us about 4 hours to complete and we had lots of fun and fellowship along the way. What more can a person ask for?

I kept wanting to ride my motorcycle up into the mountains, but either it was too cold or my husband couldn't get the time off. I wanted very much to share this adventure with him. So hiking was the next best thing. I was so glad we were able to do it.

So when weather permits, get out there and exercise!! Enjoy the different seasons of the year. You will feel good. I, myself, hope to soon be hitting the ski slops in a few months, Yahooo!!

Wishing you many outdoor adventures, Betty :)