Wednesday, October 11, 2017

We had a slow start to today, as it was 33 degrees when we got up, and it is always slow to warm up.  We wanted to finish our exploring in the Garden of the Gods and finish up the caches in that park today.  We had to hike to one of the caches, and had some elevation climb, and we certainly felt it.  We are at 6300 feet elevation and it was 68 degrees, and we 'hiked up at a slower pace'!  We are slowly getting acclimated to the elevation difference, and the sun seems so much hotter here.  The sun is closer to us here, than back in Wisconsin, so that makes it seem warmer. We saw on the news last night, that Big Horn Sheep were spotted in the park yesterday.  

This is their 'Balancing Rock', and I wanted to get a person in the picture to show you how big it is.  It is estimated to weigh 700 ton.  This was an Earthcache in the park.

This rock structure is called, 'Siamese Twins'.....but wait.....I see someone else in the picture!  It's Jim and this was another Earthcache, and we needed him in the picture with his GPS.

After finishing up in the Garden of the Gods, we went to Manitou Springs, just west of Colorado Springs.  We loved this little city!  I had loaded some caches, not knowing what to expect, and we couldn't be happier!  It took us to the busy section of town, so we walked the whole area that we needed to cache.  This clock was in the center of town, and was donated to the city in 1889.  Jerome Wheeler donated it, to celebrate the opening of his Mineral Water Bottling Company.  He was born in NY, served in the Civil War, married Harriet "Macy" Valentine, and was Vice-President of New York Macy's Department Store!  Hummm...get the connection?  Harriet's health failed her, so they moved out to Manitou Springs in 1883 and he became a millionaire in mining.  He founded banks in Aspen, Colorado Springs, and Manitou Springs.  On a lull day, I will write about the 'springs' here.  This is an old city, but full of character. 

I can only imagine what went on in this old building, back in the late 1800's.  We ran into a fellow that proceeded to tell us that Doc Holiday was kept in a house not far from where we were caching.  He had 'consumption', and was quite ill.  He may have died there, for all we know.  We have one more day left and I'll report in tomorrow night, when we get back.  Today was really fun!