The day after I got back from Jackson, I decided that I had eaten my way through the Advisory Council meeting (its not hard to do when its all free!). So despite the fact that I wasn't feeling quite 100%, I made Jonmikel climb Horsetooth Rock with me. It was about a 2.5 mile one-way trail, with an elevation gain of only about 1000 feet. SO not so bad. A little more than climbing Arthur's Seat, and that was way steeper. People were reporting a hike time of 5 hours, which was a HUGE over-estimate for us. We spent only a couple of hours shuffling up the rock, hanging out in the bustling wind, and then meandering our way down. From up top, Ft. Collins doesn't look so.... ugly. Well, it looked flat, but you could look west and see mountains, which makes the place look not so desolate. And we could even pick out buildings from downtown Denver through the haze. Yeah, it's that flat out here.

My preferred view to the west, out toward Rocky Mountain National Park

Look! Look how flat it is! Isn't it horrid?!?!