Ready for July 4th?

Let me see . . . where do I begin to catch up? First off, it has been a very busy week here at RoMo and, apparently, at home. Please say a prayer for my brother, Ross, who is in the hospital this week. Bronchitis and circulatory problems have landed him there where he will be getting back under control - staying for a few days at least.

Mom and Ruth said the weather in Illinois was horribly hot and humid until a rash of tornadoes changed all that. Everyone I know of is fine except Ross said Morris was still without electrical power yesterday and lots of crews are working all over the Chicago area to remove downed trees and damaged stuff.

Here in the campground on the morning of June 30th between 5:00-5:30 a.m., a female elk and her younger female protege badly scared two of our campers (who narrowly missed injury) and severely damaged their tent. Apparently we've had these two rogues "hooving" smaller tents for more than a week and none of the campers had bothered to tell us. Fortunately, an older couple had been camping in the same loop for a week and filled us in on all the previous events. Per the verbal reports all of our campers were following the food/garbage/soap/cosmetic rules and were sleeping with only themselves, sleeping bags and pads in their tents when the attacks took place.

In several incidents other campers tried to rescue the victims but the "girls" (bad elk) became more agitated and aggressive, throwing lawn chairs and bundles of fire wood around and only departing when they felt like it. Very cheeky of them, huh? Since 4 days ago the rogue elk have not been seen and I even woke up one morning at 4:00 a.m. to watch for their antics. They did not show up. If the problem resumes here or elsewhere the park service will first put out ammonia soaked rags and if that fails, they will use some "aversion therapy" - rubber bullets when they attack a tent to (hopefully) teach them that tent mauling is unacceptable behavior.

The chairs and firewood bundle had been under the picnic table, but the elk pulled them out and tossed them around.

Note the tent fly shredded. The pieces are over to the right out of sight.

Muddy hoof prints along one side of the tent.

Most intimidating are the muddy streaks of her hooves where she jumped on the top of the tent trying to smash it. The woman and her daughter inside avoided injury by watching the shadow of the elk and scooting to the edge of their tent. They were afraid to come out because they did not know how many elk there were outside.

 Otherwise, life here has been slightly more idyllic - yea! Here are some more of the local activities:

Meese in the Meadow

Geranium Eater

The "Bachelor Herd" we called Mo, Larry, Curly and Shep. By the way the bachelor herd has now grown to about a dozen!

I hiked last week with my boss, Jen, to Bear lake, Bierstadt and Cub Lakes. All of the following photos are of that hike.

Bear Lake Scene

Meadow vista.

Jena and I both gasping, "Enough with the uphill!!"

Fire damage - overlooking Cub Lake

A herd of at least 60 elk passed us! Wow! Several of the elk had goofy looking antlers like this fellow. I do not know if that appearance is normal or an anomaly.

I already blogged about the demise of my geraniums, but here are some pictures of the vicious attack! (Actually, I was able to retrieve some of the stubs and have replanted them just to see if I can somehow save their little lives. :-)

"Lefty" and his buddy.

Jep & Renae dubbed him Lefty - not sure how he lost his right antler or if it never developed.

Lastly, I went for a hike up Onahu (pronounced on-a-who) Creek last evening:

Years ago when I first drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, I observed deadfall like this and wondered how in the world anyone could hike through the park. Now I know - trail crews keep the trails clear for us!

Yep - he was about 20' off the trail so I had to wait a while and get eaten alive by mosquitoes until he passed.

The end for today!