Church in the Springs wasn’t until 10 am. Can you believe I slept/dozed until 8:30 am? That doesn’t happen very often.
This ward was bigger than the Salida ward, but probably 1/3 of the people were visitors.
There was a missionary from Brazil who shared his testimony and then helped a Venezuelan investigator share his testimony. The bishop had to cut things short, because the testimony went on and on and on.
Chris and I planned to enjoy another day in nature hiking Gold Creek Trail from the Slavonia Trailhead. The drive to the trailhead was about an hour outside of Steamboat. It rained for much of the day, and we wondered if the trails would even be passable.
We ate a packed lunch as we sat in the parking lot at the trailhead and then headed out as the rain stopped. This trail was about 7 miles with 1500 feet of elevation gain. But it was much more enjoyable than the lack of shade on the Mad Creek trail from the previous day.
We had just crossed a river balancing carefully across a huge fallen tree when the rain started in earnest again. Chris and I pulled out our rain jackets and waterproof backpack covers and decided to hang out under a tree for a bit to see if the rain would ease up.
A couple coming down the trail, joined us under our tree and asked, “Have you heard about the hornets?”
We hadn’t. They proceeded to tell us that the hornets nest was marked by two hiking poles next to a downed tree. The rain eased a little so we continue on.
After a mile or so and a number of switchbacks, we spied the hiking poles. Chris opted to walk through the forest and I just passed by on the trail. I figured, if hornets were going to attack, I didn’t want to be trying to run through the undergrowth of the forest to get away from them!
We finally reached Gold Creek Lake and the rain started again. I got some pics of the calmness of the water and then it was pelted with rain drops. After having a snack and resting a bit, we headed back down the trail.
We weren’t even near the hornets nest when all of a sudden I felt a bite on my arm and then another one. A hornet had attacked me. I read later that they are pretty aggressive. Man, that thing burned and hurt.
We hurried down the trail, past the hornets nest again, and made it back to the car with another burst of rain.
Whew. Done.
We saw some pretty great rainbows.
