Pagosa Springs Day#8

Today was the Piedra river hike. I did not bring my downloaded map or my watch so I’m not sure how far we hiked in but we stopped at a beautiful deep ravine. Alex and the kids put their feet in the ice cold water to see how long they could last. Brenden did the most, which was 30 seconds. They are CRAZY! Then their grandmother made them stop so they don’t get hypothermia.

The river is absolutely beautiful with its raging white rapids. This was the last hike for our trip, probably a good thing since the Velcro strap on Brenden’s shoe broke. He had to hike back to the car with a floppy shoe on his foot.

Another short hike that we did just prior to this was the Ice Fissures. Basically there are deep fissures within the earth and we hiked down into one of them. It was so neat, so dark, so cold like 50° down there when it’s 90° on the surface. Looking straight up to the surface had to be like 50 feet. There was even some snow/ice still down there.

Back at the resort we played a game of scrabble. Brenden teamed up with papa. Bella teamed up with me, but she seemed more interested in playing tic-tac-toe. Alex won the game. I hate thinking that hard when on vacation…lol…I got last place.

Alex and I got away for dinner in town and left the kids with their grandparents. While waiting to be seated at a restaurant, we walked down to the river and came across a morbidly obese intoxicated woman sitting half way in the freezing river. She was sunburned with purple lips. Her sister was with her and said that she had been stuck there in the river for over an hour. Oh my gosh!! I had Alex look at the address of a chiropractor office close by and had him call 911, despite her objection. I had to help keep her from falling further into the river, as it could sweep her away. Her sister and I finally got her out of the water enough to take off her wet socks and shoes. Her feet looked bad. She still could not stand. This poor women needed medical attention. She was intoxicated, dehydrated, sunburned, and with hypothermia. I left once the police officer arrived and shortly thereafter I saw an ambulance drive towards her location.

There was still a long wait at the restaurant we had picked, So we decided to walk further down the street to get pizza at Mountain Tap room. It was a delicious pepperoni pizza! After a short evening walk with Alex chasing the Canadian geese, we headed back to the resort and watched TV in bed (my favorite thing to do at the end of each day).

How am I doing with chronic pains?

Today was a little rough. The sensation in the left IT band and quads are tight and sore. The sciatica is worse. I did not have energy at the end of the day to do ANY physical therapy or foam roller or hot tub…etc. As each day goes by, it has been harder to manage the discomfort and I can tell that my balance is off. We head back to Texas tomorrow and I will HAVE TO be good and do my physical therapy at the hotel. It will be ok, the beauty of Colorado and spending time with family was worth.