Greyrock Mnt Trail and the Coop

A few things on our "Colorado bucket list" were:

growing Hops (check)

having a huge above the ground garden (check)

having edible things all throughout the yard (check)

...and getting organic chickens (as of today: check)

We found this adoption program, where 2 year old chickens, who no longer produce at a 100 % rate, get retired from this organic farm and you can adopt them. So we adopted 3. Brunhilde, Gertrud and one that still needs a name :-)

 Catching the chickens was fun. I have never attempted to catch one. Those little creatures are fast!!! Luckily I found some gloves from nursing school in the truck to catch them and hold onto them better.

 I knew that I would need these someday. 

 Bringing the chickens home was very exciting for Jack. 

 He wasn't sure if they were playmates, so he stared at them and barked a little.

 He loves sticking his nose in the coop...off course only with supervision.

 Their temporary home...

 Jack is making sure his new friends don't go anywhere...

 We connected the chicken coop to a space behind our garden house...they seem to love it as they explored the area all day. 

 They already laid two eggs, I am guessing it is a thank you for the new home (that's at least what I tell myself).

 In the afternoon it was time to explore. My friend Pam gave me an incredible book for christmas and I have the goal of hiking (or running) all the Northern Colorado Trails from the book and writing feedback and taking pics. 

 Today's run was Greyrock Mountain. It is just about 20 min outside of Ft Collins up the Poudre Canyon. The trailhead is easy to find and great for dogs and hikers. The loop is about 6 miles long (we skipped running up Greyrock, that this is STEEEEEEP). The trail was very very rocky and very steep. The first two miles were so steep that we had to walk some. Our average pace was 12 min/miles, little did we know that the elevation gain was 1500 ft on the way up and another 1500 ft on the way down. Yikes. We will be sore tomorrow. 

 This is the picture from the book. That was the flattest and least rocky part of the trails. I would recommend the trail for day hikes, overnight hikes, dog hikes (multiple streams available) and especially for practice if you plan on hiking the Grand Canyon!!! We will need to come back and hike this trail with backpacks!!! 

Tomorrow's adventure: Bacon Loop 10 miler and Carter Lake bike ride :-)