Sixty-Six and Primed

That's right...it's my birthday and I'm primed for the future. The dictionary describes a man in his prime as the period or state of greatest perfection or vigor of human life. That sounds pretty good and reflective of the way I feel about the future. So, to commemorate the day, I enrolled in an art class (introduction to precious metal clay) at the Bemis School of Art in Colorado Springs.

I also treated myself to lunch at The Hungry Bear

The Hungry Bear, Woodland Park, Colorado

It was a nice break from my home cookin'.

While I'm here, let me update what has been going on. It's been an interesting couple of weeks since my last post. Last time I reported that we had explored Elevenmile Canyon and it looked like a prime fishing spot. Since then, Elevenmile Canyon has become the site of what is now known as the Springer wildfire and has been closed for the last two weeks.

The Springer Fire smolders Tuesday, June 19, 2012 near its origin in the Elevenmile Canyon area near Lake George. (The Colorado Springs Gazette | Christian Murdock)

The latest news report has the fire at 23% contained. If the wind is cooperative, there is expectation that the fire will be fully contained by Sunday. I'm sure it will be some time before the area is reopened for fishing.

So, with Elevenmile shut down, Leo and I have been doing more exploring to find altenatives. Last weekend we tried Manitou Lake, which is about 5 miles from my RV park, in the Pike National Forest.

Manitou Lake, with Pikes Peak in the background

 As you can see, this little lake gets pretty crowded on the weekend (we were there on Sunday), so we plan to go back some after work on weekdays. It's not trophy waters, but it's close and may be a chance to put some trout in the frying pan.

Last weekend I also enjoyed a concert at the Ute Pass Cultural Center as part of the Colorado Collage Summer Music Festival. The Orchestra performed works by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Dukas, Modest Mussorgsky and Igor Stravinsky. It was a real surprise to stumble onto such an enjoyable evening (and it was free).

Woodland Park is growing on me as I spend more time exploring. Here is some flavor of the town...

Pikes Peak from Downtown Woodland Park, Colorado

So, tomorrow starts another weekend and we'll be exploring further. I'm hoping to find the Dream Stream, if it hasn't been impacted by fires. At any rate, I'm primed for whatever the days ahead offer.