Autumn in the Colorado high country peaks at various times throughout September, and this year it was a couple of weeks behind our normal schedule. I was fighting a cold bug during the peak weeks, so my trip to Boreas Pass caught our aspens just past peak. A cold front had blown through two days earlier, but the overall effect was still spectacular.

I left early on the morning of October 1, and headed out on Highway 285 to Como, where I turned on Google Maps for verbal directions. I was following the road signs, but since I'm directionally challenged, I decided the extra help wouldn't hurt.

The female voice kept me on track, and once I was on the pass, I thought she would pipe down.

I was wrong.

Every few seconds she would encourage me to "keep to the right".

I could only go to the right, so that wasn't a problem.

At this point, there was no place to pull over, so I kept putting up with her backseat driving.

After a few more minutes, I yelled at her. WILL YOU SHUT UP?!

The next voice I heard was the faintest, passive-aggressive whisper, "keep to the right".

That's when I stopped my car in the middle of the road, laughed out loud, and gave a verbal nod to the incessant annoyance, "Well played, Irritating Google Woman. Well played".

Then I hit disconnect.

Boreas Pass is a high mountain pass that climbs to 11,481'. Mt Silverheels is the most striking of the mountains that come into view, and that morning it was sporting a fresh coat of snow, so it really popped. At the other end of the road lies Breckenridge, or as Coloradans call it, Breck.

Although leaf color and abundance had peaked, I still managed to get a few decent photos.

This is a soft edit of the view toward the pass from Highway 285. Clouds that had brought rain and snow earlier were beginning to lift, and the breeze was picking up. If you've ever driven in the mountains, you know that a calm day is not the norm.

Aspen gold

Jewel Tones

I used my PeakFinder app to name the mountains in this view, but can't find where I put the results. If I do, I'll edit this post. Or if someone identifies them for me, that'll work, too.

Mt Silverheels, yet again. I never tire of seeing it.

It was 25 at my house early this morning, and we had a brief snow shower yesterday, so even though fall hasn't been around for a full month, winter is not all that far off. Fall cleanup is on my agenda now. We had a late hailstorm that almost totally wrecked my garden this year. I've got things on my agenda like having my house and car repaired from hail damage, cleaning house for the holidays, and a million other chores. My next post is probably going to be a look back at spring and summer.

Several things kept me from posting in a timely fashion; primarily, a stalker, who began to annoy me early in the year. He then proceeded to scare me by changing his email address, even his user name, multiple times. It was unsettling, to put it mildly, and I'm just now feeling more at ease about putting myself out there. I hope that threat of a lawyer meant something to the person who forced me to write a strongly worded email that I didn't want to write, but felt I had no alternative.  Even old friends can get the wrong idea about others from their past. This was one of those cases. But it still gives me the creeps to think about it.

So, here's to better days to come. It's been making a slow comeback, but 2021 is, so far, still better than 2020. I'm not placing any bets, though. I'm a little late, but happy autumn!