As I awoke I noticed my tormentors, the noisemakers, were otherwise occupied. For a short while I was able to get some work done and write. Bruce called over and said "Yermo, look behind you". I turned and saw a deer mere yards away, slowly stalking towards me.

I left it undisturbed and it returned the favor.

Eventually my tormentors noticed my presence and once again I was attacked and forced into hard labor. They demaned to be chased. Up the mountain. Down the mountain. Across the mountain. There was much screaming involved and, unfortunately for me, ever increasing distances. Before long my heart was pounding and lungs burned from attempting to shove too much air with too little oxygen into my out of shape lungs. I was done for. Seth kindly attempted to distract them so I could get a rest, but they were having none of it. A couple cups of coffee and the chase was on again.

We were all pretty tired and not up for a huge hike or offroading, which had been on the schedule for the day. So instead we went to nearby Box Canyon Falls. If you visit Ouray, Colorado make a side trip to Box Canyon Falls, which is on your right as you come up towards the Ampitheatre Campground. It's an impressive waterfall that falls through a mountain.

Of course, I had to stop and snap a photo of the Ampithreatre Campground.

Bruce treated the entrance fee and we started on the short trail to the falls.

Years ago I lamented the disappearance of the chipmunk. "I haven't seen a chipmunk in years", I bemoaned. "I think they must be extinct". To this Ian replied, "Yermo, chipmunks are typically found outdoors".

And so they are.

There were a bunch of them running around. I thought about luring them with food and then chasing them, but ....

The trail wound it's way around the mountain. Eventually we came upon a park bench. "Germans were here, no doubt", I thought to myself.

As we approached the cliff face, we came upon a sign.

The trail continued onto a metal walkway hung off the cliff wall.

The walkway extended deep into the canyon. Mist filled the air. The falls were impressive.

What's interesting is the falls fall through the mountaiin. The water has cut a hole through the rock.

Looking back towards the entrance you can get a sense of how deep this canyon is.

There's a path that leads around to the top of the mountain where there's a bridge that spans the canyon. The trail was steep and a pretty good workout. We stopped for some photo ops on the way up.

Bruce, Ha, Kaitlyn and Charlie.

Across the valley you could see that other waterfall.

From the bridge you could get a much better view of how the water just cuts a hole straight down through the mountain.

You could just get a sense of how the river was older than the mountain and as the mountain grew up under the river it carved this canyon. Given how steep the walls are I imagine it's a relatively young mountain. The varying strata on the canyon walls told of a violent past.

We continued on through a tunnel on the far side of the bridge.

On the other side you could get a good view of the walkway into the canyon.

We went back to the campground for lunch. My tormentors were momentarily occupied.

We had lunch and then went down to the hotsprings pools. As I mentioned, these aren't natural hotsprings, they're swimming pools that are fed by hotsprings water. It turns out the source of the springs is near Box Canyon.

Originally I was just going to join them so I could grab a much needed shower. But I hadn't gotten to hang out with Bruce that much and most of the rest of the troops were elsewhere so I decided to join them. This was the first time I had been in a pool is so many years I no longer remember.

We hung out in the hottest of the four pools. It was relaxing and not too crowded. Eventually the noisemakers showed up. I thought that the bright reflection coming from the extreme whiteness would provide an adequate camoflouge, which it did for a while, but I was eventually noticed.

They attacked immediately. Before I knew it they enticed some reinforcements to join them ... the next thing I knew I was dragging 7 kids around a pool all of the trying desperately to dunk me. Showing an impressive amount of coordination, teamwork and ingenuity, they did manage to take me down after a considerable time.

Man I was worn out. My legs are so sore today I can hardly walk.

It was Seths birthday so we all went out to dinner at a nice bistro. "Hey That Guy, sit next to me!", demanded the loudest of the noisemakers.

We headed back to the campground and I built a fire. As an aside, the mini machete that I bought at the Aerostich warehouse has turned out to be much handier than I would have imagined. I can take a log and make kindling in no time.

I got the fire going pretty well when Bruce and Ha's daughter, Kaitlyn, started to cough. She has asthma. But soon another noisemaker start coughing and then I felt the burning in my throat and lungs. The air became unbreathable and painful. "Everyone away from the fire!!". We retreated to the other campsite where the air was breathable. We thought that we or the kids must have burned something in the fire. I went back to try to figure out the source. A few seconds later my throat burning unbearably I retreated. We waited some moments thinking maybe whatever was burning and giving off fumes would dissipate. Cautiously we went back to the campsite. The fumes had lessened but I could still feel the burning. We focused on the fire when I noticed I was upwind of it. There was a good breeze coming down the mountain. "That doesn't make any sense, could it be coming from up there?". I climbed up to the campground above us where all I could find was a gasoline generator running. At that moment I couldn't smell anything but as soon as I went down to the fire, the burning started. I was upwind of the smoke. I turned around and climbed even higher to see if maybe there was fire up on the moutain. I began fearing this might be something much more serious. In every campsite I came across people were coughing with eyes tearing. The fumes got worse the higher I went. "It's my fault", I hear someone say. "I accidently punctured a can of bear spray".

Damn. One can of bear spray can do that much. The ambulances showed up a little while later and we guessed they ended up taking some people out of the campsite. Bear spray is very dangerous. We were over a hundred yards away and the air where we were was unbreathable. I hate to imaginie what it must have been like closer to the source.

As the fumes dispersed, we stayed up later sitting around the campfire together for the last time on this trip.