The Nomadic Norvells: Silversheild Trail on Alive Day

Every morning, while I'm drinking my coffee, I look out the RV window at a beautiful red ridge with perfect pine trees.

It looks totally accessible, so I set out to find a trail that might take me up it. Ouray being Ouray, there are several trails that go up there. I picked the one that started literally at the RV door - the Silversheild Trail behind the old Silversheild Mill. From the RV, I simply walked out the front door about 20 steps to the Uncompahgre River Trail, and over to the Silverthorn Trailhead. Pretty cool, eh?

Silvershield Mill from the west side of the River Trail. The Silvershield trailhead is just southeast of that.

These beautiful beasts welcomed me at the trailhead (or they just smelled the apple in my pack!)

As an aside, November 8th has a special significance to me - it was on that day in 2016 that I got my breast cancer diagnosis. That year, it was election day, and one of my most vivid memories of that time is sitting in bed watching Trump get elected hours after learning I had cancer. I thought for sure we'd be invaded by zombies that night, too. Anyway, what's really significant about that date is that it really is the start of my "second life". Without that diagnosis, I'd still be clawing my way to the top of the food chain in the Army, living in shitty places on shitty military bases, working around the clock, being away from my pack, and essentially missing out on life. Ironically, the thing that almost took my life actually gave me a new and improved one; therefore, I celebrate!!

This year, we had VA appointments scheduled for the 8th, so my big celebration of life happened on the 6th. I hiked. All by myself - not even any pups - and ended that hike at my favorite brewery, with my favorite human, followed by lots of snuggles from my furry children. All in all, it was an excellent celebration of aliveness!

Although most mines here were for silver, the one on this mountain was for gold.

Once I got up on the initial ledge, I had a birds eye view of our RV!

Obligatory selfie at the top.

I just can't get enough of these mountains. The snowy one in the middle is the backside of Telluride.

I'm looking forward to watching how these mountains change as the snow builds up.

I had hoped to be able to bag the Twin Peaks while I was up on that ledge. After all, it was only another 1.2 miles to get up there. But when I got to that decision point, my body said "oh HELL NO you don't!" Next time, I guess.