Omayra Acevedo, Peak to Peak. It’s Tuesday, the seventh of April and today actually feels like Spring. There’s a gentle breeze blowing, the birds have been singing since 0600 and as I face the new view out my window, I can’t help but feel my senses heighten with excitement and hope. New life has begun - as it does every year at this time, but in 2020 a new life has also begun for me. So much has happened in a short amount of time and I find that I’m still trying to convince myself that it is all real.

A woodpecker at the feeder interrupted my thoughts, when I realized that in a few weeks the hummingbirds will start arriving. Then, I recalled one of the first times I saw a hummingbird. I was on a hike at Rainbow Lakes off the Peak to Peak Highway. The sky was clear, the sun brightly shining and the rocky mountain summer scent was beyond invigorating. The hike was lush in greenery and wildflowers peaked through all the shrubbery.

Somehow, I had gotten lost during this hike and I kept hearing myself say that I needed a sign. I wanted to see something special so that I knew I wasn’t truly lost and that I would find my way out again. This later became somewhat of a metaphor in my life. A short while after begging the earth for a sign, it buzzed right past me, startling me to the point where I felt my heart pounding against my chest. Suddenly, I didn’t care that I felt lost. I was in good company.

Rainbow Lakes is a series of small ponds and lakes across land that connects the Peak to Peak Highway and the Continental Divide. Depending if you get lost or not, the hike is fairly short; roughly two and a half miles round trip. Shortly after the mountains granted my wish, I heard a family of four up the hill making their way down the mountain. I yelled to them to wait for me and they were kind enough to let me join them all the way back to the parking lot. 

My adventure didn’t end at the car. On my way home, I purchased several hummingbird feeders to hang at every window. I spent the rest of my day taking pleasure in bird watching. For a brief moment, I even caught a woodpecker and a hummingbird at the same feeder. Everything seemed dreamlike that day. Just like today, I found myself in disbelief of everything that had happened. As things change and Spring takes over life in Colorado, I too find my life springing forward in directions I never thought it would. 

(Originally published in the April 16, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)