April Weekend

It seems that I passed my cold on to Dan this weekend. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten it a lot worse than I had it. So, he stayed in Saturday to try to get better. Even though it was foggy and lightly raining I decided to go to Sugarloaf Mountain (halfway between here and Nederland) to summit. But, it was so incredibly foggy up there I couldn't even tell if I was at the trailhead. So, instead I went to Betasso, hiked the loop, checked out Bummer's Rock, and previewed the link trail from Boulder Canyon to see if we could bike it.

Sunday was our second WTS field trip. We met up with our team over in Evergreen at Genesee Park. We spent the day traveling off-trail to locate points we plotted at home. We used our compasses, maps, and pace counts to find trees with tape on them. Both Dan and I located the points our teams were supposed to find! Afterward we had dinner at BeauJo's with Ann and Sean (from our team). Next week is snow travel day! Yay!

Unofficial impromtu bike week

Apparently this was bike week. Sunday we biked after our WTS field trip. Monday we biked into the Canyon. Tuesday we biked to Chautauqua and hiked most of the way up to the top of the First Flatiron. (I think we figured out where the Baker's Way route starts. Too bad this week's great weather didn't last or we'd be climbing right now.)


Wednesday afternoon we biked over to sign our lease for another year. Thursday evening I biked to Mt. Sanitas for some bouldering and then did the hike up and down the mountain. Friday afternoon I biked to the bike shop to volunteer and that evening we biked over to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Laurel biked to school at least one day this week too.

Ride into the canyon

Laurel got another chance to try her new mountain bike today. Just before 7pm we headed out towards Boulder Canyon. We had to pedal fast to get there and back in time for 24 but we made it. Tomorrow evening we hope to scope out the Flatirons area to see if it'll be dry enough to climb on Saturday.

WTS Field Trip #1

Today was our first field trip with our Wilderness Trekking School (WTS) class. Today's topic was dry land travel, but up at NCAR there was quite a bit of snow.

We practiced using a compass and reading topographic maps. We hiked over to Bear Canyon and practiced stream crossings. We headed up towards Bear Peak a bit and learned to cross snow-covered talus and then continued off-trail for a while. We circled around the NCAR Mesa and then scrambled back to the parking lot.

Once there we reviewed important pack contents and the ten essentials. After some knot tying we went to the Dark Horse for food and beer.

When Dan and I got home we hit our bikes (I got a new mountain bike yesterday!) and went up to the Cottonwood Trail. A fun day!

Kohler Mesa hike

Forecast for today was rain in the afternoon, so we went for a cloudy hike in the morning. We explored some trails near Chautauqua that we hadn't been on before.

Cross country skiing at Brainard Lake

Laurel and I went cross country skiing today in the Brainard Lake area. We skied up the road and the CMC Ski Trail to the Brainard cabin, but it was closed. We stopped there for lunch anyway.

After lunch we started up the Beaver Creek trail which leads to the summit of Mt. Audubon. It didn't take long to get to a familiar vista:

August, 2008:

April, 2009:

We only got a mile and a half up the trail before deciding if we went any further the way back would be too difficult for our skill and ski gear. The way down had some nice hills -- the first time down this one I chickened out and fell before going over the ridge, so I was psyched to not fall the second time around:



The only other time I've been on XC skis was probably 5 years ago, so I was pretty spastic all day. I did OK... aside from a handful of falls, a face-first encounter with a tree, and a few shoulder tweaks.


The views were great. It was overcast most of the day but warm. The sun came out a few times. Even though the snow was melting and conditions weren't always great, there was still a lot of snow (see stop sign at right).

On the way back we skied the Little Raven trail to the Lefthand Reservoir road. The trail was mostly uphill but we got some really nice runs down the road. There were a few places I was able to get air off a few bumps (GPS said top speed was 20 MPH). It was nice to finally get some speed and be able to control the skis.

By the end of the day we had skied just under 10 miles (map).

One more day at Eldora

It actually rained in Boulder Fri/Sat. Not used to that. This morning we realized that means fresh powder at Eldora -- 18"!

The skiing was great. Even got Laurel on a few diamonds!

Spring Break

Keeping it short since there's a lot to tell. Pictures below link to full albums, one for each day.

Sat. 3/21: Flew to LaGuardia. L wins 4th annual Autocracy Poker Challenge.

Sun. 3/22: Hung out with Furlani family. Hiked in Agawam in the morning and then made s'mores in the afternoon with grandparents, cousin, aunts, and uncles.

Mon. 3/23: Showed Gramma and Grandpa F. Boulder pics and had lunch with them. Took Amanda shopping and had dinner out with Jackie and Paul.

Tues. 3/24: D went to work in Marlborough. L went to Lincoln to see kids and teachers. We both had dinner with John, Sarah, and Sophia.

Wed. 3/25: Drove to Bristol to see Grandma and Grandpa R. Had lunch and looked at pics. Afternoon with Tim and very pregnant Diana :-) Dinner and drinks at Christine and Dave's.

Thurs. 3/26: Walked around the Cloisters in way-upper Manhattan. Drove around and around Newark Airport trying to find gas station. Flew to Geneva.

Fri. 3/27: Arrived in Geneva after little sleep. Yummy French pastries for breakfast. Donna showed us around her school, Old Town and other Geneva hot spots. Lunch at a cafe. Back to apartment for a nap, then out again to see Lake Geneva and hip neighborhood. Dinner at home.

Sat. 3/28: Weather canceled planned hike, so we went to Italy instead. Stopped for short hike to waterfall before reaching border. Drove under Mont Blanc, hiked to very old ruins on top of hill. Walked around Aosta, had pizza, did some shopping, and saw Roman coliseum–like ruins. Dinner at awesome Italian restaurant. Spaghetti is very yummy.



Sun. 3/29: Went to CERN. Saw very big parts of particle accelerator (if you've seen the LHC rap video, what we saw was the CMS mentioned at 0:52). Did not see black hole. Lunch in Geneva at Indian restaurant. Small hike in town where D found snail shell. Watched Warren Miller movie to get psyched for skiing.

Mon. 3/30: Skied at Chamonix—Brevent/Flegere area. Some runs were in the clouds and visibility was 10 feet. L very scared. Most of day visibility was OK. D had tons of fun, L did not die :-) (L had fun, too) Dinner at local rural French restaurant. D and Donna had melty cheese, meat, potato, and pickle dish. Regional specialty.


Tues. 3/31: Day that never ended. Flew to Newark, shuttled to LGA, flew to Denver, bus to Boulder. 24 hours of traveling sucks.

Wed. 4/1: Very tired. Lots of laundry and groceries. Nice to see Flatirons again.