125% Tuesday

We chased the sun all the way back to Boulder today.

Big Wall Nuts law #1: If we fly for X hours to reach destination Y, then we shall remain at destination Y for a minimum of X days.

We had a great time back east and in Europe but it was a bit hectic. More to come...

35 mile bike ride

Today we went for a long bike ride. There were some neat looking paths and trails on the map out by Loiusville and Superior so we biked south to try to find them.


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Along the way we had great views of our Flatirons and the bigger snowy mountains behind them.


After 20 miles or so we got to some mountain biking trails. They were very rocky but not too steep, so we were able to stay on our bikes most of the way.

CMC snowshoe trip

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Our 3rd CMC trip was a snowshoe starting at the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel. It was a big group -- 17 of us total! The way was easy going until we left the trail. A few of us took turns breaking trail up that steep hill. The group stopped for lunch at the top while a few of us headed a bit higher.


After finishing lunch and waiting for a few stragglers we got to run down the huge hill, a bit off to the side so we'd have nice fresh snow to plow through. According to the GPS my max speed was 10 MPH.

On the way down the group split up a bit. On parts of the hill we got cliffed-out and had to figure out a safer way down. Eventually we regrouped at a meadow. The snow was wet enough from being melted by the sun that we had a snowball fight and made a funny-looking snowman.


After the trip we had drinks and dinner at the Sundance Cafe in Nederland. Good chow and fun time socializing.

A Big Weekend

On Saturday we hit the road for the Denver Airport and flew out to Boston. We arrived at dinner time and met up with Melissa and Dave for a tasty dinner at a Korean barbecue. We stayed with them through Sunday night.

On Sunday we went to visit Tom, Jenn, and KayLee out in West Boylston. Then we headed to Hudson for a visit with Craig, Sarah, Violette, and Scarlett. All the girls are growing up so quickly! After a quick lunch at the Halfway Cafe, we dropped by Greg and Andrea's to meet Emma, their new daughter. Then it was back to Medford for an awesome pizza party with a lot of people. We were so lucky to see Rob, Lisa, Jenny, Deanna, John, Ernie, Susan, Tom, and KayLee and eat yummy pizza and brownies.


Monday I dropped Dan off at work while I did a little playing on my own. The afternoon came quickly and we had to get ready for the Technical Honors Dinner at the Framingham Sheraton. We had a nice dinner and I got to meet a lot of people from Raytheon.

Tuesday morning we were up at 5:00 to get to Logan. The flight was long, but uneventful. We made it back to Boulder at 1:00 in the afternoon and were very excited to be back. Though, we would love to bring all our friends back here with us, Boulder is definitely OUR place.

Spring Has Come to Boulder

It was 70 again today. I've seen crocuses around town and it's supposed to be warm all week. So much for the snowiest month of the year!

Brainard Cabin

On Sunday we snowshoed out to the CMC Cabin on Brainard Lake. We took the Snowshoe Trail to the roads around the lake. Once we were there we chopped firewood (yes, I actually swung an ax and split wood!) and got trained in how to open up and close down the cabin ourselves.


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So....if anyone wants to come out to CO we can reserve the cabin for a couple of nights. It sleeps 12 and has a wood burning stove and oven and fireplace with chairs and other goodies. After the training we followed THE WHOLE Snowshoe Trail back to the parking lot.

We're back!

Yeah! Another D+L-style weekend. We've each been sick and injured over the past month or so, so it's been a while since we both got out for a busy fun weekend. (click pic for whole album)

Saturday was great. Our itinerary:

1. Get lift tickets and rent skis in town
2. Eat 1 bacon cupcake and 1 regular cupcake
3. Ski at Eldora all day
4. Meet Matthias and Tina for dinner
   

We both did some great skiing. Laurel is comfortable on blues now. I can make it down double diamonds -- it's not pretty but I can do them without falling. Alps, here we come!

If you can stomach it, here's some disturbing Blair Witch--style footage of the easier part of one of those double diamonds:



After exhausting ourselves on the slopes we met Matthias and Tina in Idaho Springs for dinner. They're vacationing at Winter Park. We had some great pizza at Beau Jo's.

Sunday we're going to the Brainard cabin for training.

Boulder is Beautiful

So it was 66 degrees on Tuesday. After work I drove up to Chautauqua and hiked to the First Flatiron. It took me about an hour and half total and it was gorgeous. The winds were gusting pretty high at the top, but being that I was firmly on the ground it didn't bother me at all! Dan was volunteering at the bike shop, so he didn't get to come.

Today it's supposed to be 65 again. How nice!

Flagstaff Mountain

So, Dan's still broken so I went on a little outing. I road my bike to the Gregory Canyon parking lot (4.5 miles click here for map). Then I hiked up Flagstaff Mountain. This is a much smaller mountain with a summit of 6,700 feet. When I got to the top I followed on Range View Trail (pretty views) and then the Tenderfoot Trail loop. It was probably 60 degrees in the sun--just beautiful and I had the whole trail to myself! I was almost starting to get worried it was so warm that they bears would wake up from their little naps. Then I took the Gregory Canyon Trail back to the parking lot for a 6.5 mile hike. I road back home and then saw Coraline with Dan.

Green Mountain

Our adventures of late have been rather low-key. That's because in the middle of January I got sick--ear infection, pink eye, cold, persistent cough--and suffered for almost four weeks. Then Dan got all of my germs and he has been sick for two weeks now. On Tuesday he went to the doctor and on his way back from the pharmacy he fell off his bike and majorly scraped up his knees. Therefore, today we were going to hang out in Golden and see the Mountaineering Museum and just take it easy. However, walking still proves to be problematic for Dan, so we decided to just stay at home.

At around noon, I got cabin fever. It was beautiful, sunny, and nearly 50 degrees so my morning run was not going to cut it for my outdoor activities of the day. So, I hopped in the car and drove to the Gregory Canyon trail head. I hiked to the top of Green Mountain via the Amphitheater Trail, Saddle Rock Trail, and E.M. Greenman Trail. The views of the Indian Peaks and the backs of the Flatirons were gorgeous. I made it to the summit 2,400 feet higher than the parking lot in an hour and a half. On the way make I made a bit of a loop and followed the Ranger Trail down back to Saddle Rock. It was a great little five-mile hike. When I got home we made chili and peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

Skiing at Eldora

I went alpine skiing today to practice for our trip to the Alps next month (to see Donna and JJ and also to ski). I really wish I brought my camera because it was crystal clear and I could see mountains for miles on end. The skiing was also really fun even though it was Presidents' Day and I saw a number of my students on the mountain. Yes, they were all better skiers than me!

Meyers Homestead Trail

We hiked the Meyers Homestead Trail today. The first part of the trail was covered in hoof prints and scat. It looked like a herd of elk had passed through. Sure enough a few switchbacks later we saw a herd of elk. They spooked easily and took off further away from the trail.

The trail continued uphill for 2.5 miles through a few inches of fluffy snow. Along the way we entered a cloud. Visibility was limited and the trees were coated with rime. We knew we made it to the end of the trail because there was an "END OF TRAIL" sign. Genius. On the way back the clouds broke up a bit and we saw the sun and some blue skies.

Chasm Lake

Despite our very late start this morning, we did get in a decent snowshoe adventure. At 3:15 we summited the saddle that overlooks Chasm Lake at the base of Longs Peak. See trek in Google Earth or Maps.

When we approached the last half mile or so, we were very weary about the weather. Low clouds were coming in over the area's peaks and snow was in the forecast. However, I convinced Dan that we should just go a little bit further to see the lake and what was visible of the famous Longs Peak Diamond. (Yes, that's right, I was the bad influence today! Usually, that's Dan's job.) Unfortunately, we didn't have enough daylight to make the .7 mile trip to the lake to complete our day's objective, but it was still worthwhile.

We selected the Chasm Lake trail because my brother Adam discovered it on his first full day in Colorado. Dan and I were both working so he took off for a drive, subsequent hike, and successful fishing trip. His pictures were just gorgeous and we always wanted to check it out for ourselves. Unfortunately, the colors were not nearly as vibrant today and the snow drifts slowed us down above the tree line.

All in all we hiked nearly 7 miles and gained 2150 feet in four and a half hours. We were going at a pretty good clip until we got above the trees and kept losing the trail (not that it would have helped). The coolest part of the day was definitely watching the clouds change on Longs and Mount Meeker. A close second, though, was taking the first 3.5 miles of the trail to Longs Peak. This is on the must-do list for this summer--a 15-mile, nearly 5000 ft gain adventure.

Have you heard about the bird?

The weather was amazing today so I went for a bike ride. It was warm enough to ride in a T-shirt and shorts.

Along the way I saw a woman rollerblading. She had a bird on a leash. It looked like a pigeon and was flying about 2 feet in front of her about waist-high.

Tomorrow I'm going to take my goldfish for a walk.

I biked up the big hill to NCAR and from there hiked up to Mallory Cave. A couple of huge ravens flew out of the cave as I approached. Scared the crap outta me -- bats won't start roosting there for another 2 months. I sat by the cave entrance for a while then began the hike & bike back home.

The weather should be back in the 40s this weekend so it'll be back to more typical wintery things.

Old Stage burn hike

We went on a guided hike around the Old Stage burn area today. Click pic to see more.

CMC Adventure #2

So, we decided to join the CMC (Colorado Mountain Club) back in November, but for whatever reason, we haven't done many trips. We found one for today that looked like a lot of fun in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The alarm went off at 5:30 (yuck!) so we could meet the group up in the park at 7:00. Though we were a bit late to the designated meeting site, we were able to meet up with the group at the trail head at Bear Lake. In the parking lot the wind was howling so we dressed for a cold day, even though the forecast was for sun and 40-degree temps.


Our group of eight began snowshoeing around Bear Lake and then westward towards Flattop Mountain. When we were in the trees for the first half of the hike, the wind was blocked and we were very comfortable. There were awesome views of Longs Peak and many other mountains above 12,000ft. The group members took turns breaking trail, or should I say bushwhacking, because we were about 600 feet higher than the trail. Some of the snow was two or three feet deep so it was slow going for quite a while.

When we broke out of the trees, our goal was to gain the ridge and then follow it to the summit. Without our trees to offer some relief from the wind, the gusts were blowing full force down the ridge. There was a fairly steady 10-20mph wind with gusts up to about 30. When we gained the summit of 12,300ft around noon, the winds were annoying but not debilitating. Therefore, we continued on the route originally planned for the day. We turned a bit north to head for Ptarmigan Lake. We last about 20 minutes as the winds picked up strength and were blowing at a steady 40mph. At times I was blown off balance.

Picking up the trail, we headed back down to the tree line for a sheltered spot for lunch. On the way back down we saw a few pure white ptarmigans (cool alpine birds that are gray in the summer) and then finally stopped for lunch at 2:00. We made it back to the trail head a bit after 3:30 after nine miles and 3000 feet elevation gained. See our trek in Google Earth or Maps.

This was a first true winter summit. Our first CMC trip failed to summit Mt. St. Vrain and we've done mountains in town, but those are just over 8,000ft. It was a fun, yet windy day, and the folks we snowshoed with were just wonderful. I should mention, though, that we were the youngest people there by over 40 years. I hope when I'm in my seventies I can still do trips like this!

Moo

This cow was as big as our car! At least it seemed that way as we drove by.

Laurel says we hiked at least 12 miles today at the Heil Ranch. We saw lots of wildlife and other neat stuff -- aside from the horses and cows on the ranch, we saw an Abert's Squirrel, some Downy Woodpeckers, bones, mountain bikers, ruins, a rusted car and truck, and a rabbit. (see album)

We had lunch at this overlook:


Later along the trail Laurel found a jawbone, probably from a mountain lion kill:



This is a great trail, we'll come back sometime with our bikes.

Today

It was 70 degrees today.

Der Zerkle!

We climbed Der Zerkle today!



From the summit we had great views of the approach to Mallory cave. We hung out up top for half an hour since it was sunny, then rappelled down. Click pic for full album.

Lefthand Reservoir and Brainard Lake

Last weekend was too cold and windy for snowshoeing but today was awesome. We went back to the Brainard Lake area. Laurel skied and I snowshoed up to Lefthand Reservoir:


From there we went off trail and skied/shoed through the backcountry to Brainard Lake. The snow was very deep and it was tough getting through the trees in places. We got to Brainard Lake and found the CMC cabin. It was nice to stop in for some tea and coffee. After talking to the cabin host for a bit we headed out the South St. Vrain trail and picked up the Sourdough trail back to our car. (pics map)