Tag Archives: hiking

Fourth of July on Eaglesmere Trail

12 Jul

Here, finally, are the pictures from our wonderful and challenging backpacking trip.

We hiked Eaglesmere Trail, which is about 45 minutes NW of Silverthorne. The trailhead is located near Lower Cataract Lake.

Thank you, Google Maps.

The road to get to the trail head is pretty rough (washboard dirt roads) and tight (which makes for some interesting times when there’s an oncoming car). When we arrived at the trail head parking lot around 10:30 am, both the main lot and the overflow lot were completely full. We had no choice but to create our own spot, which was difficult because the Forest Service has lined the open areas with logs to prevent you from doing just that. Secret: there’s an open spot near the outhouse, which is where we parked.

We finally got on the trail, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was very wooded and green, with lots of plants and flowers. It actually kind of felt like a jungle. Since the last couple of hikes Travis and I have gone on were near Colorado Springs where it’s very rocky, this lushness was a pleasant change.

It was very hot this July 4th weekend with temperatures reaching 100 in Denver and mid-80s in the mountains. Within 10 minutes of starting out, I had sweat streaming down my face and dripping off my chin – and we were still in the shade!  There are a few stretches of this hike in full sun and while it gets hot out there, they’re not the steepest parts. But you do get a gorgeous view.

I totally think I look like my mom in that picture. Like mother, like daughter. 🙂

Our dog, Katy, was so cute on this trip. While our dog, Charlie, stuck to the front of the pack with Rocky (Ahren and Lauren’s dog), Katy followed along after Ahren and Lauren and would come back to watch for me and Travis pulling up the rear. Once we were in sight again, she’d continue on. Just wanted to make sure we I hadn’t died, I guess.

See my massive calf muscle? Hells yeah!

Also, note my little lantern hung on the back of my pack (it’s the blue thing at the bottom). Travis laughed at me when I bought it. I laugh at him when he wears his headlamp.

At about the time the last picture above was taken, my legs and my mouth were cursing at the never-ending hills on this trail. The highest point of the trail is 10,300 ft – starting at 8,500 ft – an elevation gain of 1,800 ft, which isn’t that bad except when you’re 1) not in backpacking shape and 2) doing hard workouts all week for triathlon training. My legs were just so tired. I have never felt like that on a hike before (well except for the first time I went backpacking, but I’m in a lot better shape than then. Last year, we did 30 miles in 3 days but they were flat miles. I hate hills!)

Finally, we were getting closer. We arrived at a stream (which was more like a small river it was flowing so fast) and then bushwhacked it on the ‘Rock Superhighway’ to the lake (which I don’t think is actually Eaglesmere Lake but some other obscure, yet well-known, little lake).

Finally, to my immense relief, we arrived. I survived! But the thing about backpacking (or really camping in general) is that once the hard work is over, there’s more hard work. Like setting up your tents, making a fire ring, keeping an eye on your dogs so they don’t piss your neighbors off (even though they piss you off with firecrackers at 10 pm and a dog named Slim that keeps visiting), cooking your food, filtering water, gathering fire wood, trekking up hills just to go to the bathroom, etc. Camping is so much work.

But at last, with all the dirty work out of the way, it was time for fishing, reading, picture taking, and a campfire.

The view of the lake from our campsite

The view of the mountains from our campsite

Our tent (borrowed from Ahren and Lauren because ours would not fit us + 2 pups)

Yay for self-portraits a la SkinnyRunner!

Isn’t that a totally awesome picture? Yeah, I took that – on my little Canon PowerShot.

The next morning, I woke up as the Green Hulk. That’s what happens when two dogs that should be exhausted beyond recognition still decide to wake up at 5 am. Grrrr…

Instead of accepting my early wake up call like I should have, I took the dogs on a little 10-minute walk, then tried to get them to go back to sleep in the tent. They weren’t having it (for the record, they hit their daily energy peak at 6 am). So I had Travis tie them to a tree when he got up to pee. Which was pretty much useless because I just laid there the whole time, hearing them walking around, tangling themselves together, and then Charlie digging a hole.

Finally, I resigned myself to my fate and got up. Not too long after that, Ahren and Lauren were up, and then I made Travis get up too.

After a breakfast of oatmeal and Strawberry Goober, we hiked down the stream that flows out of the lake to go fishing (I went to go reading). Actually, after contemplating an entire day of reading, I decided I would try my hand at fishing. Three casts in, I snagged my line on a rock or log and Travis broke the rod trying to get it un-snagged. Fishing FAIL. That is why I just shouldn’t fish. The universe was telling me something.

So instead, I read The Autobiography of George Muller and the Bible.

I also snuggled Katy.

She’s my little sidekick.

We also sat back-to-back for a little bit, which I thought was funny. (It’s also funny that I double as Popeye in this photo.)

I watched Travis fish for a bit.

Ahren and Lauren have been to this spot before and had tremendous luck catching fish. But the stream was a lot higher and faster than past years (due to the abnormally high amount of snow the high country received last winter) so we weren’t having much luck. After 30 minutes of no luck, we moved downstream to find Ahren and Lauren.

They found a great fishing spot where there was a bend in the stream and some trees had fallen across, creating slower water. It was also hilarious to watch the dogs make their way across these logs. Their balance wasn’t always the greatest, but not one fell in (though Rocky got wet a lot on purpose). Our dogs want nothing to do with water.

Kluthes didn’t have the greatest fishing luck. While Ahren and Lauren caught 4-5 small brook trout (and Lauren had caught a nice, big one the night before at the lake), Travis caught a few (I caught none of course) and then he caught his line on a log. After a wholehearted attempt to save the lure (I’m not a fisher so I don’t know what you call them), they cut the line and said RIP.

Meanwhile, the early-rising dogs were peetered out and trying to take a nap anywhere they could.

We all laughed at the places Charlie tried to sleep. While we were at our campsite the second night, both Katy and Charlie were so tired that they found little nooks to curl up in. Charlie even tried to crawl under the vestibule on Ahren and Lauren’s tent. When we told she couldn’t do that, she found a cozy spot in a some tall grass. I kept telling her that she wouldn’t be so tired if she’d just stop getting up so early but she just looked at me with her Eeyore face. Oh, bother.

Since the pooches were so obviously tired (and so was I), I decided to capitalize on their sleepiness by returning to camp for a nap of my own. It was glorious but I felt a little guilty because by the time I got up from my nap, Ahren and Lauren had filtered water, collected more firewood and gutted their fish. Whoops.

After dinner and some campfire discussion, I retired to bed with the pooches at 9 pm.

The next morning, pooches didn’t get up until 8 am! It was a miracle! I slept a lot better the second night (I got a little chilly at night but warmed right up by sticking my head in my sleeping bag). We ate our breakfast of champions (oatmeal with Strawberry Goober) and packed up camp. We took some pictures of the gang:

I had been nervous about the hike back and even prayed the night before as I was falling asleep that God would give me the energy and strength I needed to make it back. The first mile and a half on the way back was mostly uphill (since the lake itself is only at 10,000 ft) and I was sweating buckets again. After that, it was downhill. While I was glad to not be incredibly out of breath and ridiculously sweaty (I was only really sweaty), my legs were still exhausted.

I was SO ready to be done that I welcomed a break for this photo op (Travis took that pic – I think he did very well!):

Little did we know that the appearance of Colorado Columbine means the end of the hike! I rounded the trail bend, saw the trail head, and exclaimed “We made it!”

After using the outhouse, replacing our hiking boots with sandals, and loading up the tired pooches, we made our way to Silverthorne for some delicious food at Dairy Queen. I had the chicken finger basket and a mini Banana Split Blizzard. Delish!

Then we discovered that eastbound I-70 (the main interstate connecting Denver to the high country) was closed due to a semi-trailer that overturned. So our drive home looked like this:

It was a cluster. People were doing whatever they wanted or thought was necessary. What should have taken us an hour took us 2 1/2 but we finally made it home. We were so exhausted from the weekend and fed up with crowds that we decided to forego fireworks (and if you know how much I like fireworks, that is saying a lot). The annual Carnation Festival in Wheat Ridge always has a fireworks show so I figure I can just catch them then.

Well, that was our weekend. Backpacking is a fun adventure but man, it is hard work!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Weekly Recap 6/13 – 6/19

20 Jun


As I mentioned a few days ago, I am going to post weekly recaps of  my training and time with God.

This past week went pretty well training-wise. I was able to stick to my schedule and get in all my workouts except for one.

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: Swam 750 yards; Ran 4 x 800 (in negative splits: 4:30, 4:20, 4:10, 4:07!!); abs

Wednesday: Biked 14.4 miles in 1:06

Holy hills batman! This was supposed to be 15 miles but I couldn’t remember the route I had mapped so I just followed the trail but ended up turning back early.

Thursday: Swam 1,500 yards; Ran 2.6 miles with pooches in 29:40 

Can we say spastic dogs?

Charlie actually did really well on my run. Her attention span waned after the first mile and a half but she didn’t pull on her leash or misbehave hardly at all.

Running makes some hungry dogs (like they aren’t hungry all the time, though):

 And a very sweaty me:

See the sweat dripping off my chin?

Friday: Supposed to swim 1,000 yds but instead ran 4.1 miles in 45:50.

Saturday: Hiked 7 miles in 4 hours

Travis and I went down to Divide (an hour west of Colorado Springs) to visit some friends. We hiked to Pancake Rocks and little did we know that the trail was all uphill on way out and downhill on way back. It was a challenging hike so we went up at a leisurely pace, enjoyed our lunch at the top, and then hiked back down. When we got back to their house, we watched Flushed Away and took a nap.

The hiking crew

Sunday: Biked 20 easy miles in 1:35 ish (13.5 with Travis, 7.5 on trainer)

The trail that I had mapped out (Clear Creek) was closed about 4 miles into our ride, so we improvised by going down the Ralston Creek Trail, which was actually very pretty, and then taking side streets home. The last 7.5 miles on my bike trainer were brutal because I was so bored. I need to figure out something to do on the trainer that keeps me entertained.

I also did well at spending time reading the Bible every morning, except Saturday when we were visiting friends, and Sunday when we were going to church.
It was a good week but I am living up my much-needed rest day today (by doing laundry and cleaning the house).

Tags: , , , , , , ,

More Memorial Day Pics

3 Jun

Tags: , , ,

Memorial Day Fun

3 Jun

On the hike up Cedar Mountain

This post is  happening a work week later than I had planned on but hey! that means I’ve actually had work to do at work this week… gasp! As my workload has dwindled today, here’s the recap finally.

Summer is officially here! (I don’t care what the calendar says.) Travis and I went camping Memorial Day weekend for the first time of the year. Our friend Randy’s family has some property down there so we got to stay there for free. Sahweet! Their land is rented from the Lutheran Valley Ranch so there were quite a few other people there besides us, but the land plots are so big (5-6 acres) that it’s definitely not a campground feel. BUT there is a Ranch House with running water and toilets (very much appreciated). I may advocate tents over campers for the feeling of camping, but I definitely do not advocate peeing outside over inside (at least for women).

After a couple of long, hectic weeks, Travis and I decided to leave for camping Saturday morning, which was definitely the right decision. We got a lot accomplished Friday night in preparation for leaving (loading the truck, grocery shopping, laundry, an episode of Bones) and still didn’t leave our house until 8:30 Saturday morning.

As we went through Colorado Springs, Travis asked to stop and take some pictures of a culvert. No, that’s not weird. It’s for his job. And he enjoys it. In return, I asked to stop and get a chicken biscuit from Chick-Fil-A. No, that’s not weird. I’m always thinking about food. Especially chicken biscuits from Chick-Fil-A.

Our cooking setup

Then we continued on up into the mountains, arriving at our campsite around 11:00. After setting up our tent, sleeping bags, and eating lunch, we took a short nap with the pooches in the tent and then went on a hike suggested by Randy up Cedar Mountain. There are no signs at the trailhead for the hikes in this area, so we had to drive into the Retreat Center and ask someone who worked there where the trail was. Their directions were just as nebulous but we did end up finding the trail.

The first 30 minutes were very easy. But once we got to where the switchbacks started, things only got harder. Randy had told us it was like rock climbing in some areas and during this part of the hike, I was sort of laughing at him because it wasn’t at all as steep as I had expected “rock climbing” to be. That’s because we hadn’t gotten to that part yet…

When we finally did, I was skeptical as to whether we could actually get the dogs up such slopes. We ended up having to have one of us go up partway while the other stood at the bottom. We’d call the dogs up the slope and as they got their running start but didn’t *quite* make it to the top, the person at the top would grab them and pull them the rest of the way. Then there was another part where Charlie was too scared and wanted to go back down but I just grabbed her and carried her for a little bit. She was a trooper, though, for this having been her first hike ever.

But then we found ourselves faced with a ladder and decided that it wasn’t worth trying to carry the pooches up and down that. So we turned around after Travis climbed to the top and took some pictures. He offered that I could climb up while he waited with the dogs but I started up the ladder and then decided I was ok. I’m not huge into steep, technical hiking. Plus, he said the views were pretty much the same at the top as where I was. Settled.

When we got back to our campsite, it was about 4:00 – too early for dinner. Travis cracked open a beer and I brewed some coffee. Both beverages were soon abandoned due to an emergency: Katy and Charlie got quilled by a porcupine.We had been letting them run around off their leashes and being dogs, they kept going far enough that we lost sight of them. After calling them back several times, we wondered, maybe it’s ok to just let them run? They wouldn’t go too far… which was true. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t get into trouble though.

But as I took my first sip of coffee, we heard barking. Crap, we thought, they’re barking at one of the neighbors and annoying the crap out of them. Lazily and mostly annoyed, we walked in the direction of the barking, calling for the pooches to come. They didn’t.

Until we heard them yelp and then emerge with snouts covered in what appeared to porcupine quills. Katy was making gasping and choking noises and Charlie seemed to mostly ok. We ran back to our campsite and got out the pathetic plastic tweezers from our first aid kit. They were completely useless. Luckily, Travis had some pliers so he got those out and while he sat on Katy and I helped hold her mouth open, we pulled those quills out. Poor Katy – she had probably a couple hundred quills in her lips, on the roof of her mouth, in her gums, on her tongue. Every quill pulled out brought blood and made her wiggle trying to break free from our grip. She did really well, though, considering the circumstances.

Charlie’s condition wasn’t nearly as bad. She had 25-30 quills, mostly in her gums and lips as well. But she did not like getting the quills ripped out one bit. She thrashed and whined and wriggled so much that Travis had to literally sit on her with all his weight.

After one more switch in instruments (forceps worked the best), we were finally done – both with pulling quills out and with letting the dogs run around off their leashes. We didn’t need to deal with that anymore.By that time, it was time for dinner so Travis started a fire and we put some brats, asparagus, and baked beans on the grate over the fire. (Note to self: Defer to Travis in all matters related to cooking on the fire or grill.) After a walk around the lake near the Ranch House and some wine/beer and s’mores, we retired to bed at the hour of 9 pm.The flapping tent

But it was next to impossible to sleep. When we first went to bed, it was dead silent except for these god-awfully loud crickets that seemed to be in my eardrums. I couldn’t stand it so I got out my iPod and put on some sleepy tunes. That helped and within 20 minutes or so, I was falling asleep.

Only to be awaken around 3 am by the howling wind and constantly flapping tent. After that, every time I was almost dropping off, the wind would pick up and send our tent flap a-flappin’ and wake me up.

Travis also had a hard time sleeping. At first, he couldn’t get to sleep because he was worried about bears. After he got up and hung our garbage bag in a tree a ways from our tent, he figured he’d be able to go to sleep. No such luck. Because that was when the wind picked up and then he laid awake worrying about a tree falling on our tent. Ay-ay-ay.

The next morning, the pooches woke up at 7 am. I took them on a nice little morning walk, drank some coffee, and spent time in the Word while Travis tried to sleep a bit longer. At 9 am, he finally got up and we made breakfast. After washing dishes and grooming, we headed out for the hike we were thinking about doing down a drainage that led to the South Platte River. But we were prevented by two words: ATV Mecca. There were so many ATV-ers out and about that we decided to not do the trail we had been thinking of (not with two pooches off leashes). So after an hour spent driving around on eroded, extremely bumpy dirt roads getting our brains scrambled, we retreated to another hike Randy had told us about.

Like the previous hike, there was no sign for the trail leading to the ‘Stone Cabin’ and the directions we had from Randy were pretty vague. We started out walking on what appeared to be a trail but quickly vanished into nothingness. There was a trail on the other side of the stream but we had seen ATVs on it as we started out and that was exactly what we were trying to avoid. So we kept walking. After about .75 mile of hiking through the woods seeing no sign of a Stone Cabin, we started getting pinched out of the drainage and decided to head up the slope and walk the ridge back.

As we were sitting on a downed tree trunk eating trail mix and PB&J sandwiches, we heard voices. Hmmm, we thought, the ATV trail must not be that far away. Come to realize, those voices were coming from above us – a group of 4-5 people were coming down from the peak about 200’ above us. We decided to ask the people if they knew where the Stone Cabin was. They did! After giving us some more vague directions (“Follow this trail and turn right”) and encouraging us to check out the view from up top, they left and we hiked up to the top

.As typical with any peak (and especially so that day since the wind from the previous night had not let up but continued to blow at gusts of 30-40 mph), it was incredibly windy at the top but it was gorgeous. A panoramic point if I ever saw one.

We continued on our journey to find the Stone Cabin, not really sure we knew where we were going. But then we reached a T in the trail and the directions those people had given us made sense. The detour to the Stone Cabin only took us about 35 minutes of hiking time and was definitely worth it – I love seeing old cabins like that tucked back in the middle of nowhere. To think that someone actually lived there!

Finally, we were headed back. When we got back to our campsite, we fed the pooches and then put them in their kennel because they were both exhausted. Every time we had stopped during our hike, they both found shady spots and lie down.

Travis and I were also tired so we went into our tent and read our books for a while. The wind was still ferocious (I swear, it had to have been 50 mph at times) and our tent was still flapping and we had had it up to here, so we decided to eat our dinner of white bean chili and beer bread sitting in the cab of our truck, just to escape the wind momentarily. That was when Randy showed up. He and Travis were going to go fishing on Monday while I went back to Denver with the pooches.

After helping Randy get settled, we sat around and talked in the wind and the dark (no campfire when it’s so windy), ate some uncooked s’mores, and went to bed around 9 pm again. Pooches slept in their kennel that night because the bottom zipper on our tent door broke and we didn’t want to have to deal with them trying to sneak out at night.Though it was still very windy that night, I slept a LOT better than the night before. Travis did too, once he got up to rig the tent flap to stop flapping. (So that’s why it was so quiet!) Morning came very early though, at 6:15 am.

After a breakfast of burritos and coffee (provided by Randy), we packed up camp and headed out. Travis and Randy went camping and I and the pooches went home. Traffic wasn’t bad at all and I got home by 11:00. I unloaded all the coolers, totes, pooches and bags; put everything away; cleaned out the coolers; watered the garden and landscaping; did the dishes; took a shower; and then read a bit until I fell asleep for a sweet hour-and-a-half nap.

I ended up going grocery shopping and doing laundry later that night but overall, it was a pretty chill evening. We got dinner from Sonic (chili cheese tots for me, popcorn chicken for Travis) and then rented Knight and Day from Redbox.

Then Monday, it was back to the work grind. (But I actually had work to do, so it wasn’t too bad!)

Note: WordPress won’t let me insert any more photos without dismantling my text so I will post more pictures in a separate post.

Tags: , , , , ,

Our 2nd Wedding Anniversary

7 Jun

Travis and I have been married for 2 years, as of May 19th. So crazy to think it’s already been 2 years! When asked if it feels like it’s been 2 years, I have to answer “Yes and no. It doesn’t feel like 2 years because it has gone so fast. But it does seem like 2 years when I think about everything that has happened since we got married.”

I have to praise the Lord by saying that our marriage is wonderful. I couldn’t always say that honestly… The first year and a half were really hard. I knew that I was still committed to Travis and our marriage but I really couldn’t say that I was joyful. I was frustrated, annoyed, and confused. The things that were hard about our marriage were definitely not the things that I expected to be hard.

But praise God for His faithfulness. I don’t know how non-Christians make marriage work. If I hadn’t had God to rely on, trust in, and live through me, I’m scared to think what would have happened to us. Not I think we would’ve thought about divorce but I definitely think we would’ve been more distant and drifted toward more independent lives (like what happens to a lot of married couples over the years).

The thing that I have appreciated about Travis the most over the past 2 years is his genuine love for me. While like any sinful human being, he can say insensitive, rude things in the heat of the moment and isn’t always as considerate as I think he should be, he is incredibly sweet and thoughtful. Often, I’ll notice he did something and remark about it to him. His response: “I know my Bubs likes it that way.”

I think the biggest thing that has changed to make our marriage better is that we can laugh about our differences and annoying quirks instead of getting angry and resentful (which was what was happening before).

Anyway, since our anniversary was on a Tuesday and the 2 weekends after it we were re-roofing our house, we just celebrated our anniversary this weekend. (We did go out to eat on our anniversary to an upscale Mexican restaurant downtown Denver called Tamayo.)

Friday night, we went to an O.A.R. concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It rained a little when we got there but luckily it held off for the whole concert. There was a lot of lightning in the sky over Denver throughout the night.

The storm clouds

The storm clouds

Red Rocks

Red Rocks

A crazy cloud

A crazy cloud

Trav and me

Trav and me

O.A.R. put on a great concert. We weren’t crazy about the opener (Brett Dennen) but O.A.R. was great. They had a really good sound, great stories, and awesome lights.

Yesterday, we drove up to Leadville, CO, to go hiking. We had heard that the little town was pretty cool and it was very quaint and cute.

Some beautiful scenery

Some beautiful scenery

A cool bridge built back in the 30s (so I hear)

A cool bridge built back in the 30s (so I hear)

This house has a fence made out of old skis! We saw a lot of quirky houses in Leadville...a lot of them have different shaped shingles (ala the Victorian Age) painted in bright colors.

This house has a fence made out of old skis!

We saw a lot of quirky houses like this in Leadville...a lot of them have different shaped shingles (ala the Victorian Age) painted in bright colors.

We saw a lot of quirky houses like this in Leadville...a lot of them have different shaped shingles (ala the Victorian Age) painted in bright colors.

 We did a 5 mile hike up to Timberline Lake. The hike started at about 10,000 feet and got up to 10,866, where the lake is.

On the trail

On the trail

 About 1.5 miles into our hike, we came to a flooded area where our only choices were to either turn around or walk through the water. I wasn’t a fan of the idea at first but eventually we took off our boots and socks and walked through the water barefoot. Since it’s mountain runoff, the water was absolutely FREEZING! It wasn’t that bad while we were still in it but immediately after we stepped out of the water, our feet and ankles just stung.

The freezing mountain water we had to walk in

The freezing mountain water we had to walk in

After we walked through that water, we had to cross a stream that was ripping pretty good. The bottom was all river rock so while it wasn’t sharp or pokey, it was a little slippery. Luckily, neither of us fell in.

The mountain stream

The mountain stream

Travis with his boots, ready to cross the stream

Travis with his boots, ready to cross the stream

Farther up, we had to cross the stream again but this time, there was a makeshift bridge.

Me crossing the bridge

Me crossing the bridge

Most of the climb happened after those two stream crossings. It just seemed to keep going up and up. Finally, we got to the lake. 

Timberline Lake

Timberline Lake

It was very pretty but unfortunately, as is the case with all lakes at that high of an altitude, the wind whips across the lake and makes it absolutely freezing. Makes it hard to sit there and enjoy the views.

Another view of the lake

Another view of the lake

Do I look cold?

Do I look cold?

Needless to say, we spent about 10 minutes at the lake and then headed back down.
Crossing the stream again on the way back

Crossing the stream again on the way back

Beautiful view of the snow-capped mountains

Beautiful view of the snow-capped mountains

Closeup of the weird/cool plants

For some reason, I find these weird plants really cool.

After our hike, we drove around Leadville, looking at all the quirky houses and then the abandoned mining buildings and equipment. Both Travis and I find it fascinating that people actually used to mine there, use those buildings and tools…I love that kind of history–learning about and seeing how people used to live.
Some old mining buildings and equipment

Some old mining buildings and equipment

Leadville, CO

Leadville, CO

We ate dinner at Tennesse Pass Cafe in Leadville (great little restaurant) and then drove back to Denver. When we got back, we went to see Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell. It was very entertaining–not Will Ferrell’s funniest but still pretty cute.

Today we went to church, then looked at puppies (so cute!!) and tools at the mall. We want to get a golden retriever but haven’t been able to find an affordable puppy (cheapest we’ve found is $800).

It was a great anniversary weekend. Looking forward to #3!

Tags: , , , , ,

Water, water everywhere!

1 Sep

This Labor Day weekend, Travis and I planned to go backpacking with Becky and Scott (Travis works with Becky). We went backpacking with them the other time we went too. We drove separately down to Pagosa Springs (because they have a huge golden retriever) and met down there around 6:30. Our whole drive there it looked like rain. At times it did rain and for a while, it even hailed. But when Travis and I got to Pagosa Springs, the rain had stopped.

We had planned on camping at the trailhead but found out there wasn’t any camping up there. And it just had to be the weekend of the Folk Festival in Pagosa Springs so there was not a one hotel room to be found. We did, however, find a campground right off the main road going through town. And when I say campground, I mean an area of undeveloped land that had a few fire pits and one portapotty.

After we met up with Becky and Scott, we went out to eat at a mexican restaurant and then set up camp. It didn’t rain before we went to bed so we got to have a campfire, which was nice. But we were all so full that none of us felt like s’mores. Travis and I were a little worried about our tent being able to keep water out if it rained–we only paid $25 for it on sale. So when it started raining about 4 in the morning, I was worried. But we stayed dry the whole night, which is good.

But it was SO LOUD at that campground. Big semi trucks came blazing through town at 3 AM; some drunk guys from the bars came back around 2:00, yelling and carrying on about God-knows-what; motorcycles came through around 6; traffic was constant. It was actually kind of nice when it rained because it drowned out the noise from the street.

I will say this though: I was actually warm that night. So warm, in fact, that I unzipped my sleeping bag the whole way and had half my body hanging out the whole night. It was glorious. (I am usually freezing all night when we go camping so this is a great change of pace!!)

Anyway, the next morning we got up and of course, everything was wet (except for us and our sleeping bags!!) and it looked like it was going to rain some more. We decided to pull the plug on our backpacking expedition and just hike the trail we had planned on. So that’s what we did. And it was a very pleasant–albeit wet and cold–hike. It was very foggy in the mountains and in the 50s, so it was a good change from our normal hikes (when it’s sunny and in the 80s or 90s).

Then, to top it all of, I got up last night at 3 AM to go to the bathroom only to find our bath mats soaking wet and the pipe to the toilet in our main bathroom spraying water everywhere. Fun! Travis was able to shut the water off just using the valve on the toilet (so he got out of having to go down in the crawl space). I put the mats in the wash and sopped up all the water. At least it was clean water and not sewage!!
Ah, the joys of home ownership begin.

Here are some pictures:

The fog over the trees

The fog over the trees

Another pic of the fog and trees

Another pic of the fog and trees

The culmination of our hike was at this waterfall:
The bottom of the waterfall

The bottom of the waterfall

The top of the waterfall

The top of the waterfall

Tags: ,

Our 4th of July Hike

5 Jul

Travis and I went hiking up South Boulder Peak (8,549 ft) on the 4th of July. Man, was it a hard one! The whole hike is about 6.7 miles round trip, which isn’t bad. BUT you gain 3,000 feet in those 3.35 miles. That’s steep.

I felt a little tired/sore when we first started out. About 2 miles in, my legs started to get shaky and really tired. I was pretty hungry but thought I would just wait until we reached the summit. Nope. I had to eat on the way up because I started getting dizzy and feeling sick to my stomach. When we reached the spur up to South Boulder Peak, it was the worst. I knew we were so close to the summit so I pushed myself (within reason) but that last 45 minutes was rough. It took us 2 hour and 45 minutes to get up to the top–about a 40 minute mile! I had to stop every 20-30 feet though because I couldn’t breathe, which was frustrating.

Then when we got up to the peak, the bugs were so thick that I stood up there taking in the view for about 5 minutes before I got too grossed out and went to wait for Travis back at the base of the spur. When he got down, he said, “Yeah, the bugs were bad. You pretty much just had to let them crawl all over you or else you’d be constantly moving.” Um, ew? No thank you.

The way down wasn’t bad. We made it down in about an hour and a half with about 2 stops. The whole hike, rests included, took us 5 hours. It was a very challenging hike, the hardest I’ve ever done in my life. Travis talked about climbing Mt. Bierstadt and Mt. Evans the next day but 1) I didn’t think I’d have enough energy after climbing South Boulder Peak and 2) that climb had me really doubting my hiking abilities. Turns out that climbing Bierstadt is not only shorter but you gain less elevation as well. Travis did the hike on Saturday (by himself) and got to the top in an hour and a half. Granted, he was cruising (which he would NOT do with me!) but I figure that if I can do South Boulder Peak, I can do Bierstadt. The sawtooth between Bierstadt and Evans, on the other hand, could be another story.

I do want to do a 14er later this summer though. I’m going to try to get in some harder hikes in the meantime in preparation!

Funny side note: Travis and I climbed Bear Peak last fall, which is very close to South Boulder Peak. Until hiking South Boulder, that had been our hardest hike to date. The way down was SO steep and never-ending! I guess that part of the Flatirons is just brutal terrain!

Tags:

Catching up

2 Jul

Today was another long day at work. There’s not a whole lot to do, it’s a 4-day week, we leave for vacation next week, and I’m tired as all get-out. Needless to say, I wasn’t the most productive worker bee today. I even jet out 20 minutes early because I couldn’t take anymore. I’ll just work a little longer tomorrow. It is a blessing to have such a flexible job!

So now to update my blog with everything I’ve been up to. Mark and Sarah Norman were out here to visit us this past week. They got in the night of Tuesday 6/24 and left the morning of Tuesday 7/1. It was SO much fun having them out here! We did a lot of talking and had a lot of late nights and early mornings…but it was so worth it.

Wednesday night, Travis and I had care group and the Normans went up to Rocky Mountain National Park but they came back that night and stayed at our apartment. (It’s very cozy with 4 people in it!!) Thursday night, we grilled out in the park near our apartment and got to see the Happy Thursday parade of drunken people decked out in pink tutus and knee-high, black, patent leather boots. We also went and watched Trav’s hockey game (that started at 10:15!).

Friday, Trav and I got off work around 1:00 and we all headed up to Guenella Pass near Georgetown, where we were going to camp for the weekend. I took a nap on Friday while the boys gathered and chopped up firewood. We ate brats and baked beans and sat by the fire for a while and then went to bed. Saturday, I slept in to about 8 (everyone else got up around 9, which gave me a chance to get in the Word), we ate some pancakes for breakfast, and set off for the trail. We climbed Square Top Mountain, which is almost a 14er at 13,900 ft. We got going a little later than we had planned (not good with the changing weather up there) and the hike was a lot harder than we had planned (see pictures of it here) so we only made it to about 13,500 but the view was still gorgeous (and it was still a crazy good workout!)

After our hike, we drove around and ended up at a country store on another highway, where we bought ice cream. I had a good ole classic ice cream sandwich. Yum! It tasted really good after our hike. We drove back to camp, played some Catch Phrase, ate ravioli and corn on the cob, and sat around the campfire some more. Then we went to bed around 10:00.

Sunday night/morning, I could barely sleep because I was so cold. And I had to pee really bad. So around 5:30 AM, I forced myself out of my sleeping bag to the bathroom (an outhouse at our campground). As I was walking back to our campsite, I noticed that the sun was coming up. Not being that tired and really not wanting to go back to bed to freeze my ars off some more, I decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. I poked Travis and asked if he wanted to come. All he groaned was “I’m so tired…” So I went all by myself. I took the Pathfinder up to the trailhead where I knew I’d have a good view and watched the sun rise as I spent time in the Word. After reading a little longer, I started getting sleepy again and it was only 7:00 AM so I drove back to the campground and got back in my sleeping bag for some not-so-restful barely-asleep sleep.

Finally, around 8:30, it was time to get up. Yay! We drank some coffee, ate some oatmeal, packed up camp, loaded our car, and drove up to the Silver Dollar Lake trailhead. It was a very enjoyable hike, albeit a little more challenging that I had remembered. I guess I was so concerned with all the snow last time that I didn’t realize it was mostly uphill to the lake. This time, we actually climbed past Silver Dollar Lake to one farther up the mountain. On the way back down, we slid down the snow again on our shoes–very fun. Makes the hike totally worth it in and of itself.

Our hike made us all completely famished so we stopped at Beau Jo’s in Idaho Springs on the way back for some Colorado cooking. We gorged ourselves on some heavy-duty nachos and a 3-lb Mountain Pie with Italian sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil pesto sauce. Delish. The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry and taking it easy.

Monday night, we ate out at Jackson’s Sports Grill in downtown Denver and then went to a Rockies baseball game, which is always fun. Then Tuesday morning, it was time for Mark and Sarah to leave. I got up at 4:00 AM so that I would have time to get ready and wouldn’t be in the bathroom when everyone else wanted to use it. Needless to say, I took a 2-hour nap after work yesterday. And I’m just about to go to bed right now… Yes, it’s 6:40 PM. But I forced myself to work out the minute I got home (even though I was yawning like crazy while lifting weights!) so that I could relax and fall asleep reading later on…like right now. Adios muchacho.

Tags: , , ,

Perfect Saturday

2 Mar

Travis and I had a fantastic Saturday yesterday. It was the best day I’ve had in a while.

The morning started a little rough because we got into a tense conversation regarding money (never fails). But once we got through that, it was a great day. We went out to breakfast at Einstein Bros. (where I ate a egg/sausage/cheese bagel sandwich containing approx. 720 calories–seriously, eating out at restaurants is sooo frustrating!) The sandwich was delish though.

Then we went hiking with our friends Paul and Carrie and their 13-month old, Ruby. We hiked almost to the top of Flatiron #2 but the snow and icy conditions (and the fact that Paul was carrying a baby on his back) prevented us from summiting. It was a good hike anyway!

Some more friends, Brandon and Reina, met us at the park and we all had lunch together (Travis and I just ate some chips because we hadn’t brought food and had just eaten breakfast). Paul and Travis threw the frisbee around some and Carrie and I walked Ruby over to the playground.

Travis and I then went to Gateway Park in north Boulder to go mini-golfing. Since neither of us have played for over a year, the first couple holes were a little rough. We got our groove down on by about hole 3. (But he still beat me by 6 strokes). We also did the batting cages, me with slow softball pitches, Travis with fast baseball ones. I actually hit every ball out of 20 except one. I was so proud of myself! My forearms and back are sore today. Interesting how you can be in decent shape but do something that works different muscles and still get sore. My calves are a little sore too from hiking.

After that, Travis and I walked around Pearl Street, looking at the shops but not going in (I hate shopping with no money. It’s like going to a restaurant and not eating.) We ate dinner at the Boulder Cafe. I had a glass of white zin (my favorite wine–and always the cheapest) and a goat cheese salad. I didn’t know if I would like goat cheese but I LOVED it! I want to go to the store right now and buy some. Anyway, the salad was spinach, pine nuts, tomatoes, and balsamic vinegarette with flatbread covered in goat cheese. Mmmmm… Travis had 2 beers (Twisted Pine) and a double-cheeseburger with french fries (our meals couldn’t have been more different).

After we ate dinner, we rented American Gangster and watched it at home. It was an interesting movie but not as gang-bang in-your-face as we had expected it to be. (That’s fine with me.)

Anyway, after a long string of Saturdays in which I did nothing much (except maybe exercise, read, and play games at night), this Saturday was a breath of fresh air. And you can’t beat 70 degrees in Colorado. Perfect.

Tags: , , ,

Newer Entries →