Mad amounts of snow

Lots and lots of snow! Snow everywhere! Big fluffy piles of it! Yeah, I'm never getting my furniture out of Lyons. :P  But Logan and I had a great time last night in the snow! I walked to the Rock in the middle of the storm and they made me and Bob dinner before closing about an hour after they opened. Mark and Jen showed up for a beer, but since they were closing, they drove me to get Logan and up to their place for another puppy play date. Glad they picked me up, I don't know if I could have gotten anywhere - Mark had chains on his truck and he was still having trouble. Remind me to get some of those!

Dave came over to enjoy in the puppy fun and watch Northern Exposure, drink gin and tonic and eat Amish cheese and chocolate turtles. He went to leave and lo and behold, his truck was stuck in the snow, which was up to mid-thigh at this point. So I took pictures with my cell phone and laughed as he and Mark dug his Toyota out. Logan pranced around in snow drifts over his head. ;)  I'll send my cell phone pictures to my email and post them on here soon.

Logan had a vet appointment this day; he's a fine looking puppy, and the vet thinks he'll be on "the larger side of shepherds". Looks like I've got myself a big dog!

Tim is on his way back but I'm guessing he's not going to make it back very easily. The roads are close from Denver to Kansas; he won't be through there until tomorrow, but we are supposed to get MORE snow tonight and maybe through Sunday morning. I hope he can make it back for New Years!!

 

The boys and I taking a break at Beaver Creek. Tom's caption: "Goggles for all. Lisa wonders why the rum is always gone." More like Jack Daniels, but he's close. ;)

 

From Keystone, Chr...

Logan the wonder puppy, and happy holidays!

Happy Holidays and all that good stuff!!

Last Friday, I drove down to Longmont to pick up Logan and finally take him home after all these months of waiting - from before the parents were even bred, through the pregnancy and the whelping and watching him go from a little piggy-looking baby to the mini-shepherd he is now! He said bye to his parents and siblings and up the canyon towards Estes we drove... And he buried his little head in my lap and cried, and cried, and cried! And got car sick, of course. I brought him to my still-unfurnished cottage and he followed me everywhere! But I was amazed to see that he's already potty trained, at 8 weeks old! He scratches at the door or cries when he needs to go out. We didn't have a single accident for the first day that I had him, and only after he got sick (I gave him too many new treats at one time) did he ever mess in the house... and that's because he couldn't hold it in his cage and went all over everything (including himself) when I went to work at the Rock. Poor guy! Thankfully things were back to normal soon after, and I've been pretty lucky that he knows to go potty outside! ;)

That first day, I took him to see Rocky, who is Jen and Mark's wiener dog. Logan was very shy and a little scared of this little bouncing barking hyper pudgy-puppy at first; I would be too, since Rocky literally bucks and jumps like a rodeo bull! Logan warmed up a little later on in the evening, but it was a big scary day for him and I knew he'd gain confidence as the days go on.

I hoped that Rocky tired him out sufficiently to ease his first-night-away-from-home jitters and maybe I'd get some sleep. I put him in his crate and for the first couple hours, it was fine. After that, he'd wake up and cry for 5-10 minutes, then sleep for an hour or two. Repeat. All night. Ugh. That, and the fact that my furniture is still stuck in Lyons and I'm currently sleeping in my sleeping bag on the floor in Estes... I was a little bit tired the next morning. Logan made sure I was up at 7 am to let him outside. Looks like I'll be an early riser for the next 15 years or so... ;)

Saturday was the day he got sick in his crate while I was out grocery shopping. I gave him a bath and was busy cleaning out his crate, and created even more trouble for myself when I didn't let him outside soon enough... He was all wet and cold and I didn't want him outside in the blowing wind (it's been howling on and off the past few days) and freeze, but that let him to pee on my floor for the first time. My fault. It was just one of those days, where you're busy trying to fix one thing and something else breaks or goes wrong, one of those chain reactions... Kept me on my toes, for sure. I worked at the Rock Inn that evening doing dishes. It was weird seeing all of my friends sitting on the other side of the bar, drinking and having a good time while I was running around washing dishes and prepping pasta. I had a few visitors back in the kitchen though which was nice. And some free food and beer... I'll be working there tonight through the 31st, then on the 3rd... Then, unemployed again unless I decide to do some tree work.

Saturday night was Logan's second night with me, and when I came home from work I told him to go to bed. He obediently walked into his crate, tail wagging, and plopped down and went to sleep. I had a sock that smells like his mom in there, and added a tshirt that smells like me. He didn't make a peep all night. How cool is that?! Except my back just isn't digging this "sleeping on the floor" thing, and I didn't get any sleep again. At least the dog seemed comfortable. :P

Sunday was Christmas eve. Dave (Tim's roommate) had nothing to do, just like me and a few other folks that were around town. I was supposed to go to the bar with Stephanie, but ends up it was closed for a private party, so instead Dave baked a turkey and made homemade garlic mashed potatos; I whipped up some peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate (5 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup peanut butter... no wonder they were a childhood favorite) and ate too many (believe me, 3 is too many)... Logan and I went over and ate dinner and were going to have another puppy play date with Rocky that night, but I took Logan back to my place for his dinner and I went out the door and he didn't want to go with me. So I asked him, do you want to go see Rocky? Come outside! And he sat there. So I asked him, do you want to go to bed?? And he turned around, went into his crate and layed down. I shut the door and he didn't care. I went outside and started the truck, then went back inside thinking he might be crying to come out now. I opened the door, and he was just laying there. I asked him again just to be sure that he wanted to go to sleep, and he didn't make a peep. Smart little bugger! Ends up Mark was sick anyway so I went over to the other Mark's place (Mark and Amy) and brought the nice bottle of wineI got from Bruce and Kerri for X-mas. So those two, Dave, Smitty and I sat and drank PBR and wine and watched Billy Madison(never seen it, and it's so freaking stupid) and Ice Age, and laughed at the "movie' on Cinemax called "Kinky Kong" instead of Donkey Kong... ha ha you can only image what kind of movie that was! That was definitely a first for all of us on Christmas Eve...!

Here's an interesting side story: I was talking with Mark about hunting in Montana and I mentioned I worked at a wildlife refuge there. He asked which one, and I didn't expect him to know which one I was talking about; nobody has ever heard of it. So I tell him, Red Rock Lakes. He says, "No shit... I turned down a maintenance worker job there last November." This is crazy, because the refuge only has 7 permanent employees, only 1 of those is a maintenance worker. He told me to tell him about it, and well he now regrets not taking the job after I told him about the peaceful solitude, the bald eagles, moose and owls in the front yard; the grizzlies and wolves hiding out there... and all the hunting! It is a small world. That job is actually the job my friend Howard retired from last year, the 60-something year old guy that taught me how to weld and I visited him just this past fall up in Dillon. Mark will be bummed when he sees pictures of just how beautiful that place is!!

Anyway, Logan was a sweetie and didn't yell at me for coming home late on Christmas Eve, or that I smelled like wine and PBR. ;) I curled up in my sleeping bag next to his crate and tried to sleep. He made cute puppy noises in his sleep and chased rabbits that he's never seen before. I tossed and turned.

Woke up early and realized it was Christmas morning. My first Christmas away from my family. It was eerily unceremonial and quiet. For years, we'd always wake up ridiculously early and harass my parents until they'd get out of bed... hurry up, get the camcorder ready, we want to start!!... They'd turn on the lights and we'd read the letter from Santa (yes, I still read that letter last year, even though I was 24 years old...) while Dad would mess around with the camcorder... The dogs would know it was a special morning too and would sit in anticipation of opening their presents too... Of course, the past few years, everybody else was up and harassing ME to wake up, ha ha! Then later, my sisters and I would go over to our Dad's house ("real" dad, haha) and he'd be busy cooking tons of foodand turn on the Christmas music, he too would have to set up the camcorder (that's a lot of Christmas movies between the two sets of parents!) and we'd open presents, then get harassed the rest of the afternoon to "Eat more! Take some leftovers! Eat more!" Yes, those are the crazy noisy hectic Christmas days that I am used to. I'm so glad I had Logan there, he made it a little less traumatic.

I walked out of my bedroom into the living room and saw my tiny 7" tall living Christmas tree (with lights, ornaments and everything) on the window ledge, and my little treasure pile of presents on my end table, stockings for myself and Tim hanging randomly from some nails on my loft, Christmas lights around my windows. It was too quiet, and I realized I left my Sintra/Crosby/Jazz Christmas CDs in Michigan. Bummer. So I dug out my little shower radio and found a fuzzy station playing holiday music... It was the best I could do to recreate something officially Christmas, a small shadow of what I was accustomed to; I sat on the floor with Logan's head in my lap, tin-can music coming out of a single speaker, and opened my presents, which had been mailed to me from the many people that care about me back in Michigan. Salt and peppercorn grinders, lots of socks, some underarmor, a dog trick book, a couple CDs (White Stripes from Debbie and Pat; Yonder Mountain from my family), a photography book, an ornament of a german shepherd angel, plus the dog supplies my sisters gave me that I opened early... There are still a few things that haven't been shipped yet from Amazon.com (hoping it's a certain couple DVDs... Northern Exposure, Grey's Anatomy or Deadwood perhaps??)  but I was very happy for everything.

Once that was done, I didn't really know what else to do with myself. I was so tired that I risked it and decided to take a nap in Tim's bed and hope that Logan would let me get some rest without disturbing Dave. I think I slept for 3 hours, and it still wasn't enough, but the puppy let me do my thing peacefully. He's such a good dog!

With nothing else to really do, I left Logan in Estes and drove to Lyons to try and dig my way up the driveway... which is challenging because it's a long steep gravel/dirt driveway with 2 feet of snow. It took me about an hour but I did finally get my Focus out, then almost go my truck all the way up. Close enough. Filled a load up, then went back to Estes and made my place as homey as possible, minusthe furniture. Tim and I played phone tag all day, but it was nice to hear from him. He'll be back by Sunday, maybe Saturday night. Then I'll be going back to Michigan for 2 weeks in January, then he's doing to Las Vegas for trails training in February... Then come April, whether or not I have the lead hazard tree job or not, I'll probably be living in Grand Lake for the week for 4-6 weeks again, then he'll be in the backcountry doing trails work for weeks at a time...

Anyway, I went over to Mark and Jen's with Logan later that night for another play date. Guess what? Logan's not so shy anymore. He had Rocky a little upset for jumping all over him! I think those two are gonna be good friends. Fortunately, Rocky likes big dogs, because in a few months he is going to be Logan's mini-me! I really like Mark and Jen too, it's nice to have an excuse to see them. :)  Mark works for trails for the Park and Jen works in town. For their wedding, she wore a bright red cowboy hat and cowboy boots with her dress; he wore a western shirt and cowboy hat. Very cool.

I decided to try sleeping at Tim's all night with Logan. He's been so well behaved it erased most of my fears of him either barking all night and ticking Dave off, or going potty all over the floor. It would have been the best night's sleep I'd had in a while, except I'm getting a head cold!! But Logan was an angel. Tonight my friends Tina and Travis may be staying at my place, and I have to work.

And one more bit of news: CONGRATULATIONS BRIAN AND MELISSA! Brian Mount proposed to his girlfriend while underwater scuba diving I think in Australia!! How clever! Woooo hoooo! Ha ha so that's 3 ex boyfriends in the past year that are either getting married, or already tied the knot! Jason, Brian, Steve... who's next?? Ha ha!

So that's my holidays in a nut shell. Now time to go back to the pup and give him lunch! Happy holidays!! And I am uploading my photos from Keystone and Christmas to a new location to see how I like it. It's called Picasa, through Google. If anybody wants a Gmail account let me know and I'll send you an invite.

Keystone, Christmas, and Logan Dec. 2006

Logan on Christmas Eve

Our view from our condo at Keystone

Let it snow... and keep snowing... and keep snowing...

I'm sure nearly everybody out there heard at least something about "that big snowstorm in Colorado." Well, I'm just hanging out in our rented condo in Keystone with Kevin, taking a break from the insane amounts of snowboarding in beautiful, plentiful powder all week, looking out on the slopes of Keystone Resort... wondering if I'll actually be able to drive back to Estes tonight like I am supposed to, or if the roads that I need to take will be closed. I could stay here another night with these guys... but alas, spending the past 5 days with 9 guys has been more tiring/frustrating than going on a wildfire in a tent camp with 15 guys at times. Maybe if Beth had made it out here, I'd be ok. ;)  It's been a lot of fun and so good to see everybody, and a total blast riding the different ski resorts around here - in all this nonstop, FRESH POWDER - and hanging out in Breckenridge and Keystone... and watching the inches of snow pile up. Of course we hit the outdoor hot tub, drank Jager Bombs, Cabo Wabo and Brugal Rum, and made asses of ourselves on shuttle busses/ski lifts/public places. Last night we went to the Goat in Keystone, which was the most happening place in town, and played lots of South Park Pinball, drank PBR and watched one of the guys kill everybody in pool. There was some whining about "there's NOBODY here" - which translated to, there's not a lot of drunk girls to hit on - and more whining about no "dance music" and calling it a "dive bar"... Guess what guys? You're at a ski resort in the mountains of Colorado! It's all about bluegrass, PBR, fleece jackets, and casual/comfortable atmospheres - not techno music, trendy-yet-totally-inappropriate-for-the-mountains dance clothes, and a meat market. That stuff is in Denver... ya know, a big city?? :P  It was pretty annoying to hear those criticisms, because that's not what the mountains are about... and it was everything that I love. Sometimes, the culture/values difference between myself and that of which I left behind in suburban Detroit is so blatantly obvious, it makes me continuously thankful and assured that leaving Michigan and coming to Colorado was one of the best decisions of my life!

Amadeo flew out here with his little brother instead of driving with the rest of the guys because he is leaving for Dominica for med school on Jan. 1st. However, with this huge storm, the airport closed yesterday and won't be opened until tomorrow... and even then, he can't fly out any sooner than Christmas. I know many other people too who were stranded in Denver on their way back to their families for the holidays. It looks like he is going to have to rent a car and drive back, assuming the freeways open any time soon! Here in Keystone, we've gotten just over a foot of snow over the past 2 days (on top of a couple inches we got earlier in the week); up in Estes, my friend tells me it's about 20", with up to 26" possible by tomorrow. It's gonna make that 2 1/2 hr drive from Keystone to Estes into an epic half day journey! But I really need to get back up there and TRY to move more stuff from Lyons to my new cottage, since I am picking up Logan tomorrow around noon. The biggest problem is that my driveway in Lyons is steep, mud and stone... and nearly impossible to get up when it's covered with snow, even with 4x4. Not to mention moving my motorcycle... Yikes. I love this blizzard, but it certainly picked one hell of a time to hit!

I've been tearing it up on my snowboard, and totally sore from head to toe! The runs out here are so long, and the powder is so great to carve in but can be so tiring when the snow is mounded up like mogels. We went to Keystone Monday, Beaver Creek Tuesday, a few of us took Wednesday off to recover, and Breckenridge yesterday. At Breck, they got enough fresh powder that they opened up a few bowls up at the top of their highest Peak. Kevin, Jeff and I went up the Imperial Lift - North America's highest ski lift, at  - and decided to try and do the Imperial bowl... a DOUBLE black diamond... above tree line, with rocks and cliffs scattered around... in a blizzard... hardly any visibility, just a swirling continuous WHITE... could hardly tell where the sky ended, the mountain started, and just how steep this crazy thing was... oh did I mention those rocks and cliffs again?? Really I'm not double black diamond good... heck, even some black diamonds are just too much (though I was loving the ones at Beaver Creek!) but hey, it sounded like crazy fun. Or maybe just crazy. We took lift after lift until finally we were suspended above the alpine peak on a chairlift that we couldn't see 3 chairs in front of us, our noses running and snow and ice covering us, not even able to see the outline of the peak or even hardly which route was open. Once at the top, there was only one way down... so we made our way, ungraceful and uncertain in the white-out, down the steep part, between the rocks. Even people who are really GOOD at skiing were having a hard time getting down... Then there's me, carve a couple turns then SLIDE and stop. Slide a little more. Carve a couple...Slide. Jeff even lost a pole or a ski or something and had to hike back up to get it. That steep part wasn't very long though and soon it was just drifts of powder to explore. It wasn't a very long route but once was enough for me. ;)

Well the snow is still blowing outside and, though I'm feeling tired and lazy today, it just looks like too much fun to not spend one more day on the mountain with my friends. Starting Saturday, I am helping my friends out at the Rock and doing dishes over the holidays while people are out of town... spending time with the puppy... moving... Lots going on! So that's all for now. Off to our winter wonderland!!

Tags: keystone, snowboarding, skiing, colorado, ski trip, vacation, blizzard, snowstorm

Counting down for so many great things!

Busy busy! So much is going on. Tim left for Pennsylvania this morning and I won't see him until New Years Eve! Bummer for me but sounds like he's going to have a good time seeing all of his friends... and bummer because I am starting to move into my new place today! My friends leave MI today to drive out here and I'll be seeing them Sunday - and they are supposed to bring some Bell's Winter White Ale and Kevin's homebrew for me! They leave the 22nd and then I'll be getting Logan! Looks like I might be spending Christmas Eve at the bar with Stephanie, her friend and maybe Dave. It's a different approach to the holidays for me, but there's enough people around here that it should be a good time... even though I'm totally going to miss the mass quantities of food at the annual Christmas party at my parents' house!

Enough sitting around... gonna jet down to Lyons and pack as much crap into my truck as possible. Woop de freakin' doo!

Another picture of Logan!

Moving again!

Yes, that's right, I'm moving again. No, not across the country. T. and Chuck have a cabin for rent that just opened up in Estes. Since my lease is up Dec. 31st, and the price is lower, and the place is bigger/nicer... Why not? Yeah, it's annoying packing everything back up and actually having to move my stuff... But it's worth it. I'm up there almost every day anyway. The best part? It's maybe a football field away from the Rock Inn. ;)  It's a 1 bedroom with a loft, next door to a guy named Bob that just moved in from Telluride. He has 2 beautiful wolf/malamute mixes. Those dogs, plus Bruce and Kerri's dogs, will be a great little pack for Logan to join. It will be so nice not having to drive up to Estes almost every day to use the gym, hang out with my friends, and check my mail!

I went and visited Logan today. He's a big sweetie! The dogs alternated between playing and sleeping every 5 minutes. :)  All but 3 of the puppies have been sold. In less than 2 weeks he will be coming home! To my new home! After a week of skiing with my friends! Wooooooo hoooo!

Speaking of which, Parkie is in Vail with his friends this weekend. I spent Friday night out there. Parkie crashed early so Max, Kenny and I went to downtown Vail and went to "The Club." It was a great place to be, with a solo guitarist that was so good he had the whole place dancing, and the rodeo on TV! At one point, some random person bought the whole packed bar a shot... nasty, horrible tequila shots. Add that to the Jager Bombs and PBR... It was a fun night. ;)

Saturday we went to Keystone. Parkie was the only one skiing; Max, Isaac, Will and Kenny all were on snowboards. The snow was decent - some parts icy, some parts powder. I did pretty well, going pretty fast... until I accidentally went over a little cresh and found myself launched in the air. No, I didn't land very well. ;)  We were all sore and I was done by 5:00... at which point Kenny was also done but went to retrieve his board from the lodge we were resting at... and it was gone. Yes, his crappy $100 board was stolen. Since it happened to me, I know just how he felt when he looked around and it was just... gone. Bummer. I didn't stay Saturday night because I wanted to see Logan and check out that cabin today. I might go back out there tomorrowmorning for the less crowded slopes. We'll see if we wake up.

Now, I'm watching Winter Passing with Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrill. A drama. Good so far!

Go here for pictures of Logan and the other puppies, Vail and Keystone with Parkie, and some from when Matt and Alex were in Breckenridge.

Bandelier National Monument and Breckenridge

I know I have this tendency to write a lot, then drop off the face of the planet. It usually means that I'm traveling, or just really lazy. ;)  Last Monday after work, Tim tells me that he just found out the next day he was being sent down to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico to do some trail assessments - which means per diem and a paid hotel... Sounds like a free vacation to me! He used to work there years ago and told me how neat it is, so I just had to go down there and check it out. Tuesday I finally got my truck back, and it's a good thing I brought it in  - we'll just say that there were some "other" things wrong with it, and I would never had made it to Glacier National Park, yet alone Alaska. Burning oil, it ends up, was the cheapest and easiest problem I had. Tim drove out early that day and by the time I got the truck back and was on the road, that huge winter storm had started its way into the Rockies and it looked like I just might need my 4x4 on the 8 hour drive. Fortunately, I took a different route than Tim and avoided the snow for the time being. Click on the photo for more pictures from my trip!

Tim worked all day during the week while I had the chance to explore the ruins of the Ancestral Pueblo people. It was pretty cool seeing the petroglyphs and remains of houses carved into the soft "tuff" rock - condensed volcanic ash, and to climb up all the slippery, snowy ladders up into the Alcove House and look out into the valley of Frijoles Canyon. The first day, I did the interpretive ruins walk that is a must-see when you visit; then I hiked down the snowy Falls Trail along the Frijoles River, which ends at the large Rio Grand River. The white snow was so beautiful against the contrast of the red rock and green cactii and agave, and the Falls Trail had the most memoriable scent of strong juniper and sagebrush - that was probably my favorite part of the whole trail was that smell. I also checked out some separate, unexcavacted ruins (which means, harder to see and coveredin plants at this point) to the northeast of the main park, and the overlook at the town of White Rock gives a great view of the mesas, canyons, and Rio Grand. It was a short, cold day of hiking and I "only" did about 9 miles of relatively easy hiking in the snow.

As soon as Tim got back from work, he exclaimed, "Let's go to the hot springs!" Ends up there are some undeveloped hot springs nearby in Jemez Springs that he used to visit when he worked for Bandelier a few years ago. It had started snowing pretty heavily that afternoon and town was just chaos - apparently New Mexicans have no idea how to deal with snow, and it seemed like there are only 2 plow trucks - but we were determined to drive the twisted road through the mountains and avoid bad drivers to enjoy the hot springs. Tim mentioned that he didn't exactly remember where it was, since the parking lot and trail are essentially unlabeled, and as the sunset early we started to wonder if we passed the lot. Finally after a few "it's gotta be right over this hill and around that corner", we reach this unmarked parking lot. The sign says it is closed after dark and "nudity prohibited", but who's gonna be out in this crazy snow storm anyway? ;)  It was getting dark when we decended and then ascended the newly rehabilitated trail to Spence Hot Springs, a short 1/4 mile down to the river then up the mountain. And there on the side of the mountain were two hot pools - undeveloped save for some man-made rock ledges and mild improvements to make it more comfortable - the upper of which was warmer at the very source (which was just behind some large boulders) and probably 98-99 degrees (we would have liked it a little warmer, but then again, it was probably 18 degrees outside and snowy!), which then cascaded down into a smaller and little cooler pool. It was crystal clear and did NOT smell like sulfur like most of them do, the bottom was smooth with sand and pebbles and it was just AWESOME! The moon was bright and the sky cleared as we enjoyed the hot springs in the dark for about an hour or so.

It was freaking COLD when we got out and immediately Tim's beard and my hair froze. The road was just a snowy mess but we blew by everybody in his 4x4 and went into town for dinner at the Blue Window Bistro, which was a little pricey but excellent. As we sat and ate, we watched the snow just pile up outside. Town was pretty quiet, probably since people don't know how to drive. ;)  I'd say we got at least 8" of snow just that night.

In the morning, we woke up and the sky was bright blue and it was beautiful! There was quite a bit of snow but we both have 4x4 so we drove out to Bandelier by 9 am... onlyto find that they were closed while one guy plowed the whole park. I was planning on going on a long hike so I needed to hit the trail early if I wanted to be done before they closed the gates at sunset... but they let us in and I was on the trail by 9:45. I planned on about a 13-14 mile hike up to Frijolito, another ruins site up on top of the mesa, then hiking along the mesa to the start of Frijoles Canyon, decending down into the canyon and following the river back to the trailhead at the visitor center. It was cold but I was dressed well and the sun was bright and warm; I trudged up the switchbacks and along the trail in 4-6" of snow, the only other tracks along the trail from the elk, deer, rabbit, and some unknown animal (seemed like a wildcat to me). Really wasn't much to see of the ruins up here because they too were unexcavated and covered in vegetation, but it was a great view on the excavated site down in the valley. I did finally see the four elk that I had been "tracking" as I hiked, which were the only living things I shared the trail with the whole day.

I was warm and ambitious for the first 5-6 miles... then I started getting tired of the uphill/downhill rambling before I reached the point where the trail decends into the canyon. The snow made it harder than I thought it would! But finally I dropped down from the relatively open sunny mesa-top down into the cooler, shaded canyon bottom. I was still pretty warm until probably mile 8-10, when the lack of sunshine, the dense trees and the dropping temperatures made my jeans freeze. Still though I was doing pretty well, just getting tired... and it seemed like I would never get out of that canyon! The trail crossed over the river at LEAST 15 times, and there were never any real bridges - either a log or maybe a couple stepping stones, sometimes just a leap of faith - which was even more challenging because the snow hid the shape of the rocks, which were sometimes too pointy and slick to stand on, or it hid the river bank so I wasn't sure how far I had to jump, or it just made the logs really slick... How I avoided falling in at all is beyond me!

The canyon was very dense with some pretty big ponderosa and douglas-fir, and at points the canyon walls were relatively close together bare rock cliffs. It was a good trail that I probably would appreciate more in warmer weather. ;)  Finally I reached the Alcove House which was perched up the canyon sides far above and knew thata warm shower wasn't far away. At about 3:15 I reached the trailhead, a mere 5 1/2 hours to do almost 14 miles in the snow and cold. It was a beautiful day and the solitude and quite was great... but well I don't know if I'd do it again, ha ha!

That night we went over to see Tim's friend Wendy, who had worked with him at Pinnacle National Monument in California and was now a ranger at Pinnacles. In the morning we hit the road and took highway 285 up from Santa Fe through Alamosa and ate lunch in Salida. I think that will be my new preferred route going south, since it takes you right along the mountains and is much prettier than staying on I-25.

Then just on Sunday I got a text message from my friend Matt in DC (I visited him in Keystone a few weeks ago) saying he was in Breckenridge! So I watched some really bad footballs games with the boys in the morning and drove the 2-2 1/2 hours out to Breck that evening. Matt and his friend Alex - both of which I went to college with - had a room at the Great Divide Lodge right on Mountain 9. We immediately whipped out the rum and coke then took the free taxi into town to hit up the bar to watch football and play lots of erotic Photo Hunt util we got a high score. Then we went back to the hotel and tried desperately to find a way into the hot tub after hours... which was literally impossible. Trust me. We tried everything. Instead, we went back to the room and filled up the bath tub and took turns pretending it was a hot tub. A poor substitution!

It was a late night so we got a late start and got room service breakfast before gearing up to hit the slopes. It was a beautiful sunny day and on a Monday, it was pretty uncrowded. We all went our separate ways on the mountain but I did much better on the steeper stuff than I usually do so it was a good day. I was tired and sore and hit the road by 2, and was back up in Estes at Bruce and Kerri's to watch the Eagles win (finally!) by 6:00.

View of mountains around Breckenridge. 

Alex and Matt on the ski lift

So now, I am enjoying a lazy, sunny day and will probably be at the Rock Inn by 5 pm tonight. ;)

Ryan will be in Vail on Thursday so I'll probably go out there for a night or two this weekend... Tim goes to Pennsylvania on the 15th... Friends come out the 17th... I'll probably be spending X-mas relatively alone except with my puppy... And I will hopefully get a call to do some tree work somewhere in between.

Colorado is so much better than Michigan. ;) Life is rough, I'm telling ya!

Oh and my boss called to tell me he is posting the GS-6 term Hazard Tree crewleader position soon. It's no guarantee at all that I will get it, and if any veterans put in for it I'm totally screwed... But at the very least I have rehire status for the GS-5. Wish me luck that I get that term position (with benefits!) because I freaking would love that job and I love the park!

Logan is getting big - about 12 pounds!