Just hanging out at the coffee shop in Lyons while my truck is in the shop again. This time, it's a little more pricey than an oil change... all that new clean oil has been leaking all over Tim's driveway! A valve cover is leaking, so I'm looking at dropping all the money I made last week helping a tree climber remove 3 cottonwoods from downtown last week. Probably $300... Plus my catalytic converter is on it's way out... At least everything else is looking good, otherwise I'd probably throw the truck off a parking structure or roll a boulder over it like in those Toyota commercials. ;) Hey, I'm now pushing 187k miles and really, my truck still kicks butt. Even though the cab smells like wet dog and has dog-nose smears all over the back windows!
Tim and I finally made it out for the first time this season to Summit county. He hadn't been skiing in 6 years, though it sounded like he was really freakin' good back when he lived in Maine. He was itchin' to try out his new AT skis and bindings, and of course he did awesome and blew me away on my snowboard. Though I did tear it up better than I thought I would. On our way out there at 7 am, it was raining all the way from Estes until the Eisenhower Tunnel. Once we got to the other side of the tunnel (which is at least a mile or two long), the snow flurries began, though blue sky peeked through. We went to Breckenridge and it was insanely busy, seeing as only 3 ski lifts were open. As the day went on, the flurries gave way to the snowstorm we had been hoping for! Even with a balaclava covering my face, it was bitter on my cheeks and nose as snow piled up on us just within the 5-10 minute rides up the ski lifts. The powder settled on the mountain and we went from having a good day, to having a great day! Ironically, as it snowed harder and visiblity was almost as poor as when my friends were out here last year during that huge storm, people opted to leave instead of staying to savor the fresh snow! Which was great for us, the lift lines went from a long wait, to walking right up and sitting right down. I did pretty well, though Tim was impressed by one particularly flashy spill I took. ;) We were exhausted by 3:30 (mountain closes at 4:00) and slowly made our way on the icy roads to the brewery in Frisco, where we enjoyed a heaping plate of nachos.
"He's Mister White Christmas..." otherwise known as Frostybeard. Even strangers were wowed by his inpenetrable mat of facial hair. That's just from the ride up the ski lift, it was snowing so hard!
Fortunately, we didn't linger too long because the snow was still coming down. I think we left somewhere around 5:00 and it was already dark; the freeway wasn't too jammed at first... until we got closer to the tunnel. It took us 50 minutes or so just to get from Frisco to the tunnel. Trust me, I don't even think it should take 10-15 minutes. Just before we reached the tunnel, it just turned into a circus. The snow was coming down heavy, and it was a long uphill grade to just reach the tunnel. All of us in our Toyotas and Subarus were sitting pretty with our 4x4s. In that kind of weather, where pretty soon they would have probably closed I-70, you shouldn't even go out if you don't have the right vehicle. Especially when it's ALL UPHILL. So there were all these people with little cars that were doing ok, until traffic stopped. Going uphill. Guess what happened to so many people? They couldn't get going again! Their tires just spun on the ice, right in the middle of the lane. Left lane, right lane, middle lane. It was like playing a game of frogger trying to avoid these sitting ducks! Of course there were people stuck all over the place - not just little cars, but those arrogant 4x4 drivers. A lot of folks that were having problems were out of staters - Texas, California, etc. Then there were the jackasses that tailgated us. Ridiculous. And worst of all, which I sympathized with the most, were the truckers. It was mandatory tire chains for commercial vehicles, and these poor guys aren't out there in a snowstorm on I-70 because they were having a fun leisurely day on the slopes... they're just trying to do their job, and what happens? Even with chains on, they're spinning tires, going nowhere uphill. Huge semis, chains making sparks on the road... even saw a couple guys that broke their chains, one guy nearly jackknifing trying to get out of the middle of the freeway. I mean, you can always push a little car, but those guys weren't going anywhere!
Even though it took us over 3 hours to get home (after 9 pm), and it was a pain, it was also kindof exciting to finally get a snowstorm. By the time we were past Idaho springs, there wasn't even any snow on the ground! Amazing what the continental divide can do with those winter storms. We were 20 minutes from home going up the snow-free canyon on 36 when literally, snow just came down like a thick white curtain. Out of nowhere. It was so bizarre! And nearly a total white out. We crawled around the curves at 20-25 miles an hour at most. And then it just stopped after 15 minutes, with the stars bright and clear in the sky. Go figure. ;)
Sunday, just overall a disappointing day in football. Eagles, Lions... hmph. Yesterday, was possibly the worst winds yet this winter. I couldn't even take the dog for a walk, it was just horrible. It wasn't even that cold, it was just incessant, relentless gusts of rocks and dirt pounding into the house, my truck, my motorcycle... it absolutely shredded my motorcycle cover last week. It would be really great if a house opened up in the park with a garage so I could keep it indoors! (Tim's roomie is being a brat about me keeping it in their huge 2 car garage.) In fact, it was so windy that it was scaring the crap out of my dog, who clung to me in the most annoying way all day. He doesn't mind thunderstorms or anything like that, but that darned wind...!! It's actually supposed to get up to 65 degrees today down in Denver, but another windy day. So far it's not as bad as yesterday. Here's what the news has to say about it. If they were 93 mph at Berthoud Pass, it's very likely that it nearly reached that much in Estes. Looks like the entire country is having a hell of a time with weather!
Here's some more local news. Estes Park keeps building and building and expanding, and it's getting a little old. I mean, you can only grow so much when you're nestled in the mountains, but people are finally starting to say, enough is enough. The town wants to develop some land by the Stanley Hotel, where Stephen King wrote "The Shining" and where to movie is based upon (though the actual movie was shot in Oregon).
More importantly, Tim had to go on a Search and Rescue last week... actually, it was a body recovery. The high winds last week, in a very poor twist of fate, made a tree fall on a hiker at Wild Basin and killed him. It also hit his friend, but he lived and hiked out to get help. Here's an article about it. Brian the "biologist" who is quoted in the article, got the job that should have been mine. Not that he's not qualified... It just should have been mine, dammit! ;) Of course the media tried to blame the dead tree on pine beetles, saying it was the first "indirect death associated with the beetles", but that was just media hype and it wasn't a beetle kill tree. And the "two other foresters" or whatever they said that cut up the tree? That was Tim and another trail worker. ;) And here's a video that shows Tim carrying the litter out with the other rescuers. He's the guy on the closer side of the litter with the only red hardhat and his headlamp off in that still image of the video on that page with the article... and you can't miss the beard. ;) They show him a couple times if you watch the whole thing.
And since the snow-bug has bit us, and it's a pain to drive out to Summit County, we are getting a hotel Friday night in Breckenridge so we can hit the slopes for two days this weekend. We got a great deal on a room so really, when you figure that it takes over half a tank of gas to get there and back, it's not really that much more money. At least I'd like to think so. :P
