I am exhausted from my week on the West Side of the park again, and this coffee shop is closing shortly... But I had some GREAT photo opps this week!
I'll post some nice sized ones on here of my favs, but I'll put them all in the photo album for this entry.
I love 4 day work weeks... but it makes for a LONG DAY of dragging brush!
Mule deer in my front yard, elk in the back yard. A few more photos, because everybody loves pictures!
I'm bribing Cisco with beer and/or tequila to let me watch Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy tonite. Cheers to that!
Yesterday morning, I woke up and decided I would kick my workout routine into high gear so I can climb those mountains and bike some mean single track. I'm still running on "Michigan Time", so I keep waking up at 5-6 am (I would be 7-8 am in MI) and going to bed around 9-10 pm (11-midnite MI time). What could be better than an early morning run in the mountains?!
Ends up, a whole lot of things are better than that when you aren't used to the elevation!
There is a trail in the park that is right outside my apartment. I get cold induced asthma as it is but I was stubborn and ignored the fact that it was still only 40-45 degrees outside... and that running at 8,600 ft for the first time is like trying to breathe through a pillow... I ran for about, ohhhh maybe a minute or two... And had to stop before my lungs exploded!
Frustrating, but now I remember that's how it was the last time I was here. It took me about 2 months to run more than 3 miles. Fortunately, by the end of the summer I was one lean mean mountain running machine! Ok, maybe not that intense... but much better than I was before!
Anyway, my "run" ended up being a 25 minute hike with a couple minutes of labored jogging and much panting. I'll get there again. I'm too stubborn not to. :)
*************************************************************
Joe moved into an apartment about 1 1/2-2 hours south-east of me, outside of Denver, and I offered to help him move some of his stuff... Which meant I had volunteered to carry his stuff up 3 flights of stairs of course. He's in a pretty suburban area, so once the work got done we went to play in the foothills and wound up in the mountain town of Evergreen for dinner. There is a bar there called the Little Bear, and we paid $4 cover each to listen to some old hippies sing a song that went, "Arf arf arf arf arf arf arf..... WOOF!" The band was a little goofy but the bar was cool, with upstairs wooden bleachers and live music.
And now today, I'm in Boulder at the Folsom St. Coffee Shop, catching up with the rest of the world and doing some shopping. I think I will take a hike before I try to do any more running. :)
Hope to have some more photos to share soon!
I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Estes Park, drinking coffee and taking advantage of free wireless internet! Woo hoo!
I started work on my birthday, and my hazard tree partner Cisco was nice enough to take me out... and I ran into a bunch of people that I had worked with in 2003. People either never leave this place, or they leave and come back! I think Cisco and I are going to have too much fun running around the Park with chainsaws and minimal supervision!
Looks like I'll be staying on the West side of the park (a 3-4 hour drive while Trail Ridge Road is closed) for 4-5 days a week on and off for a couple months. The folks over there are great and I guess it's tradition (8 years and going!) to hit up trivia night at some bar every Wednesday. Of course our team, "The People By the Back Door", won - free drinks! I'm gonna have to watch it around those crazy kids... did I mention they're all probably 40 yrs+??
What are we doing on the West side? Here's some dorky science and forestry stuff: There is this insect called the Mountain Pine Beetle, and it does its little life cycle thing inside Ponderosa and Lodgepole pines, as well as a few other evergreens. It's a natural occurrence and usually isn't a problem; however, due to the continuing drought (and I think also in part to fire suppression, so the forest is too thick in some places), the trees are overly stressed and the MPB (beetle) is wreaking havoc on the trees. If you ever go over there, you'll see miles of dead, red pines - all due to the beetle.
What that translates to is that the trees are screwed. Part of our job is to find "high value trees" and mark them to be sprayed with insecticide to protect them from the beetle. This is proving to be harder than we thought - the beetles have hit most of the trees 8" and up and we can't do anything about it. So we run around places in the park and put tape around trees. Another part of our job is to remove hazardous trees - which there are plenty of, because of the beetle. Later on, I will be on rotation to fight fires and hopefully get to see some action!!
It's great to be back here! The sun shines even when it's nasty out, and I forgot how bizarre the weather can be living in themountains - sunny and warm one minute, a blizzard the next... repeat 5-6x in a day, and that's how Tuesday was. :) Today is looking to be fantastic and I am either going to go hiking, trail running, or find some mountain biking trails that won't kill me!
I've got my work cut out for me this summer, but these 3 day weekends are always fantastic for enjoying my new home!
Here's a photo of a moose on the West side. Hope to have lots more photos, especially since I have a digital camera this time around.
... And I can't wait to either get my motorcycle out here, or get a HARLEY!
I'm watching The Notebook... I avoided seeing it because I thought it was one of those popular movies that everybody sees just because everybody else has seen it. But it's really good! It's making me feel all girly. Here's a quote I really like:
"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul, that makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds..."
Awe... :)
