Hiking Photos

These photos are from last weekend when Joe came up. And I thought the hike I picked out was going to be a challenge to him... Yeah right! He whooped me. I'd like to pretend it's because I was carrying the backpack. :)

Trail Log: Gem Lake (click for trail description), 3.6 miles round trip, 910 ft. elevation gain. Short but steep! This is what most of my photos are of in this album. Joe remembered his hiking boots this time and we got a late start on the trail. The weather was fantastic and the storm clouds hovered in the distance but never made it past the continental divide to ruin our hike! We went back to Lumpy Ridge, where we had found that dead elk the previous weekend. It was still there, and Joe took some great (nasty) photos - flies included! We looked like a couple of tourists taking photos of everything, to the point that I didn't know if we'd actually make it to the lake! But we did, just before the sun starting dropping the the weather cooled off.

After our hike, we went to Mary's Lake Lodge for dinner, which has a great reputation but I had never been there. We didn't sit in the really really expensive part, but the Tavern was more up my alley anyway. Fantastic food, live bluegrass music, and great views! Anybody that comes up here has to try it at least once.

Ok that's all for now, I know I haven't updated in forever but I have been working like crazy and still mostly living on the West Side, where I don't get on the computer much. The good news is we finished our slash clean-up at Green Mountain and I flagged those 1,000 trees - including pounding in sign posts - and we can now move on to more exciting things. Next week we supervise the pesticide contractors - not looking forward to it, we have to put plastic over all picnic tables, tent platforms, fire pits, etc - but our trivia team, formerly "The East Siders" now called "Good at Drinking, Bad at Trivia", is expecting a BIG WIN and I'm excited! Just kidding, we suck. :)

I'm still busy trying to find a truck, an apartment, and catching up on all the stuff I neglect while I am away from Estes. I've been on the computer at this coffee shop for breakfast AND lunch and still haven't finished everything I am working on!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA! My sis is 23 today, and I wish I were there to take her out!! Miss you, Winny!

BTW, I am amazed that the radio is playing "Question" by the Old 97's. Suddenly, I like this station a whole lot more!

One more tidbit: One guy that works on the West side is in the Army and has men coming back from out East. He said that if I can get my motorcycle to them in Indiana, they'll ship it out here on their way to El Paso! SWEEEET! Now, if I only had an affordable way to get it to Indiana...!!

Ok, here we go... photos galore!

Finally home and catching up on everything! First album... moose, moose, moose!
The fox, "Boots", outside of the Bears Den in Grand Lake, taken by my camera phone at night.

Always running errands... gets in the way of fun!

Quick! Go online and order plane tickets to visit me!

I got a Farewatcher alert from Travelocity - $175 round trip tickets to Denver! I don't know what the restrictions are or how long it will last... Do it! Do it! Do it!

It's absolutely beautiful outside right now; Joe is on his way to REALLY go for a hike this time. I'm online trying to catch up with everything I can't do while I am on the West side.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT! It's my little bro's 14th today!

Usually I work four 10 hour days... This week, since we have so much going on, I stayed in Grand Lake through yesterday (Friday). Even though it's always much colder and snowier on that side of the continental divide, I am really enjoying my time over there. Of course, I just had to go and get an overuse injury from tearing at those logs and slash with a little too much enthusiasm... So I spent the week mostly flagging trees to be sprayed or for pheromone packets to repel the beetles. By the time I get done flagging everything, I will have marked about 2,000 trees. Phew.

We also got this thing called an Air Curtain Burner - it's a big dumpster that blows air and incinerates logs - so I got to help out on that a bit. Also got a little bit of overtime checking on it in the middle of the night to make sure it didn't start a forest fire. 52 hours of work this week, yippee!

... And all that money is going to my new used vehicle I hope to purchase in the next few weeks. Probably a Toyota pickup, since that's THE vehicle of choice out here. I was accelerating in Focus today, and the engine just SHUT DOWN. I restarted the car and it was fine... but yeah, methinks it's time to move on.

The West side is just one big sleep-deprived party - we eat out every night (don't feel like hauling our cooking utensils back and forth) and usually end up at the Lariat Saloon to play pool or trivia (we formed our own team, The East Siders... and lost, but not by a lot! Next week is our week!!), and pet the wolf-dog Otis and everybody else's mutts. One evening, Sandy and Doug hosted a Mai Tai Party in honor of a former coworker, and also in honor of their friend Susie who used to work for Rocky... she went to Haleakala NP in Hawaii and died when a rock fell off a cliff while she was clearing a road. It was also a little tribute to Jeff Christensen, the ranger who died in 2005.  They went to visit their friend who actually got the job that their deceased friend Susie had... Very strange. Anyway, they showed home videos of their trip out there and served up the best Mai Tais ever! There were quite a few people there; of course, Ron, Cisco, Travis and I were feeling pretty good by the end of the night!

Oh, and Sandy and Doug invited me to Hawaii with them in February... the only thing I have to pay for is airfare (~$600 or less from Denver!) and food and drinks!  Heck, maybe I'll even try to get a job there. Why not?! I heard it's relatively easy to get a seasonal job there... but near impossible to stay. I'm up for a challenge! ;)

Scott, whom I worked with in 2003, and Dayle came over from the East side to help us out, so those two, Mark and I took over the pool table (and I adopted the juke box) and the bowling alley... and the story ends with Mark standing outside the truck with a frozen trout in his hand, decided whether we would go back to the bar or cook turkey-dogs over the fire at the Air Burner. It doesn't sound that funny, but it was.

Anyway gotta jet before Joe gets here! So much going on, I know I am forgetting a bunch. Probably getting my own apartment, since it looks like I will be getting a roommate in June. Yuck!

Oh, lots and lots of moose pics to add later. Also saw a pine marten but the little bugger was too fast for me!

Here is the obituary for Dick Ingalls:

"Age 45 of Redford. May 4, 2006. Loving brother of Kathleen Hefni (Mohamed), Joanne Ingalls McKay, Paula McCue (Mike), William (Kathy Taves), Thomas (Donell), Mary, John, and Barbara. Preceeded in death by his loving wife Robin, father Richard, mother Mary, and sister Shirley. Also survived by 14 nephews and nieces. Visitation will be at Harry J. Will Funeral Home, at 34567 Michigan Ave, Wayne, MI on May 7, 2006 from 2-7 p.m. Internment after cremation at United Memorial Gardens, Curtis Rd, Plymouth Township. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Cancer Society of Michigan in honor of Dick's wife Robin Ingalls."

Sad news about an O.P. coworker

Joe just called to tell me that one of our O.P. coworkers died of a heart attack at work yesterday. I was on the tree crew with Dick for a few weeks; he was a quiet, laid-back guy who always managed to keep his head above the negativity and crap at work. His dad had just passed away earlier this winter; a few days later, his wife died - she had cancer but was expected to live at least 6 months. Right before I left for Colorado, he came up to me and said "Want to see a picture of my girlfriend?" and handed me a photo of his 1940-something Indian motorcycle - a very sweet bike.

Wow, I am really glad him and I had a chance to talk a little bit before I left. He was just so quiet, but one day we just started talking. He was trying to get money to go to HVAC school and move up north. I kept trying to convince him to move to Colorado, because it's the place to be!

Very sad. :(  And just shocked. I have lots to type and pics to put up, but not really in the mood right now. He didn't have any kids, but 2 dogs. Those poor puppers. Yeah, don't know what else to say, just shocked. Dick was such a good guy...

Trail log and photos from Susan's Birthday

Fern Falls breaking through the snow

The photo album for today is from Susan's birthday back in March. We went to Friday's... and I guess when you tell them it's somebody's birthday, they come by all throughout dinner and tie balloons all over the person. Needless to say, anybody that knows Sue can imagine that she wasn't too keen with people trying to tie balloons to her arms and her head... She put a stop to that very quickly, but it sure was funny to watch her get ticked off!

I am going to keep track of the trails I hike this year. I had done it in 2003 but I can't remember how many gazillion miles I logged that year.

Today's Trail: Fern Falls, 6.6 miles round trip (trailhead was closed so added 1.6 miles to distance). Originally planned on hiking to Fern Lake but the weather kept changing from blue sky and fluffy white clouds, to total cloud cover and light rain, then nice again. There is still some snow along the trail when you get near the falls (and probably all the way to the Lake), but was firm enough that I didn't post-hole at all (which would have sucked, since I was wearing shorts!) By the time I returned to my car, the mountains were enclosed by clouds - good thing I turned around!

I had planned on doing this hike yesterday with Joe, but he forgot his hiking boots! GOSH! He's not a very good mountain man, ha ha! I gave him the grand tour of the Park and we did some hiking around Lumpy Ridge... where he found a dead elk, which was kindof neat in its own morbid way. Coincidentally, we were eating deep-fried ice cream at Ed's when the bartender introduced us to the guy right next to us... who owns the only official tree company in town, Mike's (and the guy's name was not Mike, but Adam... he just bought the company). It's a small world up here!

...Now, I'm talking to a few bikers here in the coffee shop about winter here - guess it's really really windy, but they ride every month of the year up here too. Don't really get snow accumulation either. It's great talking to locals! Don, Marcy and Steve. Need to remember that!

That's all for now, I've got my Sunday routine to follow - Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy tonite, pack up my stuff so I can head West again for the week, catch up on email, blah blah blah.