Photos while I have a chance

Here are the photos from: Finch Lake Trail (not too exciting), Old Fall River Road, and other random stuff. A nice perk to working for the park is that we get to go places that aren't yet open to the public, like Old Fall River Road. They open the road around 4th of July weekend and keep it open until October. It's a beautiful 8 mile one-way drive up a steep winding dirt road, which means once it's open, it's always very busy. Cisco and I had to do our hazard tree survey and we almost had the whole road to ourselves, besides the roads guys that are preparing it for the weekend. I cut down all the immediate hazards and we were supposed to remove the lower priority ones today, but Cisco went home sick and I left early to go to the doctors! Ear infection! No insurance! Expensive!

I've got hot plans tonight so I figured I'd update while I have a chance! Photos of bighorn and baby elk! Everybody loves baby animals!

Adventure! Cross country travel! Family! Hawaiian BBQ! Flyfishing!

So many things are happening in my life right now, I don't even know where to begin!

First, we'll start with my rescue story of the week. Our poor volunteer Sam (23 yrs old) got lost this weekend! And I don't just mean sortof lost - he had to stay overnight without any gear in 30-40 degree weather and had 6 dog teams, a helicopter and a ton of people looking for him. Fortunately, he was not hurt and did the right thing - once he realized he lost his hiking partner (they were tracking bighorn), he stayed in one place. He said the only thing he had was a space blanket (one of those heat-insulating aluminum tarps). Needless to say we are AGAIN changing some backcountry protocols - for example, there will be random checks of backcountry traveling employees' bags, and if they are missing a radio or map, they could be FIRED. They take this very seriously. I don't think he'll be doing any more sheep surveys though!

The weekend was great - we went to the Hi Drive House for Bill's Going Away party... and Bill wasn't there! I guess he had to leave for family stuff?? (Bill, I know you read this - what happened?!) But that's ok, we had a great time in his honor anyway and eventually made it downtown to party some more. I just might have a new motorcycle riding buddy too! We'll see how that turns out.

My family will be here Thursday! I am so excited. I planned an exciting itinerary for us - flyfishing, camping in the best campsite in the entire campground (it pays to know campground rangers, ha ha!), golf for the boys, maybe a surprise for my Mom, downhill bike riding, fireworks, hiking - I am going to keep them busy! It is going to be so good to see them. Then I am riding back to MI with them so I can see everybody! Here's what I want to do: 5th Ave in Novi on Thurs (for Killer Flamingos!) if I am home/awake still, or on Friday night; Friday afternoon I'm hopefully going out with my Novi cityworker friends if they remember (they're getting old! Don't party like they used to! ha ha) and then Saturday Jess is throwing a Hawaiian BBQ!! Whip your grass skirts and coconuts out of the closet, we're roasting us a wild boar! ;)  Maybe not, but I'll make sure there are Mai Tais! At some point between all my social activites, I have to pack... Details, details!

Guess my dad is driving back to CO with me. Should be fun, he's never been out here before! I wonder how many times he will lecture me about hitting an elk or a deer, or getting bitten by snakes? ;)  I can't wait to see his face when we drive up Trail Ridge Road, with cliffs dropping off on both sides! Hee hee.

And somewhere in all this fun and excitement, I will move from Estes Park to my sweet apartment in the foothills and maybe get a dog! So much going on!

On top of all that, I've been daydreaming about what I am going to do this winter. I don't NEED a full time job with benefits - I am happy and live well making as much money as I do now, so hey why not work for a ski resort? Or maybe go on that trip to Hawaii with Doug and Sandy after all? Heck, I could volunteer at Haleakala and get free housing and a small stipend while doing turtle surveys! Mark wants to visit haunted places in Ireland, and Bronson is in Alaska for a little while longer... The possibilities are endless! In any case, I'll at least make it to Flagstaff to visit Maria, Seattle to see Brian and Melissa, and Montana to visit my wildlife refuge family! Plus, my new motorcycle buddy bought property in Wrangell  - St. Elias National Park in Alaska and is in the middle of building his own log cabin in McCarthy. Maybe I'll just have to stop up there and help cut down some trees or something. :)

I'm sure my mom is reading this and just thinking "Medical benefits! You NEED medical benefits!"

Anyway that's all for now, obviously lots going on and I'm super happy and excited for the next couple weeks!  I'm so excited, I even managed to force myself to go on a trail run... and eat a slice of cheesecake when I finished. ;)

Hope to see everybody at the Hawaiian BBQ or 5th Ave or something! If you don't know what/when it is, just drop me an email!

These photos are from last week - the clouds settled in the valleys and we drove through and then ABOVE them. I wish I had my good camera, because they would have made for amazing pictures!

Friendship ala Vixens

Jess sent me this this email and it's just too funny and a little bit too honest. ;)

"True Friendship - None of that Sissy Crap!

Are you tired of those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card - just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.


1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.


2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.


3. When you smile -- I will know you finally got laid.


4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.


5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.


6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.


7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.


8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.


9. This is my oath..... I pledge it to the end. "Why?" you may ask; "Because you are my friend".

Friendship is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the true warmth.
And always remember....when life hands you Lemons, ask for tequila and salt and call me over !!!!!"

What a friend! ;)

It's my Friday!

I am exhausted, sore, and hungry... It was a good day. :)

This morning, I went and took that pack test for firefighting. Cisco and Scott couldn't take it, but fortunately a girl I used to work with, Wendy, was there with her iPod - she sang while the two of us shook our thangs while walking those 12 laps around the track. It was the most fun I've ever had doing something so tedious and boring! My hip flexors and shins are already getting sore, but I felt pretty darned good. Hope to get on a fire or two this year!

We had a big dead hazard tree to remove, as well as lots of other random tasks that needed to get done before the weekend. It was also Bill's Going Away Party - he got himself a permanent position in California with the Forest Service! It's great seeing everybody I worked with in 2003 moving up and progressing with their careers. Hopefully it will be my turn soon. :) Needless to say, we had more to do than we had time, so we worked an hour over... and this is my Friday! I'm rewarding myself with a mocha and a brownie.

The official party is on Saturday night, so Cisco and I delivered fire wood all over the place today. Tonite I am supposed to meet some trails guys up at the Rock Inn, but who knows if I'll make it there. Between going to Boulder for dinner one night, then to the Rock Inn with everybody last nite... And all the boring "everyday stuff" I have to do... Methinks it would be a nice idea to stay in and relax one of these nights.

Doubt it will happen. :)

That's all for now. Not too exciting but I know everybody keeps calling and I can't call back because my phone is still on life-support. See you MI folks soon!

It's alive, it's ALIVE!

My mom asked me an excellent question yesterday evening. "Why did your phone go in the water??"

I was too tired to write down my longwinded story yesterday, but fortunately for ya'll (sarcasm), I'm feeling pretty darned good today... so here it goes:

Trail Log (You know I just had to): Finch Lake, from the Allenspark Trailhead, 8 miles round trip. That link sends you to somebody else's Trail Log, since there really isn't much on the internet about that specific route (you can also get there from the Finch Lake TH or the Wild Basin TH... those ways are longer but more traveled). This is how I spent my day on Sunday. I was so sick of the swarms of people, I wanted to hike a trail that I hoped would be relatively quiet - and I was right! The trailhead itself is a little tougher to find because it's not labeled on the road and is a 20 minute (? don't even know for sure) drive south of Estes Park, and there are only a small number of parking sites once you get there.

The trail was pretty rocky and was moderately uphill for most of the way, until you get close to the lake - then it's blissful downhill trot... until you remember that you will have to go UP on your way back! Mostly forested, with a section that goes through the site of the 1978 Allenspark fire. The pine, aspen, golden banner and indian paintbrush have all grown back pretty vigorously, and it's a neat contrast to see 4-8 ft. pines next to towering charred remains. It's not animals or cliffs or any other thing that worries me on hikes - it's dead snags creaking and swaying in the wind! Since I do the whole hazard tree thing, I'm always painfully aware of the fact that a dead tree could just decide to fall on me. Sound stupid? I've been told that's the #1 killer of wildland firefighters on the fire line. I'm going to keep looking up, even if I'm paranoid. :)

The lake itself was... well, a little lake, surrounded by pine and rock. I would have continued the other 2 miles to Pear Lake if I had brought lunch, but I was hungry and honestly, Finch Lake was pretty unremarkable so I didn't feel like taking a gamble that Pear Lake would be any better. Hey, I'm just being honest! I won't take anybody on that hike. It was a great work-out and as quiet as I could probably find on a summer Sunday in Rocky Mt., but it was a pretty boring lake. I forgot my camera but I will post the couple pictures I actually did take eventually.

...But my phone seemed to really like the lake! To answer my mom's question, I had taken the phone out to check the time and I set it down next to me, on a rock next to the lake. I gathered my stuff to leave and noticed my shirt was falling out of the bungees on my pack... then had this thought that I don't remember putting my phone back... Started looking around, I mean I hadn't gone 5 feet but WHERE WAS THE PHONE?! I didn't go very far so I was at a loss. I glanced into Finch Lake with a sinking feeling, didn't see it... did a double take...!#$%^&*%!#, my phone!!!! I'm not sure if my Camelback pack hit it, or if it just rolled, or if some evil chipmunk pushed it... I didn't even hear it go in.

BUT there is a good ending to this tragic story of cell phone near-death! Later I plugged in just the phone part to my car adapter, and it LIVED! I think the battery is toast and am hoping that a new one will work in the phone. So, in the meantime my cell is on life-support and only works while plugged in. :)

Here's my plan for coming home: I am driving with my parents back from visiting me on the 6th and we're gonna drive straight thru. Pack up my stuff the 7th?? See some people and have a good time that night, then if I'm super ambitious head back to CO on the 8th. If anybody does come out with me, I will obviously drive you to the airport, and you are free to stay as long as you want! I do have to work but we'll work something out. Perhaps the lucky volunteer can come and be my slave at Rocky for the day and help drag slash or something. J'k, we'd go easy on you.

I'm in a fantastic mood today, I went to the west side and got to goof off with my friends over there a little bit. Ron is in the military and has to go back to his base in August, and he has a 3 year old yellow lab thathe needs to find a home for. I wasn't planning on getting a lab, yet alone one that old... but I'm gonna meet his pup and see how compatible we are. He said he's well trained and a great hiker, so maybe Tara's puppy will have an uncle! ;)  Ron also said he would ride me back to MI on his touring motorcycle so I could pick mine up, and we'd cruise the backroads back to CO... to which I said, I've only been riding for about a year, I haven't ridden since last fall, AND the longest trip I've driven myself was 3 hours! On an old '87 Honda I bought off eBay! So don't worry Mom, I'm not going to do it!

Speaking of which, she heard about some Michigan lady that fell off a cliff in Yellowstone, and some Chicago girl that went missing on a hike at Mt. Rainier and yelled at me over email for hiking alone. Hey guess what! I don't think "It can't happen to me" - It CAN happen to me, but I just have to trust in what I've learned over the years and hope that my training, experience, stubborn will to live and a little bit of good luck will help me through it all. I mean, it's a bigger risk to drive a car than for me to go hiking! Living a full exciting life is worth the risk and I'd rather die hiking than in a car or on the couch or something boring!

On top of that, one thing my sister Linda and I have learned, for better or worse, is to be self sufficient and never have to rely on anybody else. I'm not going to stop hiking just because I am alone. It might be even better that way - I'm not being pushed to do something harder than my ability, or being aggrivated by having to go too slow or stop! I pay very careful attention to everything around me BECAUSE I am alone. You can't get careless or lazy when you go it alone! My mom raised independent confident women, and look what she got - stress and worry! Let that be a lesson to the rest of you, ha ha!

Anyway I'm obviously doing much better today, things are just too good for me out here to linger on the bad stuff! It helped seeing Travis, Ron and Doug today, and getting emails from Maria and Jon... oh and getting my tree climbing gear!

So... what should I write my novel about? I'd already be done if all these entries were worth publishing! ;)  All I can say is I'm glad so many of you are bored at work, otherwise I don't think anybody would read all this!