So, my dog has hip dysplasia. Talk about a bummer. Not doing surgery yet, but it will probably come down to that sooner or later. Hip replacement..!!! I'm just not even going to think about it. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Here's some photos from us blowing up a boulder.
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| From Work, 2007 |
Woooo!
My last day of work was yesterday. Don't even ask what I'm going to do for a job. I've got a few options, but really I'm more excited for the fact that A-Basin opened 2 days ago!! Time to wax the board! And even more fun, I bought myself some telemark skiis! Something new to learn. I've been looking into skijorning too... that's cross country skiing while being pulled by your dog. It sounds like fun... but Log dog is limping again. This time, gotta check for hip dysplasia. He had been doing so great though! I hope he just pulled a muscle being chased by a Scotty at the dog park. What a headache!
Here's some more photos. This is the trip Tim and I took two weekends ago, to Aspen, Crested Butte, and Mt. Massive.
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| From Pearl Pass; M... |
Never a dull moment!
It's been over 3 weeks since I last updated; and boy, what a busy month it has been! Let me briefly highlight; hopefully I can get a chance to write more about each of my trips before the weekend, but we'll see.
One weekend, Logan and I went up to Long Draw Reservior/Corral Creek, in the northern part of Rocky Mt NP. It takes I think 3 hours or so to get there from Estes... Tim was building a bridge with his crew, so I wanted to check out his project and do some hiking, where the aspen had changed and the nights were cold... So we did a couple hikes up there.
Last weekend, Tim and I decided to spend the weekend camping together when he's NOT working so we could hike together. We planned on hiking the 9 miles to Conundrum Hot Springs outside of Aspen... but the 25 cars at the trailhead convinced us otherwise (did I mention, it was on a Thursday night, and there are only 18 campsites??). We didn't want to be around people, so we took the 4x4 road up to Pearl Pass, that goes between Aspen and Crested Butte. Ironically, we didn't end up doing any hiking AT ALL. Instead, we saw massive aspen of gold, orange and red; got hit by a snowstorm just as we reached the peak of Pearl Pass; "car camped" and only saw 2 other people near Twin Lakes; drove to Mt. Massive and did more off roading there; explored the old Champion Mill and Mine; had an absolutely amazing weekend. Oh, and we were thunder snowed upon at Mt. Massive. Yep - thunder, lighting... and SNOW. Freakin' LOVE IT.
Tim's back up north working on the bridge; next week, off to Bandelier NP in New Mexico for a week; I'm done working next Thursday. Already bought my expensive 5 mountain pass and ready for SNOW! Working on getting a job for the winter too. Still haven't heard from grad school.
Oh, and Tim and I looked into buying a cabin outside of Estes together. WHAT?! That's right. However, it was sold; we are still looking, but it's a pretty low chance to find another little log cabin in our price range anywhere within 2 counties of Rocky Mt. ;)
Now for the best part: LOTS OF PICTURES!!
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| From Scottish Iris... |
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| From Poudre River,... |
Now that I've been back to work for, oh, not even 2 weeks... My boss surprised the crap out of me and caught me at the end of work on Tuesday and said, "They're looking to put another fire crew together, wanna go?"
What?! Heck yeah! I didn't think he'd let me go out more than once; but it's the end of the season, and a lot of people have gone back to school or their seasons have ended, so they are looking to get our Northern Colorado Type 2 #2 crew back together. As of right now, there's no resource order or anything, but they want to be ready when other crews time out and need us to replace them. Most of the crews from the area are in the Grand Canyon right now; don't know if we'd end up out there, or Southern Cali, or where... I'm psyched!!
Tim gets back from the Poudre Cabin tonight, if he is back when we get the call-out then him and I just might be on the same fire crew! But, he goes back into the backcountry on Monday for eight days, so it's pretty unlikely. I wouldn't be surprised if we got called out Mon or Tues.
The leaves started changed on the aspen already, as of Monday or so. The wind has been crisp lately, despite the warm sun, and snow is already sitting on top of Long's Peak. So much for finally climbing that peak this season! A bunch of folks did a search and rescue yesterday for a guy that was up on Mt Lady Washington for two days.
Here's a photo of the bathroom I've been working on all summer; it was finished and opened on Aug. 24th. Looks nice, don't it? Thank god I'm done with it!
Work, lately, has been a bunch of different projects. One day, I dug two 5 1/2 foot deep hole to find some old water lines that we will be replacing. Then, we started demolishion on another bathrom (#408), so we took apart everything inside and recycled/reused a bunch of stuff; unfortunately I was busy on another project when they bulldozed the thing down. I think it only took 2 days to gut it, then 2 days to raize it. Instead, I was out at Hidden valley, trying to finish up the trail work I had been doing with volunteersall summer. I finished lining my section of trail with logs, and it looked pretty good; Mike finished the log checks, and Tate and I spent 1 1/2 days digging rocks out of a ditch. My back didn't like that much! Then yesterday I was thrilled that my boss let me go nuts and do some tree work; we are contracting out replacing the water tanks, so I needed to clear limbs for big trucks to get back to it. I spent the morning blissfully by myself. In the afternoon, Steve-O showed me how to split boulders using a gas drill and feathers and plugs. Just drill a few holes into a rock (stupid drill had old gas in it, so it took a while to clean it out...), then put these two pieces of metal on top and bottom of the hole, then start pounding a wedge between the feathers, all in a line... wait... and then crackle and pop! Just split granite in half by hand. The hardest part was keeping the drill going! And my forearms were killing me. But it was a good day. All the term employees are ticked off because they are getting laid off for 2 months; usually it's only for 2-4 weeks. That's just the way it goes sometimes, I suppose.
Today is my day off, after this going to jog with the Log, though it looks like it wants to rain. Notre Dame (Tim's team) and Michigan (how embarassing) play tomorrow, and they are both 0-2..... so Tim and I have a lot of trash talking to do tomorrow! Monday, he is driving out of the backcountry to Ft Collins, and I am meeting him down there, for Monday night football - Eagles. Oh, and did I mention how sweet it is that the Lions won last week?! Sadly, Tim will be in the backcountry for the Eagles-Lions game... I was so looking forward to it!
And, I don't know if we'll be able to make it back to MI and PA like we had wanted. Looks like his furlough won't happen til after the new year. Bummer. We'll see if I get into grad school at Colorado State. My friend Ryan is coming out to ski over Thanksgiving, then all my college buddies are coming out Dec 27-Jan 2, then my friend Matt will be out in January! Looking forward to this winter!
Here are Jason's photos from Brian's wedding.
Now, time to do something productive!
The internet crashed right in the middle of that last journal entry. Will continue when I get a chance. This weekend is the Scottish Irish Highlands Festival here in Estes... it's only taken 3 summers for me to finally make it! Log dog and I forgot about the parade and went into town for a jog and breakfast, only to get diverted. I didn't plan on going to the parade, but we ended up walking downtown with a breakfast english muffin, strawberry smoothie... and my 110 lb big black german shepherd at my side. One dude in a kilt even asked if he could take a photo of my beautiful dog. ;) We made it into town, but ran into Sov (Tim's friend/coworker/Kim's boyfriend) and ended up talking to him through the entire thing. So... I heard the parade, but didn't see it. Just saw all the Irish Wolfhounds, Scotties, Westies, and tons of men in kilts. :) I then tried to take Logan for a jog at the lake, which went pretty well... until we passed another dog. Then, I had lots of people giggling at me as I urged him "Keep on running! Keep on running!" I'm sure I would have laughed at me, too. :)
Tim and I are going to the main festivities in about half an hour - Scotch tasting, lots and LOTS of music, herding dog competition, highlands competitions (jousting, and who knows what else men in kilts are capable of) and GUINNESS! Last year I missed it, was out on a fire, 2003 I think I was back in Michigan or maybe somebody was visiting me??
So here's some more photos. Gotta jet!
Tom's Seattle photos
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| From Seattle/Brian... |
Some of my wedding/Olympic NP photos... more to come...
More fire photos from the safety officer HERE.
