Hillbilly Ball and puppy news

Bettie Page

Paul and I at the Hillbilly Ball

The Halloween party at the Rock Inn was fantastic! Here's a few pictures from that, and from visiting Matt at Keystone. Whitewater Ramble played and there were some fantastic costumes - the winner was dressed as Steve Irwin... complete with a sting ray coming out of his chest. Yeah, it's a little twisted but at least we all knew who he was. Needless to say, most people didn't know who Bettie Page was, but those who did said I looked just like her. It was just fun running around with a riding crop and 6" stilettos, ha ha!

My puppy was born on Wednesday, but unfortunately there were no solid blacks. There are some very dark ones and that's fine by me, and it might look like Scout, one of their other dogs:

I'll get to pick one out in about 4 weeks, take it home in 8. Woo hoo!

I was so psyched my friend Matt was in Keystone, and even more pumped for that snow storm we got! Matt had tried to warn me before I drove out there, telling me to be careful in the snow. I just figured there were some flurries or something on Loveland Pass... I showed up at the Inn at Keystone and still had no idea. We sat in the bar next door to the hotel, drank a little bit, shared shots of Jim Beam, and caught up on the last year of our lives. The Avalanche were on tv - LOSING! - and then the Wings came on - WINNING! - and somebody mentioned the huge snowstorm we were supposed to get.

"What snowstorm?"

Matt laughed and said "What, you thought I was just talking about some flurries, that I don't know what a lot of snow is since I'm not from Colorado?! We're getting hammered tonight!"

And we sat in the bar, laughing and drinking and remembering the past and musing over the strange places we seem to cross paths... watching the snow pile up... I tried really hard to convince him to blow off the training he was in town for and hit the slopes at A-Basin instead. All that fresh powder...!! And what goes better with a late night blizzard than hot tubbing?! The front desk guy said that hot tubs are required to close at 10 pm in Colorado (seems strange to me)... I pleaded that well that's just silly, I'm sure there's some way to get some hot tubbing in, and he was cool enough to mention that "Well, the nigh man already made his rounds...I'm the only one here at the front desk... And the locals, well they just jump the walls!"

Cool guy. ;)

We went downstairs and poached the outdoor hot tub, snow piling up outside. I love this time of year!

The next day Matt had to go to training and I was going back up to Estes. Of course, when I tried to leave is when I found out I-70 was closed! Darn, I was forced to snowboard at Arapahoe until it opened. ;)  I went back to Estes that evening; I was going to go back down to Keystone on Friday night, and hoped Matt was coming up to Estes for the Hillbilly Ball, but plans changed and we didn't get to meet up again. It was still great to see him though, and we joked about the next place we're going to hang out... Alaska? Maui? Always an adventure, that's for sure!

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Here's the link to the photos from the party and a few from Keystone/Arapahoe Basin. Shutterfly is being stupid and won't load correctly so I'm back to Trekshare. I have pictures all over the freakin' internet!!

 

Fire and Ice News

A few newsworthy items of interest:

A California wildfire killed 4 firefighters and 1 is still in critical condition - I guess it's the deadliest wildfire since 2001. Very sad to hear, but these things do happen. I did get a couple text messages from people I haven't talked to in a while, making sure I wasn't down there. Thanks guys.

My friend Matt from Virginia (we were in the same program at U of M) is out at Keystone for training, so I went out to visit him (back to the same area that I was this past weekend - a 2 hour drive to Arapahoe area)... he asked if I was ready for the snow... to which I replied, "What snow?"

Shortly after that conversation, we sat in the bar in excitement and anticipation as a blizzard covered everything with about 1 1/2 feet of snow all night. I had absolutely no idea. I guess it's the biggest October snowstorm to hit in years. Rocky Mountain got 2 feet; Tim says Bear Lake got 2-3 feet.

The next day, I was going to come back up to Estes. Needless to say, the freeway was shut down. Know what I did? Went riding (however ungracefully) at A-Basin again. ;)  Life is good, friends, life is good. I'll put a few pictures up when I get a chance.

In the meantime, I'm supposed to go back to Keystone tonite to party with Matt some more, but I'm tired of driving so I might just go back on Saturday morning, snowboard all day, then come back and go to the Halloween Party at the Rock Inn. Trying to convince Matt to go too - and his 6 other coworkers. Tim is leaving for Colorado National Monument on Sunday night (after we watch the Eagles game, of course) and will be gone for 2 weeks, so I might just stay in tonite and watch Northern Exposure with him. ;)  I am going to Flagstaff on the 4th to visit Maria; she is defending her thesis soon though so just going to make it a short visit, then putz around Arizona for a couple days, then maybe see tim at the Monument. I'm so busy! But I am finally getting rid of Verizon and going to Cingular, so I can actually answer my damn phone! Woo  hoo!

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This just in: Puppies were born!! I don't know if there are anyblacks, but there are 7 male and 2 female. I'm a mommy! ;)

Here's a picture off the website of the first male born.

Gotta love my motorcycle...

This was on October 18th, the day we got the first snow that didn't melt off right away. It was so beautiful that morning I just had to drive through the park - like a tourist - and enjoy the fresh clean look of new powder on the ponderosas!

I'm just sitting here, waiting for the bike shop guy to show up in Lyons with a trailer to get my dead little Honda. I think either it's bad fuel, water in the fuel system somewhere or something wrong with the fuel lines. Bummer. I was on my way to gas up and then ride it up to Estes to store in Tim's garage (it was so warm yesterday!) when she started stalling out. I made my best effort to at least get her to the bike shop in town (they only do Harleys but at least it would have been more secure), but she just wouldn't go anymore in this nice new subdivision. Fortunately Tim was on his way to ride with me, so he stopped at my place, grabbed my truck, and saved the day. ;)  Pretty bummed out but that's what I get for procrastinating. Now I have to pay to get it towed to a local bike shop. Not cheap... but gotta do what I gotta do!

So on Friday I got a surprise text message from my friend Ryan Park (aka Kooooooorea aka Parkie), who had moved to Chicago earlier this year. It said "I'm going to Colorado" or something like that. When? "On my way right now." Huh?? I kept asking him questions like where, when, why, how, for how long, etc... What does he reply?

"This is going to be epic."

Heh heh heh... that's Korea for ya! To which I of course replied, "UNLEASH HELL!" (Gladiator quote, from the good ol' days of unemployment and watching that movie way too many times).

He still wouldn't answer my questions. Instead, he writes things like "R U pumped?" and "We are going to A basin." Which really doesn't tell me much.

That was Friday; I didn't hear much else from him. Later that night I went to a "potluck" party and made our family's famous Saucy Water Chesnuts... which were a HUGE blast and always the first to be devoured! There was salmon with terragon, meatballs, a roast, butternut squash, and so much good food... Drew, Sean and Joel's band played, and after a night of trying to talk/yell over the music, I lost my voice. Real sexy too, ha ha! It was a good party with boxed wine, drunk Pictionary, a crunch competition (yes, as in sit-ups... I won with 150! ha ha!), all that good stuff.

Wake up on Saturday and I get a couple more texts from Parkie... like, "1 hr from Denver" and then "We're at A basin". At that point I was confused, not sure where they flew into or where they were staying or why they were here... I mean, there's only 2 resorts that are open - Loveland and Arapahoe Basin - and A basin only has 3 runs open; Loveland has 1. Did they come out just to ski??

That would so be like Parkie, freakin' madman! I LOVE IT!

There was also a party in Nederland that day, an end of the season celebration including a few people from the fire I was on. I hadn't heard from Parkie in a while and was just getting ready to head out there around 6 pm, when Parkie sends me a few texts. Since I was sick, I really didn't plan on doing any boarding myself... but I wanted to see Ryan, so I said what the heck and headed out to Arapahoe, about a 2 hour drive.

Of course, I packed my snowboard and gear... just in case. ;)

As soon as I hit Loveland Pass (where quite a few resorts are located), it was snowing like crazy. All that fresh powder... as I cough and sniffle and my throat is all sore... All this temptation to hit the slopes in Colorado for my first time...

Met Parkie downstairs at the Old Chicago and was both dreading and looking forward to it... Usually, when he says "This is going to be epic" means that we'll be doinglots of shots, poaching hot tubs, and staying up way too late and pretty much wreaking havoc on society as a whole. I didn't know if I had the energy/health to do it! I sat at the bar eating dinner and waiting for him... Here comes Parkie... And he's feeling sick!! Altitude and sleep deprivation had gotten to him; sounded like we'd be sleeping before 10 pm! I was in better shape than he was at that point, but this just wasn't right.

"You're in freaking COLORADO, you're with ME and you went SKIING... YOU NEED TO MAN UP AND GET A DRINK!"  There's no way I was letting him off easy tonite.

With some hesitance he warmed up to the idea; soon he said "We need to do a shot of Jager. It's just not right without it." So the bartender poured us some cold shots from the Yagerator and down they went. About 10 minutes later, Ryan miraculously began to feel better and from that we get the quote of the night:

"I love how I was sick, and now I am cured. Thank you Jesus!" - as he stood there  with a nasty bottle of Kingfisher beer in his hand. "The Jager cured me!"

And really, we hardly drank at all; but we were definately ready to cause trouble. When I asked him what airport he flew into, he just started cracking up. "WE DROVE HERE!"

What?!

Ends up they were at training on Friday and Parkie, being himself, kept saying to his friends "We should go to Colorado." And they'd chuckle and pass it off. And then he thought about it more, and got serious. "Really, we should go to Colorado TODAY." Well, by the time lunch came around, his friend comes up to him and says "LET'S GO!"

So these four guys hop in Parkie's car, grab their crap, and headed West! I love a good pioneering spirit!

18 hours later, they arrive at Arapahoe Basin and hit the slopes. All of his friends were now passed out in their room, exhausted from driving non-stop and then boarding all day, plus the altitude. We didn't care. We burst into the room laughing and being stupid, ranting about going to the hot tub. Kenwas the only one to crawl out of bed/off the floor and go downstairs. It closed at 11 but we went in anyway; which was fine until the jets started pouring out cold water and the hot tub turned into a warm tub... into a COLD tub. After about an hour of Ryan whining about freezing, we got out and just went to sleep. Pretty low-key compared to most of our other trips, but these guys just don't know how it works with Korea and I yet! We'll teach them. ;)

To be continued; gotta meet the tow truck guy.

I'm back, my motorcycle is on it's way to Bob's Bike Shop in Boulder, courtesy of an old German named Rolf. Towing to Boulder: $75. Tune up and carb adjustment: $300. Getting complimented by an old German that works on vintage bikes that I got a great deal on a great bike: Priceless. ;)

Anyway... Woke up in the morning and still felt sick. I really shouldn't go snowboarding when I've got a sore throat and a cold, right? But I drove with them to Arapahoe, just to check it out. Right. As soon as I saw that fresh powder and those beautiful slopes, I just had to go. I was supposed to go to Bruce and Kerri's with Tim, like every Sunday, to watch the Eagles and eat Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches (my veggie version is a Philly Cheese Egg sandwhich), and make some of those Saucy Water Chestnuts again, but I just couldn't stop myself. Stood in a huge line for maybe 20 minutes, 18 degrees outside, rode the SLOW lift up to the top... And did pretty darn well on the way down. Unless you've only gone riding in the crappy Midwest your whole life, I don't know if you can understand how heavenly it was to be on POWDER. Admittedly, I still think a few runs at Boyne Highland are pretty fun, but this one little ride down the mountain at Arapahoe was worth rejoicing about - besides the fact that I was riding before even Halloween, yet alone before Thanksgiving (most resorts in MI don't open til end of Nov or Dec)...

But since I was sick, the cold air hurt my throat and lungs, so after that one joyous ride... I called it quits. Don't need to get pneumonia. ;)  Parkie vowed to come back every otherweekend - maybe a little sarcastic, but sounds like he wants to be back for the opening of Keystone around the 17th. I can't wait!

So I went snowboarding that morning, and by that afternoon I was playing horseshoes in Tim's backyard. Not much snow on the ground. Drinking the last of my Bell's Oberon. And then yesterday, I went for a motorcycle ride. In what other state can you do all those things in less than 24 hours?! Pure sweetness.

What else is new with me?? Not much. Finally getting rid of Verizon so I can actually answer my phone in Estes Park! Going to Cingular, the only thing that works there.

Oh and we think Mommy Shepherd is going into the first stages of labor, so my little Logan/Sula will be born today hopefully! Yippee!!

And I'm going to Flagstaff to visit Maria the first weekend in November, and perhaps meeting up with Tim near Arches or Canyonlands National Parks in Utah to camp. I really like not working. ;)

Snow!

Woo hoo, SNOW!!!

I stayed up in Estes last nite and was totally thrilled to hear we were going to get about a foot of snow! Finally my chance to see how the 4x4 on my truck actually works. Decided that I could use a beefy new set of tires next year, but I definately think my Yota was the best purchase I've made in the past couple years. I passed at least 6 or 7 accidents (mostly cars sliding off the road) in the 16 miles from Estes to Lyons this morning - most of them were SUVs and mini vans. Go figure.

Anyway, finally got photos from Bassetts Fire, courtesy of Dave. Hopefully Lloyd will send me his but we'll see.

Getting psyched up for Halloween! My favorite holiday. So many costumes to choose from... I'm thinking of recycling the Bettie Page costume, since I didn't really wear it anywhere last year. Otherwise, thinking of Jean Grey from X-Men, Tombraider, or some other hardcore psycho chickee. ;)

What do you think??

Lisa Page and Bettie Page

I'm bummed because I just found out Tim will be at Colorado National Monument doing trail work on Halloween, and gone for about 3 weeks, but the Rock Inn is having a Halloween party the weekend before so at least we can do that together.

Last minute addition: Seth sent me the group photo of the Northern Colorado Handcrew. Enjoy! ;)

I'm in the back with the tree coming out of my head. ;)

Unemployed!

So I get back from that fire and SURPRISE! I'm done working for the season at the park. I went in on this past Tuesday and was told my last day was Thursday. Jeez, way to give me some notice. I thought I was working another week longer. :(

BUT it's no big deal, they handed me my unemployment papers and said "See ya in April!"

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!

For now, I'm catching up on sleep and trying to finally get over this freaking cold I've had on and off since the fire. Thursday night my friend Jess was in town so we tore it up at the Wheel; on Friday, my friend Sean was in town giving Arbormaster classes so we met up for a brew at Oscar Blues; Saturday, the trails guys had a big "Thanksgiving in October" party to celebrate the end of the season. I drank beer out of a bowl, tried to box/wrestle a couple trails guys, at some point there were fireworks being lit on the deck, and I woke up with blueberry pie in my hair. It was insanely fun. Today, I watched the Eagles LOSE again (Tim swears I'm bad luck at this point) and somehow the Lions won... I think it's because I put on my Joey Harrington jersey, ha ha!

And tomorrow, I am going to sleep in and start trying to find a part time job. I did buy my Colorado ski resort pass - good for unlimited skiing/riding at Breckenridge, Arapaho and Keystone, and 10 passes to Vail and Beave Creek - AND get 6 friend discounts to whereever. I heard Arapaho is already open! So hopefully soon I'll be riding some sweet powder!

That's all for now.

Done flying until at least next year, I hope!

Jeez, I don't even know where to start. I'll give the people what they want, and then I'll write a bunch of babbling crap that everyone can read at work when they're bored, ok?

First off: Photos from Donna and Jason's Wedding!

It was a very quick weekend - flew in on Friday, had about an hour before I had to be at the rehearsal, dinner at Champps, then stayed up until 1 am with the beautiful bride and Heather playing video games and painting our nails... Saturday, got my hair done, went to Donna's parents' house for photos, then off to Ann Arbor - yes, the same time as the Michigan-Michigan State football game traffic! - to marry my darling off to Jason! Drank too much, danced like a crazy woman, tried to catch up with a ton of people I haven't seen in forever... Then went in my bridesmaid dress to my favorite sports bar in Ann Arbor, the Arena, with a bunch of people... Sunday woke up with a nasty wine hangover and hit up Spicer's Orchards with Tara and Linda... And then found myself back in the Detroit Metro Airport waiting to fly back to Colorado! Hardly had time to sit down!

Tim picked me up and we relaxed while watching Northern Exposure Season 2, slept in this morning and went grocery shopping at Whole Foods. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day/week/month to do everything! But I think I am done with airplanes until at least next January, thank goodness.

My German Shepherd puppy should be born between October 23-38, and ready to come home for Christmas! This is why I probably won't be back in Michigan for the holidays.

Michigan was absolutely beautiful, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect for Donna's outdoor wedding - 67 degrees, sunny, light breeze... I get back to Colorado and find out we should be getting 3-6" of snow up in Estes Park (1-3" in Denver) today. It's been raining none stop since I got back, but I just looked on the mesa across the street from me and it's looking a little dusted! I love snow and winter, but going from fall in Michigan to winter in Colorado in a matter of hours is a shock to the system!

And then there's the fire I was on for the past few weeks...The fire guys had warned me that Sunday that I may get sent out with the Northern Colorado Handcrew, but things were slowing down and I really doubted it. Despite my skepticism, I packed up enough gear to be out for 2-3 weeks and kept it in my truck. Monday the 18th, I was supposed to have an entire crew of volunteers helping me close Bear Lake Road so I could fell a bunch of hazard tree, and the next day I was supposed to have volunteers to help remove beetle trees in Glacier Basin Campground. Since I had all this work to do, it shouldn't have surprised me that I got a call at 9:30 am, giving me one hour to get my gear together and be ready to roll from the Park to the dispatch center in Fort Collins. I'm so thankful my coworkers picked up the slack for me!

We picked up Lloyd, a firefighter from the Park, and met up with 18 other people in Fort Collins - US Forest Service out of Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Sulfur District, Americorps and Forest Service out of Nederland, Larimer County, and City of Boulder wildland firefighters. This was my first time out with a handcrew like this and I had no idea what to expect. We loaded up 5 pickup trucks/SUVs and were quickly on the road to the Pigeon Fire in Weaverville, California (northern California, west of Redding). I drove out with Lloyd, Matt from the city of Boulder, and Hutch from the Forest Service out of the Sulfur District.

We stayed one night in the now-infamous West Wendover, Nevada and made it out to northern California... only to arrive and immediately be reassigned to Bassetts fire near Sierraville, California (another 6 hour drive south, near Truckee). So we hopped back in our trucks and found ourselves in a beautiful area of California with huge 6-7 ft. diameter redcedar and pine trees.

This was my first fire camp experience. Set amidst a farmer's pastures (don't worry, the cows were penned up elsewhere), there were trailers and tents and tons of fire engines and trucks from all over. At one point, even the Midnight Sun Hotshot crew out of Alaska was down there with us. We set our tents up along the woods as far from the hustle and bustle of the main camp area, and this was my home for the next 2 weeks - a small Eureka tent, portable shower trailer, port-o-potties, and essentially meals-on-wheels. Itwas around freezing most nights, and most of us didn't have the warmest sleeping bags and ended up needing two bags to stay warm. We'd wake up at 5:30 am, roll out of our bags into the cold, dark morning, dress up in our boots, Nomex, and hooded sweatshirts (a firefighter trademark, it seems), and line up, single file, to walk across the field by 6 am. Hoodies over our heads, hands in our pockets, and our breath visible in the air, we'd line up outside the food trailers and get served huge portions of eggs, bacon, nasty malto-meal, and whatever else we could stomach, grab some chocolate milk and coffee, and eat in a big cold tent. Ironically, we got heaters in the tents once the weather warmed up. We'd eat pretty fast, since our butts froze to the cold metal chairs, then our two squads would gather our assigned gear - water, lunches, supplies - and we would gather around our 5 rigs and get the morning briefing... somewhere in there, we'd brush our teeth with a water bottle outsides the trucks.

Soon we'd be driving out of Sierraville to Bassetts, I think it would take about an hour depending on which Drop Point we were assigned to. The first few days, we mostly were just holding the fireline - we dug some by hand, but mostly it was dozer line scarring the hill in an effort to contain the fire. It had gone from 500 acres to over 1,000 over night, and the first day they tried to do a burnout operation (backfiring the fire into itself, to use up the fuel between our control line and the fire front) and we just stood there and watched for spot fires in the unburned areas. Another day, the humidity went way low and wind speed was 30-50 mph, pushing the fire towards the direction we were trying to protect. Needless to say, the fire jumped a couple lines, started spot fires all over the place, and they pretty much had to start over and put another dozer line in, 1 1/2 miles long down the hill. I did get to see some pretty sweet fire behavior - trees torching out, 200-250 ft. flame lengths, and that whitethorn bush sure goes up fast!

So for a few days, it was alternating between standing along the dozer line, usually freezing our asses off (that windy day was especially rough) and watching for spots fires, and wading waist high in sharp whitetorn bushes in the unburned area, gridding for spots. It got to the point that we'd have to make warming fires along the dozer line to keep warm, especially on the days we worked 15-16 hr days, working until 8 pm or so. One day we were stuck staging for a while, waiting for instructions... so we whipped out a portable DVD player and watch a couple movies. ;)

Finally things went in our favor, the winds died down and changed direction, and it looked like they'd get ahold of it. It was pretty sweet watching the helicopters and tankers overhead, doing bucket drops and slurry. Hopefully some of the guys from the fire will share their photos, since I didn't bring my camera.

Once the fire was manageable and almost contained, we started having to grid out in the black (burned) area, looking for hot spots. I pretty much spent the rest of the time walking up and down the hills, sometimes very steep and rocky, covered in ash and breathing in so much dust... Quite a few of us got sick, Lloyd actually left the fire very early on because he was ill, and I'm still recovering from all the coughing and sore throat that afflicted me. Part of our job was also to inspect around the homes and cabins that had been evacuated. It was pretty intense to see trees torching out right across the road from these buildings, and there were so many engines and hoses on this fire it was like a freaking circus! I guess that's how they do things out in California. ;)

It wasn't all excitement and physically hard work; I think the toughest part was the mental aspect of repeatedly gridding over the same area over and over and over again, or the down time where not much was going on... keeping myself entertained without driving everybody else nuts, ha ha! I got to know everybody pretty well, considering how much time we spend working, eating, hanging out, driving, and getting sick together. Many people started to get frustrated or grumpy for one reason or another - for me, mostly because I'm just cranky when I'm sick, and because I'm not good at standing or sitting still! - but for the most part it went pretty well!

When all was said and done, Bassetts fire was over 2,100 acres. The wonderful people of that town made dinner for the firefighters every night. We only ate there once, but they were so nice and thankful!

So much more happened, but there is only so much I can say... It's just something that you need to experience to truly understand what it's like. I have to admit that going out on that dispatch rekindled how much I love firefighting, and how much I loved working for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana. It was a totally different experience this time around, but something about it... I think it takes a certain type of person to appreciate it, and I can't really describe why I love it. ;)

Finally, they started releasing crews from the fire but we were kept on. We packed up our tents and ended up staying in a hotel in Truckee, where we had our first beers and soft beds in 2 weeks. Which means of course that I couldn't sleep at all in my bed (I actually slept very well on the ground in my tent), ha ha. Up all night coughing! We finished mopping up and rehab, and we weren't sure if they were going to keep us on, reassign us to the Day Fire in southern California, or send us home. Alas, they released us on Monday. This was fantastic news for me - originally we were going to be home on Thursday so I could fly out to Michigan for Donna's wedding on Friday; however, because we were reassigned, it bumped our 14 work days/4 travel days back, and I wasn't going to make it home in time for my flight on Friday! This led to a huge debachle of trying to figure out how I could get from a small town in California to Detroit. Anything from flying from Reno to Denver, or flying from Salt Lake City straight to Detroit, taxis and flight changes and anything else I could come up with... For a while there, I didn't think I would make it back for the rehearsal dinner! It all worked out ok in the end though.

On the way home, we stayed in Reno. Ahhh, Reno. What a sight for sore eyes for a bunch of people that just spent 2 weeks in the woods, made a lot of money, and haven't had any alcohol in just as long! There was a lot of potential for overindulgence and bad consequences, but everybody kept their acts together. BUT... What happens in Reno, stays in Reno, so I can't really say much more on what happened. I will say that quite a few people went home a few hundred dollars poorer, I learned a few new lessons in life, and tried to convince our crew boss to marry me so I could have health benefits. ;)  Needless to say, it didn't happen and Tim's still stuck with me for now, ha ha!

The next night we stayed in Evanston, WY and let me put it like this: Only 4 of us went to the bar that night. You just can't top Reno!

And then just this past Wednesday, I found myself back in Colorado. Exchanged numbers and email address, hopefully have enough people interested to play some pond hockey this winter, and have some year-round Colorado resident friends tohang out with, since all of my seasonal friends will be gone soon!

Thursday I had a paid day off for R & R, and then I flew back to Michigan on Friday. Met up with Looch, one of the Boulder fire guys, for lunch before I left - I am going to do some tree felling with him and, if he likes what he sees, I'm going to be doing fire mitigation side work for him over the winter. This is important, since I may be unemployed as soon as this Thursday (but maybe working until the 24th; not sure yet). Then Matt was nice enough to hang out with me at the Jiffy Lube while I got my oil changed, because I hate sitting there and waiting! :)

I know I've left so much out, but it's probably in my best interest to keep this a little bit censored for the sake of A. readability and B. liability, ha ha!

Now, time to catch up with the life I've neglected back here in Colorado for the past 3 weeks, and to spend all my hard earned money on pro-deals on outdoor gear!

Oh - Breckenridge skiing trip is definitely on for you Michigan folks. I am going to try to look into it, but I know Kevin and Beth are coming out so let them know you are interested!

 

This is the fire camp in Sierraville, CA.

Just a little bit o' fire along the road

We were really bored so Kimsey cut down a little tree and put it in our truck; Matt helped me decorate it with empty apple juice cans.

The Bell's Oberon mini-keg that I was so excited about

Yeah, I was a bridesmaid.

Back from fire, now off to Michigan

Hey!

I'm still alive. I got dispatched out with the Northern Colorado Handcrew on September 18th and just got back yesterday! We were on the Bassetts Fire in Sierraville, CA. Have so much to write, but gotta watch X Men 3 with Tim and get some sleep before I fly off to Donna's wedding in MI this weekend!

Big Lebowski Party, Donna's shower, and Bell's Beer

Haven't been online in a while - spending most of my time up at Tim's, because it's just more fun that way. :)  But for those of you worrying about what I'm up to/how I've been/if I'm still alive...

I am sick of AOL's photo journals because you have to view each photo one at a time, and my mom can't see them at work. I put some up on my Shutterfly site, and also on my Trekshare Travelogue. Remember - on Trekshare, you can view all the photos at one time by clicking the "Index" link on the top of the photo viewer window that pops up. I'm also putting up pictures of Donna's Bridal Shower, our night at 5th Avenue while I was in Michigan, and the Big Lebowski night at the Rock Inn. That's right - they showed the movie and gave drink specials on "Caucasians" (aka White Russians) if you wore a costume. I won the prize for best costume... but that's probably because I dressed up as Bunny Lebowski and wore a bikini. ;)  I wouldn't have done it if another girl hadn't gone back with me to change... we both were like "well I didn't want to be the ONLY girl dressed in a bikini!" so we rallied and made it happen! (No, didn't just wear a bikini - was in a big red robe pretty much the whole time, hee hee!)

I got word last week I might go out with a fire crew from Bandelier National Park... but that didn't happen, so I just heard now that I should be ready to go out with the Northern Colorado handcrew on Monday. FINALLY! It has to happen soon so I can go out for the full 2 weeks - Donna's wedding is coming up soon and I can't miss that! Cisco's last day was last week, so now I have to improvise without a partner until October - I can't cut unless somebody is there to spot me, which is a bummer. I'm trying to recruit bored people to help me for a day here and there. So far, it's working. ;)  Have a few unsuspecting folks lined up to drag brush with me, heh heh! Monday, I have the "Road Hogs" - mostly retired volunteers that are skilled in roads work - to help me shut down Bear Lake Road while I drop trees, and then help me load and haul them. I should have 10-18 people, so we'll get a lot of work done... if I'm here! Then Tuesday I have 6 more volunteers to try and take some pine beetle trees out of a campground. Not sure how that is going to go, never worked with these peoplebefore so we'll see how much I have to yell at them to NOT stand under trees when they are falling. I'm being only HALF joking there. (rolling my eyes)

Uhhh yeah besides that, I am unemployed in about a month and I'm not all that worried about it. A few things I'll hear about in the future - maybe be able to work on Fuels crew in the winter after all, and finally hear about that maintenance job in Grand Lake - and well frankly my unemployment check will be pretty fat so NOT working doesn't sound all that bad! Thank the federal government for encouraging us to go on unemployment instead of giving us non-seasonal jobs and year round employment.

I know I never wrote my travelogue for my camping weekend, or how the shower or Michigan went... but I don't care, I've got more important things to do, like goof off with Tim and watch lots of football! Did I mention that I found a way to bring Bells Beer from Michigan to the Rockies? I made my mom stop to get a 6 pack of Oberon on our way to the airport, unsure of how exactly I would get glass bottles through the flight without being broken (since you can't carry-on liquids anymore)... And by the grace of God what did I see?? A lone mini-keg of Bell's, over 1.3 gallons of the best beer East of the Mississippi. It was the answer to all of my problems! I checked it into my luggage and hours later, it arrived at the Denver airport, still cold! I broke it out today as we watched the Eagles (Tim's favorite team) play a great game and then lose it in overtime... Oh, and did I mention Michigan walloped Notre Dame on Saturday? And that's Tim's other favorite team? I only rubbed it in a little bit. :)

And by the way, it snowed in Estes Park this weekend. It didn't stick in town, but it definately snowed and did stick up high. The wind was howling, the temperature was chilly... I love living in the mountains!

Mt. Shavano and Mt. Sneffels

I am super tired and can't properly write down about my awesome weekend with Tim hiking Mt. Shavano and Mt. Sneffels, and the great 4x4ing we did, and all that other good stuff... But a picture is worth a thousand words, and we have LOTS of photos.

The GPS thing he did for Backpacker was a success... with a little help of my techie-knowledge of course ;)... and I really can't remember a better weekend in recent history!

Anyway, getting well rested for the insanity and fun waiting for me back in Michigan tomorrow, so hopefully I'll update this in the next week??

I'm just posting almost ALL the pictures so if it's overkill, too bad. :P

Yeah, it was a little sketchy... I loved it, of course. ;)   We took this picture for you, Mom!

Bagging some 14ers this weekend...

Haven't been able to update, been busy and generally up to no good. Heh heh. ;)

I am going out to lunch with some family friends from back home, then packing up my camping gear and going down to Salida with Tim to hike some 14,000+ ft. peaks. He is doing a project for Backpacker Magazine involving GPSing 14ers, and I'm lucky enough to tag along. Should be a nice long weekend!

Masochistic?

Here's an article about that guy that fell 800 feet on Long's Peak that I did the SAR for on Saturday.

What did I get pierced? My tragus. Sounds naughty, don't it?

Photos of me at work, for the viewing pleasure of my dear family and friends who wonder if I'm full of s*** or if I really am as cool as I pretend to be. (ha ha sarcasm!)

Looking forward to my 3 day weekend. I guess one of the guys on Tim's trail crew got hit on the head with something not good (rock bar?? rock sledge??) and needed to be litter carried out? That's all the details I heard on the radio today. Hope that person is ok!

Now, time to shower and party! ;)

 

Me climbing a Ponderosa Pine at McGraw Ranch to remove some hazard limbs.

7 trees I felled in a nice neat row in the west side housing area.

My first search and rescue... Guess where I went??

I guess my weekend started out relatively normal. I took Tim to the airport Thursday night and was exhausted when I went in to work on Friday to work overtime with the fire crew. They lined me out with a fire pack and nomex, did the morning briefing, and then went off to do project work until maybe we got a smoke report to check out. I spent the day dragging MORE slash - up a steep slope and down the road - and it was pretty tiring. My hip flexors were pretty sore when I woke up, but no big deal, it was a good work out, right?? That night I went to the Rock Inn and met up with my friend Doug from the west side, who's kid's band was playing. It was fun just chilling out and we stayed out pretty late...

So I was tired again when I went into work overtime with the fire crew again on Saturday morning. Did our morning PT - ran a few miles, did a bunch of squats, lunges, push ups and sit ups... I haven't worked out in a while but no big deal, it was a good work out, right?? Just planned on doing more project work all day, maybe get some smoke reports... We've had tons of thunderstorms lately with lots of lightening, but it's rained so much the chances of us getting a fire are pretty low.

Around 10 am we heard chatter on the radio about a 26 yr old guy that was climbing Lamb's Slide (click for photo) on Long's Peak and had fallen 800 feet and needed to be rescued. 800 feet, and still consious?! Unbelieveable and damn lucky to be alive. The mountain was totally socked in - engulfed in thick fog to the point of preventing an aerial rescue - and it looked like the only way to get this guy out would be to hike up there and carry him down. Mike, one of the firefighters, and myself volunteered to help out with the SAR.

I had wanted to hike Long's Peak this weekend and thought it wasn't going to happen because I had to work, and because the weather has been so horrible...

And now here I was gearing up to do Long's FOR work in nasty weather. Funny how things work out sometimes.

We were told to bring enough gear to sleep on the mountain, so we loaded up on fleece and capilene, bivy sacks and MREs (nasty firefighter food) and soon I was on the Litter Team with rangers Tara, Katie and Bill, and Mike the firefighter. I told them I would probably be the slowest hiker, but they said it was no problem. Little did I know just how much slower I would be! The hike to Long's Peak is strenuous as it is, plus a heavy backpack and the fact that they hike SO FAST... We took a lot of short cuts, which made the distance less but the trail was steep and full of loose rock; it didn't take long for me to start falling back. This is the hike profile for Chasm Lake, which is right below where the man landed. Bill and Tara went ahead to set up the raft they were going to float across the lake so they could transport the victim to the storage cache. Katie, Mike and I kept plugging along, and they patiently waited up for me as I labored up the brutal steps above tree line. I felt bad but it wasn't a big deal - the "hasty team" was already up there and stabilizing the patient and there wasn't anything we could do for a while anyway. I think it took us about 1 hr 45 minutes or so to reach the storage cache, where we waited for futher instructions. They were still attempting to find a way to fly him off the mountain, but the weather was just too nasty. I couldn't even see my hiking party 20 feet in front of me at ALL. Soon, another party of 4 guys - 3 Marks and a Doug, which were rangers, a trails guy and a roads guy (all excellent hikers of course) - met up with us and we just sat tight until they were ready for us to assist with the litter carry.

They had stablized the guy and moved him from where he fell, because the whole time huge boulders were still rolling down the mountain. When we were finally told to continue hiking to the patient, it started lightening and thundering unlike anything I had ever heard before. The sky was totally fogged in and looking nasty, and the thunder echoed off the mountain as an earsplitting crack. Being on exposed rock during lightening is a bad idea but we had to get that guy down! Then, of course, it started hailing... and eventually turned into a constant rain that persisted through the rest of the rescue. Past the cache, the trail around the lake was just a jumble of skree and boulders, and I was exhausted so it was a little sketchy climbing across these rocks above the freezing cold lake. As we were nearing the end of the lake where they landed the raft (and the patient was a couple hundred feet above that, in the skree field), the weather finally broke for an instant and the helicopter pilot decided to give it a try. Soon, an orange helicopter flew up the valley, through the mountains, and landed on the skree field to whisk the guy away. Not much after the chopper departed, the fog closed back in. What a lucky man, to have survived the fall and then had that small window of opportunity to fly him off the mountain; otherwise, we would have had to hand carry him down, wasting valuable time.

We made it all the way there and did not end up carrying him down, but everybody thanked us for getting up there and being ready for the worst case scenario. The hike down was fast and wet, taking rocky short cuts and making the hike down in 1 hr 15 minutes with Mike, Mark and Mark. We had started up the trail around noon and I was back at the SAR cache at headquarters, turning my helmet, bivy sack and fleece back in at 6 pm... wet, tired but proud of myself for hanging in there and getting my ass up that mountain to rescue that poor guy.

I hadn't planned on staying at Tim's again while he was away, but I was beat so Dave and I went to the Rock Inn for some dinner. Another crazy chapter to my interesting weekend... I had only planned on one Guinness with dinner, but soon I found myself getting free drinks from the bartenders and other random drunk people! One older guy harassed Dave and I for not dancing and ended up buying us and Paul (maintenance guy) drinks because he felt bad for being obnoxious to us. He then hands us a purse and asks us to watch it while he dances with this blonde older lady. She comes over and is totally blitzed and buys us all drinks to thank us for watching her purse... and then decides she likes Dave more than this other guy and starts saying some NASTY stuff in his ear. Dave just laughs and doesn't even know WHAT to do, Paul and I are laughing at both of them... She starts hanging off some other guy and then comes back to Dave, trying to seduce him with her drunken lewd offers, saying she's "drunk, desperate and almost 40 years old"... She leaves the bar with some OTHER guy, but soon they come in, I guess she punched this guy?? And then started claiming HE punched her, which wasn't true... I just know she left and came back a couple more times, and eventually started harassing the bartender Michael, saying he was a loser for working at a bar in Estes and she was from Vegas and was "spending her rich husband's money" and her car is "worth three times more than you make in a year"... she was just OUT OF CONTROL! She asked Michael if he knew any big words because he was a loser and an idiot, and he said "INCARCERATED" and grabbed her car keys... she said "How about LOSER" and he walked out with her keys, she followed him...

And got handcuffs snapped on her by the cop right outside. They threw her in the back of the cop car and the whole bar was abuzz with all the drama that had just happened. At the Rock Inn! That doesn't happen there!! It was pretty funny and an interesting way to end the evening.

Today I slept and looked at German Shepherds and put down my rugs in my apartment finally... Not a very exciting day, which is excactly what I needed. Tried to get a new piercing today and new speakers for my truck, but alas it didn't happen. Tomorrow, I pick Tim up from the airport... so he can go to the backcountry again on Tuesday. :( 

So... I think it's bedtime now. It's been an exciting weekend and that's good enough for me! Here are some photos from my camera phone from the SAR.

I didn't make it to the peak, but I did get to the Diamond of Long's Peak after all!

 

This is the Chasm Lake storage cache, to get to the Lake we had to hike up the rocks behind it. On a normal day, you can see the Diamond of Long's Peak right behind it... In this photo, the fog had actually let up a little bit.

We were nearing the far end of the Lake when the helicopter had a chance to squeeze in when the weather broke. You can see the blue raft along the shore of Chasm Lake, and you can barely make out the small orange chopper in the middle of the snow fields. The guy had been up a chute that extends behind the ridge on the left, and came out where the left snowfield is. The carried him to an area on the right, just behind that ridge. That's where the helicopter landed.

The helicopter, loaded up with the patient and leaving over Chasm Lake.

Kelly's birthday

Just some photos that I have to send a couple people on the west side. We went to the Gateway and then the Grand Lake Lodge for Kelly's birthday last night. Always good times over there. We finished our "west side housing clear-cut project" today - after Cisco and I had felled, bucked up, and piled slash for all those trees by ourselves, the west side guys really came through and helped us in clean-up by giving us 2 dump trucks, the loader with a clamshell (to grab piles of slash) and manpower! I don't think you can imagine what a relief it was to get some help.Glad to be done with that; now on to maybe some east side hazard trees??

Just got home from taking Tim to the airport. Guess what? He's camping out again next week, right after he gets home from this other wedding. Guess he can't get sick of me this way, ha ha! ;)

Was pleasantly surprised when I was offered overtime on Friday and Saturday to join the fire crew while they send some of their people up to a fire in Drake. Longs Peak will have to wait yet again, but I'm not complaining!

Bedtime. Gotta put on the good ol' fire boots in the morning!

Back from the wedding, and still recovering!

First and foremost: I couldn't figure out how my batteries went dead on my camera, when I hadn't taken many photos. Once I got home, I was shocked to see 40 photos download on to my computer! And even better is that neither Tim nor I remember a lot of them being taken... You'll notice there aren't 40 photos posted on here. That's all I need to say about that! ;)

We got in to Portland Friday night and met his friend Mikey and drove out about an hour west of the city into what seemed a pretty "rural" area. It was dark when we got there so we weren't entirely sure what we were looking at, but we got to the bride's parents' house where we would be camping (and where the wedding was held). Ends up that her parents own a pretty decent chunk of property in the hilly area of Oregon, with lots of trees, space for camping, a huge beautiful house, a shower house for those of us camping, and a beautiful area in the trees where the wedding was held. Friday night we busted out a keg and I met Tim's friends from college, including his friend Kyle that owns that property in Alaska with him. It was a great time and everybody was very friendly. The bride and groom, Maura and Greg, were very nice and I'm glad they let me come along, since it was a pretty small wedding with all their close friends and family.

The next morning, we alternately helped set up tables, chairs and lights for the wedding, and lounged around on the grass, drinking beer too early in the day and loving every minute of the beautiful weather. The wedding started in the afternoon and I don't think they could have asked for a more perfect ceremony. Quite a few of us burned out relatively early from the partying the night before and the sunshine and drinking all day, but that champagne sure was good! ;)

Sunday, we woke up, some people nursed hang-overs, the rest of us broke down our tents, drank coffee and relaxed for a bit. Tim and I had the rental car, so we left early and dropped a couple people off at the airport and then he wanted to show me some waterfalls and the Columbia River off I-84. We ended up stopping at a park along the river and literally sleeping for a couple of much-needed hours in the grass before going back to the airport for our flight. By the time we got off the plane and back to Estes, it was around 2 am... So I spent Monday sleeping, watching Kill Bill, and eating mass quantities of sushi with Tim in Boulder. ;)  I don't think I've had a better day off!

Now, Tim's off camping out at the Loch (I hiked there with my Dad and Matt when they visited, it's a great hike!) to do trail work until Thursday, then I'm driving him to the airport so he can go to another wedding until Monday. :(  Guess it gives me time to update my journal!

On the work front, we finished felling in the west side housing today, for a total of 93 trees down. All that's left now is to clean it all up! Which is no small task. Hopefully I can put some before and after photos on here to give you an idea of what I've been up to.

I did book my flight back to Michigan so I'll be in town Sept 7-10 for Donna's shower. On top of that, I just talked to another friend of mine from Virginia who will be in town, so hopefully we can hang out! Him and I only seem to hang out in unique places or in strange circumstances - and I mean that in a good way. I still have a few weekends free for those of you who want to come out and visit, so get yer butts out here! Oh, and the coolest thing ever is that as of right now, I'm hopefully going up to Alaska with Tim in January for a couple weeks! My first time in Alaska, in the winter - yeah, I don't do things half way I guess! Hopefully he'll still want to talk to me by then, haha! ;)

Now, back to "Some Like it Hot". Kelly, a maintenance guy on the west side, is having a birthday so we're going out for drinks tomorrow... Thursday, taking Tim to the airport... Friday, Doug's (a roads guy) son's band is playing at the Rock Inn... And I was hoping to do Long's this weekend but looks like I'll be too busy. So that's what I'm up to and why I haven't called/written anybody back (I always have an excuse, don't I). But things are great and can't wait to see you MI people in a few weeks!

Photos from Red Rock Lakes trip

Just a quick update; obviously haven't been around much, out having fun and traveling and doing all those other weird things I do.

The trip was short, lots of driving, but very much worth it. Just look at the photos and you'll understand. :)  Got to visit lots of folks I haven't seen in two years - Gregg in Buffalo, Jeff and Gillian, Howard and Marilyn...

Tim got back Sunday evening so we had lots to catch up on, since we are leaving for Portland for his friend's wedding this weekend. Steve and I talked for probably hours on and off on Sunday while I drove through Wyoming. It was just a weekend of catching up and LOTS of talking. Phew!

And we're up to 79 trees downed and bucked up around the housing area; so much for our original number of 65. Looks a lot better though! Not looking forward to the clean up, that's for sure!

Probably won't update again until after the wedding, so that's all for now!

Photos from the Continental Divide

Here's some photos. I didn't take that many because there were so many cameras on our trip; hopefully I'll get some more from the other gals.

I finally went grocery shopping. That's about as exciting as my day was. ;)

I'm selling more stuff on ebay. Just trying to "simplify my life" and un-clutter my life... not that it's really that bad, but moving makes you THINK you have wayyy to much stuff!

From Bear Lake to Grand Lake...

Phew, it was a long day.

Was up late finishing moving/unpacking everything, and spent my first night in my new apartment, in my log bed, listening to crickets and coyotes... I did get ahold of the group that was hiking today, and the plan was to meet at 5:30 am in Estes. This means that I was up at 4 am trying to find my hiking gear in all the stuff strewn about the apartment.

We hit the trailhead around 6:30 am and when all was said and done, we reached Grand Lake at around 4 pm. 17.2 miles. It was a long day but it was FANTASTIC! I'll do an official "Trail Log" when I post my photos; I'm just too dog tired right now. I feel great except my knee is a little sore for some strange reason.??

Now I'm winding down, listening to the people at RockyGrass Festival cheering from down the canyon. It looks like fun, maybe next year? I did go downtown Lyons yesterday night and sat outside, eating great pizza and making my cell phone calls. I think I'm going to like living down here. :)

In unrelated news, Tim is still on that fire and won't be back until Saturday at the earliest, perhaps as late as the 8th. We went over our schedules, and it looks like between his trail crew overnight trips, both our friends' weddings, and various other random 'stuff', we aren't going to be in town at the same time much! So it looks like I will be accompanying him to Portland, OR for his friend's wedding in two weekends! I'm excited and a little nervous to be meeting them and dancing and all that stuff, but it should be fun! I've never been to Portland so it will be a mini vacation. This weekend, I am really going to Montana this time. Really. Unless something else comes up, again! ;)

Definitely time to crash. Photos from our super-hike coming up soon!

My first motorcycle ride in CO!

Tonite just might be my first night staying in my new apartment! Yippee! I knew sooner or later I'd get my butt in gear and finish. This past weekend I had planned on heading up to Red Rock Lakes NWR in Montana to visit my old coworkers, and hitting up Buffalo, WY to see Gregg... But it looks like I'll be doing that next weekend instead. Tim had sent me a text this morning saying they were on their way back, but a little bit later he sends me another one saying they were being sent to Idaho for the Potato Fire. I was kindof bummed to hear that, since now he might not be back until the 8th. He had invited me to his friend's wedding in Oregon, but since he's going to miss that he now wants to go on a vacation. His suggestion: Alaska. ;)  But we'd need longer than a 3 day weekend for that adventure, so we'll see where we decide to go. I haven't really gone out of the area much this summer, so I'm definitely overdue for a trip!

In the meantime, I've beening hanging out with his housemate Dave a lot, and since I refuse to buy groceries until I am moved in to Lyons, I've had to eat dinner there probably 5 out of 7 times this past week. Last night we watched the bluegrass band Wildwood Holler!, and they were really good! I had gone down to Lyons and rode my motorcycle back up to Estes for the evening - which was a great ride up - and rode it to the Rock Inn. When I went to leave, the darned thing wouldn't start for some strange reason. I have a slight idea what it could have been, but I hoped that it would start up in the morning when it was warmer. Fortunately, she did start and I rode her back down to Lyons. I knew I should have gotten it service before I rode it! ;)  But boy did I look cool with my leathers on... and a motorcycle I couldn't start. Yesterday was definitely one of those days, all around!

Work has been fun and busy with all those trees to take down in Grand Lake. Over two days, Cisco and I felled 30 trees, bucked them up, and started hauling slash on Thursday. Still lots more to go and I was pretty tired and sore, but felling trees around houses, cars, other trees, etc is fun! In other related news, there is a 4-yr term position for a Maintance job in Grand Lake that I was encouraged to apply for... I haven't decided yet what I am going to do, because I really enjoy tree work and using my degree, but the pay would be good and I'd have benefits and everything. The only other catch is that I'd be cut off from Estes from October through May every year, unless I wanted to drive 3-4 hours!! I love the west side folks, but obviously I've got some close friends on this side of the Divide... Got a lot to think about with that one.

Since I've been such a slacker, I had to give up the chance to play at some billionaire's ranch with Markus (a west side Roads guy) and his buddy. I don't really know how or why, but I guess they get to Ranch-sit and this guy has tons of insane toys - huge entertainment system, some giant "hampster-ball" things - just like the ones you stick your hammies in, except they are human sized - and a trampoline on the water and something about a "blob" - yeah I have no idea but it sounds like fun!! If I can get everything done maybe I'll be able to join them but in the meantime I am on a mission to move the last few boxes of clothing and food!!

Anyway that's all for now. Supposed to hike the Continental Divide tomorrow - Bear Lake to Grand Lake, about 18 miles. It's a group of like 20 people and I don't have anybody's phone numbers, so we'll see if I can get ahold of them! ;)

Felling

Cisco and I started the huge task of felling all the hazardous dead beetle-kill trees in the Grand Lake housing area. We flagged 65, but those are only the REALLY bad ones. Both of us were excited to get to start doing more cutting than paperwork, and we started an hour early today just to get to the West side and start working earlier. Normally this would be ok, but last night was so warm and nasty in my apartment that I just couldn't sleep! In any case, we cut down, bucked up, and piled slash for 17 lodgepole today, and I am exhausted. We get to do this again tomorrow, and probably the day after that, and the day after that...

I loved it. :)

After setting Truck up for a tune-up/pre-trip check (might go to Montana this weekend to visit Red Rock Lakes), I went to the coffee shop and asked Chris what he wanted to make. He suggested a Kind Shake with espresso and caramel because he likes it; so I ordered one and gave him the leftover shake. We were both happy with the arrangement. :)

It's storming here again. Still didn't finish moving my stuff to Lyons; something always seems to come up lately, or it's raining. No big hurry. And I STILL haven't called my mom back. She's been trying since Friday. Woops. ;)

Tim was bounced from Arizona, to Utah, back to Arizona for fire... but he still hasn't even seen fire. I'm kindof glad now I wasn't dispatched, though the money would be really nice right about now!

Pics from my long hike

Trail Log: Crystal Lake, from the Lawn Lake trailhead (15.4 miles round trip, 2,980 ft. elevation gain). My intention was to wake up at 2 am and check out the weather to see if I could do Long's Peak, but there was thunder past midnight and clouds at 2 am, so I figured I'd play it safe, pick a different trail, and maybe sleep in a little bit! I hit the trailhead around 9 am, which was later than I preferred - there were already dark clouds hoovering to the west of the Mummy Range. My guidebook says this is a strenuous hike, but I think that all comes from just the distance of the hike - the trail itself was not too steep, but a constant gradual uphill hike up a relatively smooth trail without many obstacles - rocks, roots, etc. More than halfway to Lawn Lake, it did get a bit rockier but still didnt' seem that tough. The trail follows the Roaring River, and you can still see the dramatic results of the 1982 Lawn Lake Flood, when the dam broke and water carved out the mountainside. There are still large boulders strewn about, but trees are moving in. It was a cooler day - mid to upper 60s - and it was pretty humid due to all the precipitation we've had lately. The trail was pretty wet too, with lots of small streams over the trail - but it also made for great wildflower displays!

Fortunately there weren't many others on the trail so I had plenty of solitude - but it certainly wasn't quiet due to the constant rushing and roaring of the river, streams and waterfalls along the way. I reached Lawn Lake (6.3 miles in) and felt pretty good and curious to see Crystal Lake, so I kept hiking. This took me above treeline and amongst alpine wildflowers, surrounded by rock and water. It was beautiful - probably one of my favorite hikes this year. I passed Little Crystal Lake and didn't linger long at Crystal Lake - ominous clouds hovered over Fairchild and I didn't want to be caught up there in a storm! It took me about 1 hr 45 mins to Lawn Lake, then an additional 30-40 minutes to reach Crystal Lake; and about 2 hours to get down from there. I was back at the trailhead around 2 pm. My legs are pretty sore and that was the longest hike I've done this year, but it felt good!

I also can't forget to add the trail I did with my stepdad and brother when they were here!

The Loch (5. 4 miles round trip). This was a beautiful hike that takes you past Alberta Falls. It wasn't particularly challenging but my stepdad wasn't quite used to the elevation so I was worried I was going to have to carry him down! We didn't hang out long though, because dark clouds and thunder closed in on us... Which we got dumped on of course. It was a little chilly and wet on the way back down, but it didn't bother me much! Anyway this is a great hike for anybody in halfway decent shape to see an apline lake. And if you're in good shape, it's well worth continuing on to Andrew's Glacier and the other alpine lakes past that!

I did call and complain to Budget about how horrible their truck was. They refunded 10% of my money, which really doesn't satisfy me but whatever. I'll go Penske next time! This weekend I am still thinking about all the stuff I need to do, but I'm just having so much fun that moving my crap is the last thing on my mind. I met up with Tim's housemate Dave last night at the Rock Inn to listen to Uncle Sq'Earl, an all-chick bluegrass band. I usually run into somebody I have not seen in a while, and this time it was Rachel, a girl that did interpretation for the Park back in '03. And whadda ya know, she lives in Lyons too! I am so excited to have somebody to hang out with down there.

Well I have a BBQ/horseshoes party to go to at Tim's neighbor's place, drink a few brews and grill venison and elk... Not a bad way to spend the weekend, eh? :)

Didn't get sent out on fire, but glad for my 3 day weekend!

I like to have interesting links and news in my journal sometimes, so here's the one that I liked seeing today:  I guess Texas has increased some speed limits to 80 mph, and some of those annoying slow areas in MI have been increased from 55 or 65 to 70! I always hated those parts, especially after a really long roadtrip and I'm stuck going 55 mph in a place where I'd much rather just be done with it! That's about as interesting as I am going to get tonight.

Tomorrow I was going to give Long's Peak a try, but the weather has been a little funky this week. This cool breeze that feels and smells like late August has been blowing from up high, and there was even a small amount of fresh snow/hail on top of one peaks yesterday... And the clouds have come in earlier than usual, with lots of lightening storms. I have to check the weather but maybe I'll just be doing Lawn Lake after all (which is a pretty hefty hike, so it's not like I'll be taking it easy!). We had a safety day yesterday and Did You Know? Cell phones and radios etc do NOT attract lightening. In fact, there is no "safe" place from lightening outdoors - not even under pavillions. That's my interesting fact for the day. ;)

Some good news for me - my season has been extended until almost November! Woo hoo! The bad news - since the beetles flew a few weeks ago, we are just now seeing new infestations - and it's NOT good. We thought we had cleared out nearly 100% of infested trees from the campgrounds, but they are coming from further in the forest and it's HORRIBLE. The west side is already a dead mess, but we found so many newly infested trees that the east side will start looking pretty bad as soon as next June. This means that there is going to be a LOT of work for us hazard tree folks over the next few years, so our boss is trying to secure some more long-term funding to make at least one, if not both, of our jobs a 4 year term. That means benefits and raises! If nothing else, I will be applying to fire jobs/whatever else they might hire over the winter.

I obviously did not get dispatched for a fire - instead they sent 3 fire people out with the other Northern crew. Tim and those guys hooked up with the Bandelier and some Texas fire people and are somewhere in Arizona right now. Not sure what fire they are going to, if any. My ex coworker from Red Rock Lakes NWR, Gator, is on his way up near Darby, MT (we were stationed there for a bit) to do some helitack work. I'd love to go out if nothing else to see some old fire buddies - it's a small world and you never know who you will run into!

In case anybody is interested in fire stuff, here is a link that shows some of the Rocky Mt. Region crews, where they are at, what fires they might be on, etc. The Northern Colorado Type 2 crew would be what myself or anybody I know would probably be on. Right now it just shows that they are available but doesn't say where they are.

Here's a neat link that shows the location of major fires around the country.

Fire season is officially starting for me!

Here's a few choice photos from Ron's Going Away Party in Grand Lake yesterday night. Cisco and I worked on the West side all day, drove back to Estes in the work truck, grabbed my truck and went back over there... 1 hr each way... and THEN he drove my pathetic tequila-saturated butt back home at 11 pm. Yeah, we went a little overboard, but hey who knows if/when we'll see Ron again so we had to see him off the right way! It was a really good time but a very LONG winding ride home.

My plans for the next two weeks have changed a bit - Tim got called to go out on a fire crew and left this morning at 5 am to head towards the Grand Canyon, and hopefully for him he will be out the full 2 weeks. I'm jealous! But that's why I had to come back from the party last night - so I could see him before he left again! Ugh! There is rumor that they might send out the Northern hand crew and I'm on the list to be sent out... So we'll see if I get the call, and then maybe I will be out for 2 weeks also! Somebody mentioned Montana, too! Anyway, this means I am not going to that party with Tim Thursday night, I will definitely get enough sleep to do Long's Peak on Friday morning, and I am not camping at the ranger cabin this weekend. He's bummed because he had bought tickets to RockyGrass Festival - the Bluegrass festival in Lyons. I'd love to go and see Yonder Mountain String Band, but just have too much other stuff to spend my money on lately! ;)

Anyway that's all for now because the library is closing!

Rodeo!

Yee haw!

Last night, Tim and I went to the 80th Annual Rooftop Rodeo in Estes. If you didn't know, I am a huge fan of PBR (professional bull riding... and the beer also, of course) and this was my chance to go to my first ever live rodeo! Let me tell you, they leave out a lot of good stuff when you watch it on TV. The main rodeo clown was some guy from Canada, and he was ridiculously funny - goofy, "I can't believe I'm laughing at this" funny! The banter between him and the laid-back announcer was fun, and watching the Rodeo Queen, Ms. Colorado, and the other lovely cowgirls run their horses full speed while carrying flags of various sponsors with their sparkley shirts and flowing chaps was neat. Makes me wanna be a rodeo queen! ;)

We both had a great time, except neither one of us was very keen on team roping - One guy on a horse ropes the head of a small steer, the other guy ropes the back two legs. Most of the calves that got roped hobbled away, limping from a groin strain or something! After that, Tim kept cheering for those steers that got away... And we both hoped to see somebody get tossed around by a bull. Yeah, maybe that's a little bit sick, but anybody who likes bull riding deep down inside knows that's what it's all about! ;) Those cowboys are though anyway, they ALWAYS walk away... even if they break an arm, 3 ribs, get trampled and tossed in the air 15 feet and have a concussion!

The only thing more crazy than bull riding has got to be the parents that sign their unsuspecting kids up for "Mutton Busting". They put these kids on the backs of sheep and let 'em go! They wear helmets and body armor, but seriously - is it just me, or is it strange they want their kids to get run over by Porkchop?!

When we were getting ready to leave, I turned to get my $2 program... and it was missing! The lady in front of me looked suspiciuosly around and I saw a program peeking out of her bag. She stole my program! I wasn't really upset by it, but seriously WHO STEALS A $2 PROGRAM?! I joked with Tim that I was going to take her out back and beat her up to get it back... not seriously caring thatit was gone... And on our way out, Tim turns to her and says "Hey did you get your program?" And the woman nervously says "Oh yes, it's in my purse....(pause) Why was that YOURS?" She was so full of bullcrap (in the rodeo spirit), she gave it back as her husband said "Did you steal something AGAIN?!" And her daughter was giving her a hard time. Stupid woman! But Tim came to the rescue and saved my $2 program! ;)  Yeah, it was pretty funny!

In other news, I feel horrible for my little brother. On his last day of basketball practice last week, he broke his thumb! And he was supposed to go up north today! But that's not the worst part... Because of the way he broke it, they needed to REBREAK it! Yes, they seriously DO rebreak bones, and poor Matt is walking proof. No painkillers or anything. Poor kid. But I think he still got to go up north after all... with a cast on his arm and lots of Tylenol 3s. :( 

Lots of other fun stuff happening, besides that I STILL haven't written about my family visit. Tomorrow is Ron's (a maintenance guy on the West Side) going away party, and I always love hanging out with Doug, Sandy, Kelly, Travis, and those other Grand Lake troublemakers. I hope they make Mai Tais again! ;)  Thursday I am going to a party with Tim, only to wake up at 2 am and do my solo attempt at Long's Peak. Then this weekend Tim may try to reserve a ranger cabin while a couple friends are in town and we might camp out a couple nights. Frontier Days in Cheyenne is going on pretty soon, as well as the RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival in Lyons - right near my new home. I plan on being totally moved in there this weekend. Don't think I'm going to RockyGrass, but we'll see. Also want to get my motorcycle all tuned up so I can go cruisin'!

I haven't mentioned work lately, but it's just overwhelming. The West Side is a red/dead pine MESS, and the east side is just so busy... We'll never catch up! Slowly but surely taking down the deadest of the dead and the most hazardous trees - of course, they never come down easily because the forest is so dense and snags get very stuck in living trees... Creative felling at its best! But always as safe as can be. There's a little bit of pressure when you have the road closed and just cars upon cars backed up, waiting for you to take this dangerously dead tree down... the tree gets stuck... People sit and wait and wait... And then you fell the tree, and it's so dead that limbs just explode in a twiggy mess all over the road... All the time, being watched by impatient drivers (and tourists with cameras)...

It's fun. :)

I am getting the rest of my climbing gear in this week, so I am going to start working on removing some limbs that have been on hold since 2003. We are trying to brainstorm with ways that we can better handle the dead/dying trees on the west side - it seems it takes about 2 years before those dead trees start to get just nasty and very hazardous. We are still trying to catch up from a couple years ago, and with the slew of fresh kills... It's only going to get worse, and 2 little seasonal hazard tree workers can't keep up with it. I guess it's good job insurance, ha ha, but seriously it's a LOT of work. If I can convince them to get a log loader and come back next season, it will make life a LOT easier - but with that many more dead ones to deal with. Exciting and overwhelming, but like I said, I love it!

That's all for now before I get kicked out of the coffee shop. Chris, the guy that works here, gave me a little free sample of Kind Coffee's "Kind Shake" - an espresso and chocolate milkshake... OMG it was the best EVER. I think it will be my new drink of the month... guess I better start running more! ;)

Lovin' life out here! Come visit!

Photos that few can probably appreciate...

Most of these photos, "you'd have to be there to understand"... from 5th Avenue and the Hawaiian BBQ. Also a few more from family visiting me, and one of my Dad standing nervously near the edge of a cliff in the Park. I'm proud of him for that photo!

Tim got back from an all-week trip to the Poudre Pass Ranger Station (I got to stay there once, it's in the middle of nowhere and BEAUTIFUL! I'm jealous!) so we listened to some tunes at the Rock Inn last night. Since they know me and a trails guy is also a bartender, they make them a little strong. :) I'm so sleep deprived, I slept in until 2:30 pm today!! I was PLANNING on waking up early and tackling a big hard hike - Flattop, Otis and Hallett peaks, or Lawn Lake, or something else with much elevation and distance. Alas, there was no way I was waking up. I am planning on doing Long's Peak next Friday, when there will hopefully be less people than on the weekend. It's nasty hot up here today, and I'm not feeling particularly motivated to do much of anything! I still have to finish moving my stuff into my Lyons place, but not now! Heck, I still have to sell that darned Focus, get a tune-up for Truck and motorcycle, and I have no desire to move out of this comfy seat at the coffee shop. :)

Maybe I'll write more in a little bit. But enjoy the photos for now!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MY BEST FRIEND!

I'm announcing the big news for him, since Steve is so busy and out of touch in the boonies of East Lansing...

STEVE IS ENGAGED!

Yes, my bestest friend (and ex boyfriend, ha ha! If you don't know us, that probably seems weird - but it's not!) proposed to his girlfriend Becky (a school teacher in Midland) in London on July 2nd! I am so happy and excited for him and well I haven't met Becky yet but she must be one heck of a woman to have won him over! I can't wait to meet her! Seriously, I am sooooo happy for him that I got all teary eyed! Who would have thought that the girl that Tara and Amy, at Tara's wedding, insisted Steve should go out with would end up being his fiancee?! The wedding won't be any time in the near future while he finishes up school and then sells his house. Yay for Steve and Becky!

WOOOO HOOOOO!!

 

Steve and Bear the Mastador!

 

Steve and I in the Smokies, wayyyy back in April 2002!

Family visit photos

I added captions and rearranged the photos to make a little more sense. Most of them are mine, but I swiped some from my mom just to fill in the blanks when I didn't have my camera! I still have so much to write, but I'm - as always - super busy and still recovering from cross-country driving, sleep deprivation, moving heavy stuff, and having too much fun! Tonite: BOWLING! Tomorrow: make up work day for missing earlier this week. Took down a couple nasty hazard trees today too, which is always fun!

Oh, and that city of Boulder job I was going to interview for... Decided not too. They don't give any time off, it only goes until December, and PAYS LESS than what I make now! That's not what the announcement said, but whatever. I like it here too much anyway. :)

My mom has her own version of the visit and more photos at her blog, Meg's Mumblings!

Yes, we got rained on during our horseback riding trip also.

Matt and I both caught (and released) tons of endangered Greenback Cutthroat Trout!

Back to work after so much action

My stuff made it, somehow, in a very ghetto Budget moving truck from MI to my new apartment.

Phew.

Then my friend tells me she is renting out her place up here in Estes for the same price, everything included. Timing is impeccable.

Took Dad to the airport today. Tim, a trails guy, helped him and I unpack everything. What a lifesaver! We're going to the rodeo this weekend. Yeah, we're having fun.

BUT, I am tired. Going to grab a brew with Cisco now. Ahhh, relaxation! So much to type later... and to UNPACK... Staying in Estes for now.

By the way, did you know that in Oakland County, MI (where I used to live), the road commission found the bones of a Mastadon?!

How cool is that.

Whirlwind week/weekend!

I'm in MI right now! If you didn't go to 5th Avenue last night, SHAME ON YOU! We had fun without you! It was so great to see those guys that showed up, listen to Killer Flamingos and dance to my Killers song!! Even Linda got footloose, ha ha!

The past week with my parents in town in CO was just busy and I've been sick on and off so it's been nuts... Then our marathon drive back to MI so I can party and pack up everything and drive right back the way I came on Sunday... Stressed! So much to do and so many people to see! Pretty much the only way I will get to see anybody is if A. You help me load my truck or B. You come to Jess' Hawaiian BBQ on Saturday!

Time to get crackin'! No time for this hangover! :) Ha ha yeah it was good times last night!

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!