Monday night I meet up with matt after work and we went over to Stevie’s for dinner and to watch a movie. Stevie made squash lasagna and we watched buried.
Tuesday I went for a hike right in boulder, Chautauqua trail. It’s an area with 3 huge peaks, I hiked between peak 1 and 2 circling up to peak 1. It was a really fun hike, it just snowed the night before and one other person hiked it before me. I would have no idea where to go if that person didn’t go before me. For a few parts I would have thought it was a dead end but you just climb/jump over the boulders. I could still tell the elevation plays a huge factor, after about 200 yards I was breathing hard. That night Matt, Stevie and i meet up with a few of their friends for pint night at a local brewery. The food was really good and some very tasty beer. They pretty much tell you exactly how each beer was made; they even have the date the ingredeance were picked. One friend was Matt’s co-worker who he went to Key West with. Another was Stevie’s friend from college who dose some work with satellites that track if a missile was launched form anywhere in the world. It was also Stevie’s roommate’s birthday so she was there with 2 of her friends.
Wednesday I helped matt out but painting his bedroom. It was too cold for anything out doors and I could use a day to relax. That night we went out to eat at an Asian restraint right next to Stevie’s place. Matt must have known I was going through hot tub withdraw, so we sent to a hotel with easy access to one.
Thursday I headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s about an hour away from matts place. This place turned out to be quite the challenge. I stopped at the info center and planed out a nice 10 mile hike. When I arrived in the parking a lot I realized there was 40 mile an hour wind gusts, and it was only 10 degrees. I bundled up and strapped on some snow shoes. I also forgot the simple fact that water freezes. The hiking was great, the first part with through the woods. One small problem was the signs marking the paths were covered with snow. The ones I did find headed me in roughly the right direction. The woods started funneling into a valley, after a big hike up a hill I came out to a lake. Between the valley and the open area of the lake, the wind here was crazy. If I had to guess I would say 70 mph, very hard to stand in it. Just before I came out to the lake there was a 20 foot tall snow mound, I’m thinking it was all from the wind. I hiked to the side of lake to avoid the wind and that was the path I thought I was supposed to take. From here you would see huge cliffs on both sides with the wind blowing snow in some areas which made it look really cool. I hiked past the lake expecting to run into another lake about a mile down the way. What I didn’t know is that no one else was out here today. All the tracks were blown over with no trail to follow. I just hiked on; I went a little over a mile when I came to a dead end. This is where I just stopped and ate lunch; I planned on going this far anyway. Not the destination I was expecting, but still great. It turns out I went to the wrong lake. So I was way off track anyway. While I was eating lunch the temp drop about 15 degrees in one huge gust of wind, and stayed like that. Within a minute or two I couldn’t feel my toes and my gloves froze up, and the rest of my water. I tried to melt the ice by putting it near all sorts of body parts, but no luck. It was just too cold out. At this point I was really looking forward to seeing my car. I followed my tracks back and made it back across the lake. When I went down the hill I ran into a couple hiking. I was really shocked; it was a very frail looking old lady and her husband. She asked me if they were near the lake, but she asked in the typical old person voice, very quiet and a little broken up. I couldn’t believe that they were out here snowshoeing away like it was nothing. I’m guessing they were 75 +. I found the first sign I saw but I came upon it from a different way then I left, so I really don’t know what happened, but it was still fun. When I was driving out of the park I saw 2 herds of elk and 2 deer crossed the road. When I got back to Matts house I made some food, took a shower and headed out right away. Matt went to Milwaukee right after work for his nephew’s baptism. I was going to meet up with Jim, one of the guys from the boarding weekend, at keystone, CO. when I got there I tried calling but his phone was off. i was somewhat confused but didn’t worry to much.
I next morning I went boarding at Keystone Mountain. I don’t know if it just the clearest day I was out but I thought it had the best view. I talked to a local on the chair lift and he told me about an area called outback which had the best tree runs I’ve gone through. The runs were slightly more open then at Vail so you could get more speed and still have lots of cut back and weaving. I tried to get a hold of Jim, It turns out he left his phone in his coat and he thought he lost in on the mountain. He and his friends had an earlier flight then he thought so he didn’t get a chance to come out that day anyway. I left around 1 to be able to see the drive I missed on the way in. it was dark when I came through here the first time. I headed west to Moab, UT. The drive was really nice, lots of cool mountains and features I was glad to see. I arrived to Moab right when It was getting dark so I found a very nice hot tub to relax in. then I went to the store and started planning for the grand canyon trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment