[Flashback] Girls Weekend pt1

September 10-12, 2010


One of our friends, Kathy, came up with a girls weekend to Crested Butte to check out the Chili and Brews Festival. This included a beautiful condo, ski lift ride, side off road trip to see the largest Aspen grove around, souvenir shopping downtown, and a unique restaurant experience.

Unfortunately due to my work schedule, Dawn and I got a late start on Friday for our 4 1/2 hour drive to Crested Butte.We didn’t see much on that drive except 1 deer and a billion stars! At one point we looked for a place to top off the gas but those mountain towns sure do close up shop before midnight.

We finally made it! Kathy waited up for us. The condo was beautiful! There was a lot of moose, bear and horse decor. The kind of stuff you would expect to see in a condo in a mountain town.Cathy and Moi were sharing a room and Dawn, Kathy and I shared the other. I got to sleep on the top of a bunk bed! Although it was kind of tough getting up there, I loved it! It was like being a kid again.

Saturday morning we woke up to eggs, potatoes and biscuits cookin'. Yummmm! after a morning of being lazy, we all headed to the Chili and Brews Fest. We got there right when they started which worked out really well because it wasn't as crowded. There were quite a few tents. They had the beer tents on one side of the stage and the chili tents on the other. The first thing I got to sample-- Chili chocolate Ice Cream from East Side Bistro. It was delicious! We tasted all different kinds of chili: bison, elk, beef, lamb, vegetarian, red, green, duck and one that even contained beer and absinthe. The bees were kind of pesky and there were only two trash cans for the whole event which was kind of a drag but other than that it was great fun. Everyone in our group got really full except me and Cathy and we went around and finished off the tasting.
I am not a beer drinker so I didn't get to try the beer but the girls found plenty that they liked. They seemed to like the Easy Street and the Hoptober beers best. There was beer that had a kayak filled with ice as it's cooling system.We hung out for a while after we were done to let our food settle and talked with some locals.

Afterward we decided to ride the ski lift up the mountain. It was a pretty cool ride in the summer. I guess Crested Butte is a big mountain bike area. There were plenty of people (mostly cute guys) riding with their friends and bikes (on the lift) up the mountain so they could ride their bikes back down.Once we were at the top we spent some time getting photos of the scenery and each other. You never know which pictures might be good enough for Christmas cards.

For the afternoon part of the adventure, we headed to Kebler Pass. On Kebler Pass is the largest living organism- a huge grove of Aspens. Unfortunately a vehicle had gone off the road and there was a line of cars waiting to go by. We decided to spend some time in downtown Crested Butte while things cleared out. So we did the tourist thing and checked out a bunch of shops. There was a bunch of metal chair artwork along the way so, of course, we had to have our pictures taken sitting on them. We also found a large totem pole in a park nearby. Later I read that it was a town landmark art project that they had done a long time ago.
After we got tired of shopping, we headed back to Kebler Pass. It was pretty because we hit it as the sun was getting close to setting.
We didn't get to do the whole thing because the lake at the top was closed off for construction so we headed back down.
Lasagna for dinner and a fun game of Royal Rummy to finish off a great day!.

[Flashback] Changing of the Leaves

 Sept 18, 2010

Our goal this Saturday was to see fall in all of it's Colorado glory. If you have never been to the mountains in mid to late September, you are missing out. This is the time of the year that the Aspens are changing from green to all shades between yellow and red. There are some really great places to check out this beautiful transformation. We chose Kenosha pass for this year's leaf watching. Also on our agenda was Georgia Pass and Boreas Pass.

On our way out we borrowed Dawn's neighbor's (Becky) dog - Boo and went "up."
I was surprised that so many people were up taking pictures of Fall. When we got to Kenosha Pass we almost couldn't find a place to park the car. Once I parked the Jeep in a very narrow spot between two cars that had bike racks on their back ends, we got out and and took some pics and some video footage of the  scenery. Next we went to the Colorado Trail for a small hike. The wind was blowing and the leaves were falling and I tried to get it on video but every time I would get everything all ready, the wind would stop and I would get footage of trees standing still-not very interesting on video. I believe I eventually got it but it probably won't be as interesting  as it was in person.

After that adventure we got back in the Jeep and made our way to the beginning of Georgia Pass which is near Boreas Pass. We saw some antelope along the way. The road was an easy to moderate off road excursion.
We started up and it really wasn't all that bad. Both the dogs (Boo and Cheyenne) enjoyed the ride as well. We finally got to the top and got out for a bit of a look around because we had officially hit the part that was "moderate" in Dawn's off road book. I was not liking the look of things. You see, my Jeep is my only vehicle and it has "soccer mom" tires and stock clearance. I am also a novice at off-roading and we have been teaching ourselves how to do it by starting easy and working our way up.

Now the pictures do not even begin to show the level of scariness I was facing. As a matter of fact the pictures make it look like a cake walk. We took a break and sat on the hillside to just enjoy the moment of being "up" and took some pics with  the dogs.While we were sitting there a truck came up and was bouncing all over the place. At this point I had decided that I wasn't willing to try it.
Boo who had been chewing a stick he had found started acting funny. To make a long story short-Dawn saved his life. It took some water, a couple of borrowed dog biscuits from a German shepherd named Cash and Dawn getting chewed on to make it happened but  it did and Boo is happy.
The owners of Cash were also the ones who had passed us in the truck. The guy, whose hands were covered in oil and who had recently been under his trucking fixing it, said there was nothing to worry about going down the trail.  His girlfriend kept saying how beautiful it was and how it wasn't "that bad." Needless to say we waited til they left and we went back the way we came.
If I had more clearance under my Jeep I would have done it, but I am still not a good judge of how big of a rock I can climb over(On a recent trip I went through a large puddle and had a rock dent my gas tank).

By the time we made it down, we had decided that we didn't have enough time for Boreas so we made one last stop at a different spot on Kenosha. While Dawn was taking scenery pictures, I was trying to get the Jeep at a good angle with the trees to make it look like it was in a commercial. It didn't work like I wanted it to. Oh well.

And as always, at the end of a good day, we headed home!

[Flashback] A howling good time

 Sept 25, 2010

Dawn and I took off toward the Wolf Sanctuary in Divide in the late afternoon on Saturday. We decided to check out the fall leaves in toward Cripple Creek first. There were a lot of people pulling off the side of the road to take pictures. The leaves looked like they were in the finishing stages for fall and in some places the Aspens were already looking bare.

We then decided to grab a bite to eat. Upon earlier research, Dawn had found that there were only 2 restaurants in the small town of Divide Colorado. Once we got there we were faced with the reality that the internet is not always correct. There was a small BBQ place The Smokin Q and that was it. The place was interesting. You have to go inside this really small building to order and get your food then you sit outside on picnic tables. Under normal circumstance it wouldn't be too bad but it was pretty chilly and the wind was blowing. We managed to make it work. The actual meat I had in my pulled pork sandwich was good but the bbq sauce was more like hot sauce. The baked beans were very good and Dawn said that the cole slaw had a bit of a kick. Dawn wasn't thrilled with the rib tips but all and all at least there was a place to eat.
 
So with full bellies we went to the Wolf Sanctuary for the "Full Moon Tour." We got there a little early and had to wait outside the gate. From where we were we could see some of the wolves and a couple of the foxes. There was a lady complaining that all the fences were in her way of taking the perfect photo with her ginormous camera lens.

We mentioned to her that she wouldn't be allowed to have that size lens in the Sanctuary and she blew us off like we didn't know what we were talking about (we have been there before). When we were finally let in, Dawn and I headed in first. My thought was to get in, pay and check out Calvin the Sanctuary's rescue ferret. He is the sweetest thing(pictured in my profile picture). Instead we were told that they were going to go ahead and bring out a couple of wolves for us to interact with. BONUS!!
We head outside and start forming a human circle. The two wolves that they bring out our Tala and Na'vi. They are both Timber wolves although Na'vi is black in color.

They were so cool. We got to pet them and receive kisses. It was amazing. Previously we had been at the Sanctuary and were able to sit with two ambassador wolves and have our pictures taken with them. This was so much cooler! After everyone finally made it out, another wolf was brought out. His name was Timber. He did some serious growling at the other two but we were told that is ears were up and tail was wagging so there was nothing to worry about. I have to admit it was a little scary sounding.
The lady with the huge lens was told to take it back to her car.After the meet in greet we took our flash lights and were led by Darlene and her employees around on the tour of the facility and all the wolves in the dark. It was pretty interesting at night. You really cannot hear the wolves "sneak up" on you. The tour is the same. They talk about how people think wolves would make great pets and when it doesn't work out the poor animals get dumped either on them or someone like them or they get put to sleep. We were told that all sanctuary's and rescue's are full and more and more animals (including domesticated dogs and cats) are being put to sleep because there is nowhere for them to go. They have also received animals from photo farms & breeder farms. The photo farm was interesting because I had no idea there were such places. Basically some postcards that you get when you are on vacation are not actually animals in the wild. They are the "beautiful" version of the animal kept in poor conditions(usually) so that they can be photographed for our pleasure.
We got to howl with the wolves at the end of the tour. It was amazing. At this point the full moon was just coming up. When we went back inside I got to hold Calvin and get my ferret fix. The ride home seemed long but it was well worth it