This weekend is my birthday weekend and Dawn has found a relatively easy trail for us this week. Cheyenne was still a little stiff and I was on the verge of a hideous cold so we planned to take it easy. I have always wanted to do Lair-o-the-Bear, I just have never stopped there on my way to Evergreen and done it. It looks much prettier from above in the summer time but also very crowed. We basically had the place mostly to ourselves.
The day was a little overcast but that didn't stop us. We traveled up toward Evergreen on my favorite road and went to the park. The trail follows Bear Creek so there was water involved in our hike which makes me happy. We even had to cross it at a point. This path had some mud but a ton of very slippery ice. Cheyenne was feeling much better and didn't seem to have any problems with the ice but Dawn and I almost fell a couple of times.
There were these crazy birds along the way that would literally dance in the water while singing and then swim in it. It was like a little birdie ritual. Just when I was thinking that the trail was getting a little long and I thought maybe we were going to walk to Evergreen I saw the most amazing thing---a castle.
There is a castle that you can't really see from the road and Dawn said it is nearly invisible in the summertime but we got to see the whole thing! It was amazing! It is someone's house and I doubt you can go inside but the outside is spectacular. It is made of stone with arched windows and doorways. There are crenelations at the tops of the walls and there is even a huge gargoyle statue. There is even a tree house that looks like a turret. It has two ponds with a waterfall in one of them and a bridge over the river that forms half a moat around part of the castle. It was sooo awesome! The trail that we were on was so slick with ice that we decided that it must be a line of defense for the castle as well. Did I mention the castle is right by the road yet hidden from site! I told Dawn that it was the best present ever!!
After we passed the castle, Dawn found a black squirrel that looked like he was trying to hide from us in plain site. He was so cute! We finally went as far as we could go (not quite all the way to Evergreen) and turned around and headed back. Near the castle we saw a hawk soaring overhead on the currents.
Since we were almost there anyways, we left the park and went to Evergreen and got ice cream at Baskin Robbins. For some reason ice cream always tastes better in Evergreen.
We had to get going back down the mountain so we didn't miss our combined birthday dinner at the Sullivan's house.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Chau-tau-qua How do you say that again? 2/26/11
We had so much fun at Mount Falcon that we decided to try this again. Tomorrow is Dawn's birthday and she has chosen Boulder for our outdoor excursion today. We kidnapped Nancy and took off to Boulder to hike the Chautauqua trails in the park of that name. It started off a little windy. We found someone nice enough to take a picture and then we joked about following him the rest of the way so he could take more for us. I am not sure he got our humor.
This trail was muddy as well but a totally different type of mud. This mud was thick and black and stuck to your shoes. Nancy looked like she was picking up small trees along the way. This trail wasn't quite as long but it sure did have some slippery spots in it. The snow was slick from melting and refreezing. We saw plenty of dogs along the way and we had a guy who had a cute short dog ask us if he was going the right way. We had no clue so hopefully he found what he was looking for.
As we were heading back down we took a side path to take some pictures. Dawn and Nancy spent sometime playing "find the perfect rock to sit on" while Cheyenne and I waited. As soon as it was our turn to go down by Nancy, I noticed a lot of cactus flattened on the ground. Cheyenne and I maneuvered to the spot and when she went to sit down, she yelped. I have very rarely heard her do that. I am not sure what the final verdict was but she has recovered from the incident. At that point we decided it was time to go.
For lunch we went to Subway and ate in the car with Cheyenne as we watched people in Goodwill shop.
(Pictures to come)
This trail was muddy as well but a totally different type of mud. This mud was thick and black and stuck to your shoes. Nancy looked like she was picking up small trees along the way. This trail wasn't quite as long but it sure did have some slippery spots in it. The snow was slick from melting and refreezing. We saw plenty of dogs along the way and we had a guy who had a cute short dog ask us if he was going the right way. We had no clue so hopefully he found what he was looking for.
As we were heading back down we took a side path to take some pictures. Dawn and Nancy spent sometime playing "find the perfect rock to sit on" while Cheyenne and I waited. As soon as it was our turn to go down by Nancy, I noticed a lot of cactus flattened on the ground. Cheyenne and I maneuvered to the spot and when she went to sit down, she yelped. I have very rarely heard her do that. I am not sure what the final verdict was but she has recovered from the incident. At that point we decided it was time to go.
For lunch we went to Subway and ate in the car with Cheyenne as we watched people in Goodwill shop.
(Pictures to come)
Squishy Mud on Mount Falcon-2/19/11
Squish, Squish, Squish.
I forgot how much fun mud could be until we started up Mount Falcon in Morrison, Co.
Dawn and I decided that we needed to get the first hike of the year out of the way so she looked up some places nearby that didn't look too bad ---on paper. After looking at the list I decided that "steep" was not to be the descriptor word for the day. I chose paths that had great words like scenic in their description. Total mileage was to be about 2 miles on the chosen route. (Castle Trail and Turkey Trot Trail)
It seems that "steep" should have been the description of all the trails in the area. We were going up the side of a mountain no matter which route we took. But back to the mud... the day was beautiful, the sun was melting the snow and there was a bunch of red squishy mud on the trail. At first, the adult in me felt that I should "avoid getting dirty at all cost." But the kid in me quickly took over and I was doing everything but jumping up and down in it. The only problem with it was that it was slippery and slippery and steep do not mix well.
We spotted some deer on a ridge as we were hiking through the mud. The deer were just hanging out til a dog that was running loose headed their way. After the deer hightailed it out of there, we saw a red fox cruising along under the brush further up the mountain on the opposite side.
Cheyenne spent a lot of time sniffing on the way up but as we were headed down it was like she was in a race to the finish line. As we were heading off the trail we passed a couple who were just getting started and the girl did not seem to happy about all the mud. I am sure she eventually found the kid in her too. We were tired by the time we finished but I was glad we had done it. I found out that there is this nifty contraption at the end of the trail to get some of the mud off your shoes with. It looks like three brushes in a frame. Two brushes for the sides of your shoe and one for the bottom. This is the first time I had ever seen this and now it seems I see them everywhere.
For lunch we headed back into town to try out a new restaurant. We went to Cornerstar and ate at Dad and Dude's Brewaria. I thought it was going to be a cheesy pizza place but it turned out to be pretty cool. I have to say if you try anything else besides pizza, definitely get the cheesy Jalapeno bread. It was not what I was expecting it was way better! We started with that then we got a pizza (all meat of course). Dawn tried a micro-brew. They even have beer from Dry Dock here! For dessert we had the most scrumptious s'mores type pizza with chocolate and marshmallows and peanut butter chips. It was truly heavenly and definitely negated all of our hard hiking work but was well worth it.
(Pictures to come)
I forgot how much fun mud could be until we started up Mount Falcon in Morrison, Co.
Dawn and I decided that we needed to get the first hike of the year out of the way so she looked up some places nearby that didn't look too bad ---on paper. After looking at the list I decided that "steep" was not to be the descriptor word for the day. I chose paths that had great words like scenic in their description. Total mileage was to be about 2 miles on the chosen route. (Castle Trail and Turkey Trot Trail)
It seems that "steep" should have been the description of all the trails in the area. We were going up the side of a mountain no matter which route we took. But back to the mud... the day was beautiful, the sun was melting the snow and there was a bunch of red squishy mud on the trail. At first, the adult in me felt that I should "avoid getting dirty at all cost." But the kid in me quickly took over and I was doing everything but jumping up and down in it. The only problem with it was that it was slippery and slippery and steep do not mix well.
We spotted some deer on a ridge as we were hiking through the mud. The deer were just hanging out til a dog that was running loose headed their way. After the deer hightailed it out of there, we saw a red fox cruising along under the brush further up the mountain on the opposite side.
Cheyenne spent a lot of time sniffing on the way up but as we were headed down it was like she was in a race to the finish line. As we were heading off the trail we passed a couple who were just getting started and the girl did not seem to happy about all the mud. I am sure she eventually found the kid in her too. We were tired by the time we finished but I was glad we had done it. I found out that there is this nifty contraption at the end of the trail to get some of the mud off your shoes with. It looks like three brushes in a frame. Two brushes for the sides of your shoe and one for the bottom. This is the first time I had ever seen this and now it seems I see them everywhere.
For lunch we headed back into town to try out a new restaurant. We went to Cornerstar and ate at Dad and Dude's Brewaria. I thought it was going to be a cheesy pizza place but it turned out to be pretty cool. I have to say if you try anything else besides pizza, definitely get the cheesy Jalapeno bread. It was not what I was expecting it was way better! We started with that then we got a pizza (all meat of course). Dawn tried a micro-brew. They even have beer from Dry Dock here! For dessert we had the most scrumptious s'mores type pizza with chocolate and marshmallows and peanut butter chips. It was truly heavenly and definitely negated all of our hard hiking work but was well worth it.
(Pictures to come)
Gianormous Snow Sculptures -1/29/11
Today we embarked on one of our annual trips to Breckenridge to see the 21st Annual Budweiser Select International Snow Sculpture event. Our group has grown so much that this year we had to take two cars! Dawn, *Kathy, Cheyenne and I in one car and *Bree, *Ryan, *Luna, Becky, Jamie and Boo in the other. (*Newbies) Armed with our walkie talkies we headed off to Breckenridge!
Of course we had to stop off at Starbucks at the Dumont exit for a break as usual. It is not quite half way but works for everyone. We were surprised to find that Starbucks has expanded it's parking lot and bathrooms this year. They must be getting a lot of traffic from those people who have been stuck in their cars for two or more hours in bumper to bumper ski traffic. We took our "hey we made it this far photo," saw a couple of sheep and then headed off the rest of the way.
We couldn't have asked for a better day. The sky was Colorado blue with a blazing sun and the temperature was probably 50 degrees. Some of the sculptures had even started to melt. There was water dripping from a snow sculpture bird's beak.
Here is a little bit of information about the event:
The snow sculptures are created out of a compacted block of snow and then artists come from all over the world to sculpt these marvelous creations. They had 15 5-man teams from 8 different countries compete this year. They are only allowed to use hand tools and have 5 days to complete the sculpture. Then on Sunday they are judged on theme, style and technique and that is when they also find out whether or not they won the People's Choice award.
My favorite sculptures this year were "the Spirits of the Aurora" and the "Alebrije." The spirits one was done by a team from Canada. It looked very ghostly and had a crow on a skull in the middle of it. The eye of the crow was made out of ice instead of snow which made it look very eerie. The "Alebrije" was created by a team from Mexico and had a dragon in it which makes it a winner right off the bat in my book. It actually took first place!
We spent a lot of time looking around and then said our good byes to car two because they had to get back down the mountain. After they left we had our picture taken by a real cute guy and then headed back toward the car.
We decided to skip Subway this time and instead we ate at a Mexican restaurant in Frisco. I think it was called Hacienda Real. It had these amazingly long icicles hanging from it. The food was pretty good. They also had these really cool painted pictures in the bathroom of a man and woman dancing.
Walking off lunch was our next priority! We headed back to the car and grabbed Cheyenne and took off on a trail near the restaurant. It took us back into a residential area that had some of the most amazing houses. There were lots of houses with gigantic icicles hanging from their eaves. The snow was so high in some places that it towered above me. Of course we took a ton of pictures!
Once we had sufficiently walked off lunch, we headed back to the car and back down the mountain in afternoon ski traffic.
(Pictures to come)
Of course we had to stop off at Starbucks at the Dumont exit for a break as usual. It is not quite half way but works for everyone. We were surprised to find that Starbucks has expanded it's parking lot and bathrooms this year. They must be getting a lot of traffic from those people who have been stuck in their cars for two or more hours in bumper to bumper ski traffic. We took our "hey we made it this far photo," saw a couple of sheep and then headed off the rest of the way.
We couldn't have asked for a better day. The sky was Colorado blue with a blazing sun and the temperature was probably 50 degrees. Some of the sculptures had even started to melt. There was water dripping from a snow sculpture bird's beak.
Here is a little bit of information about the event:
The snow sculptures are created out of a compacted block of snow and then artists come from all over the world to sculpt these marvelous creations. They had 15 5-man teams from 8 different countries compete this year. They are only allowed to use hand tools and have 5 days to complete the sculpture. Then on Sunday they are judged on theme, style and technique and that is when they also find out whether or not they won the People's Choice award.
My favorite sculptures this year were "the Spirits of the Aurora" and the "Alebrije." The spirits one was done by a team from Canada. It looked very ghostly and had a crow on a skull in the middle of it. The eye of the crow was made out of ice instead of snow which made it look very eerie. The "Alebrije" was created by a team from Mexico and had a dragon in it which makes it a winner right off the bat in my book. It actually took first place!
We spent a lot of time looking around and then said our good byes to car two because they had to get back down the mountain. After they left we had our picture taken by a real cute guy and then headed back toward the car.
We decided to skip Subway this time and instead we ate at a Mexican restaurant in Frisco. I think it was called Hacienda Real. It had these amazingly long icicles hanging from it. The food was pretty good. They also had these really cool painted pictures in the bathroom of a man and woman dancing.
Walking off lunch was our next priority! We headed back to the car and grabbed Cheyenne and took off on a trail near the restaurant. It took us back into a residential area that had some of the most amazing houses. There were lots of houses with gigantic icicles hanging from their eaves. The snow was so high in some places that it towered above me. Of course we took a ton of pictures!
Once we had sufficiently walked off lunch, we headed back to the car and back down the mountain in afternoon ski traffic.
(Pictures to come)
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