Much Needed Girl’s Night

The weekend started on Friday with a much needed girls get-away to the outdoors. Just Melissa and I headed up to one of our favorite spots, Maxwell Falls in Evergreen, to camp for the night. I believe it was the first time in our lives that just the two of us went camping together. We had a blast, carrying our heavy packs and gear around in circles in the pitch black night looking for a good camp spot. We had one that we frequented but unfortunately it was ruined by people who don’t know the true meaning of being outdoors in the wilderness. There were beer bottles and cups all over, which prompted much bitching from both of us. It is something that we never understood, and we grew up there! We ended up finding a spot that wasn’t as far off the trail as our usual spot, but it would do, and wasn’t littered with remnants of the last campers.

First things first, we cracked a bottle of wine and then proceeded to gather firewood. We started out with wine in hand, which actually lasted a while until we finally realized that we were not getting anywhere just grabbing a small handful of wood each time, so we set down the wine and spread out to gather more wood. We got a small fire going and set up the tent before we settled down to have our girl talk and enjoy some smores. Obviously I am not going to disclose what that conversation consisted of. Sorry boys.

We were really lucky with the weather; it was a very clear, calm night. once we were out of wood, and too lazy to gather more, we huddled by the fire until it died and then went to bed.

The next morning we made breakfast of yummy egg and cheese sandwiches on English muffins and coffee, of course. It made me realize how much I miss that sort of camping. I have been camping this year, but not once did I bring my stove or enjoy a cup of camp coffee. I definitely need to make it a point to do that more often.

After our leisurely breakfast we went for a walk in the woods. I have always loved it up there, and I think even more now that I live in the city. It is such a different experience being deep in the woods as opposed to exposed hikes that overlook the city. The smell is something that can never be replicated, and the color of the changing leaves was spectacular. It is an amazing thought to know that even yesterday those leaves have already taken on a different shade of red, orange or yellow, and we were some of the very few people that got the chance to see them at that moment that we did.

Once we got back to the campsite we loaded up our gear and headed out. A much needed break from reality.

Long Weekend Thoughts…

I thought being a spectator would be easy… I found I am a better racer than I am a spectator…

 

I always thought I was good at directions… both Saturday and Sunday proved me wrong on that…

 

I never knew it was possible to make a routine Class 2 climb up Missouri Mountain into a more difficult Class 3 and some Class 4… It is…

 

I did find that my truck does really good across rivers and four wheeling…

 

I thought hiking some 14ers would be a good distraction from my wrist… It would have been if I didn’t fall on it…

 

I finally listened to all the signs and decided to bag the 14er trip and head down to the cabin to relax for the rest of the long weekend…

 

There is no better entertainment than watching two guys attempt to kite board on their butts across the Sand Dunes and then seeing a very happy dude prancing down the Dunes playing “The Sound of Music” in his head… Since I really don’t think I can retell this story, Matt, you are obviously the only one that will laugh…

 

No matter how many times I have visited the old cabin near the property, there is always something new to find, or learn, which adds to the mysterious story… like you could buy a urine bag for both males and females back in the day for about $2 from Ward… (Matt was the one that found that, ask him about it…)

 

I found that spending a relaxing long weekend with great company, watching two full beautiful rainbows form after it rained, listening to great music and cuddling while watching documentaries beats trying to conquer 6 14ers… I would repeat it any weekend….

 

Moab

This weekend my friend, David, and I went out to Moab. It has become a tradition for me to make a Spring and Fall trip out there. It was Dave’s first time, and he loved it. I have gone to Moab with many people, and I will say not one of them seems to appreciate it as much as I do. It truly feels like home to me. It feels like I belong there. I love it, and don’t think I will ever get tired of it.

We left Denver around 6 on Friday, and got into Moab around midnight. We went to the Slickrock campground to find it was full! We were ready to stop driving, and weren’t in the mood to drive around to find a camp spot else where, so we pulled off into a dirt lot where cars park for the walk in camping, had a couple beers, then crashed in the back of my car. I will say, that was not the most comfortable thing in the world. It was only a few hours, though, since we were up and moving a little after 6. We had breakfast at the Moab Diner, which, even though the food isn’t spectacular, is another tradition of mine.

It was up to me to find a descent trail for the day since Dave has never been there, and it was a challenge! He just bought his bike Wednesday, as well as clipless pedals that he has never used before in his life. He got this grand idea that he would only put the cleat on one shoe for the first ride and practice on that foot, and then switch on the next ride… Whatever floats your boat!

I decided on Poison Spider, which is by no means an easy trail, but doable. I had done it a few years ago with some friends and wasn’t able to finish, so I wanted to give it another try. It was overall a descent trail, although I don’t think I will do it again. There were soooo many Jeeps and dirt bikes, and very few mountain bikers. We played cat and mouse with the jeeps all ride, and the sound of the dirt bikes really killed the serenity off it all. I haven’t been to Moab this late in the season, and was surprised by all the beautiful flowers in bloom! I had to stop and take a bunch of pictures of them, which led to getting crap from Dave. Sometimes I have a tendency to pay more attention to the flowers than the trail…

When we got to the arch there had to have been 30 Jeeps and tons of dirt bikes. Not really my cup of tea, riding up a beautiful mountain to see a parking lot of cars, so we didn’t hang out, just continued on the trail. There was a lot steeper climbing after that, and David was starting to fade. We got to the intersection where you can either take the Portal trail back down to the car, or continue on the loop. He was beat, so he decided to walk down the Portal Trail, and I continued on the loop. It was really pretty, and there were no Jeeps or dirt bikes… but there was A LOT of sand. I had to walk probably a mile in sand that went past my ankles every time I stepped. As I was enjoying the quite away from all the Jeeps, I was able to notice the smaller, less noticeable sounds. Not sure if this was a good thing, because I ended up seeing three rattlesnakes due to it! And even more snake tracks across the trail. I was ready to get back to a trail that I could actually ride!

It didn’t take too long to get back to where the loop met up with the main trail, and sure enough, I was back in the cluster of Jeeps. I was done dealing with them, so I did my best to get around them and stay ahead of them for the rest of the ride. I got back to the car, thinking I would see Dave chilling in a lounge chair with a beer. No lounge chair, no beer, no Dave. I figured he definitely would have been back by now, and kinda got worried! I had no idea where this trail came out, so I couldn’t exactly go looking for him. I didn’t have my car keys, either, so I couldn’t drive to look for him. So I was stuck waiting by my car hoping he would show up. He did, about 30 minutes later, and I thought he was going to die. He dropped his bike before he even got to the car, and rushed for water. I felt pretty bad for him. He was done for the day, to say the least.

Which, in a way was disappointing to me, until I realized this is a perfect time to take advantage of one of the trails that needs a shuttle. So I decided to do part of the Kokopelli Trail. David dropped me off on the side of the LaSalle Mts and I was off on my own. It was a fast downhill for a while, and really fun! I decided to take part of Porcupine Rim and some of Fins and Things down to Slickrock where David met up with me around 7. It was great riding, and I didn’t see another mountain biker, jeep or dirt bike the whole ride. It worked out great (for me at least) because while I was riding, Dave got a campsite and set up camp, so I didn’t have to do anything! It was perfect, because by then we were starving and ready for a beer. So we headed into town to Eddie McStiffs for dinner. Got back to the tent around 10:30, and I was ready to crash. Good day.

The next day we slept in till about 7:30, then packed up and headed into town for breakfast. The Moab Diner was closed for some reason, so we ended up at the Jailhouse café. I had never been there before and it was really good! We hung out in town for a while, and then headed out of Moab to get some riding in Fruita. On the way out we stopped at the Dewey Bridge that burnt down a few weeks ago. I guess some kid was playing with matches at his campsite and started the fire. It was really sad to see, and you could still really smell the smoke.

We got into Fruita and did Mary’s Loop. It is always a fun trail to do, and I thought it would be a good trail to redeem myself from the decision I made the day before on trails. David enjoyed himself a lot on this trail. It was fun and fast. At one point, I was cruising up this hill when I saw something I thought was a weird looking stick on the side of the trail, so I stopped. Oh, it was no stick. It was a 5 foot long snake! I have never seen a snake that big in the wild before. Gave me the creeps! It was yellow with black lines, and I have no idea what kind it was. It slid across the trail in front of us, and then up the rocks on the other side. I have had enough snakes the last few months to last me a lifetime!

Well, we finished the ride and made one more stop in Grand Junction for lunch. It was a good weekend, although too short! I am already planning on the next trip out there…

Alaska!!

I spent the last week in Alaska with my two younger sisters, Hannah and Sam. What an amazing place! It was a place I have always wanted to go to, and it was so much more spectacular than I thought! In just 5 days I saw and did so much! On Monday we hiked Flat Top, which was only about 10 minutes from Anchorage in the Chugach Mt Range. It was a good hike, and had amazing views of Anchorage, the Chucagch Range and you could even see Mt. McKinley in the distance! After that we went to Alyeska and checked out the resort. I want to come back in the winter and go snowboarding! It is so beautiful! There were so many bald eagles, it was incredible! We then went to Portage Glacier, and then into Whittier, where the only way to get in is by a 6 mile tunnel made for a train. Kind of scary! Whittier was a very pretty little sea town right on the water. For dinner we went to Moose’s Tooth. A must if you come up! We enjoyed eating at 10:00 at night, while it still looked like 5:00 outside!Weird.The second morning we went to the zoo. I know, not that original, and as the week progressed, we found we saw more animals in the wild than we did in the zoo! We then headed out to Eagle River and went on a 2 hour nature hike. Kind of cool, just a little long. We saw some mountain goats, and we learned a lot about plants, which was interesting to me, since I will soon be taking classes on that. We saw a bull moose on the river (see pictures), it was pretty amazing. After the hike we decided to hike part of the main trail. Not all of it, since it is 26 miles… They actually hold a backcountry marathon there every year (not a whole lot of people do it). It sounds crazy! You have to ford a river that is deep enough to reach your chest, trek over a glacier, and climb a snowy mountain. The record holder finished in 3 hours 5 minutes!! Insane! So on our hike back we were told by a few other hikers that there was a bear in front of us. Me, who has never seen a bear before, grabs my camera out, and starts looking for this bear. Well, we made it all the way back to the nature center with no view of the bear. We were bummed, so we decided to trek back to see if we could find it. Coming around one of the corners we ran into a moose. I mean, 20 feet away, right on the trail. It was scary, cool and annoying all at the same time! Scary and cool because we were so close, but annoying because she was blocking out path to the bear! Needless to say, we never saw the bear. On Wednesday we went to a jelly/chocolate farm. It was… different. We took a tour of the kitchen, I felt like I was on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Only no umpa lumpas. We got a lot of chocolate covered jelly samles, not my favorite… We then got to pet and feed some reindeer! We all enjoyed that. We then saw an I-max type movie all about Alaska. I can’t explain everything we learned, lets just say, this state is amazing! That afternoon we took a 2 hour horse back ride throught the backcountry of Anchorage. No wildlife, but it was horseback riding, so it was lots of fun! Plus we were the only ones in the group! That evening I went for a walk at Earthquake park. It was beautiful! Right on the water, with great views. There was so many mosquitos, but no bites! It was so weird to walk at 9:00 at night and have the sun still so high in the sky!Thursday we all got up early and headed to Talkeetna, a really small mountain town about 2 hours from Anchorage. From there we got on a small 8 passenger plane for our flight see of Mt McKinley. What an adventure. We flew into the mountains, flying low near glaciers, and saw McKinley up close. We saw 3 of the base camps, with climbers working there way up. Just the day before there was report that 100 people summited! When only around 650  summit a season, that is pretty amazing. McKinley is only visible about 100 days of the year because the clouds are so intense there. We got such a perfect day, with no wind, that our hot Russian pilot took us down in between the mountains, just above the glaciers. This flight was amazing! A once in a lifetime thing! After getting over the rush of the flight we toured Talkeetna for  a while and then headed back toward Anchorage. On the way we stopped at Hatcher Pass, where supposedly the wildflowers are amazing, when they are in bloom, which is for only a few weeks in July… We went for a hike, not much wildflowers, but still beautiful and green. I stopped on the side to take a quick photo of the mountains, and when I turned to the side, I saw a bear!! A black bear, and it was a ways away, but still very visible. We watched it for  a while, and then we saw something dark in the trees behind her. I looked through my binoculars and saw 2 baby cubs!! How cool is that! I have never seen a bear before in the wild, and my first viewing is a mamma and her cubs!! I was overly thrilled! I was also glad that we were a good distance away… After all that adventure we were all beat, but Sam and I still had enough energy to go downtown and check out some shops and get dessert and coffee. I will say, this day is up there in best days of my life!!So my last day in Alaska we drove another 2 hours in the opposite direction to Seward. From there we took a cruise (Glacier Express) for 6 hours, that went through Resurrection Bay, and Aialik Bay. It was long, but still amazing. We saw a white sided dolphin, which the ranger said they hadn’t seen in that area for over 3 years, so she was really excited. There were 2 of them, and they swam really close to the ship, so we got a good close up of them. About the same time, some orcas appeared. They were far away at first, but then moved closer to us. There were 3 of them, and they swam pretty close to us, too (check out my video). It was so cool! I have never seen one before, and here are 3 swimming right in front of me!! We saw some seals catching some sun on some rocks, another cool sight. It is a lot different to see things in the wild as compared to a zoo. About halfway through we stopped at a glacier in Aialik Bay (Aialik means ’scary place’ by the way…) for about half an hour. There were a type of seal (I didn’t know there were different types) that were lingering about the icebergs, so we had to be quiet so we didn’t scare them off, I guess the population in that area is dwindling. It was so quiet you could hear the glacier cracking, and a few times big chunks would drop off. I am sure it doesn’s sound exciting, and I never though a glacier would be that cool, but it was spectacular! We headed back after that, saw some birds and more seals, then the cruise was over. We headed the 2 hours back to Anchorage, and by then it was about time for me to head to the airport. I will say this was one of the best weeks of my life, and is definately on the top of vacations. I would recommend Alaska to everyone!! It is such an amazing place, and there is so much to do!!