In case you were wondering....

Bella still has puppy sharp teeth. In addition to her leash, my beloved chaos will be headed in the mail tomorrow to get the straps repaired as well. I sure hope her chew treats come in the mail tomorrow!!

Andi

the big WF

the past week has been a lot of catch up--catch up with the overgrown yard that required 9 hrs of maintenance on sat, catch up with work making chocolates, catching up with laundry, sleep, you name it- i'm sure it needed done.

today was a big one-- bigger than all the rest.  today i had my 3rd meeting with whole foods.  jury is still out but i'm guessing i'll know by the end of the week if i made it or not

It's a good thing...

I'm not a pepper farmer.

Ez loves his new pool!

a preface

before you read our trip report, let me just preface this by saying it's more than it may seem.  i say "miserable" quite a bit.  and yes, parts of the trip are not fun.  there is nothing enjoyable being surrounded by mosquitos or shivering in your sleeping bag or wearing damp clothes because it's all you have left.

however, there is a beauty to the trip that surpasses all the misery.

perhaps it is hiking in the dark and looking up at the mountain silhouette against a perfectly clear, star studded sky.  

perhaps it is the absolute silence that comes in the middle of the day because your phone simply says "no service"

maybe it's that afternoon storm that rumbles through the campsite, forcing you inside your tent to just lay there, listening to the pitter patter of rain, thunder, and the breeze through the trees.  

it could be the smell of flower fields

or it could be that you can lose yourself in the boulder field.  there is something special about being surrounded with the enormity of nature.  not that you're insignificant, but a healthy respect for the world around you and thanking God for such a beautiful creation.  

and even though you're tired and want to scream, you can push yourself farther than you thought possible- partly because of necessity, but mostly because it's truly an inspiring place.  

and that my friends, is why we keep going back for more.

vaca pics

d snappin photos

can you spot the carin?  (stacked rocks).  follow them all the way to the top of the mtn.  some are large, some are small.  i am particularity good at this due to the fact i did so many "where's waldo" books during my wait at cello/violin lessons.

the columbines were out in full force at snowmass

culebra had such a natural beauty

route finding/traversing across ellingwood

we made it!  (7:00 pm!  yikes!)  little bear is in the background

headed up the hourglass. 

class 4 climbing through a waterfall = no bueno.  it is miserable.  if there wasn't a good rope there i wouldn't have done it.

k on the top of snowmass.  you can see the bells behind him

looking down the hourglass on little bear.  we're in the middle of the clouds

a look at little bear from ellingwood

crossing the log jam at mile 6 of the snowmass hike in

so happy not to have altitude edema at snowmass

"skeeter control" -- either a)  dress like d or b) wear 4 sprays of mosquito repellent like k

hiking in

snowmass right in front of us--- only 2 more hours of climbing loose rock to summit

snowmass lake.  one of the most beautiful camping spots of all time

going down was almost as bad as going up on snowmass

from afar the rocks looks small and harmless-- they're actually huge boulders that take a lot of energy to jump across

the blanca group from afar

another day at the office.  sometimes it's hard to be at the top of the world.  :)

blanca and ellingwood hidden in the clouds

carin, find a carin. 

"vacation"

we didn't think we would get much of a vacation this year since 99% of our budget is sitting in the middle of our house in the form of a kitchen remodel.  but when a man named kyle calls with his vacation plans, it's hard to sit on the sidelines and watch.  you just never know what is going to pop up and we were in from the get-go.  since the blogger website is not super user friendly, we'll have one post in pictures, and one in words.  (sorry folks, i'm a little slow on the technology side).  

kyle (k) and paulette (p) have almost completed all of the 54 colorado 14'ers.  they only had a handful left to do.  thing is this time around-- they needed someone who was:

a)  crazy

b)  had a car

we fit the bill.  

the plan:  

hike culebra (the most southernmost 14'er, 9 miles from NM)

hike up to lake como and do the blanca group (camping)

then if we got that done-- we could go do MORE!  (camping)

now i'm just going to go say upfront that i was never raised to be a camper type of person so this was quite a stretch for me, but i did try to do my best.

night one:  we drive to san luis, the oldest town in colorado (founded 1851) and meet up with k, p, and k's dad.  we were thankful for some hotel floor space.

if you've never done culebra, i don't blame you.  it's on private property and you pay $100/head to hike this.  i know, it sounds crazy, but if you want to do them all, you do it.  surprisingly, we enjoyed this mountain.  the foot traffic is low and the mountain is in pristine condition.  the property owners actually encourage you NOT to walk in a line and spread out in order to preserve it as much as possible.  

k & p pop into our car and we are off to lake como road.  this is one of the toughest jeep roads in the US, so we didn't get far in the commander.  let me just say that this is a crappy hike in-- all 6.5 miles of it.  it's very rocky road and when you're packing in (packs around 40lbs), it get LONG, quickly.  fortunately we were able to strike great cloudy, misty weather.  if it was sunny, it would have been extra brutal.

we set up camp at dusk and as soon as we're in our tents it starts raining.  and it rains, and it rains, and rains.  finally around noon on the next day we come out of hibernation and  i'm a bit stir crazy.  after carefully calculating the weather, we decide to go hike around a bit.  we end up conquering 2 peaks (blanca & ellingwood) and we're back on schedule.  (note:  you should never attempt to hike a 14'er this late in the afternoon.  typically you should be OFF the summit by noon)

then it's a cold night.  i got about 2 hrs of sleep, shivering.  part of it was nerves for the next day's hike (it's a toughie) and part of it was just coldness-- it was in the 30s.  you're wearing all your clothes, stocking hat, 3 layers of mosquito spray and are kind of hating life at that point.  we are up and hiking again by 5 to conquer little bear, named colorado's toughest 14er.  it's miserable.  and scary.  and after climbing class 4 rock in the middle of a waterfall i'm cold, wet and cranky.  did i mention cranky?  dallas has this great attribute of keeping his cool in stressful situations.  i'm exactly the opposite.  i made it to about 13,700 and sat on the rock until everyone summit-ted and came back.  i made it thru the hardest part and for me that was good enough.  we come back to camp and decide to head back to the car.  another 6.5 miserable miles.  it was extra bad since i had some nice altitude edema.  my face, legs and feet blew up.  sausage toes suck when you step on little rocks going downhill.  

by now it's wednesday night.  and you'd think in alamosa it would be easy to find a hotel room.  we struck out 5 times before finally finding a room.  the next morning we are off to leadville, over independence pass and off to a little place called aspen, where the beer flows like wine.  the weather looks just good enough to do another peak.  so we trek the 8 miles into our next campsite to do snowmass.  we don't get started until 8:30p and start our trek into the woods to find an intermediate camp spot.  we are walking down the path and are able to answer the age old rhetorical question:  does a bear s*** in the woods?  (sorry mom).  the answer?  YES.  we saw a very fresh pile of berry poo in the middle of the trail.  and then we saw a nice camping spot, but there were some nice bear prints in that too.  we kept going past that--quickly.  4 miles in we find a spot, stick our tent up and as soon as we're in it starts sprinkling again.  

thurs we are up and at it again, packing in the last 4 miles.  we get camp set up, do a small hike and then get stuck in our tent for an afternoon rainstorm.  

friday we get up and hike snowmass.  holy moley.  it was not what we expected.  it was a GIANT rockfest.  by this time we are sick of rocks.  it was climbing up scree.  and you think... it will get better.  and then you get to the next section and think, it will get better.... but it never does.  we get back to the tent and get socked in with more rain--enough to come into the tent, get everything wet and miserable.  we're still able to pack it out and hit a hotel in glenwood before getting home today.  

what i've found out:

i'm very good at the following:

1)   route finding

2)  weather prediction

3)  recovering rather quickly from complete breakdowns on the side of a mountain

4)  eating large amounts of crappy food while camping (the only time i ever get to eat poptarts and other horrible, fattening stuff)

what i'm not good at:

1)  tolerating mosquitos

2)  keeping my cool

3)  camping cooking

4)  being covered in sunscreen and mosquito spray

all in all, it was a great week.  we got 50 miles of hiking (29 of this with large packs) and 19,000 ft of vertical climbing

we are hungry, exhausted and full of extra red blood cells!

And people call this "vacation"

Back on the grid briefly here. We have been with friends hiking some of colorados 14ers. It's been a camping sort of excursion and last night we got a hotel room. (Yay! Temperature controlled, running water ad toilet and mosquito-less). Not sure what else is in store for the rest o the week but if our aching feet recover we might be in for more.

Culebra

Andi

advertising....

there are some things i'm good at:

making dessert, walking the dogs, killing the grass...

there are some things i'm not good at:

marketing, advertising, taxes...

i'm working on my fall marketing series.  

i need about 15 of these things.  

i have one.

this one:

anyone have other ideas?

because...... _____fill____this___blank____in_____

Sportin' this fancy new thing....

yesterday at the dairy i show up:

Polo:  Donde esta es tu chciara, Andi? 

Andi:  I forgot

Polo:  No bueno, Andi!  El sol es muy caliente!  no bueno....

(he's right.  it was nearly 100* and the cloud cover was coming, but wasn't here yet).

2 min later my hands are full of milk bottles and he sticks this on my head:

i know... everyone wants a trucking hat from Goeschem, Indiania...

he assured me it had only been worn uno or dos

and that i NEEDED a hat.

and that it needs to stay in my car for next time.

at least they care.

but they could have chosen a different color.

Woe is me.

No one has played ball with me for at least 4 hours. Ezra

One of my favorites

We met a dude named Andy hiking this weekend. He just sent us some pics. The is one of my favorites

And this traffic map, my friends...

Is why you don't come home on Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend.

And they called it puppy love

Pics Dallas took

short but sweet

we were planning on really rocking out our long 4th weekend...  bag some hills and come back exhausted.  here's how it went....

wednesday night:  drive to lake city (about 5.5 hrs...traffic dependent).  so glad we waited for dallas to get off of work.  we only had 6 fun-enders (motor homes)

dallas taking a pic of our new friend, andy

to pass.  a record for sure.  after 4 wheeling the last 2 miles, we arrive at wetterhorn's trailhead (11,200ft) at 11p.  up and hiking by 5:30. 

we had a great morning for wetterhorn

part of the class 3 climb right before summiting

go dallas!

we are back down by 10:00 and decide to head into town with our new friend for an ice cream cone.  we have fallen in love with lake city.  it's full of genuine people and so much to do!

wetterhorn

 

4th of july celebration at Lake City.  talk about a slice of Americana.   we were the only ones NOT wearing an America color.  we are watching the family fun races in the middle of town.  i missed my age bracket but would have totally done this.  definitely worth going back for.

we head up to trailhead #2 for the next mountain.  the off-road portion of this is 4 miles of 4 wheel stuff.  about 2.3 miles up we hear this PTWOOOOOOOOO.  super.  nothing like getting a punctured tire heading up a 4wheel drive trail.  we improvised a flat spot and changed it.  rather nervewracking.... as at one point in time the jacked up jeep was starting to slide toward the hill down to the stream. 

uncompadre (14,309)

we decide to hang out again at 11,000+ ft and car camp.  (our commander is super comfy for this).  since today was calling for a high chance of showers we were wanting to leave by 4:30, but it was raining and we didn't head out till 6.  we took a chance to basically run up and run down and get this over with.  2 hrs later we are at the top FREEZING.  it was 30-somthing degrees and blowing at the top.  we make it down 90 min later and am driving back down, praying that our wheels don't pop again.  we're a bit fresh out of spares at this point.

freezing at the top.

only 30 min from the top!

summit portrait

the drive back down the 4wheel drive trail

dallas checking out the cool honeycomb rock

on the nice dirt (not 4-wheel requiring) road, we hear a rather odd, scraping sound.  so for the 2nd time we take off our front left tire to release the rock that somehow got lodged in there.  we're going to invest in a better jack.

no, not a repeat pic.  this is #2 time we had to do this.  

we decide that we've had enough and instead of bagging one more tomorrow, we'll head home.  (the weather for the rest of the weekend wasn't looking super either). 

so we still have 2 days to play!  yeah!