coloradosuz

Mountaining Bike Weekend

2008-10-29T20:43:00.010-06:00

Wow, what a great time I had this weekend!!

The weather here was just stunning after a cold front blew threw. Lori and I decided to take the bikes out for a spin.

Our first day was at Indian something Trail outside of Sedalia. We were VERY surprised at snow we found still there. Lori had camped here in the Spring so she had an idea of where we were going. Her dog Lucy was also there enjoying the snow. The trails were well marked and just easy and fun to ride. Lori is a new rider on a new bike so we are trying to get her skill level up with out killing her.

The are is total single track with an section set aside for horses. They have these cute little corrals to put the horses in while you camp.

Not much to tell on the ride, just some fun pictures of our day.

Of course we had the mandatory deer butts.

Sunday was at Roxenborough State Park. It's kind of weird in that people have houses in the park and around the park. They have banned many of the trails of anything but feet. No dogs, bicycles, cars, nothing. And it is such a contrast from the day before. This area reminds me of Garden of the Gods in the Springs.

The house are much newer than this one. After a bit we came upon an area that looked liek the locals had set up little areas to have fires and just hang out. These are some cat carvings that were attached to the rocks.

And lastly, here is Lori checking out a small trail.

And now info on my new job. I started working at the warehouse 2 weeks ago. The first week was doing all functions of the warehouse to have an overall idea of how things worked. I was then offered a position as the Special Order / Ebay sales person. Yep that is right, I now spend my time shopping for winter ski wear, golf stuff on the Internet for clients and selling old product from our stores!! It's a newer position that we are hoping will bring another level of customer service to our clients and allow us to unload old inventory. So far I am crazy busy having a great time with weekends off and great hours of 7-3:30!!

My legs feel much better with my desk job. I decided to get off all the drugs to see how I feel. So I stopped the Ambien, Vicodin and my tasty wine. It's been a month and I feel so much more mentally aware!!! I think there was too much stuff in my system even though I took small quantities. I am taking Aspirin for the pain. So far so good but I have had some mind blowing knee pain that I have had to sit out til it passed.

WINTER IS COMING !!!!!!!

A Beautiful Friday

2008-10-03T21:40:00.003-06:00

I could not resist sharing the gorgeous day I had. Lori recommended a trail she knew of from camping on the Grant side of Guanella Pass. I drove over the pass, found the trail and oh my was she right!!

It was a steady 6 mile climb, climbing 2,000 feet in the first 2.5 miles. It was more of a jeep road than anything else, but after 4.5 miles a hiking/biking trail emerged.

I did cross 3 streams, trying desperately not to get wet. I ran into these shelters along the way. First thought SNOW SHOEING and winter camping.

Back at the new trailhead I was immediately stopped by a large pool of water that I had to walk a log to get around. The trail was mostly rocky (baby heads), but very rideable. I actually walked abit just so I could look around at the beauty. The temp up my trail was 50 degrees, there was a storm in the distance but it stayed clear.

After my fantastic ride up I stopped for a well deserved Snickers bar. I had a great descent only to arrive at my truck and realized I had left my car key hanging safely in the door key hole where I would not lock it inside. Oh well......

My Summer Condensed

2008-09-27T20:03:00.003-06:00

Camille texted to remind me this is suppose to be updated from time to time. This is my super condensed summer activities.

We will start with the purchase of my scooter. The Seca 600 was older and the weight just a bit too much for my legs, so I purchased a newer and smaller Ninja 500. This maybe smaller but oh my it is so much fun. I ride it to work alot and it really saves on gas. The purple was alittle much at first but now I really like it.

As usual my summer has been spent with as much camping, cycling and scootering as possible. I met up with some new friends and did a much more friendly version of RV camping in established parks. While this was fun, I like the more of the grid stuff. One of the girls, Lori, has an ATV ad we were able to spend some time on it playing.

This was a lake we made our way to after meeting a couple of guys and their kids on the trails. It was a seriously aggressive get to outside of Mt Princeton Hot Springs up Grizzly Gulch. We stayed in the area a week enjoying the local hot spa and ATV trails.

I did some hiking around Squaw Pass, this shows how dogs can find a way to cool of and totally trash my car.

This weekend I was up at Susan's property with CJ and Luna. The trees are changing and it was gorgeous!!! These photos were up around Alma.

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I still won't take the time to straighten out where all these pictures should land!!

Okay now for the non-hiking stuff. Work has gone very well for me. I captained the Boulder Whse Sale and we did very well. It was the last event for me as it totally trashed my knees. I decided then it was time to get off the sales floor and back into an office or at least back into the warehousing world I lived in.

I submitted my resume for a couple of positions at SSV, one in Loss Prevention the other at the Distribution Center. Both offered me jobs but due to working shows as security, I chose the warehouse position. I will be leaving the retail world on 21 October and begin my new position in Warranty. My new bosses plan is to get me in there and see where I will best fit with my background being so strong and working it out from there.

I am very excited about this opportunity!!!! I will also return to semi-normalcy by working through out the week and being off on weekends. This will also help my chances of having these broken knees replaced.

My overall health continues to improve, I have been cycling quite a bit but just can't get the recreational rider habits down! I go too hard, trash my knees and have to wait for the pain to diminish enough to start all over again. You'd think I'd learn by now.

So Camille, here it is!

NCAA Women's Final Four

2008-04-11T09:24:00.006-06:00

Here tis, the WF4!! What a great time we did have. We won the tickets thru a lottery that is held after the finals. Jane put in for 4 in April and was notified in August that she had 4.

Jane graciously shared with her friends and Jan, Renee and myself tagged along for the fun. Guess I should line us up, Jane, Jan (friend not at game), Jan, Renee and meeee.

Our first game was Sunday night, the tickets bought us the semi-finals (Tenn vs LSU and Stanford vs U Conn). The Stanford game was great, Stanford won easily. The Tenn/LSU game was possibly one of the worst games I have ever witnessed!!

Neither team came out to play or so it seems, both defenses were terrible and the shooting was non-existant. I am a HUGE Pat Summit fan but was thinking Stanford would blow them away if Tenn played the same way at the Finals.

In the mean time we did what little there is to do in Tampa, we drank, ate and visited their aquarium. For being on the water it was pretty small, the fishes were cute and there were several interesting birds walking about.

The finals fell on Tuesday night, we started out at a local bar for a few beers before the game.

The town was full of Tenn or Stanford fans so we had some fun at the bar with other people visiting.

Stanford was favored to win, but at tip off Tenn stomped onto the court and proved why they are No. 1.

Stanford never had a chance to catch their breath, Tenn was on them from the first second til the last 30 seconds!! Pat and crew put together an outstanding defense program and left Stanford flat footed and spinning looking for the ball. I felt sorry for Stanford, they were so totally creamed.

Thus ended our adventure, we flew back Wed am in very bumping winds.

For any L Word fans, "Adele" was at a club we visited on Monday night, this is myself and Renee.

Candace Parker, the game, Pat Summit, more beer, the game

Back to Guanella

2008-02-26T08:47:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I go to Georgetown alot. Flatmate Jane joined me again for

the fun in the snow. We knew we would have some snow and maybe wind so we planned our
hike accordingly.
Upon arriving we found others at our trailhead so we headed up to the road closing berm to hike up to Bierstadt trailhead.
The hike up was great, we met a guy coming down who had tried to summit Bierstadt but was driven back by 40-50 mph winds. We decided to head on up, still thinking we had a window before the worst of the storm hit. Well, we were wrong. It was as bad as when I was there before. We headed up the Rosalie trail until we could no longer see where we were going. Plus we were hiking into a brisk wind coming over the ridge causing limited visibility.

After stomping around abit we headed to Georgetown for the symbolic after-the-shoe-beer. Then there was the must do shopping and fudge buying for Kathleen (Jane's GF).

My snowshoeing will be coming to a close soon. March is a very busy month for me at Bicycle Vilalge, we sponsor 3 huge tent sales in 3 lcoation throughout the month that I or my staff will be involved in.

Coming soon.......me and the Stumpie ride again.!! Also Trek has very graciously offered bikes to the managers of the BV's. I chose a road bike which should arrive next week, this will make this summers riding fun as I have yet to ride carbon long term.

Jane and Me at play

2008-02-26T08:09:00.003-07:00

Jane and I have the same obsession for snowshoeing. I have introduced her to my favorite spot (Guanella Pass) and this was a great day for snow for us.

This is a side trail running below Waldorf Mine Rd. Others had been before us and laid out a wonderful trail.

As we got further along the trail became less travelled and the snow was getting deeper.

We hit the end of the trail and had to decide what to do, either go back or head straight up and try to access the road above us. Up looked more fun and we began a massive up hill assault on the snow. Mostly it was about knee high, but as we climbed closer to the road it became deeper from the wind pushing it off the road.

Per my GPS, we travelled .02 miles in 40 minutes!!! Jane, with
the better legs, climbed on her stomach over the last several
yards to make way for me and the dogs.

I tried to film this, but was laughing so hard at her "swimming" up the hill I screwed it up and have several 1 second clips.

After the berm, I continued up abit while Jane took a much needed rest.

The pictures show the trail we blazed, the berm and CJ the snow dog who spent most of his time on the assault stuck between my
legs. He and Luna (Jane's dog) we suppose to be the trail breakers
but the snow proved to deep for them to go forward in.

We are off to Guanella again next week for more fun and frolicing.

Updates and more Snowshoeing

2008-01-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

I was up at Guanella Pass again today and had the most absolute fun. We have had quite a bit of snow the last week so I thought I would head up and see what the upper levels were like. I was hoping to do the Silver Lake Trail since CJ was with me.

The drive up was crazy, the pass is closed 8.2 miles outside of Georgetown. If you rememer Excel has a plant up there that 4 guys were killed in a pipe fire a few months ago. The road was graded about 5 miles, the rest was untouched except for a couple of snowmoblies. I had yet to break snow with Susan's monster truck so this was a great opportunity

I suppose it was somewhat uneventful but the possiblity of getting stuck was what made it fun. I found the TH but no one had been up yet to break trail. The sled guys did run ahead and make a mess but I decided to head up to the TH to Bierstadt Mountain instead.

As you can probably see the winds were rather crazy. Bierstadt is the one on the right, Sawtooth is on the left. I hope to summit Bierstadt this winter, I have to plan well as the wind will knock me down pretty easily. CJ and I had a blast though he lost a bootie I will try and recover in the spring.

I received my promotion at work on Monday. I am now the Ops Mgr of the Westie location!!!! I am very excited with the opportunities this will offer me. I will work more hours, but however you look at it, it is still just a bike shop.

Susan has taken a position with a Fidelity off shoot as their controller. It has to do with parts of pre-manufactured housing , like trusses and such. We are not sure what this will lead to but she is excited to be back in the corporate world. She will
travel quite a bit at first, meeting the different branches and trying to put all the different pieces
together for a fluid distribution system.

Due to the crazy schedule she will have as of the 18th, she and our friend Julie headed off to Hawaii where Julie has friends for a week of relaxation and flying.

Me, I can do without the beaches and am very content to stay in my snow!!

That's all for now, a note about my health, the pre-menopause stuff has ended. The numbness is leaving and my stamina is returning. I wish my legs felt better but I do have an appt with a ortho in 2 weeks to find out the extent of the damage. I continue to ride my motorcycle to work, the lowest temp I can stand is 23 degrees. Denver is using magnesium chloride to melt snow and that mess gets all over me, my helmet and my bike. While it's not too slippery, I make very square turns to keep myself as upright as possible.

The Holidays-Christmas

2007-12-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

SNOW !!!!! I just love the white fluffy stuff and we have had our share of it. I worked Christmas Eve sending out the last of the layaway gift bikes. I arrived home to meet Susan heading for Pueblo to stay with her parents. The plan was for me to come down Christmas morning with our friend Julie whose parents are in AZ. I stayed the eve alone then called Julie only to find she was waiting for Susan to "firm up" and when no info came she made other plans. To make the situation more crazy was the 6-13 inches of snow that was dumping on Denver. My little car does not do snow and I had hoped to take Julie's SUV. As you have probably guessed, I spent Christmas here on the couch with egg nog. I had several offers from friends to come to their homes but I found the couch and the quiet kind of nice. It was a great day, I really enjoyed myself and Susan was able to spend time with her family. I hope everyone received their fudge this year.

Unfortunately I have no Christmas pictures, but here we are snowshoeing near Squaw Pass. It was about 20 degrees and beautiful. CJ was trying out his new snow mitts and they worked great.

I have been interviewed for the Ops Mgr at my work. I think the interview went well and should know in a couple of days. I have been hoping to start a new career and this company has many of the requirements I desire. My indoor cycling classes are going great, I have several clients attending each one and getting much stronger. I am off to Morganville, CA in Feb to attend a bike fit school. I do fits now but this will give me more certs to generate business.

I am looking forward to 2008 and all the joys and challenges it may bring. For now, I will snowshoe like a crazy person, enjoying every flake of snow.

First Snowshoe of the Year

2007-12-12T17:56:00.001-07:00

Okay, to start I seem to have lost control of where the pictures landed. Here's the story:

Today turned out perfect after several days of clouds and snow. I took off for Golden Gate State Park, about 13 miles NW of Denver. I was shooting for the Burro Trail and hopefully making it up to Windy Point.

This was my first trail of the year so I packed too much gear (which now includes Vicodin) and headed out. We have had alot of snow the last few days and with the temps staying below freezing, ice is everywhere. The drive up the canyon was uneventful for which I was VERY happy.

The trailhead was easy to find and totaly unused. Thus began my adventure in trail breaking. For those that have snowshoed you understand just how tiring this can be. My usual hiking pace is 3-5 mph, today was a whopping 1.6 - 2.2!! Yes, making of, or better yet, finding the trail can be quite the adventure.

My hike went well, I crossed paths with a big dog's foot prints on several occasions but never saw the dog. The snow was powder perfect though mostly on the lower elevation. I did not make it to Windy Point. The snow became scarce around 8400 ft so I wisely turned back. I made it back to the car just as the sun was setting over the mountains.

I am very excted for the snow to return to the mountains. I hope to snowshoe weekly to new exciting spots.

WORLD SERIES !!!

2007-10-29T19:47:00.000-06:00

Okay, I pulled the cancer card. Turns out the Rockies were the wild card picks for the playoffs. Even though I did not watch much during the season, attending 2 games and watching only a couple. Once they hit the playoffs I was hooked. As they went 20-21 wins I began to realize they might make it to the World Series !! And they did....

So the mother ship I work for, SSV, has a couple of different season tickets spots. A contest was offered titled, "Why I Deserve Rockies Tickets". I emailed in the sales I have accomplished, the winning of Top Dog at a sales event, my candidacy for Specialized Bike Fit School and my indoor training classes. Then I threw in the C card and they bought it !!!!

Off Susan and I went for a once in a life time opportunity to see the World Series in Denver!! Susan's sister Janet and her great crew at work made our sign, that brought alot of cheers from the fellow Rockies fans. Let me tell you it was the most exciting event I have ever attended. No one really expected the Rockies to win, but it was great energy and fun for the crowd to get into. We had a blast, I don't know that this opportunity will ever present itself again !!!

So for now, GO ROCKIES 2008 !!!

ATVing Trip

2007-10-11T07:54:00.000-06:00

Gumby (Susan) and I joined the great American pass time this weekend by taking the ATV out to established trails and zooming around them. It was a very unique experience as we had not done this on ATV trails before. It is a very manly sport as the only other woman on an ATV we saw was on the back of her "man's"
machine. It is also very common the carry weapons, stop along the way and start shooting off into the woods!! While the shooting did not alarm us (we too were armed), the lack of targets or any structure to stop the bullets was very scary. So this is Yankee Hill outside Central City, the wind was up a bit but it was a beautiful day.

I guess I should use this blog as a general letter format as Camille does, it will help keep everyone up to date. My health will be the first subject and it continues to fill my time. The chemo side effects continue to bother me. It is mainly a constant numbness in my hands and feet. I am cold sensitive because of this and I drop things a lot. I also can't buy shoes as I cannot tell if my feet are in them properly!! A new nasty side effect has come on me. While there is no medical evidence to support it, many women have suffered from arthritis or swollen joints from the chemo. As for me it moved up the pain in my knees and Osteoarthritis can now be seen on my x-rays. It came on severely about 3 -4 months ago when I was unable to walk with out a cane due to pain. I am now on Vicodin administered as needed as a pain management program. I am trying to get into an ortho in Dec to review my knee options to include the replacing of them. I am really bummed about this new turn of events, the pain is pretty amazing. But, not to worry, I am still biking like a mad woman, I have taken up swimming again and am trying to learn to be a canyon runner on my motorcycle. My work at the shop is great, I am trying to get into management with this company. I think it will make a great new career choice for me. I am also starting my indoor training program in Nov where I will be coaching people thru the winter on their bikes.

Oh and there is Susan, she is doing great. She and the CEO of Blue Sun had a major falling out regarding the financial reality of the future he had chosen and he preferred they part ways. She is back to being a consultant working with previous and new clients She is also flying quite a bit as the weather here is perfect right now. She is my motorcycle coach as she is one of the best riders I have ever seen.

That is it for now, GO ROCKIES !!!

more Aspens

2007-09-24T08:18:00.000-06:00

This is my favorite shot, I cannot express how beautiful the mountain sides were with all the colors. Plus the camera I have doesn't do it justice!

Colorado Aspens

2007-09-24T08:16:00.000-06:00

This weekend was glorious in the mountains. These photos were taken on Boreas Pass near Fairplay. This is the 12 mile pass that would take you over to Breckenridge. The pass was packed with people driving up to enjoy the show.

same mine looking out

2007-09-12T07:08:00.000-06:00

Here's the Georgetown opening from the inside.

Georgetown mine

2007-09-12T07:05:00.000-06:00

I found this one outside Georgetown, it is gated about 15 ft in. What's crazy is the tunnel is still somewhat intact behind the grating and the temperature drops dramatically at the opening.

Welcome to my Colorado

2007-09-09T09:42:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Camille I will add and try to keep up with this blog. My current obsession is with the old mines in the area. Most are sealed or have collapsed and, of course, all are dangerous.

I have also decided to ride my mountain bike up as many gravel passes as I can. Last week I managed Mosquito Pass, the highest driveable pass at 13, 185 ft. I will also be testing my GPS as it said I was at 13, 219.