My Summer Condensed

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.




.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.