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.

WORLD SERIES !!!

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

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 !!!