Tossed Salad And Scrambled Eggs

I had a long and fun weekend. Eric, a friend of mine from Atlanta, flew in for a ski weekend on Friday. We went to Winter Park on both Saturday and Sunday. There was fresh snow on both days. On Saturday, we also met up with Devon, a mutual friend of ours who has been living in Denver since 2000.













Eric, Devon, & myself taking a break at Lunch Rock (11,200 ft.) And no, I have not dyed my hair color is orange. I'm standing under a light that is giving it that effect.



Me and Eric waving goodbye before we take the Stagecoach down. The Stagecoach was a tough run for us. Devon was quite patient with our poor skiing skills. However, we probably ran him off since he didn't join us for Sunday's ski adventures.




On Sunday, Eric & I took the Ski Train to Winter Park. The Ski Train goes from Downtown Denver (5,280 ft.) to the Winter Park Base (9,000 ft.) about 100 yards from the ski lifts. The train goes through 29 tunnels. The last tunnel (Moffat Tunnel) is 6.2 miles long and goes under the continental divide. It is a very scenic train ride. Well worth it.

View from the Ski Train. It was sunny skies on the eastern side of the Continental Divide.



Eric showing that he is home on the slopes. It snowed all day on the western side of the Divide. The 24 hour total for Winter Park for Sunday was 10".


















The Entrance to Moffat Tunnel from the Winter Park side. The green pipe is a water pipe that helps supply the Front Range cities with water.

I took the day off from work on Monday. Eric had a late afternoon flight back to Atlanta. We went to Red Rocks in the morning. After that we went to Golden and visited the birthplace of Coors Beer. The Brewery tour takes around 40 minutes. You get three free beers of your choice at the end of the tour. The tour is also free. After lunch in Golden, I dropped the punk off at the airport.


The Silver Bullet going by. 70% of the beer produced at the brewery is Coors Light.












In my "Beautiful Day" Post, I got several comments from people who were wondering what the formation on the side of the mountain was in one of my pictures. I am not positive, but I believe it was some type of rock quarry. I tried not to pay too much attention to it because it was a bit of an eyesore. Anyway, I will get back over there in the future and take a better look. There are a few more trails to hike in that park.

Cheers,

-M

Beautiful Day

Plymouth Creek Trail. The snow is 2-3 feet deep here. Fortunately the trail is hard and easy to walk on.

Great Weather this weekend. I got to hike in shorts & t-shirt. I went to Deer Creek Canyon Park, which is apart of the Jefferson County Open Space Park System. The park is southwest of town about 15-20 minutes away from my place. The main trail takes you through a small canyon. The vegetation and terrain is quite interesting in this canyon. The south-facing slopes had arid environment with little or no snow. The north-facing slopes had Douglas-firs and a three-foot snow pack. The trail went up the snowy side of this transition zone. I hiked about 9 miles Sunday. I'll have to come back another time to hike the rest of the park.

Me at the end of the Golden Eagle Trail.

Denver Skyline by the way of the Meadowlark Trail. The skyline has a brown haze to it. I suspect that is from all dirt and junk that is on the roads. One of those dots in the parking lot below is my car.

Should we talk about the weather?

It got pretty cold here Thursday and Friday. For those who check out the Denver temps on the news, remember the temperature they give you is for the airport. The airport is out on the plains, and it is a lot colder there. On the local weather reports, they give a temperature for the airport and a temp at the news studio. I've seen as much as an 18 degree difference between downtown and the airport. So if you saw a report of record low of -18°F, it was not that bad where I live. My beer bottle was probably more accurate for my location. Granted that is still pretty frigid.

The Chinook winds have been blowing the past couple of days. I would be surprised if it made up to 50°F today at my place. There has been a good bit of snowmelt locally. It was still cold and windy in the foothills. I did a short hike today at Alderfer/Three Sisters Open Space Park near Evergreen. The hiking was a little tough. I should have rented some snowshoes. Do'ah! Maybe next time.




Looking towards Mt. Evans
Congratulations to Tony Dungy! Hey Tampa, I guess he can coach in the big games. I was not a supporter of the Tampa's decision to fire Dungy. I am glad to see the myth that he can't coach a team to a championship come to an end. I am also glad to see Manning win the big one as well. Being a Dolphin fan, it pains me to see Marino doing the pre-game. I couldn't wish Manning the same fate.

Cheers,

-M