Good Pain

The weather was wonderful Denver this weekend. The highs were in the 50's on Saturday and 60's on Sunday. I hung out in the foothills where it was a little cooler due to the wind.

I did a rather difficult hike on Sunday. I'm climbed Bear Peak (8,461 ft.) It is located southwest of Boulder in Boulder Mountain Park. The elevation change was pretty significant. I estimate the trailhead elevation at 5,600 feet. I'm not sure on the mileage, but it seemed long. With all the trails in this park, I turned my journey into a loop hike. Of course that added to the length. The length & elevation change was not the problem. It was the ice. At about 6,600 feet, the trail started climbing the mountain through a canyon. The extra shadows made it nice and icy. I made it though, and the view was fantastic. I was able to see Longs Peak, the Indian Peaks, and Pikes Peak. Getting down was a bit trickier I made it down with only getting a few bruises on my rear. I'm tired and sore, but I'm happy with the hike. I'd do it again, but I think I will get crampons if I do it again in the winter. Here are the pics.


The top of Bear Peak. Longs Peak is on the horizon on the right.




Me on top of Bear Peak. The temp was not bad, but the wind was brutal.


A view of Boulder from Bear Peak.

I See Red

Last week was probably the coldest week of the winter season so far. The temperatures were in the single digits or teens for most of the week. It warmed up into the 30's for the weekend and it seemed warm. It could be worse; I could live in Gunnison where it was -38° F last Thursday.

I did a short loop hike today. I went hiking at Red Rocks and Matthews/Winters Park. Here are some pictures.


Northern view along the trail. Dinosaur Ridge is on the right.









Me on some rocks along the trail.






U.S. Soccer is off to a good start. They beat Sweden 2-0 on Saturday. U.S. goalkeeper Brad Guzan got a good test towards the end of the first half. He passed. Is he the next great U.S. goalkeeper? The next game is a "friendly" with Mexico on February 6th. Always fun!

Untitled

This weekend I went for a couple of short hikes on both Saturday & Sunday. The weather was nice. It was sunny with highs in the upper 40's. I had planned to go to Eldorado State Park on Sunday; however, I discovered that you have to have 4 WD or chains on your vehicle to enter the park. The canyon doesn't see enough daylight for the road to thaw out. Fortunately there lots of alternative places to hike. I ended up at Windy Saddle Park, which is next to Buffalo Bill's grave. The Park overlooks Golden and Clear Creek Canyon. Beautiful views. There are a few more trails up there that I'll have to check out.



A view of Clear Creek Canyon

Long Time

It’s been awhile since my last post. I have been a little busy with work and the holidays. I had a wonderful Christmas break. I spent it with my family in North Carolina and someone who claimed to be Carter. I don’t think it was Carter, I think he was one of Carter’s friends:) Anyway, a lot of time was spent eating, playing games, magic tricks, etc.

This past Saturday, I made an impromptu trip to Winter Park for some skiing with my friends Mark and Kathy. It turned out to be my best skiing experience out here so far. A large part of that was that I rented some boots that didn’t cut off the circulation in my legs. Oh what a difference that makes. I was beginning to dread skiing a little bit because of the tight boots. Now I’m looking forward to the next ski trip. We also found some slopes that nobody was on. That’s a big help in gaining confidence. It is nice to concentrate on skiing instead of the other people.



Me on the snowy slopes











Mark & Kathy on the last run of the day.





An exciting college football season is coming to an anti-climatic end. My Bulldogs beat up on Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. It was a no win situation for them because they should blow out Hawaii. USC did the same thing to Illinois. In my opinion, they are the best two teams in the nation, but nothing was proven in their bowl games due to the quality of their opponents. But who wants a playoff when you can have an arbitrary National Championship game on Monday night. Make that Tuesday morning for those on the East Coast.

This is a picture from my walk around the neighbor-hood on Sunday.




Happy New Year, it should be a good one.

-MM