A Kick In The Grass

I've been watching a lot of soccer lately. So this going to be a soccer filled post. The US beat Poland 3-0 in Poland on Wednesday. Great result! The only real negative is that all the goals came from set pieces. They need to learn to score during the run of play. Not sure about the new uniforms for the US either. They are a solid dark gray. I thought the colors for the USA were red, white & blue.

On Saturday, I watched a couple of English Premier League games on TV in the morning. It doesn't look like Fulham will be able to get out of the relegation zone. They can't even beat the worst team in the league. Not good for the five Americans on that team.

Saturday marked to start of the Major League Soccer season. I went to the opening game for the Colorado Rapids in the evening. The LA Galaxy were in town, and David Beckham showed up this time. So it was a record crowd. While there were quite a few Beckham jerseys in the crowd, I'm proud to say that the majority of the fans were rooting for the Rapids. Beckham seemed to be just a sideshow for most. You wouldn't have known that from the local sports coverage, it was all about Beckham. There wasn't a whole lot on the news about how the Colorado fans went home real happy. The Rapids won 4-0. Hopefully there will be more of this come, but I have a feeling that the score line was because LA is just not that good.

The Opening Day entrance for the game ball.

Here is a pregame token shot of all the fuss. Bonus: Landon Donovan is also in the picture. (Orange Shoes)

I woke up to a light dusting of snow on Sunday morning. No big deal. The natives were in short sleeve shirts by the afternoon. I went to Mt. Falcon Open Space Park late in the afternoon. It has become my stand-by park for when I want to get a hike in, but don't want to go far. I had a nice hike. I didn't really see anybody on the trails. It was quite peaceful.

Green

My Bulldogs didn’t last long in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. They played well though. More importantly, they ticked off hard-core basketball fans of bubble teams who don’t understand that if you are a bubble team you really don’t deserve to be playing for a national championship either. Teams have to be good in the regular season or their conference tournament to get to the Big Dance. A bubble team is neither. There are enough pretenders in the 64 team field. (65 if you count the play-in game that nobody can name who actually played in it.) I laugh at the suggestion that the tournament should be increased to 128 teams so bubble teams don’t get left out. The regular season is weak enough as it is.

In soccer news, the US Men’s U-23 team qualified for this summer’s Olympics after missing out in 2004. I can’t say they looked all that good during the qualification tournament. Freddy Adu was they only player who was really impressive. They get to take three over-aged players to the Olympics. It will be interesting to see who goes.

As for my hiking adventures this weekend, I climbed Green Mountain on Sunday morning. There are a lot of mountains that are called Green Mountain in Colorado. I went to the one in Lakewood. Its trailhead is about 10 minutes from my place. The park is well used. There are a lot of unwanted trails. The hike was scenic nevertheless. Great views of the foothills and Denver along with Pikes Peak, Mt. Evans, & Longs Peak.

A tree along the Green Mtn. Trail.

View from the top of Green Mtn. Mt. Morrison & Red Rocks are behind me.

View of Dinosaur Ridge, the foothills, & Mt. Evans from the top of Green Mtn.

As always, enjoy half price chocolate week responsibly.

-MM

Bandwagon

How bout them Dawgs!!! My Georgia Bulldogs are going to the Big Dance in the Men's basketball tournament. They went 4-12 in the SEC during the regular season. They weren't even going to be good enough to make the NIT. They had to win the SEC tournament to make it to the Big Dance and that is what they did. They did it despite having to play two games in one day due the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta on Friday night. Georgia Basketball is not on TV very much in Colorado. So it was extra fun to see them in the SEC final busting bubbles on Georgia Tech's home court. As far as whether they deserve to be there, they earned it according to the rules. Evil LOL.

Besides enjoying and finding humor in Georgia making the NCAA Basketball tournament, I also went hiking this weekend. My journeys took me to Centennial Cone Park. It is another one of Jefferson County's Open Space Parks. Centennial Cone Park has an alternating use schedule on the weekends. Hikers get the odd days, and the mountain bikers get the even days. It seems like a good idea. The trail didn't seem as impacted as the trails don't have this policy. I'll have to go back to this park at some point. They had a section of trail closed to protect the elk. The area is sensitive to their winter range.
I have my jacket on here, but it was only really cold when the wind was blowing. I was in short sleeves by the end of the day.





My lunch view. Cent. Cone is on the right.

The Lost World

On Saturday, I went to Matthews/Winter Park. I had done a short hike there before in January. This time I did a longer hike that took me over Dinosaur Ridge or Dakota Ridge. It is named differently on some maps. I like the Dinosaur name. The ridge is pretty cool. It has good views of Green Mountain and Mt. Morrison. Lots of interesting rocks and trees. I didn't see any dinosaurs though.



Looking toward Red Rocks from Dinosaur Ridge








Looking north along the top of Dinosaur Ridge

Change Of Season

The season is trying to change in Colorado. Saturday was a gorgeous day. A record high of 74° F was recorded in Denver. So I was off hiking. I went to Elk Meadow Park near Evergreen. I hiked to the top of Bergen Peak. (9,708 Ft.) Which had views of Longs Peak, Mt. Evans, Pikes Peak, Mt. Morrison, & Denver. With it being such a wonderful day, I made the hike into a loop hike. One of the trails that I hiked to create the loop hike was called "Too Long Trail". I found that quite humorous in regards to loop hikes... Anyway, the round trip mileage for this loop hike was a fun 10.3 miles. Here are the pics.

Along the Bergen Peak Trail.

View of Elk Meadow Park, Evergreen, Mt. Morrison, & Denver







The top of Bergen Peak






I was outside in shorts and t-shirt at 6:30 PM on Saturday evening. When I woke up on Sunday, it was snowing. Ahhh, spring weather in Colorado.

-MM