Rocky Ground

I went back to Red Canyon Park on Sunday and did some more exploring. It is a cool place for exploring small canyons and red rock formations. Here are some pictures.

Hoodoo

Hoodoo

This Canyon doesn't see much sun

Garden Park

Looking North

Turkey

White Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day, eh!

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

On this special day, I explored some different sections of Red Canyon Park. Here are some pictures.

Red Canyon Park

Red Canyon Park.  Looking towards the Shelf.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Happy Festivus

Festivus tree photo courtesy of Matthew Keefe: Flickr: Celebrating Festivus 2

The Dirty Dozen

I'm a little late putting something up for Carter's Birthday; however, it still is Carter's Birthday in Colorado as I'm writing this.  None of my famous friends were around this year, so all I got are a couple of funny videos for your entertainment. Happy Birthday Carter!!!

The Thanksgiving Filter

The tradition of doing something active on Thanksgiving continues. I went for hike again this Thanksgiving. The hike was a repeat, but this time I had company. Charles and Tina joined me for a Thanksgiving hike up Fremont Peak. It is a short hike and the weather was perfect. After the hike, I went to Charles and Tina’s house and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

Charles and Tina with Royal Gorge behind them.

The Trio on top of Fremont Peak

Meal Time

I went on a solo hike on Friday. I checked out Cheyenne Mountain State Park. The trails in the park are pretty easy. None of the trails in the park go to the top of Cheyenne Mountain. NORAD blocks the approach from that side of the mountain. The weather was a bit cooler on Friday, but it was still nice.

Cheyenne Mountain

Cheyenne Mountain

In The Spirit of Things

The US Men’s National Team played a World Cup Qualifier against Guatemala at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City this past Tuesday. The match was the last game of this round of qualification. When I found out the game was going to matter, I had to make the trek across Kansas to see the match. The US needed at least a tie to advance to next round of Qualification that takes place next year. The match started out with a scare. Guatemala went up 1-0 five minutes into the game. The US would have been eliminated had that result held up. Fortunately, the US responded quickly and won the game 3-1.

Tony Meola - Starting goalkeeper for the US in the 1990 & 1994 World Cups.  Apparently, he works for Allstate now.

Livestrong Sporting Park

The Starting 11

American Outlaws

On the drive back to Colorado, I decided to get off the Interstate and see the high country of western Kansas. I made a stop to do a serious hike and get a better perspective of the western Kansas high country. Here are the pictures.

Me on top of Mt. Sunflower.  The highest point in Kansas at 4,039 feet.

Mt. Sunflower

Looking back at the trailhead from the top of Mt. Sunflower.

Looking west from the lofty heights of Mt. Sunflower

Looking back at the summit of Mt. Sunflower

It's About Time

I finally hiked a 14er this hiking season. It is has been hard to try and fit one in this season. I wasn’t as in shape as I would like to be in order to attempt one. It was pretty much now or never though. Anyway, I climbed Huron Peak on Sunday. Summit Post has the elevation at 14,012 feet. I have seen other sites that have the elevation at 14,009 and 14,010 feet. My map has it as 14,003 feet. That is an old survey though. I started my hike at Winfield which is a ghost town. The starting elevation is around 10,260 feet. The first two miles of my hike was on a 4-wheel drive road. I don’t have a 4WD vehicle, so I had to hike it. The first two miles were easy. My elevation was only around 10,600 feet at the end of the 4WD road. The trail was a steady up from here. The trail was great and not too steep considering that from the end of the 4WD road to the top was only two miles. The only place that felt overly steep was the last quarter mile. That was more me not spending enough time at elevation this year. I have certainly hiked tougher 14ers. Here are my pictures.

Early morning view, near tree line.

Huron Peak

A touch of snow near the false summit

Ice Mountain and The Three Apostles

The Top

LaPlata Peak (left) and Mt. Elbert (Right)

Me on Top

Looking at The Three Apostles

Lake Ann, Continental Divide, & Taylor Park Reservoir

Looking west on the way down

Silver Basin (left) and Virgina Peak & Winfield Peak (Right)

View from the 4WD Road

Clear Creek

Fall Color near Winfield

The Bitter End (Part III)

After a busy Friday, I spent Saturday in Portland. I took light rail across town to Washington Park. I went for a walk in that park and ended up in Forest Park. Between the two parks there are over 80 miles of trails. I walk to Pittock Mansion in Forest Park. The mansion overlooks Portland and has lots of beautiful flowers.

Pittock Mansion

Flowers at Pittock Mansion.  Mt. Hood is barely visible thru the haze.

I walked back to downtown from Pittock Mansion. It was interesting walk by houses that are squeezed into small sloped lots on the hillside. I had lunch downtown and then went to Powell’s Books which is also known as Powell’s City of Books. It is a bookstore that takes up an entire city block. There is a claim that it is largest independent bookstore of new and used books in the world. It certainly is the biggest bookstore that I’ve been to. They had an incredible selection of books.

On Sunday, I went back into the Columbia River Gorge. I drove to Crown Point on the Oregon side of the Columbia and ate my breakfast while I enjoyed the view of the Gorge.

Looking west from Crown Point

After breakfast, I drove down the scenic highway looking for something to do. I thought about stopping at Latourell Falls, but the trailhead was closed due to construction. I drove to Multnomah Falls. It is the Columbia River Gorge’s most famous and popular waterfall. I was there early enough that it wasn’t too crowded. Multnomah Falls has two falls. The upper one has 542 foot drop and the lower one has a 69 foot drop. With an elevation change of 9 feet between the falls, the total height of the falls is 620 feet. The parking lot is pretty much at the base of the falls. So I basically got out and took some pictures and moved on before it got too crowded.

Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls

Looking down from the bridge at lower Multnomah Falls

My final stop of the trip was a hike to Wahkeena Falls and Fairy Falls. Wahkeena Falls was a short easy hike. Fairy Falls required a little bit of elevation gain, but it wasn’t too bad. After the hike, it was time to get cleaned up and go home.

Wahkeena Falls

Fairy Falls

Wahkeena Creek

And now for the Bitter End: I generally have some type of odd ball reference in my blog titles. Usually they are song titles. This blog title is no different. “The Bitter End” is a name of a song by a band called Blind Pilot who are from Portland. The Bitter End is also the name of one the bars where the Timbers Army hangs out. The original reason for being in Portland was a soccer game between the Colorado Rapids and the Portland Timbers. The Rapids are having an awful season so that reason has become secondary. The game was Friday night, but I’m putting its story at the end to fit the title. The Timbers’ fans were still friendly to us. I was told that they were going to hate us for two hours and then it is back to being friends again. The atmosphere in the stadium was great once again. The game was not so good. The Rapids lost 1-0. The Rapids dropped to last place in the Western Conference. Hence, the bitter end…

Timbers Army after the goal

P.S. – The Rapids climbed out of last place by beating Portland on the return trip on Wednesday. I was sick and missed my first home game of the season. So it is still a bitter end.