Minus The Bear

I climbed Grizzly Peak on Sunday. This is the smallest of the Grizzly Peaks listed on Summit Post. This Grizzly Peak has an elevation of 13,427 Ft. I started my hike at Loveland Pass. The round trip is 5.22 miles according to Summit Post, which also says that it will feel longer. I agree, it felt longer than 5.22 miles. To get to Grizzly Peak, you have to climb an unnamed 13er. And of course, you get to go over it again on the way back. Here are the pictures.


Early morning sunlight hitting the mountains









Grizzly Peak in the center of the picture. Grays Peak on the left





Me on top Grizzly Peak







Me wandering around Grizzly Peak.




Looking back on the trail, which is the top of the ridges. Mt. Sniktau is on the right. I climbed that last year.







This picture is looking towards Keystone and Mount of the Holy Cross. It also has a marmot in it.

Eight is Enough

I did a short hike on Saturday. I went to Devils Head in the Rampart Range. It is not too far from Denver and is a popular family hike. The only negative is that the Forest Service road that leads to trailhead is paralleled by a dirt bike and 4-wheeler trails. Lots of people were out enjoying the peace and quiet of their recreational vehicles. I guess four dollar a gallon gas is not enough to deter that activity. Fortunately the trailhead was off the main drag enough so that I didn’t have to eat trail bike dust or hear them as I hiked. The hike was worth the drive on Forest Service road. There are several overlooks and cool rocks. There is a fire tower on top that is still manned. The elevation at the fire tower is 9,748 feet. The view was fantastic. I could see Pikes Peak, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Mt. Evans, Mt. Bierstadt, Torreys Peak, Grays Peak, Longs Peak, and downtown Denver just to name a few of the places I could see from the top.



A view on the way up Devils Head











The Flag on top of Devils Head











Pikes Peak from the top of Devils Head

The Fire Tower Lookout and Pikes Peak

Me in front of Devils Head.

Enjoying the view on the way down.





World Cup Qualification has started for the U.S. The U.S. played Barbados on Sunday and beat them 8-0. It was not much of a game. At times it looked liked the U.S. didn’t know what to do with all the time they had with the ball. As expected, it was not like their three brutal warm-up games. They get to play Barbados again next weekend at Barbados. It is a home and away total goals series. With an eight-goal lead, I think it is safe to say that they got this series won.

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and future fathers out there!

-MM

Remember Every Moment

I went to my first concert at Red Rocks last Tuesday. I got to see R.E.M., which is one of my favorite all time bands. The set list was great in my opinion. They played a lot of stuff off of their great new album. They also played some great deep cuts off of some their classic albums from the 80’s and 90’s. The crowd wasn’t that good. There were way too many casual R.E.M. fans there. Now that R.E.M. is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I think they expected R.E.M. would be apart of the Old Timers Touring Circuit that just plays the hits. R.E.M. still considers their music relevant. I was beginning to doubt their relevance with their previous three releases, but their new album shows that they are not a dinosaur act yet. The casual R.E.M. fans did provide me with some humor. There is nothing like seeing couples embracing to lyrics like “This one goes out to the one I love. This one goes out to the one I’ve left behind. A simple prop to occupy my time…” You would think after 21 years since the song has been released, one might catch the “simple prop” line:)

On Sunday, I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park. I drove up Trail Ridge Road to Rainbow Curve. The road was closed at that point due to the weather. I walked up the road for maybe 2 miles. It was very windy. I even saw a few snowflakes. It was nice walking the road. I’m usually driving and can’t really look around.



That me on Trail Ridge Road






Looking across Forest Canyon from Trail Ridge Road.






View along Trail Ridge Road






Looking towards Horseshoe Park







Sundance Mountain







On the way back home, I stopped at Lily Lake, which is also apart of Rocky Mountain National Park. I walk around the lake. The trail is supposed to be 1 mile, but it felt like a half mile. Pops, you can handle that trail. Click here for extra pictures from this day.



Mt. Meeker, Longs Peak, Estes Cone, & Lily Lake




The US Men’s Soccer team just finished a killer 3 game exhibition schedule against England, Spain, and Argentina. They lost 2-0 to England and were basically pathetic. They lost 1-0 to Spain and were somewhat respectable for a half thanks to Freddy Adu. And finally today, they tied Argentina, the number one ranked team in the world. It was a 0-0 draw, but it was an entertaining match. The US was able to get some decent chances, but I have to give goalkeeper Tim Howard the Man of the Match Award. He was brilliant, especially in the first half. The games count for real next weekend. The US has a World Cup Qualifier against Barbados. They have to score some goals for that game. GO USA!!!

I'm Still Here

Here's a short update to let everyone know that I'm still around. I hurt my knee at the beginning of May so I haven't done as much lately. I've been doing some stretching and short walks to get it back into shape. On Sunday, I went to Mt. Falcon Open Space Park and did a short walk. Here are a couple of pictures.

Look a deer

The ruins of John Brisben Walker's home. It burnt down in 1918.

Mighty Mix

I didn’t do too much this weekend. I am letting my knee rest. It is feeling better. I found a cool website where one can make an online mix tape. It is a cool novelty idea. I’ve made one of some of the stuff that I’m listening to these days. You can listen to it if you want. It goes to eleven.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this summer. I just received a blueprint from Carter and Cara that contains some of the plans for the summer













Climbing mountains and going to a soccer game. Sounds like a great plan!

Although, I didn’t go hiking this weekend, I did go for a drive in the mountains on Sunday. I took Squaw Pass Road by Juniper Pass, Echo Lake, and Idaho Springs. Beautiful day. The road up Mt. Evans is still closed at Echo Lake. I guess they haven’t finished clearing the snow. Here is a picture of me at Juniper Pass

Wash

It was a rarity this weekend; I didn't go hiking. The weather was fine. It was especially nice on Sunday. The main reason I didn't hike this weekend was that I strained my knee the previous weekend. It is nothing painful. It just aches and doesn't feel right. I suspect I just need to rest it to get it back to normal. Easier said than done. On Saturday, I was given a washer and dryer. So I had to move them into my apartment. That took longer than expected for reasons I won't get into. Anyway it was not exactly the rest my knee needed. If you are in need of pictures from Colorado, I have added some favorite pictures of mine that didn't make my blog to my Picasa site. They are from Quandary Peak on July 1, 2007 and Blue Lake on September 30, 2007.

In soccer news, the Rapids lost on road to Houston on Saturday night. They played well though. They are 3-4 and are in first place in the weak Western Conference. The big soccer news of the weekend is that Fulham have managed to fight off relegation in English soccer. This is significant because five Americans play for Fulham. So naturally they are my favorite English team. I had written them off for dead a month ago. They ended up winning 4 of their last five to survive. That included three wins on the road. Previously they hadn't won a game on the road in 31 games I believe. They still only survived by having a better goal differential than Reading. Unfortunately, Reading has two Americans on their team. Best of luck to them on getting back to the English Premier League.

Happy Mum's Day,

-MM

Hard Act To Follow

I went to Golden Gate Canyon State Park on Saturday. It takes about 45 minutes to get there from where I live. There are all kinds of trails. It is a beautiful park. I went on hike that took me to the top of Windy Peak. (9,141 ft.) Along the way I went by a 3-sided backcountry shelter. They are a common site on the Appalachian Trail, but I was surprised to see one in Colorado. It even had a trail register. If I had thinking, I would have taken a picture of the shelter. That way I could have said that I was in the Appalachian Mountains this weekend.



Me near the top of Windy Peak.










A meadow along the trail.

It Has Got To Be The Shoes

I went to another Rapids game on Saturday night. The results were not good. The Rapids lost to San Jose 2-0. San Jose is an expansion team who had previously not scored a goal. The Rapids were pretty listless. I guess they let being in first place in the Western Conference go to their heads.

On Sunday, I went to Rocky Mountain National Park again. This time I rented some snowshoes in Estes Park. I went back to the Deer Mountain Trailhead, but I was surprised by how much snow had melted during the week. So I called an audible and went to a different trail that I knew would have a lot of snow. I went to the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and hiked up to Mills Lake and Jewel Lake. Lot of fun. For the most part, I didn’t even follow the actual trail. I just followed snowshoe paths up the gorge. A lot of time the paths went up the frozen creek beds. It was a beautiful day. Here are some pictures.



Me in a snow covered creek bed.









It was a windy day.












Me on Mills Lake










Me at Mills Lake






I have bonus pictures at my Picasa site. Click Here to view them.

-MM

In Too Deep

Saturday was a soccer - hiking - soccer day with some laundry and taxes in the mix. In the morning I watched Fulham win a game on the road. They actually looked good, but it is probably too late for them to have a chance at staying up. They are still alive at least. After the game, I went for a hike. I went over to Lookout Mountain near Golden. From Lookout Mountain, I hiked down to the Beaver Brook Trail, which overlooks Clear Creek Canyon. It was a nice hike. After the hike, I watched some more soccer. The Rapids didn't play well, but they got the win on the road. So it was a very good soccer - hiking - soccer day.

This is a narrow section of the Beaver Brook Trail

On Sunday, I went to Rocky Mountain National Park. The plan was to hike up Deer Mountain, which has an elevation of 10,013 feet. The trail had snow, but was passable as long as I stayed on the trail. That was how I expected it to be. The unexpected came when I got close to the top. The trail started to fade away, and the snow got softer. I got to a point where the only footprints were made by snowshoes. Unfortunately, I didn't have snowshoes, and the snow was going past my waist. After crawling out of some holes that I made, I decided it was in my best interest to turn around. I shall return. Here are some pictures from the hike.

View of Longs Peak from Deer Mtn. This is near where I turned around.

Zoom view of Longs Peak

Trail Ridge Rd. is visible in this picture.

Another view of Longs Peak.

III

Happy Birthday Cara!!!

I was hiking this morning when your friend Diego surprised me.













He just wanted to wish you Happy Birthday as well.

-Mighty Uncle Mike

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

Hole In The Ice

It has been getting warmer lately. The temps have made it into the 60's a few times in Denver this month. It may snow again on Tuesday, but it looks like it will warm up again right after that. It will be interesting to see what March will be like. March is suppose to be the snowiest month here. It wasn't last year. Anyway, today I went to Pine Valley Ranch Park. It is in the foothills southwest of Conifer. I mainly wandered along a trail that follows the North Fork of the South Platte River. Here are some pictures of the river.

Reynolds Wrap

Saturday’s hike brought me to Reynolds Park. It is about 5.5 miles southeast of Conifer. The weather was quite nice on Saturday. I thought it would be cooler in foothills. I was wishing that I had worn shorts when I started my hike. However, there were certain sides of the mountain that were a bit chillier. That was where the snow was, and the wind was cold blowing off the snow. The hike was wonderful though. I had some great views of Pikes Peak. Here are a couple of pictures.



Pikes Peak is on the horizon.










Another view with Pikes Peak in it.






On Sunday, there was a light snow most of the day in Denver. It didn’t really accumulate too much. It just looked pretty. I went for a walk in it. I walked all the way down to Bear Creek Lake only to be greeted by this sign.













I was extremely disappointed.

In regards to the Georgia Theatre mentioned in last weeks post, I was last there in May of 2004. Coincidently, it was to see Glen Phillips as well. If they fixed up the Georgia Theatre, I think that is great. I always thought it was good venue that could be so much better.

As for the Jets, I was just saying I was glad I didn’t have to root for them in the playoffs. I can’t knock a team when your own team is the undisputed worst team in the league at 1-15. Besides what can you say about a 4-12 team? I am sure Jets fans are very proud of their season.

Cheers,

MM

Something To Say

This is my first update that I have done since the Super Bowl was played. So yes, I am thrilled with the outcome of the game. I’m usually pretty indifferent as to who wins the big game. That wasn’t the case this year. It felt odd to root really hard for a team from New York. At least I didn’t have to root for the Bills or the Jets. Anyway, I had my beer toast to the ’72 Fins!

The lazy bug got me last weekend, and I really didn’t do anything. Hence, no post. It tried to get me again this weekend. I fought it off and went for hike at Apex Open Space Park. I feel all the better for it too. The trailhead is at Heritage Square near Golden. One of the trails that I hiked on was an old toll wagon road to the gold fields of Central City. The road disappeared after they made a free route through mountains at what is now I-70. Anyway here is a picture from my hike.












Sunday night I went to Boulder to see Glen Phillips at the Fox. Glen is one of my favorite musicians. This was the first time I’ve gotten to see him since moving to Colorado. His show was great as always. The Fox Theatre was pretty cool. It is an old movie theatre fixed up as a nice concert venue. It is what the Georgia Theatre (in Athens, GA) could be if they put some money into it.

-MM