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

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

Seven

Falling Snow, Excellent Snow

It was cold & snowy this past weekend in Colorado. The mountains got pounded according to reports. On Saturday, it snowed in Denver. I stayed around my neighborhood. I went for a walk over at Bear Creek Lake Park. It is an easy walk from my place. Here are a couple of pictures.


Me on the side of Mt. Carbon above Bear Creek Lake.








The shores of Bear Creek Lake






We only got a few inches in Denver. The snow had stopped by Sunday. It is Monday evening now, and it is snowing again after a sunny day.

Hey GG, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Cheers,

-MM