Building a Snowman

We’ve gotten a little snow, but none had really stuck around. Then we got a bigger fall, and it was perfect snowball or snowman consistency. We took Dude for a hike and Erik decided he wanted to build a snowman on the trail. It ended up being quite fun. Here are a couple photos of our creation.

Erik and Dude playing

Beautiful calm day

Let the rolling begin

Dude was helping find sticks for the arms and such

Mr. Snowman

With a pine branch hat (or hair)

I wouldn’t call him cute, but I like him

Erik liked the pipe

Moose Sightings!

Last month we went for a leisurely Saturday morning hike at the top of Caribou Rd. We live along the road, about two miles from town. If you continue, the houses get fewer, the road gets bumpier and 15 minutes or so later, the road ends at a parking lot with lots of trails. We’ve hiked up there a few times but the road is so nasty, we don’t do it very often. I’m sure glad we went on this day though!

We didn’t hike long, maybe 30 mins out and 30 back, but not long into the hike, Dude took off toward the woods and stopped and stared. That’s when we realized there was movement and saw the outline of a moose head in the brush. I called Dude back and he listened (he actually listened when there was a moose in front of him!). He came back, we leashed him and the moose quickly trotted away. It was a momma and baby. We let them go for a bit then walked around a little trail to see where they went. By then they were out a ways in a meadow and we could barely see them. Our moose experiences thus far were limited to two walking in our hard on a raining, dark night (so couldn’t see much) and a baby running across the road in front of us on bikes, but it happened so quickly that we didn’t see much. So, this was pretty cool.

Then, a little further up the trail, there was a clearing of trees near the trail looking out into a meadow. I think it was Erik who noticed the two males starring at us. We were far enough away to be safe, but moose are big and scary so we didn’t want to overstay our welcome. We watched for a bit from the trail and they were watching us back. Luckily dude didn’t see them and trotted back to us wondering why we stopped. We leashed him again, watched for a bit and then moved on (see pics below). Four moose on one short hike was pretty amazing.

Beautiful views.

Erik looking all handsome

More views

Moose!

Moose again!

I love the blue sky.

Erik’s Firefighter Photos

Hello everyone,

I’m a firefighter for the Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD)!  Well, a firefighter in training anyway.

Here is my fancy locker!

I have not blogged in a long time, and for that I apologize.  I’ve done a lot in the interim, but becoming a volunteer firefighter is definitely the most significant.  I’ve had multiple people ask why I did this, so I pasted my response to the essay section of the firefighter application here:

“I have learned that there are many reasons to be a volunteer firefighter.  Some are looking for experience so as to be a paid firefighter.  Some want a truck with lights on it so they look like a bigshot.  Perhaps some are older and wish to give back or impart wisdom on their juniors.  My reasons are none of these, but instead fall into the category of altruism.  I have only lived in Ned for a little over a year, but I like it here.  My wife and I have been welcomed by everyone we’ve met, enjoyed many a festival or gathering, and made use of many public works.  I therefore feel obligated to give back to my community.  I am young and able bodied and I cannot think of any higher calling than helping those in need.  Some would call it naïve to willingly accept risk to help others, but I prefer the term noble instead.”

I have been to four training sessions thus far, and they’ve been extremely interesting.  Firefighting is one of those things you don’t see done very often.  You don’t usually happen to walk by a fire, or a medical issue, or ice rescue in everyday life, so everything is brand new.

So technically my first training was with the fire chief, but it was very informal.  He did mention though, that my first job when responding to a call would be driving the ambulance!  How ridiculous is that?  It kinda makes sense I guess given that most of our calls are medical and that I have 0 medical training, and yet have tons of everyday driving experience.  Therefore, the real heroes are in the back saving the life.  Still, it kinda scares the crap outta me.  I think most of the situations I’ll be in for the first time will scare the crap outta me.

My first formal training was ice rescue.  What a way to start!  Apparently ice rescue is pretty straightforward.  Normally someone wanders out onto thin ice, falls in, and is left clinging to the ice shelf around the hole.  The NFPD pulls up and someone like me puts on a wet suit.  From there you basically get out to the victim wrap a rope around them and people on shore pull you in.  There are of course many scenarios involving things like victims under the ice or swift water.  I don’t know what to do in those situations but you gotta start somewhere.

Second was bunker gear.  This is the gear you picture firefighters wearing…the pants, the jacket, the helmet, the whole deal.  Here’s a picture with all the gear on.

Me in my bunker gear (including respirator)

The next training was medical and consisted mostly of getting someone on a backboard.  This is done any time someone sustains physical trauma.  Thus it is executed in almost every accident.

Then we did a rundown of all the vehicles in the NFPD.  I can think of 10.  2 ambulances, one huge engine (the prototypical fire engine), a ladder truck, a tanker truck, a general assist vehicle and a couple more I don’t know the names of.  They all have names and numbers and are used for specific tasks.  A lot of them have 6 wheel drive, which I’ve never heard of before, but is pretty damn badass.

Me and “Big Red”

Mixed in somewhere we reviewed various tools of the trade.  Jaws of life, SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatus) a football helmet used for dog rescue, axes, and my favorite…the Halligan.  Wikipedia says “The Halligan has become the most versatile hand tool used for the past six decades for a multitude of fireground tasks.”  You can read more here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halligan_bar.

Here’s me holding the Halligan tool

This coming Saturday I have “saturation training” which will be my first exposure to a hose.  Sounds fun!

 

Playing catch-up: September in fast-forward

I hate doing catch-up posts and would rather give each post its own opportunity to shine, but that’s just not happening lately. I’m not sure what the deal is. Maybe the fact that I write for a living and keep up with my health blog makes this one less of a priority. Whatever the reason, it’s time for a little catch-up.

Fall Hiking is the Best: Everywhere we went, the trees were beautiful, the sky was beautiful and the chill in the air was fragrant and refreshing. Since it was so wet this summer (what’s up with that?!), the sun and brilliant blue skies were in hiding. Well, they are back and for that, I am grateful. Here are a couple photos of hikes near the house:

Bike Racing: We’re my sister and Barry’s biggest fans so we’ve been attending as many races as possible. it’s hard sometimes if they are far away or early in the morning, but now that our road is open again, it’s a bit easier (more on that in a bit). Here’s some racing photos from the opening weekend in Fort Collins. Saturday Mel had a time trial and then we did a camp in the afternoon. Sunday was real race day:

Lining up to start

Dude came with on Sunday for the races

Long legs McGee can run those stairs two-at-a-time

The flyover

Setting out for the time trial

Beautiful day – but hot as hell

Warming up

In Fort Collins: First race weekend

Mel seeing the course for the first time

Mom and Gram come to town: Well, we thought just Gram was coming, but Mom surprised us and came too. It was a nice girls weekend (plus Erik). We had some plans of what we were doing, etc., but the day before they came is when the flooding really started. It had rained all week the week they were coming (flew in on a Friday), but Thursday is when it was getting serious. Nearly all the roads out of town were closed, for who knows how long, and we were without power on Friday morning. We had planned to meet up in Boulder that night for dinner, but instead, we just went down to Mel’s house on Friday, packing just the basics. That way we had internet to kind of work that day. We are both so tied to the internet, so without it we’re useless.

It took us nearly two hours to get down, having to drive an hour south, on mountain roads, to meet up with I-70, the main road from Denver to the western parts of the state. Then the road we normally take was closed so we had to weave our way through smaller roads to get to mel’s house. It wasn’t easy and of course my phone was dead so we had to wing it. We finally got there, exhausted but safe. She doesn’t live really near water at all so there were no issues there, which is great. Mom and gram were a little late getting in, but not too bad. We picked them up at the airport and I can’t remember what we did that night, dinner I suppose. Saturday we were going to spend the day in Ned, first attending my pints and poses yoga class, then heading to the casinos. But instead Mel did a race, so we went to that and kind of bummed around that day (if my memory serves me). Then I think Sunday we went to Ned, dropped Erik off at the house and then back down to Black Hawk for casino time. It was rainy still so not the best day to drive in the mountains, but it’s always beautiful to me.  Then Monday Mel and Gram and Mom hung out and then came up to join us for dinner and a hike. It was nice being out together and hanging out a little more before they went home. At some point Mel and Mom went for a bike ride. We taught mom how to deal with shoes that attached to the pedals, how to not fall, etc. She is athletic so we weren’t too worried, but she managed to fly over the handlebars anyhow – stopping too quickly I guess. Luckily she was ok, just a little sore. Here is them setting out:

There they go!

 

Getting ready – nervous about riding Mels new mountain bike

Ready to ride

Mother/Daughter – and twins

Mel and I on a hike

Moving

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it, but we had to move. The landlords at our old place were planning to move back into that house so we were left looking for something new. The rental market around here is not fun to deal with. Boulder and surrounding is crazy expensive and the mountains lack many viable options. We both work from home so we had a few requirements, like at least two bedrooms. Ideally three, but at least two and must accept dogs and ideally we wanted the best bang for the buck. Our old place was more than we were wanting to spend, so we wanted to spend less. That meant probably making some concessions. Price or niceness and size – we had to figure out what was important. Luckily we didn’t have to settle too much. We found a two bedroom plus loft for several hundred less than we were paying. No fenced yard and a little shabby, but it would have to do. Except for one other, it was the only actual option we could find. We started the moving process nearly two weeks ago. The place was a little rundown so we decided to do a bunch of painting. Our landlord was cool with us doing it for rent credit and she bought all the paint and supplies for us. It took some major time, especially with the high ceilings in the living room, but Mel and Barry came and did some great work, making it more do-able. Actual move-in day was Thursday night. We borrowed a truck from our neighbor and other neighbors came to help, along with Mel. We got almost everything moved, except the bed and last-minute stuff like cleaning supplies and bathroom stuff that just never got packed. Friday morning we did all the cleaning at the old place and packed up the rest of the stuff. At noonish we checked out and drove away for the last time. I won’t miss driving Magnolia but it was bittersweet because that was our first house in CO.

So onto the new. We went from living on a ridge (think dry, pine forest, not many plants) to wetland (yes, CO does have water). We have a creek running through the front year that can be heard from anywhere in the house. The backyard is solid plants and tall grasses with trails that lead to national forest.  I should add, we are still near the same town, just on the other side of it and a little closer to town.

So, time for photos. This is how the place looked when we first started painting.

Second bedroom/Erik’s office

Kitchen/Dining area

Living Room

Living Room toward loft (upstairs) and kitchen toward office (downstairs)

Loft/My Office

Bedroom

And here’s some outdoor views.

View from the house toward the yard/driveway

The creek

The creek from the other side of the bridge – you have to cross the bridge to get to the driveway

Today, the house looks like chaos – boxes everywhere. So consider this your before and soon, we’ll do the after so you can see how nice the paint looks and with everything put away.

Right now I can hear the creek running, I can hear and see the fluttering of aspen leaves and the wind. The sun is coming in the windows and although I’m exhausted from moving and doing the craziest mountain bike ride of my life last night, things are good.

 

Wildflowers

I love wildflowers. To many they are weeds. To me they are perfect and beautiful. Here is a sampling of what we’ve seen so far this season.

4th of July MTB Climb-fest

We’re still biking and it’s getting easier. With that I mean I see how it’s possible to not die on hills and I’m doing better at shifting and such which just makes it easier. It’s still really fricken hard though!

Today, with the holiday, we thought we’d get out and do a ride. A little exercise to start the day is good for us and Dude was a little hyper so we wanted to exhaust him. We choose a trail near our house, still have to load up and drive there but it’s really just down the road. At the end of that road is a small parking area and then the trail which goes all the way to the reservoir. We knew it’d be hard because it’s all downhill there (because you’re dropping in elevation toward a water source) and all uphill back. A lot of trails follow this same uphill out, downhill back or vice versa format, but have areas of flat or rolling areas in them. This one does not – it’s straight down out and straight up back. Why did I agree to this?

The way down to the water was great. I think I only pedaled once the whole way – it took us about 20 minutes to get down and Google Maps tells us it’s a 2.5 mile out and back, so 5 miles roundtrip. After our descent to the reservoir, we took a break. I know, no need for a break after coasting down a hill for 20 minutes, but the pooch had just run 2.5 miles downhill and he needed some water and shade for a minute.

The reservoir (Gross Reservoir is it’s official name – I think it is a water source for Denver) was absolutely beautiful. It was midday, sunny, breeze y and pleasant. I didn’t want to leave (especially because I knew what was coming).

Where we were is just one of the small inlets – the whole rez is actually quite large. Dude had fun drinking water and splashing his paws around. He’s not much of a swimmer, more of a frolicker or wader but he had fun.

Erik went out a bit to see if he’d swim and no go. I like their poses – looking svelte boys 🙂

 

I enjoyed the view and shimmer of the cottonwood trees while they played. We did see one person kayaking (no motors allowed on the rez – or swimming or dogs for that matter). 

Finally, it was time to begin our uphill battle. We walked up to where our bikes were resting and took one more glance back toward the water. Side note, we were down there before spring runoff began and climbed down in the 12 or so foot crevice where that buoy now floats. It was anchored by a chain and the water was no where near it. It’s amazing to see how much more water there is now.

Then, it began. 2.5 miles of climbing. It felt like longer, honestly and there was a point mid-way that I didn’t think I was going to make it. It got hot out, my head was pounding, my heart was pounding, my breathing was short and labored. My legs, surprisingly, felt ok. We kept on for what seemed like eternity and finally had to stop to rest. It had been 12 minutes, but 12 challenging minutes. As I said, there were no breaks or flat areas to coast or catch your breath, it was 2.5 miles of incline and some areas were challenging with loose sand, rocks and areas where runoff has created a cavern through half of the trail. It was a constant reassessment of what part to ride on for the most ease. We stopped at least three times, sat down, drank water under a shade tree and got our energy back. I think Dude liked the breaks too. He layed in the grass, found a random animal bone to chew at one stop and drank water. He’s learned to drink from water bottles so that’s handy.

Even though I was struggling big time, we still managed some wildflower photo ops (some things never change). The first one is blanketflower, the second is a collection of stuff, the third is Giant Red Indian Paintbrush and the last one is Indian Paintbrush again with Dude posing.

Finally, we stopped at any area we recognized and we knew we weren’t too far. We just had to go through a steep-ish S curve area and then up to the gate. Once at the gate, we had the final section to get to the final gate, where the car was parked. Toward the end I was able to just push through the discomfort and lack of oxygen because I knew where the end was. Just one more gate, and I could see the gate! Almost there! I so badly wanted to just go home and cry.

Finally, we were there and for the first time I’m happy to report, NO FALLS! Neither of us fell today, and that’s huge progress. This trail was not easy, there were a lot of challenging areas and we both stayed upright. I learned how to navigate some sticky situations today and that feels like positive progress.

We loaded back up, herded Dude, who at this point was laying under a tree in the sand (cooler I suppose). We came home, had some lunch, showered and are now resting – all of us. Dude has been sleeping since the minute we walked in the door (2.5 hours ago now). We are enjoying some thunder in the distance and a nice quiet afternoon. We have plans to spend this eve with Melissa and Barry, so that should be fun.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

 

 

 

 

June thus-far: Hiking, Biking and my sister moves to CO!

Ok, I think we’re about caught up of the springtime activities – we’re now onto June – wahoo!

June has been busy, for really the first time since we moved here, we have some stuff going on. The last weekend in May, Erik was in MN for Seth’s bachelor party. I took advantage of a nice weekend and did some hiking with Dude. On Sunday, right around noon, I get a text from one neighbor and call from another saying a bear was headed our way. It sure was! The thing was massive, but unfortunately I didn’t get a picture because I was talking on my phone. Dude wasn’t too happy about it being here. The crazy thing is the neighbor and I and the dogs had a hike planned, so we decided to wait a bit until the coast was clear. It was a beautiful day for a hike.

Love the flowering cacti

 

That week, Erik went straight from MN to a work trip on the East coast (Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Rhode Island). He got home late Thursday night. Then, Saturday my sister and Barry moved here! Yay! I taught a yoga class that day and then packed up to beat them to their house since I had the keys. They arrived around 6 pm on Saturday after some 28 hours of driving from Baltimore. My parents flew to Baltimore to help so it was a family affair. Saturday night we unloaded the moving truck and Sunday was spent unpacking stuff, running to Target and other stores to get necessities and just hanging out.

Monday we came up to Ned to do some hiking and hanging out. We then hit up the hot springs to relax the aches and pains away. Tuesday was an Ikea run and then just hanging out until it was time for my parents to go to the airport.

Since they moved here two or so weeks ago, we’ve seen each other a lot (which is great).

Here is our time together in a nutshell. I’ve sold one of my bikes:

Am in the process of selling another:

And of course, bought a mountain bike. I knew it was only a matter of time once they moved. It was less than a week, but it’s a beaut and I’m super happy with it.

I’ve been mountain biking for about 10 days now, have gotten my ass kicked repeatedly by hills and have fallen numerous times (like more than a handful). I got talked into racing (and failed miserably) and am in a women’s beginner mountain bike clinic to learn some skills, which is awesome. I am bruised all over, often in pain, but have fun riding (all things considered) so it’s been a success so far.

Meanwhile, back at home, Erik is tending to his wounds. He also raced and crashed twice, leading to some deep road (gravel) rash and lots of pain. This is what his life has looked like the past two weeks. He’s working on selling his current cross bike:

He bought a mountain bike:

And he’s injured:

Bike riding for us=lots of water and gauze

So I guess you can say June has been about biking and family time. Slowly I’m getting more comfortable on the bike and can ride for longer. Once Erik heals a little we’ll be able to ride together and I’m very much looking forward to that.

 

 

 

Fishing in the Reservoir

It’s official – we are fisherpeople, but we have yet to catch and keep anything. Really, we’ve only caught one fish. By we I mean Erik and by fish I mean minnow. Maybe it wasn’t that small, but it seemed tiny. Hopefully we’ll have better luck in the future. Here’s a couple photos of our first fishing excursion.

Catch and release

Success?

Erik working his magic

The beautiful res.

Dude supervising from his favorite rock

May hike to the top of the world

The bad part about having a blog is when you get busy, you don’t post, but in that busyness there is a lot to post about.

So sometime in May – let’s call it early May – yes i think that’s right, we hiked to what felt like the top of the world. It totally wasn’t, but it was the highest we’ve been (altitude, not pot). We have met a couple here and done some stuff together, so one weekend, the weather was turning nice and we decided to do a group hike. They have been here longer so we let them choose the trail, which was nice because we hadn’t been anywhere near the one they chose. We met at the park-n-ride in town and followed them up. And up it was. We drove up Caribou Rd for like 15-20 minutes. We had no idea how far we had to go, but the views were fun and it was kind of a neat road because it was gravy, narrow and no guardrails. Finally we got to a parking area/trailhead. Unfortunately, there was way more snow than they expected. We weren’t really dressed for so much snow, but we went anyway. The beginning part was hilly and forested. Then we climbed up to what could be a meadow, but there was so much snow it was just a big open white area. The interesting part was it felt like I could just reach up and grab the clouds – they seemed so low. From there, we headed up. And it was tough, especially with three or more feet of snow and the occasional step sunk way down. It was like treading on uneven ground, being careful to step in the footprint of the person in front of you, nervous about sinking deep and at the same time trying to look around and enjoy the views.

The day was warm(ish) and the sun was hot, but there was  so much snow it was almost strange. 

Finally, we reached the final steep descent and climbed to the top, wearily. It was beautiful – the continental divide was just right there. The blue skies, clouds, sun – amazing. Here is a 360 video of the top. 

Dude and Yoda, the other couples’ dog, enjoyed frolicking up on the top of the hill.

We rested for a bit and then headed down. The problem with inclines like this is the downhill hike sucks just as much as the uphill – just different kinds of suckiness. We made it down to the car and were just exhausted.

We got home and Dude was so tired, he didn’t even make it in the house before he crashed.

This was the hike that told us we weren’t quite in hiking shape yet. We napped and rested all afternoon, we were just beat! Erik got a bit of a sunburn and burnt his eyeballs, so note to self, always bring sunglasses especially when it’s snowy and sunny!

Ok, I’ll do my best to get more updates up in the coming days! Hope you all are doing well.