Autumn Aspen Adventure

Friday night, we skipped town and headed up the pass to Copper Mountain to say farewell to the summer and greet the inevitable winter. Experiencing the transition between the two in the Colorado Rockies can be spectacular. We've done some good hikes this summer, so Garret decided that this would be a "no hiking" weekend. Well, when one heads to the mountains to view Autumn splendor, "no hiking" can be quite a challenge. Nonetheless, we made it happen. We awoke Saturday to a crisp 40 degree morning and headed up to Leadville to visit the National Fish Hatchery. The boys loved it - although Garret wanted to grab his pole and catch them. As you might imagine, we had to explain several times that catching fish for sport is somewhat counterproductive to the mission of the Hatchery. I'm pretty sure Garret didn't care.



We then headed toward the divide via Independence Pass. The road takes you through Twin Lakes, two fantastic bodies of water that rest in the shadow of Mt. Elbert, Colorado's highest peak. We enjoyed tossing rocks and sticks into the lake and letting Jameson romp.



Our adventure continued as we made our way upstream to the pass, stopping several times along the way to take in the scenery, snap some pictures, and get dirty.



At the top, we looked back at the Atlantic watershed and forward to the Pacific. The view of Mt. Elbert was magnificent. Owen stopped to strike a pose before sauntering down "Umpa Tom" style (hands folded behind his back) to grab some lunch with the fam.



Eventually, we braked and swerved down into the town of Aspen, checking out rock climbers and getting passed by road bikers along the way. We enjoyed the rest of the day in Aspen, exploring the town, playgrounds, and dinner. After dinner, we made our way up to see the Maroon Bells - two fantastic peaks that rise above a small mountain lake just southwest of Aspen.



Jameson liked it so much he proclaimed the Bells "his" with a little squirt.



Even though the entire weekend was filled with childish objection, we all agreed that we'd do it again. Somewhere in the back of thier little minds Garret and Owen know that they went on a pretty cool trip (even though they say they would rather watch a movie). So bring on the snow, we've said our goodbye to Summer 2008.

The First Day of School!

Garret and Owen had their first day of school this week. Owen loves his preschool teacher and Garret is really excited about Kindergarten. So is Megan! It should be pretty interesting to see how this changes the dynamics at home with Garret gone everyday. We'll keep you posted.

Late August Camping Trip

Last weekend, we took another camping trip - this time to the Arapahoe National Forest at Lake Granby. We set up camp, explored, fished, hiked, swam, and saw the sights of the area including Adams Falls, Crater Lake, Grand Lake, and Monarch Lake. It is certainly another magnificent part of the state. There was much bark beetle devastation and we learned that as a result the majority of the forest in this area is scheduled to be destroyed to avoid massive wildfires. So a return visit next year is unlikely.



I took a 15 mile solo trail run from Monarch Lake (the pic w/ G & O) to Crater Lake (the last two pics) and returned just before a big thunderstorm rocked the campground. Luckily, we had a planned visit to the town of Grand Lake and spent the storm at a BBQ restaurant instead of in our tent.

Summer Sports

Megan cranked it out this year and competed in her first sprint triathlon, The Tri for the Cure, at Cherry Creek State Park in August. She had a great time and is looking forward to her improving her times in another one...



The same weekend, I competed in my 2nd 195 mile Wild West Relay running race from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs. This time we decided to change to an Ultra Team of 6, rather then the 12 person team we had last year. This meant that my mileage changed to 34.3 miles and my net elevation gain increased to 4,786 feet. It was a much more difficult race this way, but we all agreed that the added challenge and smaller group made it a lot more fun...



As the summer winds down, we have another camping trip planned and are looking forward to cooler days, football games, and moving down the road to our home remodel project.

California Vacation

Later in July, we took a week and visited Nana in Thousand Oaks. I spent my time doing some running in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, enjoying some time with family and friends at the beach and by the pool, and changing out all of the receptacles and switches in Nana's house.

Later, we took a short trip to LegoLand for some classic Southern California theme park fun...

Lastly, on the way back to Thousand Oaks, we stopped in Long Beach to visit cousin Kari and her beau, John. They both work at the Long Beach Aquarium and gave us all wonderful "backstage passes" by allowing the kids to feed various sea creatures and meet some of the birds up close. We were also able to see all of the innerworkings of the aquarium that usually only employees are exposed to. Thanks Kari and John!

4th of July Fun

This year, like last year, we celebrated the 4th with Mom and Dad. They came to visit for the week and we spent time working on the house and playing in the neighborhood. For the 4th, we get tickets to the Rockies baseball game. The game was amazing. The first pitch was a home run and it didn't stop after that. The home run count was in the teens - including a Rockies Grand Slam. The Rockies came from 9 runs back to win in the bottom of the 11th inning with a score of 18 to 17... 35 total runs!



We also had a chance to get away for a day and explore Mt Evans. Mt Evans is the most accessible 14k+ peak from Denver. It also is the only 14k+ peak that has a paved road to the top (almost). So we drove to the top and hiked the short trail to the summit. We ran into some wild mountain goats along the way and were able to mingle amongst them - pretty awesome.

Quick Winter Update

I thought I'd give a short update on the winter, now that it is gone. We had quite a bit fewer trips to ski this winter, although we did manage to get up a handfull of times. We also had a couple of great days snowshoeing in the backcountry behind Copper Mountain. Here are some photos of a trip Garret and I took on a beautiful day following a 8" evening snow dump.