Spooked a bear

Yesterday morning Marlys and I finally spooked a bear while walking. I am not sure who was more surprised, but the sable colored adult sure took of once it saw us. We were so surprised we didn't even stop talking or walking toward it.

The bears are out and about as they are fattening up for winter, as evidenced by the broken pickets on the communities garbage enclosure.

Pat's Pike's Peak Half Marathon

It has been a hard year to get started on 14er hiking with the heavy snow pack that lasted into June, when the summer thunderstorm season started up limiting the window on a daily basis to safely be above treeline.

This year we had wanted to try a 14er a week, but mother nature had her own thoughts on that verbal bravado. After the debacle on Silverheels back in May, it was time to give it another try.

Pike's Peak was the last front range 14er on my list, and it has been my primary target all summer. But you cannot believe how busy you are when you are retired and this week was going to be it for me. Initially, it was going to be a Tuesday hike, but as it has been all summer I had a meeting scheduled for Tuesday night, which ended quickly due to a search and rescue call out. Friday was the only day left on the dance card and with a 30% chance of thunderstorms after noon, it would be an early one.

There are a couple of trails up Pike's Peak, the Barr Trail being the most talked about coming up from Manitou Springs but it is a two day trek due to is +13 mile length...one way (BTW there are people running this trail today in some event). I needed a one day (non-running) turn around trail, and the Crags Trailhead through the Devil's Playground worked. This is still a long trail at 13.23 miles (half marathon) round trip with a 4100' vertical gain most of which comes in the first third on trail.

This was going to be beyond what Marlys would want to do, Herb is still recovering from GBS, and Bill had to work, so it was going to a solo trip, but the trip reports seemed to indicate I would have plenty of company on the trail.

Before hitting the trail under headlamp power at 5:10, there is one stop that needs to take place and where personal offerings to the mountain gods are made and the Crags Campground crew deserve a reward for what may be the cleanest dry toilets, I have ever seen/experienced. Usually the facilities are pretty dismal and can cause instant constipation, but these were so clean and nice I needed to take a picture.

As I mentioned the first hour on the trail has under headlamp and coming from the west side (behind Pike's) meant that the shadow would last a while. Once it did lighten the scenes were some of the most spectacular I have witnessed on 14er hikes, so far.

I ended up taking more pictures then even last year on Long's Peak. Too bad my camera skills were not up to the unfolding scenery.

After topping the initial ridge at about 12,500' the summit came into view, but seemed a long way off. The trail from the ridge line to the Devil's Playground was almost road like and was able to make some time. At this point I had been on the trail for two hours.

I had read about a couple of guys earlier this summer that made it all the way from trailhead to summit in 2:45, which amazes me. I am usually in the "hour a mile" range and wanted to top out around 10am in order to make it back to treeline before the anticipated afternoon fireworks got started.

This next section of the trail goes through the Devil's Playground so named due to the lighting jumping between the rocks during some storms. This is a place I need to clear through on the way back down before the forecasted storms start. The day so far was mostly overcast, so I was thinking the the storms may hold off a bit later then 12n.

The terrain between the ridge line, before the Devil's Playground, and the final slope before the summit was relatively easy, with a gentle incline and good trail surfaces. This is where the exposure, mentioned on the route guide, shows up, but is easily avoided by walking on the road shoulder, if needed.

The road, brings up an interesting experience for those that have gone up 14ers, which are normally remote with limited to no development anywhere on or near the trail. Having vehicles swinging by, smelling exhaust fumes does reduce the mountain ambiance a bit, but knowing that there are donuts, bathrooms and things at the summit, somewhat makes up for it.

Let me say this now, the final 500-600 feet through the boulder field to the summit, sucks. It was steep, I was 6 miles in and tired. I know it saves some distance vs. the road, but I seriously considered following the road back down on the return, but I didn't.

Oh yeah, to add to the challenge during this final climb it started to lightly snow and I was in a short sleeve wicking shirt. No stopping until the top.

I came up behind the U.S. Army facility on the top, what its for I don't know. But talk about people, they were everywhere, van loads, car load, motorcycle loads(not sure if that possible), and train loads. Many different languages being batted about...and me in search for the world famous Summit House Donuts.

I traded a family in to taking of pictures in front of the summit sign (I take theirs, they take mine) and then headed for the cafeteria.

Some of you know that I like donuts, especially cake donuts, especially, especially, if they are chocolate covered.

But alas, other then the donuts being warm they were pretty disappointing, small and oily. But I still took two and 12 ounce Pepsi (for a +$5 tab) went over to a booth by the windows and sat down for the first time since leaving the trailhead.

After the repast, I went outside and tried to find a place that wasn't a Verizon black hole to call Marlys and let here know I had topped out and was heading down. It had taken me 4 hours to cover the +6.5 miles to the top. I changed in to dry socks and headed down at 9:30.

I mentioned that it was a partial overcast, but the deck was dropping virga and darkening. I wanted to be below treeline by 12n and that was about 4 miles away.

As I mention, I went back down the boulder field, then hot footed it (as much as I can hot foot) to the ridge line to drop into the Crag's drainage area. I did though stop to take some more shots.

I hit the ridge line about 11:30 (it always seems to take me about the same amount of time going down as going up).

It was getting darker and light showers had started. Treeline was still over a 1000' feet below and my legs were starting to quiver.

I realized about halfway to treeline that I was out of juice, because other then the donuts, a gu, a yogurt and a nectarine I hadn't eaten much so far today. According to "map my hike" this trail was going to burn about 5000 calories. Marathon runners hit the wall when they burn through their ~2000 ready energy calories. I was way beyond that and had only taken in about 1200 calories. Also even though I seemed to be hitting the camelbak regularly, I had yet to water the hill side. Between coming up to hitting the wall and dehydrating a bit, I needed to stop and reload, but not before getting in the trees as the sky was getting darker.

I found a rock to stand by, started to get some food into me and drink straight water out of the spare 1 liter jugs (SAR 24 hour pack requirement), just as it started to rain, no longer just a mountain shower, those I tend to ignore.

After a few minutes I got back to down hiking and over the next hour or so I really started to recover, to the point that I could even hustle downhill to the trailhead, instead of wondering if my legs were going to collapse with every step.

Got back to the car right around 1pm. Travel time was 7:30 hours (4 up/3.5 down). Had some ladies take my obligatory end of hike pic, got into the Jeep (Derek's high school and college ride) and headed home.

It was difficult getting out of the car at home and I went into a persistent vegitative state in front of the TV. I was brought out of my stupor by a search and rescue call out at 7pm.

Next month, Bill is coming out from Minnesota and we will try Mount Massive.

BTW I got up at 6am because my thighs were sooooo sore I couldn't sleep. I don't think getting into the hot tub yesterday was a very good idea.

Fools and Children

As I went in to the kitchen to start the coffee and the day (which includes writing this post) a bear cub walked up the stairs by the camper and off into the woods. I am assuming the mom is around here somewhere, but Dusty can go and try to find her later. UPDATE: Dusty went out and followed in the trail of the cub but came back after a few minutes, no barks were heard, so mom and baby(s) must be the other side of the ridge.

We have had a couple of more search and rescue missions this week.

Moondance 2011

For the last ten days Marlys and I have been in Minnesota. Doesn't seem to matter when we go there anymore the weather sucks.

Last Christmas it was snow storms and this su

mmer it is heat and humidity.

Except for the first night of Moondance when it rained.

We were glad to get back to the dryness of Pinon Rock yesterday. Now if we could do something about the need for rain.

Enough whining!

Moondance was jammed this year because Kiss was on stage Friday night. They said there were 38K people in attendance which is incredible when you think about the weekend long record was 50K in 1998. Many of the Kiss faith full were of course in full warpaint.

For my tastes Paul Rodgers (before Kiss) and Burton Cummings and Joan Jett on Saturday were the best of the show. I am sure 3 Doors down and Stone Temple Pilots were good, I just didn't know their music. 38 Special were, well 38 Special.

Unintended Consequences

Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival

Marlys and I have spent the last two days at the annual Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival at the Canon City Whitewater Park. Most of the races begin at Parkdale just upstream of the Gorge and the rafters and kayakers need to go through the Gorge on the way to the finish line in Canon.

Events started on Friday evening and continued through Saturday night. Besides the races and other whitewater events, e.g. King of the Wave (see picture), there was also music, beer, BBQ and various booths.

One of the booths was the Fremont Search and Rescue team put up on Friday afternoon to raise money for a new(er) rescue vehicle. Marlys, Judy and I set it up and manned it until about 5PM where the next group took over.

The main items given away for donation were survival bracelets made by various team members. They are pretty popular this summer with high schoolers and Broncos Fans (due to the number made in orange and blue). Marlys and I also donated a skiadirondack chair.

This was a pretty busy week for Marlys and I as the RGWF approached, because Monday evening we need to go to rope bag throwing training and then a float through town on the Ark, which was flowing at about 3200 cubic feet per sec. Last time we went through the Gorge at the beginning of the month it was flowing at around 500 cubic feet per sec.

On Wednesday and Thursday night we had rope training, so by Friday we were getting SARed out.

Beyond the booth, at the RGWF, the SAR team was doing the rope bagging of people and (water?)crafts that miss the take outs down river. Crafts maybe over stating what some of the "things" people came down river in during the "Build Your Own Boat" contest.

On Saturday, Marlys and I came back in to help with the bagging on the BYOB contest and then to pickup the chair we had donated, thinking it probably wouldn't get the size donation needed for it to go home with someone else.

We were surprised when we saw that the chair was sitting behind the booth instead of in front where folks could see it, but there was a good reason as it had gotten the needed donation and we now had to deliver it to its new home...The Whitewater Grill up on 8 mile hill.

For those of you following the development of this chair you probably noticed that there are no screw holes in the boards. Now I have to figure a way to attach the skis sans screws.

So what was going to be a week to relax a little is now one to build chairs for the two upcoming events in Canon, the Arts on the Arkansas and Fiddlers on the Arkansas. It all goes to a good cause.

Tomorrow we go to the Springs to pickup the cushions for the Molesworth Club Chair.

Duckett Fire

Its wildfire season here in Colorado and with the dry conditions we have had in the south central part of the state it is in full swing. This is different from the north central part of the state where there is record snow melt runoff.

The Duckett fire is about 10 miles south of our place and over the last couple of days we can see the smoke plume. You can see it in the center of this picture, with the smoke blowing to the left (east).

The fire has crossed over from Custer to Fremont (our county) county and is over 2400 acres is size.

Tomorrow we are off to the FIBark whitewater festival in Salida and next week we are working th Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival in Canon City. I am even going to Shore Tech. training next week, this from a guy who is not all that excited about water.

Rejected on SIlverheels

Even though I felt Longs Peak, last August, was epic this trip was epic on a different level, e.g. the number of less then good (bad) decisions made during the course of the hike.

Silverheel's is just a 13er, as some would say, but after hiking/climbing about 12 14ers, a few more then once, this "13er" brought the reality of being in the backcountry front and center.

Marlys had wanted to go up Silverheel's since a drive into Breck via the Camp Como road last summer. Since we had not started on the "14er a week" goal yet due to the snow, I kept an eye out on the trip reports from Silverheel's to see if it might be the first of the year.

So you are probably asking yourself why would this one be anymore accessible then the 14ers after all it is only 180' below 14K. The trip reports I read seemed to indicate a little less snow, but TR are pretty subjective to the skills of the person reporting. It seemed like a possible and after the fact in going back and reviewing them it appears that I probably took the good items into account and overlooked the bad one.

Another item that became apparent during the planning for the hike was that there is a lot less information available on 13ers, then 14ers, probably due to the lower number of people going up them. This means that the route info and actual on hill trail markings is much less then that of a 14er.

Until I get my mountain mojo back I think I will be sticking to 14ers, but someday I will need to try Silverheel's again.

1. Bad Decision: Looked at planning info through some pretty rosy glasses.

While driving up CO 9 to Fairplay we all commented on the peak snow cover.

2. Bad Decision: Did snow stop accumulating on peaks less then 14K? Probably not.

Heading for the trail head (that may be a little grandiose) I had already pictured the parking area and where the trail would start, because I have driven this road so often. Even though the directions said that the trail head was 2 miles down from Hoosier Pass and the starting point I had envisioned was only about 1.5miles.

3. Bad Decision: Assumed the trail head instead of following directions.

Off we went into the trees duly heading to the south for 500yards then turning east toward Beaver Ridge. Gee there seemed to be a lot of snow around.

4. Bad Decision: When you start at the wrong place, guess what happens to every turn after that...right probably no correct.

As we broke out of the trees, think we had just topped Beaver Ridge, we notice what seemed to be an even higher ridge to the SE and a even taller peak behind it.

And there still seemed to be a lot of snow, which due to the early hour it was still frozen and we could walk on top of it, but I WAS thinking that as the day warmed this would be post-holing territory on the way back down. My thinking had not totally shut down. I also was wondering about the snow amount previous folks had mentioned.

5. Bad Decision - Cascade Effect: We were actually on the south side of the Hoosier Ridge, instead of the NW side of Beaver Ridge. But we decided to push on to the saddle between the two ridges anyway.

There was quite a bit of detouring as we went around snowfields and a cornice debris field (avalanche), but we made it to the saddle 3 hours after leaving the car. We now had views that matched the pictures on the route information. We could also see that Beaver Creek was full of snow.

I could also finally see some tracks below the power lines heading for the shoulder ridge on Silverheel's. It went right through the snowfield by the power tower in the left lower center of this picture.

We all sat and looked at this and made the first good decision of the day...lets bag it, too much snow and not equipped for it (no snowshoes). Also be were now on the north side of Beaver Ridge so we could go back by the direction in the route info.

Every good decision is followed by a bad one, why doesn't it work the other way too.

6. Bad Decision; The route seemed to go along the north side of the ridge and had a major scree/talus field to cross. It also looked like we would need to enter the trees on the north side...read less sun, more snow, unsettled bad footing.

Off we went.

These smiles did not last long, as after entering the scree/talus we realized we were in a bad position.

The footing was sliding, it was steep and the run out, if you did slide did not look good.

After crossing this field we re-grouped and though maybe we could head down into the drainage via what looked like bare ground around the some of the trees.

At this point I had serious concerns about where we were, where we would go, and if we had the energy to get out of here. A scary situation.

I was also second thinking the gear that I had off-loaded from my 24 hour pack to lighten the load, e.g. rope.

After starting down this path, I asked the rest of the party to wait and I went down to the trees to see if it was actually viable.

It took me about 2 minutes to know it wasn't, and that we/I needed to stop these bad decisions that just seemed to be getting us into more and more of a situation with no retreat .

I went back and said that this was not going to work and that we should retrace the way we came in.

This meant going back through the scree/talus, and around the north side of the drainage.

The snowfield would be soft, but we knew where it went. I also had tracked it on my GPS so we could stick close to the route we took up and where we came out of the trees.

The snowfields looked bigger then they did coming up.

Tempers were beginning to wear, the wind had come up, and the smoke from the AZ fires had moved in heavily.

Once we got back around the drainage and looked at where we had be headed it indeed scary as it was only going to get worse.

After 6.5 hours we came out of the snowfields and the drainage at the road we should have been on in the first place.

It was a few hundred feet down from where we went in and it would have put us on Beaver Ridge outside of the drainage and away from the major scree field, but there still was a lot of snow.

Being the lead bad decision maker I apologized to the group, dropped my pack and made the walk up the road to retrieve the car.

I felt very lucky.

The job is not done until "Da Girls" say it is.

When last together in the annual return from Arizona last month, I took the opportunity to put beetle-kill pine on the ceiling of the family room.

The ceiling "I thought" to be done was that to the right of the glulam in this picture.

The idea being that by differentiating between the ceiling to the left and right of the glulan it would set the family room area off from the entry area.

Having done that I blogged that the ceiling was done.

I was however told that according to "Da Girls" of which Marlys is one, that in fact it was not. So I spent the first day of the Memorial Day Weekend rectifying this oversight on my part.

Today though is for racing (Monaco Gran Prix, Indy and The 600), at least what can be fit in between other engagements on the calendar.

Woofer Dave

The WFR training revolves around a process called the Patient Assessment System (PAS), this guy named WFRDAVE put the whole thing to music; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP2T0O_yD74 . Dave may seem to have a little too much time on his hands, but he did a nice job.

For those of you who have had CPR training you know how they want to you to sing/hum to a song to keep your frequency correct this is my favorite, the song is a little paradoxical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0HNYmWLqdc&NR=1

Woofer's

Well we are back, after 10 days of 8-5 (a couple of days 8am-10pm) training to become Wilderness First Responders, which are called "woofers".

Although we planned on eating in (we had the camper with us) each evening, the homework and reading made that impossible, as we would get home at about 6pm and study until we couldn't stay awake, usually about 10pm, which is real late for me.

Even the evening sessions didn't end when the instruction stopped, as our homework included things like; getting vital signs on all participants, so one night we all just stayed around and had a VS session until the University folks kicked us out.

Even though the days were long and FILLED, I always looked forward to the next day. I would recommend this course to anyone that spends time in the back-country. In fact, the amount of info attained was amazing, beyond that directly attributable to rendering help, e.g. water filtering vs. purifying, loose vs. tight boots, sleeping mats, etc.

In my 57 years and numerous course and classes, this is probably the best one I have ever taken, both from a content/usability and material presentation standpoint. This WFR class was by the Wilderness Medical Institute of NOLS the National Outdoor Leadership School. I highly recommend our instructors Josh McNary and Maureen Fox.

Another big plus during any course are the participants, and here again everyone was great. The class was made up mostly of young folks involved in outdoor education and work that required a WFR certification, but there were a few of us with a "life experience" edge, e.g. older.

Sometimes the practice session in the classroom (BTW: Mesa State is a wonderful campus) could get messy in the lead up to a outdoor scenario.

We would have about 3 outdoor scenarios a day. These outdoor scenarios went on rain or shine and last week was a rainy one in Grand Junction. On one of the occasions when it wasn't raining they brought out the hoses to "keep it real". In fact on a multiple patient (not victims) scenario last Thursday afternoon the GJ Police and EMS groups showed up.

Saturday night we had a scenario set in the ravines and rocks of Bang Canyon west of town.

The views before we were out on the trail (and the sun set) were spectacular. We got out of the

canyon about 10pm. We both decided our $5 headlamps from Harbor Freight needed to be upgraded.

UPDATE: Marlys and I went in to the REI in the Springs today and picked up Black Diamond Storms recommended by our lighting consultant, thanks Alan.

Monday was for testing, a 100 question multiple choice and a practical scenario that included both a medical and skeletal/muscular injury. We both passed and were back on the road home by 2pm.

It is good though to be home.

Such a thoughtful Mothers Day Gift

Marlys has always talked about how easy it is for guys in the woods when nature calls, so be the thoughtful husband I am...

It even came with an after use re-sealable baggy and some mountain money (TP).

The Blossum Festival Parade

It was a busy weekend for us. It started Saturday with the Annual Blossom Festival in Canon. This is the biggest town event of the year and we were going to walk the parade with some of the Search and Rescue Team. The parade didn't start until 12:30, but we were told to be there by 11am, naturally I had us there by 10:30am, so there was a lot of standing around...with our packs.

We were told to keep our gear ready as Mother's Day weekend can be busy.

After the parade we made our way through all of the craft booths in a couple of the city parks. I did a fantastic job of limiting myself to only one corn on the cob. For me CoC can be like Sloppy Joe's, in the quantity I will consume.

On Sunday we went down the Royal Gorge on rafts with some more of the Search and Rescue group, mainly the Swift Water Rescue Team. Believe it or not went we got to the meeting location (Raftmaster's) a standby call went out to the team to search for a missing 5 year old. I guess Mother's day being busy can is true. While we were all getting organized to move from rafting fun to search a cancel call came in that the child was found at a neighbors, but it was a hectic 10 minutes.

The Arkansas was flowing at about 650 cfs, and Jessie, our guide and another one of the SAR members, said that the commercial operations will guide down the Gorge up to 3200 cfs (compare to the Mississippi that is currently flowing at 2000000 cfs). At this point Jessie said most of the rapids were in the Class 3 range, but would climb to the 4 and 5 range once the snow melt really begins to hit. We have been down the Arkansas a couple of times, but this was the first time through the Gorge. I want to try in again in June when the flows are up.

We stopped a couple of times in the Gorge to explore a clef through the Hobbit Hole underneath the railroad tracks. and then again to jump off of a rock about 10' above the river into the cold water. We were in wetsuits, splash jackets, booties and helmets.

I would recommend Jessie at Raftmasters in Canon City, they were great. He and his soon to be wife are guides.

Hard to believe that only a week ago we were coming out of a 11" snowfall, but things change up here quickly sometimes. Our small herd of mule deer decided that since the hummingbirds were back they too could come up to the front of the house. There are about 12-15 deer that seem to stay on our parcel, mainly in the Ponderosa, but sometimes they are by the shop or going after the especially green grass over the septic drain field. It doesn't show up in this picture, but a few of them were to the right laying down in the shade under the trees.

First Hummingbird of the Season

First one showed up this afternoon, just as the last of the snow from Sunday melted away.

The ceiling is done

Just finished up putting in the beetle kill pine ceiling. It turned out pretty good. As I mentioned in the last ceiling post I has able to salvage the pieces I drove over and actually ended up with one full board to spare.

I am still 6 weeks out (waiting on cushions) on finishing the Molesworth club chair, so it looks like we will make a couple of ski Adirondack chairs. I picked up some old used army skis on Friday should be able to match them as they are all white.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

My Arse (kinda British after Friday's shindig)!

Marlys had a little excitement yesterday

As I mentioned in the last post, we were off to Monarch Ski Area for Alpine Team training on Saturday. It was shut down for the season so no one would have to dodge us on the slopes.

We got there about 8:30 and the skies were overcast and threatening snow.

After gearing up we headed in search of a slope to do self-arrest practice, but the ~5 inches of snow over night made this problematic as we could not get a good slide going.

Our Lead decided that instead of us learning a bad technique we would leave the self-arrest practice until next month, when we are going to St. Mary's Glacier.

The group headed over to Gunbarrel, which is to the far left when you come into the Monarch parking lot to work on roped travel, belay techniques and setting of snow pickets and fixed lines.

For those of you who have skied Gunbarrel know it is steep and with the new snow from the night before and snow that accumulated during the day, we had plenty of fresh stuff to work with.

We worked on boot belays first, which is where a ice ax with a runner and biner on the head is sunk shaft first into the snow. The belayer then runs the rope from the climber through the biner to a hip belay to catch a fall. The belayer puts their foot on the ice ax head to keep it in the snow.

We did a number of these with the climber taking falls, on purpose, to practice stopping the fall.

Then is was Marlys' turn. Marlys weights about 95# and she was concerned with stopping a falling climber, which I don't think we had one that came in at less then 160#.

Marlys stopped three falls in a row, which showed that with the right moves she really had no problems.

The fourth one though went wrong as the ax had been worked loose a little due to the previous falls and this time it pulled out from under her boot and then went flying. It smacked her in the knee and the pick hit her arm putting a hole through her shell and shirt.

She of course went flying about 10 feet down the slope before stopping.

Everyone, heard the twang when it happened and we all rushed over to her. Taking a ice ax to the knee is painful (I imagine) and she was in in pain.

There was some discussion, during the debrief on what had happened as to whether the belayers foot should be on the ax head or on the runner in front of the ax.

The concern about crampons with their sharp edges was talked about.

Some research is needed.

After a few minutes though she was back up on her feet and ready for the afternoons task of climbing as a roped team.

Lucky.

The rope work in the afternoon happened in darkening, snowy and windy conditions.

We got to try out all of our new toys, but there is a need for Marlys and I to get more carabiners.

I asked one of the other folks how many is enough, and he said he would tell me when he got there.

There are so many types and uses it can be pretty confusing, but lite and strong can be driving factors.

As the day progressed the snow got heavier the wind blew harder and by the end we were a tired group.

The Family Room Ceiling Story Begins

Many of you know I have talked about lining the family room ceiling in beetle kill pine (blue-stained) for a number of years.

Well, its time has come. Yesterday after shopping a number of places (on-line), we bought 45 - 16' T&G beetle kill boards to start the project.

Let's see a 16' board will stick 6' beyond the tailgate of our pickup, so no problem, and we were off to Fountain.

For those of you who keep track of where I buy things you will be happy to know these came off of a Craigslist ad I spotted about a week ago.

Everything was loaded and the mandated red flag attached so we began the journey home.

I nervously watched the load for a few miles, but everything seemed OK. We even made a couple more stops in Florence and Canon before heading up the hill.

No problemo, made it to Autumn Creek.

Made it up the hill to the house to drop off groceries, but as I walked around the back of the truck I noticed THERE WAS NOTHING THERE! Where the hell had I dropped the load?

Shouting at Marlys to hurry up (am downplaying this just a little) we jumped back in the truck and started backtracking. There was $350 of wood laying out there somewhere. We are hoping that it wouldn't be back on CO Hwy 9 or US Hwy 50.

As we came to the first turn (last turn when coming to our place) there it was sitting in the middle of Autumn Creek Drive, still wrapped and flagged.

We it made all the way (~100 miles) except the last freaking turn.

I turned around and came back to reload it.

Of course I turned in a little too soon to get in front of it and drove over the edge of a bunch of boards. Did I mention this is tongue and grove, so the edges damage real easy.

We reloaded and I got it back to the shop. I couldn't, wouldn't look at it to survey the damage until today.

I need 39 board for the ceiling. I bought 45 to be safe. I screwed up 11. I am now either going to have to figure out a fix, or go back to Fountain and get some more.

Stay tuned, because I have an idea.

Tomorrow we are off to do alpine training with the SAR team at Monarch Ski area (closed for season, but getting 3-5 inches of snow tonight). We are going to work on our self-arrest technique, or lack there of, roped up hiking and climbing, and use of crampons. I am bringing a camera because it could be humorous.

Just another day

After the normal morning hike, and then some work in the shop on the Molesworth Chair, we began this years harvest of the rocks that have now appeared everywhere. A couple of rock walls were built.

Once we were gased (2:30pm) we sat on the patio, drank a couple of beers, ate some peanuts, listened to tunes and read until about 5pm.

As they say, we are living the dream.

Another FSAR Mission, another sad ending.

After our physical capabilities evaluation Saturday morning (3 miles in 45 minutes with 30 lbs packs), Marlys and I got called out Sunday morning at 7:30 am. Again, not a happy ending.

http://www.newsfirst5.com/news/pueblo-police-investigating-apparent-murder-suicide/