2011-12 First Day of Skiing

Hard to say this with a straight face, bit even though we have had just over 4' or snow already this year, we really haven't had enough for the ski areas to fully open.

Monarch only had a 21" base until the storm this week, that gave it another 8", but that only allowed the runs served by the Breeze Way lift to be what I would call fully opened. The others had pretty much been wind scoured to rock.

The weather was the best I have ever experienced there though, 18 degrees and NO wind.

Derek, Marlys and I had a great day.

Hopefully, some storms will line up out in the Pacific and bury the place so that January and February are awesome.

Commando or Speedo?

The sauna is open for the season.

I know a good Finlander would say that it never closes, but around here it tends to be a winter thing.

Since there has been 20" of snow over the last 3 weeks, yesterday I opened it up, really just a matter of pushing the button to heat it up.

Set the temp at 190F, again a good Finlander would go for +200F, but I'm German/Irish, so cut me some slack.

I had a couple of 15 minute sessions, with the appropriate cool down on the patio, with a cold Nordeast in hand.

I'll keep you guessing on the question.

A long 48 hours

It started at 8:30 pm on Thursday night, as we were watching TV and talking about how we had to be on the road into town by 7am Friday morning to deliver the new to us Search and Rescue truck back to Faricy Ford by 8am for a couple of items that need fixing.

And then the phone rings...and the Direct TV caller ID says "Alert", its a call out. We haven't had a search and rescue mission since August, things have been pretty quiet since the end of the summer tourist season. How though we are deep into hunting season and they come from all over the US to get a deer, elk, big horn sheep and/or antelope.

In this case, the day after a 10 inch snow fall, we have a couple of Texas hunters lost in the foothills along the Arkansas River.

By the time we get to the trail-head its 10pm, cold and damp from the melting of snow during the day. The hunters are about 10 miles up a ATV trail, somewhere. They tracked a deer away from where they parked their ATV and can't find their way back. As luck would have it they could get a cell call out, which for those of you who are familiar with this area as know it as one of the biggest cell site black holes in the state, know was pure luck.

About midnight they are found, and by 1am they are cold, but back at the trail-head. We pack-up and get home about 2:30am. Setting the alarm clock to ring at 6am for Friday's errands.

Friday goes pretty uneventfully.

Saturday morning we are up at 4am to make the 3:30 hour drive to St. Mary's Glacier for Alpine Team Training. The forecast is for 30 degree temps, -7 wind chill, winds at 36-45 mph, gusting to 70 mph. A blustery day.

We meet the rest of the Alpine Team on the road at 5:15, arriving at the trail-head to the glacier by 8:30pm.

The approach

It takes a while to get on the layers of clothes, avalanche beacons, crampons, snowshoes, shovels, probes, ropes, climbing harness' and everything else be taken in for the training. A few of the back country skiers coming out after getting in an early morning run mention the wind...as incredible.

Of course after you get geared up is when you realize you need a health break. Good practice for taking things off and putting stuff back on and how ill design most gear is for this basic human function. BTW did I mention that we stopped at a bakery in Silverthorne and got coffees on the trip in? They also had some raspberry brownies that will be the reward for a day in the back country, and the drive home, another 3:30 hours.

St, Mary's Lake with the glacier in the background

We get to a frozen St. Mary's Lake, below the glacier, and the wind is howling. Because it is coming in over the ridge to the west it is swirling and hitting us from multiple directions. The downdrafts are hitting the lake ice, which is only about 2 inches thick, pushing it down and causing blowouts at a few spots along the shore, at least that's my theory.

The morning is spent getting back into walking using ice axes, something that has to be second nature. Coordinating foot placements, hand and leash switch-overs, balanced vs. unbalanced steps, all need to be practiced, because the basic rule of mountaineering is pretty simple "don't fall".

By noon we find a place a little out of the wind (but not completely), and grab some food, visit nature and get ready to get on the glacier in the afternoon.

Marlys on the hike to the glacier

We hike around the lake to the glacier foot directly into the wind, stash our packs, grab ice axes and head up to do self-arrests, basically stopping yourself when sliding down the mountain. Probably one of the most important skills needed in this environment. St. Mary's is what i believe is called a hanging glacier in that it is located in a valley above the outflow lake.

The gusts in this area are so strong that you need to stop and brace yourself when one starts or risk a blow down, something that in this terrain would not be good. We walk up the slope a few hundred feet and start falling and sliding in different positions to simulate a real fall, and then stopping using the ice axes pick. Even though it is early in the season and the avalanche condition reports don't start until November you still need to be careful.

Marlys sitting and waiting to slide.

And wouldn't you know it, while we are all sitting on the glacier we hear and feel a "whoump", which is generally cause by the snow settling (we had a storm move through Colorado on Wednesday, see above) and an indicator of avalanche danger. We all head directly to the side of the glacier make our way back to where we had cached the packs and have a meeting on what to do next...at least as much as you can in the howling wind.

Its about 2:30 and will take us about an hour to hike out. Some folks have commitments that evening, including us as the "Da Gurls" are arriving on their seasonally trip south to Arizona for the winter. We decide to pack it in and head out.

We get home about 6:30, after stopping for the raspberry brownie...I do have my priorities, and fuel in Breck. The folks at the bakery said we were the first and last customers of the day.

"Da Gurls" had dinner ready.

By 9pm I am in bed.

Who Dat in Nawlins?

Two weekends ago, after 8" of snow the weekend before, Marlys and I took a trip to New Orleans. Someplace I had never been, and up to that point had no real need to see. I take that back one of the guys I use to work with (Scott C.) used to go there for the jazz festival and I had though that that may be a good reason to go, but I never really worked on it as a place to put on the list.

Anyway we had some points that needed to be used up on our timeshare ownership (Worldmark) or we would lose them, so after Marlys' exhaustive search for a three day trip, Nawlins seemed to be the place.

I though...what the heck I could then say I had been there.

We flew Southwest and didn't check in until we got to the airport so we were way back in line to board and couldn't sit together. This worked out becuase Marlys sat with a vacationing SW pilot and his wife from who she scored us a ride to our hotel/condo, which believe it or not we found out they were also staying at when we gave them the address in the rental car.

New Orleans is a great place to visit, beyond the French Quarter and the entertainment, the places to eat, music and historical/haunted walking tours it made for a outstanding weekend.

We chose mid-October to avoid the heat, humidity and touristas. We succeed on two of the objectives as the weather was perfect. Being a tourista we were everywhere.



Central Grocers

 We arrived Saturday afternoon and since we had not eaten all day we headed to one of the stops Marlys had on her list of places to eat; Central Grocery, which is located in the French Quarter.



This place was actually a old Italian grocery store. Except it sold sandwichs and beer.

Just about everyplace in New Orleans sells booze and you don't even need to go inside to get it, as they have window bars that are open to the street.

We got there just in time to get the last muffileta of the day, which is their noted sandwich. We also got a local (kinda) beer called an Abita Amber.

Marlys and the muffeleta

Both were excellent as Marlys' expression can atest.

We stayed in the Garden District, which we were to learn the next day, was started by the folks from the northeast that moved in after the Lousiana Purchase and were a little taken a back by the rather risque lifestyles of the resident French and Creole of the French Quarter.





Street Car

The way to get around from our place was the St Charles Streetcar line, which runs down the middle of the street on the boulevard. Easy to get on and off as long as you have the exact change for the fare. This was my first time on a streetcar (cable cars are different). The windows are open, the breeze comes through, they are fairly noisy as they rattle along, but damn it was neat. We road them a number of time over the weekend, but we could pretty much walk whereever we wanted to go, other then the taxi home on Saturday night after we did the Burbon Street Stagger.

After the repast af the Grocery we headed into the French Quarter. Marlys wanted to hit a place called Pat O'Brian's which she had been to 30 years ago. Pat O'Brian's is noted for there Mint Julip's and Hurricane's. We each got one and sat in the piano bar for about an hour and were underwhelmed by the pianist. This was about the only bad music we heard all weekend.

About 6pm we walked out onto the street and folks were waiting for the start of a Haunted History walking tour of the French Quarter. We needed a walk by this point, paid our money and joined the crowd.



If you haven't done a walking tour, do. Between this one and one we went on Sunday morning in the Graden District we learned a lot about the area, the people and the culture.

The Haunted History tour ended about 8pm at a place called Laffite's Blacksmith Shop, which it originally was, but is now a...bar. From here the Bourbon Street Stagger commenced.

Unknown Band

As we made out way down the street between the stops at the before mentioned windows, trying to catch the thrown bead necklaces from the second floor balconies, we would stop in to hear the music, which was great.

I can't remember the name of the pictured band or the place we were in, but they were really good. Lots of 70-80's rock and it was loud enough that Marlys had ringing ears for the reat of the night. After our ears were numb we headed out.

Another Unknown Band

Literally, I think it was the next block we stumbled (not figuratively) into a blues bar, where again the band was so good we stayed and seemed to tip them for a long time.

About this time I was feeling like we should start to mosey toward the abode and ran into a real find, a Krystals, which for those of you who are White Castle gourmand's know is the southern relative. After a box of four we took our only taxi of the weekend (Other then the trip back to the airport).

The next morning, we went for a walk around the Garden District as part of a walking tour that had two participants Marlys and moi. Nancy the tourguide was great and had all of the scuttlebutt on most of the residents.

When we were done, it was back to the east and the warehouse district (between the central and garden districts) to hit another place on the must eat list named Mother's, which is noted for its poboys. We had ones called "debris" because it is made of the roast beef that drops into the gravy while roasting. Needless to say they were really messy. The mayonase/mustard really made these interesting.

After eating it was off to the New Orleans Blues and BBQ Festival going on in the Business District in I believe Washington Park. This being New Orleans the blues bands were slightly better then those at the Belevedere Blues and BBQ festival in Canon City. The weather was beautiful and beer was cold.

Sunday evening we went a little upscale to the Delmonico. The service and food were incredible.

Du Mont's

Monday the first stop was Du Monts for bengates (french donut) and coffee ulatees (coffee with cream).

Walking out with powdered sugar everywhere, we walked the riverfront and end up at Harrah's, but we didn't drop a quarter.

Its no wonder that the Superbowl seems to be here every other year.

We walked up Canal Street which reminded me of a 60's big city down town with buildings and street cars going up and down the center of the street.

For lunch we hit another place on the eatry list called the ACME Oyster House. I had another recommended debris style poboy and gumbo, both were excellent, but the bread pudding was ...I can't describe how good.


Monday night we went to dinner at a place we found during the Garden District walking tour call Commanders. Again an incredible place, very old school.

Tuesday if was back to Colorado and as I write this we are forecast to get a little over a foot of snow tonight through tomorrow.

Getting our FFL Lift tickets

Last month it was cancelled due to a mission, but today the Eurocopter AStar AS350 B3 showed up at Canon City Fire Station #1.

This is the same variant of this aircraft that landed on the top of Mt. Everest in 2005.

Flight For Life operates 5 of these state-wide.

This is training put on by Flight For Life to acquaint search and rescue people with the aircraft, how to get in and out, bucket up and put on headsets, so that when on a mission we can ride the bird.

It also is a pretty straight forward marketing program to make sure that we use their services when necessary.

The scope of services was beyond what I expected, in that they will help in aerial search, personnel placement and body recovery.

Oh ya and patient transport.

The AStar can land at any altitude encountered here in Colorado and the wind range goes all the way up to 50 mph.

Pretty incredible.

In the couple of hours we spent with the crew we went over all of the safety procedures including

what to do in a crash/hard landing where you are the only one mobile/conscious. Basically pull any lever or push any button that is red and the yellow rotor brake.

Then we all had to ingress/egress, buckle-in and get on the intercom. To get our cards.

I think we were all amazed at where the patient is loaded as this is not a big aircraft.

The crew sit either to the patients side (pilot) or against the rear bulkhead.

After everyone got their turn, they were handed a lift ticket card with their names on it which are good for a year.

I wonder if we will ever use them?

Pikes Peak Again...it looked great...at the start

October 1 and time for the second trip up Pikes Peak, and the last 14er hike, of the season.

This was also the first opportunity to get Herb out since last year's bout with GBS laid him up for most of the year, literally; bed, wheelchair, walker, etc.

But this isn't a story about the challenge Herb had in getting to the top, because it really didn't seem to be that difficult for him. He took the lead, set the pace and basically motored to the top.

It may have been the prospect of the world famous Summit House Donut's. He was a cop after all, and being a connoisseur of deep fried dough is part of the job description, at least as TV programs have lead us to believe.

This is a story about how fast conditions can change.

The hike up started at the Devils Playground about 3.5 miles and 1500' below the summit.

We didn't get the normal early start because on October 1 the opening time for the Pikes Peak Highway changes from 7:30am to 9am. This meant that once through the gate and going 16 miles up the road we didn't hit the trail until 9:30am.

The sun was out, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

About halfway up I took this picture, which showed the first cloud of the day in the background over the summit. This shot was
taken at about 10:15am

This wasn't a surprise as there was a 10% chance of thunderstorms after noon in the forecast.

The only change in the normal trail up was going to be going around the boulder field above the road in the background. Herb felt his balance was not what he wants it to be in attacking a scramble and this boulder field is a scramble in places (four points of contact).

This would mean traveling along the side of the road, which is forbidden, but we were going to play the ADA (American with Disability Act) Card, if stopped.

Guess what...we got stopped and guess what Herb played the card.

Kent Chaney, The Ranger, gave us a pass. You may wonder how I remember or even got his name...read on.

We decided to try the boulders at the very top and get

off the road, as "The donuts were calling and we had to go"...really we had to go.

An apology is owed to Ansel Adams to the usurping and modifying of one of his famous quotes. Oh, and also to Flo of Progressive Insurance commercial fame.

Besides Herb and Marlys moving through the snow and boulders, look at the cumi's forming to the north over Woodland Park in the background.

At this point it is a walk of about a block to the Summit House and the actual summit.

Even though summer vacations were over, the summit was crowded. Even Detroit Diesel had a couple of there semi-tractors up there doing a high altitude test run.

But hey, the sun was still out and the group was real happy to have topped out.

Finding someone to take a picture is pretty easy at the summit sign.

Again I bring your attention to the cumi's in the background and their vertical development.

BTW: you may be asking "Whats this thing with cumi's and cloud's?" Those of you that have read some of the first posts to this blog know that at one time, I was an avid hang glider and paraglider pilot. Cumi's are the manna from heaven for soaring pilots as they tend to mark the top of a thermal, the engine of un-powered flight.

Back to the pictures. Usually it is a trade-off, e.g. you take my groups picture and we will take yours. An interesting observation was that every camera handed to me to take a group's picture was actually a iPhone, not a purpose built camera. I have to confess that I too am split between using a phone camera and our Sony camera. The shots on this post are split about 50/50 .

Now to get to the restroom and then some of those donuts.

After a bit of a rest, and of course 8 of those world famous Summit House donuts, we headed down.

The cumi's are no longer the puffy white cotton ball fair weather clouds of the hike up.

As you can see in this picture they are now dark. This can be a sign of the moisture accumulating and ultimately a sign of possible precip.

Also many times when moisture starts moving around in the cloud an electrical charge builds up. When if reaches a certain point...boom, lightening and its accompanying thunder.

About five minutes after taking this picture...boom.

There is a good rule of thumb that says, if you can hear the thunder you can get hit by the lightening.

We are completely exposed! No where to go other then a retreat to the Summit, but that means going higher and being a even better lightening rod.

We kept going down hill, wanting to get to the east side of the mountain and get some rock and other stuff between us and the storm. Don't know if this strategy was the best, but it was the plan.

Along the way the cumi's started dropping precip, graupel in this case. Graupel happens when precip can't decide if it wants to be hail or snow. I guess since precip is not self-aware (meaning it doesn't recognize itself in a mirror) it probably has more to do with the temperature. Speaking of which, the temp was dropping as the moisture pulled the heat from the air...the sun no longer warmed us.

The thunder was being heard more often, but so far the lightening seemed to be staying cloud-to-cloud (most common lightening).

We were screwed!

Lightening is what makes Pikes Peak one of the most dangerous mountains in the US according to Backpacker Magazine. The moisture rolls in from the SE and is pushed up against the front range where is condenses (clouds) and ultimately can build into a thunderstorm with its inherent lightening.

As we are hot footing it down, along comes Kent. His salutation is "Get into the truck".

Yahoo! Off to the Summit...again. Kent needs to get folks into their cars or the Summit House as this electrical storm moves in...people standing exposed are the lightening rods.

We jammed into the Tundra and off we went. Stopping every time we meet other hikers where Kent tells them to get their thumbs out and hitch a ride either to the bottom or the top.

At the top Kent gets on the P.A. and tells folks to take cover. One hiker that had just summited walks up to the drivers window and her hair is standing on end. Folks that is not a good sign!

Summited for the second time of the day.

Off we go with Kent down the mountain to our car at the Devil's Playground (so named because of the way lightening can jump between rocks during a storm). He is stopping at each group of hikers along the way telling them to get a ride.

Those who have hair (sorry Bill), that is not somehow held in place, look like somethings out of Discovery Channel show experiment, as it is standing up.

We get to the car and it is surrounded by a dozen women that have just come up from the Crag's Trailhead. They were thinking about crowding into it, because Herb had not locked it, and it is the only shelter beyond a couple of culvert (metal) going under the highway.

We offered to take three down with us and told the others just what Kent was telling everyone, get out your thumb.

After what seemed like too much discussion three of them climbed into the Subaru, even into the third row seating...wait a minute there is no third row in a Outback.

The curving road down the mountain did not sit well with the third row and eventually we needed to stop for a oral donation to a nearby tree.

It was decided to rotate the third row passenger.

I think the third row also accused Herb and I of "bantering". What's that all about?

By the time we got to Woodland Park the upper mountain was very angry looking, enclosed by dark clouds and with cloud to ground lightening. A good place not to be, if not in a car or a building.

As we are heading down we see a number of motorcyclist heading up, I am not sure if that provides any protection or just a faster moving target. Since lightening travels at just about the speed of light (186K miles per second, as I recall), I don't think a motorcyclist, even at speed, would have much of a chance at out running a strike.

As for our riders, they were from around the country, so they get a bit of a pass, but we are from around here and know this can happen. Thanks Kent.

Fall in Telluride

Since the late 1980's when I first came to Telluride to hang glide this has been one of those magical places to visit. We (Bill, Cathy, Marlys and me) waited until the crowds from the Blues and Brew Festival had cleared out before heading over last Tuesday.

The storminess from the weekend and the previous week had broken and it was a beaut. The drive over took us just under six hours, but the views were spectacular even though the leaves had not started to change. Last week by this time we were past peak, but I think the late Summer rain may have had a part in holding off the Fall change over.

The camper allowed us to stay right in Town Park by what was (and maybe still is) known as the "Seizure" LZ (landing zone) as all of the approaches had some form of a obstacle. I am always amazed at how big a landing zone looks from the ground, and how small they look when you are flying into them. They still must be flying hang gliders and paraglider's in Telluride because both the Seizure and Leisure (big field outside of town) had a number of wind indicators.

One of our first stops after setting up was a bar I first visited 23 years ago, O'Bannons. The rear entrance framed one of those unforgettable up valley scenes for which the town is noted.

Phoenix and I use to stop in here for a Guinness on the way back to the condo after a day of flying.

It made for a nice place to relax after the drive over and we could walk back to the campsites.

It seems as if morning comes later (and evening earlier) in these valleys and the sun didn't make it over the peaks until after 8am the next morning.

After a trip to "Baked in Telluride" for donuts we started the drive up to Bridal Veil falls, but the road soon put a stop to that, as it was pretty rough, even rough then the road into Mt. Sherman on Monday. The look back into the valley to the west was pretty spectacular and you can understand why a number of celebrities call this place home.

Back in town we took the transit systems gondola over to the Mountain Village for lunch and shopping.

This is a great ride and its free.

After another night of eating and walking around the week was over and we headed back to Pinon Rock.

Summer is over and its time to get ready for the snow, skiing, and ....

Mt. Sherman

After a weekend in Breckenridge drinking beer and eating sausage and chili, it was time to actually get some exercise.

Bill had wanted to go up Massive, but with the snow storms during the week I had my doubts. During the drive up to Breck the peaks of the Mosquito and 10 Mile range weren't even visible due to the clouds and snow. I was not in the mood to do another Silverheel's trip.

On Sunday's drive back we stopped at the top of Hoosier Pass and glassed the folks doing Lincoln. They were in snow and wind, but seemed to be getting by.

Once back home and after checking weather and trip reports, we decided on Mt. Sherman. It is back behind Fairplay and although the road in is one of the roughest around, it is one I have been up before and I though we would give it a try.

We didn't hit the trail until after 7am the next day, which is probably the latest start I have ever had, but we were the second group on the mountain.

We felt a few wind gusts going up, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the forecast said we should have a good day.

By the time we hit the saddle between Sherman and Sheridan the wind was really blowing and a standing cloud had enveloped the top of the mountain.

The snow from the days before started just above the saddle and was pretty slick with the heat/freeze of the day before. Although I though of crampons (we had them with us) that's as far as it got and the trip up to top continued.

The wind intensified and now had snow/moisture in it making for what could be called semi-epic conditions, especially in the summit ridge climb where the exposure to the west is something to really consider with the rime icing on the rock. By this point the side of my face and fingers (in spring gloves) were numb.

We made it to the summit and waited for three guys from Kentucky who were right behind us to take pictures.

Took just under 2 hours, but the climb down on the icy rock was more intense.

Got home about 12:30, had a soak and got ready to head for Telluride the next day.

Oktoberfest Breckenridge Again

This year we planned a more extended visit to Breckenridge's OktoberFest and Bill and Cathy from Minnesota came out to attend also. Good plan, but the weather didn't really cooperate as it rained off and on all weekend.

Silverheel's in background & beetle kill tree cut in foreground.

We camped out in Frisco at the only campground still open. Luckily we had the Camper as snow had been hitting the top of the peaks since mid-week.

Beer Line

Even with the rain the crowds were larger then last year when there were perfect conditions.

The beer thought was great and the sausages hot so as long as your rain gear was working it was a lot of fun.

I even ran into an old buddy from working days...actually the first person from work I have run into since retiring.

Next weekend is Harvest Fest at the Abbey in Canon City, but before then Bill and I are going to go up a 14er (Sherman) and then we are going to Telluride for a few days.

More Bears, so far today two encounters

Marlys and I are really having bear encounter this year. Today alone we ran into a bear sitting in a gambel oak eating up by Myron's place. When it spotted us it looked like a kid caught with their hand in a cookie jar.

It climbed down and moved over to the road, so we though it maybe smart to not keep walking towards it and turned around, cutting our walk short.

This was the biggest one I have seen so far this year. It was a cinnamon color and maybe a full size male (boar).

After we got home I opened the doors (front and rear) to the shop and after about an hour Hallee started barking out back. I went to see what was going on and another big black bear was sitting and eating acorns(?) off a gambel oaks behind the slash pile. It didn't look big until it moved and I got a profile view. It was another good size one.

It stopped once Dusty ran up and squared off about 20 feet from it, then it saw me. We looked at each other for a few, then it ran uphill. But not far because I saw the bushes on the other side of the patch moving and it was right there. After a while it moved up toward the house.

Discovering Fremont County

Marlys and I discovered a whole new part of Fremont County as part of the monthly Search and Rescue team training...Shelf Road. This area in northern Fremont County, on the way to Cripple Creek, is a nationally known rock climbing area with over 1500 documented routes. It is a pretty incredible area.

We got to spend Friday night at "The Banks" area doing night time high angle retrieval system (mainline, belay and pig rig) practice on the limestone ledges and then we did more of it during the day on Saturday. I even got to rappel down a 80' cliff. Marlys is going to wait on that fun, since she is only 7 days removed from having her gall bladder removed.

We bivouaced in the back of the pickup, under the tonneau cover, for the night and got to use our new Jetboil stove on Saturday morning for coffee and oatmeal. I give the Jetboil a big thumbs up. One of the team members even made a boil in the bag omelet (See Tom and Joy Julkowski's recipe in the 2008 Anniversary post) in his, pretty versatile.

Walking through the parking lot there were people from all over the county, as witnessed by their license plates. It was also different being out in a remote area and hearing voices bouncing off the walls from climbers in different parts of the area.

By 4pm we were beat and headed home, but the training wasn't over as we were scheduled to get "lift ticket" training with the Flight for Life folks on Sunday to certify us to ride in a helicopter into and out of a search area during a mission. Alas, when we showed up at Canon City Fire Station 1 the training was cancelled because the chopper was needed. We are re-scheduled to take the training in October.

Busy weekend, but next weekend is Oktoberfest in Breckenridge!

A bear showed up at the house this morning

About 11am this morning a bear took a spin around the house and the shop, stretched a few times them mosed over into the clearing south of the shop, just as Marlys friend Mary Lynn drove in from Denver for lunch. According to her,  Dusty was having a stare down with it from the road to the house.

The house at Pinon Rock is finally done!

Yesterday was one of those rare rainy ones up here in the mountains. For some reason knowing I was going to be inside, and instead of surfing the inter-webs (just for you Derek), I got out the caulk gun and finished caulking the woodwork in the bedrooms and master bath.

That may sound pretty mundane and it is, but that was the last remaining item on the house build punch list.

It only took me five years to get to it, which gives you some feel for the type of job it is, but damn it feels good to finally have the house done.

The quasi-Molesworth Chair - As good as it is going to get.

Well...after 3 prototypes this is, what it is. It looks good, but the next one I would make a squatter.

Shane at Timberline did a nice job on the cushions. I wish, I had had more experience before doing the apron and the arms.

I still may add fringe in place of the black banding on the arms as that is more in keeping with a Molesworth, but alas I ran out of materials.

Speaking of materials. the wood is the left over from a tree, I took down last year, except for the Aspen columns on the back that came from a local sawmill.

The Padauk strips on the back were needed to add width, but they turned out real nice.

The weave is an authentic Chimayo from New Mexico, just as with the original Molesworth's.

Marlys did the engraving and painting of the buffalo head and arrow.

Newest Version of the Bottle Openers

The bottle openers have gone through a few versions since I first read about them last year, and started making my own.

I have moved away from the magnet to hold it to the refrig because they weren't strong enough and folks wanted to put them other places. So scrap the magnetic handles and back to the lanyard.

I am still using scrape wood from the shop and in this assortment we have from left to right: paduk, paduk, paduk, yellow pine (left in the ACPOA dumpster), yellow pine, tiger maple, tiger maple, purple heart and koa.

The sander, I got from Bill in LaPorte, works great to get them into shape, but there is still about an hour of hand sanding involved.

I have been finishing with three coats of hand rubbed lacquer, using a paper grocery bags for the rub out and then a couple of coats of wax.

The stainless steel fender washer has worked well for prying the cap off, so that's a keeper.

But what to do with all of the magnets.

A suggestion from Chris on the SAR team was to bury them under the washer to hold the cap from dropping on to the ground. It works great! After popping the cap it stays in the recess until tapping it on the edge of the garbage, or a finger and then it pops out.

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.