Colorado Done, Utah Begun

Again behind on the blogging. We sped through the rest of CO in 4 days - stopping at Maroon Bells near Aspen, driving over Independence Pass to Buena Vista, staying at a campsite in Gunnison, before spending a full day at Black Canyon - both north rim and south rim. We got caught in a fun rain storm while in the south rim, that cut our sightseeing short. We then continued to Ouray, stopping for the night again at a KOA. We enjoyed a chat with the pancake cook - who has spent most of his life traveling, including 11 years around South America once he bought a sailboat. He was quite supportive of our travels.


We then went to Mesa Verde, seeing lots of deer throughout the park and even a gray fox. We drove late into the night during a lightning storm that was fun to watch from a safe distance, to make it into UT in the dark.

We woke up this morning seeing it for the first time and it was clearly a different landscape. We drove 10 more miles to get to Moab, where we stopped at the Visitor Center to get info on our next couple days. We went into Arches - and it was amazing! We did a 5 hour hike through Devil's Garden and are now resting after finishing a couple smoothies in a cafe in town. We're hoping to check in to the Lazy Lizard hostel (highly recommended to us) and doing another hike through Arches.

Colorado continued

I'm quite a bit behind on the blogging. Christina and I spent a few more days with my cousin Larry in Fort Collins, playing foos ball, going bowling, and having interesting discussions about marriage and internet privacy. Christina and I also hiked Horsetooth Rock and to Sky Pond in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and enjoyed some disc tossing in the school grounds near Larry's.



We left Jul 21 heading off to Breckenridge. We went to our trip leader's house to start prepping for our week long service trip into Eagles Nest Wilderness. We spent a week in the backcountry, camping at night and working in the day clearing trees from the Gore Range Trail (and also finishing up work on the Salmon Lake and Willow Lake trails).


Group Photo


Limbing


We got caught in a hailstorm on our day off


We got back last Saturday and enjoyed nice long hot showers before heading off to Lyons, CO (just north of Boulder) to meet Christina's brother-in-law's brother. He graciously hosted us for a couple nights, showing us around his hometown and worktown. As Boulder County Commissioner, he had a lot of interesting local tidbits to share. We also played with his neighbors, Heidi and Soren, and helped the 2 1/2 year old figure out how to use the slip-n-slide properly.

We picked up our Avis rental in Boulder this morning, ran some errands, and then drove southwest to Glenwood Springs. On the way, we stopped for a quick hike to Hanging Lake, which is gorgeous. We are in the GS Hostel for the night, which has free wifi access.

More details on the Wilderness Volunteers trip, FC and Lyons will come later. For now, check out some of the pictures online.

Fort Collins catch up

My last few days in CT were good - getting in some good family time and some more blueberry time.

My dad and I drove to Flushing to pick up some chinese groceries and then he dropped me off at La Guardia. It always strikes me how old that airport is. I flew into Dallas/Fort Worth, which is very modern. Got meself a samich and then was on my way to Denver, where I met Christina (flying in from CA) and my cousin Larry. He drove us to his place in Fort Collins, about an hour north.

We spent this morning rafting on the Poudre River - not really recommended as a July activity - rapids are way better in June. But we wanted a lazy day to ease into the higher elevation.

We're off to get some shopping done to pick up some gear for our upcoming trip.