Forest Lakes Hike

On Sunday, Kel, Jon, and I took off for the Forest Lakes in the James Peak Wilderness west of Boulder. It was going to be another hot day in Denver so we thought it would be nice to get up to the mountains and get some exercise.

The James Peak Wilderness is different from much of Colorado in that it is filled with small alpine lakes and streams.

The wildflowers were also plentiful. Kel took this shot of Colorado Columbine.

Jon at Upper Forest Lake. Beautiful setting - lots of granite, waterfalls, lush.

The intrepid hikers at Lower Forest Lake. This shot was taken with a Gorilla-Pod. Good stuff. In all, we covered about 8 miles and were fortunate to be able to enjoy a cooler day in the mountains relatively alone.

For Christmas Jay surprised me with a session to get our family picture taken!  I have always wanted this and was very excited about it.  The hard part was scheduling the actual session-finally a year and a half later we were able to get in and get it done!  Our photographer, Jenna, was amazing!  We had a lot of fun with her!  If you want to check out the slideshow click here: 

Koko Video for Pops and Larry

I threw together a quick montage video of our Kokopelli trip in May. The background music is from The Last of the Mohicans. I'm not exactly a videographer yet (1st video), but it was fun...hopefully more to come with a little more polish.

Previous Weekend Epic Ride

I wanted to throw up some pics from my ride last weekend. I essentially made up my own route. In doing so, I covered roughly 40 miles, climbed just under 6000 feet, met some friendly mountain goats, and generally ran myself into the ground. It was awesome!

A couple of pics...

The Yeti rests atop Arapahoe Basin before 3000+ feet of descending down the Lenawee trail. It didn't really need much of a breather, but I did.

I needed another rest. As a reference, I was about half way done and started behind the mountain on the left crossing the face of the mountain on my way down.

This is the ridge I traveled along before dropping into Breck - great views in all directions.


I chased these goats down on the ridge. They had no fear of me and walked right up to check me out. They probably don't see many bikers up here.

It was an awesome ride and a great reason to go find a Garmin Edge 305, but I was torched by the time I hit Frisco after eating only a sandwich. I still had about 30 ounces of water left as well so I was a bit dehydrated. A stop at the Butterhorn Cafe fixed me up!

Kell Hittin the Trail

I started out this summer with a personal goal to do more hiking.  I have always loved hiking and getting outdoors and was excited about hiking new trails and seeing new county.  It wasn't long before I talked my friend Alli into making it her goal as well!  Because we are both in the educational field-we have the wonderful benefit of being able to get out there Monday through Friday when everyone else is sitting at their desk!  So far this summer we have done 6 amazingly beautiful hikes.  We have done: Evergreen Mountain Loop, Matthew Winters, Mt. Sanitas, Goat Mountain, Mohawk Lake, and Bridal Veil Falls.  It has been so great being able to get outdoors and enjoy everything that Colorado has to offer.  Our two favorite hikes are Mohawk Lake and Bridal Veil Falls, both of which are six or more miles. Today we conquered Bridal Veil Falls and it was just beautiful!  In just about 2 hours 15 minutes we hiked the 6.4 to the falls and back out.   

Weekend Round Up

Kel and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last Thursday by doing....nothing. I had class that night so I instead took Friday off and we spent the day together. We started the day picking up picnic items at Marczyk's Fine Foods in Denver. We then hung out at Wash Park for an hour or so and watched Maggie viciously protect our blanket and food from daring squirrels. After lunch we dropped off Maggie and joined the crowds in seeing The Dark Knight. It's an outstanding summer movie - very entertaining. We finished the day at Highlands Garden Cafe in the Highlands district. We sat on the garden patio surrounded by all kinds of foliage while we enjoyed dinner. The day was perfect for us. I had been out of town for 7 of 8 weekends so we didn't want to travel for our anniversary.

Saturday was pretty low key as well. I'm part of a team at my company that has entered the Colorado Relay. We'll be running from Georgetown, CO to Carbondale overnight in what amounts to about 175 miles. There are 10 of us and we'll each be running between 18 and 22 miles. We had a team run early Saturday morning at Deer Creek Canyon. I love running the trails in the mountains. After the run, Kel and I ran some errands, which included REI and some very "necessary" purchases. We finished with the big dinner mentioned in the veggie posts - ;).

Sunday was spent at Dicks Sporting Goods Field and the Mile High Music Festival. With 5 stages and over 30 bands, there was no shortage of good music. Our day was planned around the main acts and staying cool in the 100 degree heat. We arrived around 3:30 and watched the tail end of Colbie Caillat before catching the Flogging Molly show. Flogging Molly is an irish band that is great in concert because they bring so much energy. When they finished up it was time for the big acts. John Mayer started around 5:30 and went for about 2 hours. He's outstanding in concert and I would estimate there were 30-40 thousand people in attendance for his show. The night cap was Dave Matthews Band, which was an absolute spectacle. They are amazing. We didn't make it the whole show because traffic was going to turn into a demolition derby but we made it long enough to enjoy some of the hits and check off the Dave concert from the life list.

We had a relaxing but full weekend - can't wait for the next...

Veggies - Jay's Perspective

In my defense...

I love veggies. We also get fruit. And for 26 weeks. What's there to complain about? We can have roasted beets, roasted potatoes, roasted peppers, roasted kale, roasted onions.... As a matter of fact, tonight at Jay's Bistro - we'll be serving Roasted chicken stuffed with grilling onions, rosemary, and parsley with a side of roasted beets, corn on the cob, roasted kale, and mixed green salad. Summer in CO is goooood!

Veggies, Veggies, and lots more Veggies!

At the beginning of the summer Jay and I signed up for our very first CSA. For those of you who (like me) have no idea what this stands for-it is Community Supported Agriculture. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Jay mentioned we would pre-pay for a box of veggies each week and all we would have to do is pick them up on Tuesday. Sounds great, right? Each and every Tuesday Jay and I pick up our "box" of veggies. This past week, our box had 12 different kinds of vegetables in it! Incredible! When we are not eating veggies-we are searching for new ways to make them! It is a full time job...Although it is time consuming-we are eating very well and all organic. The task of consuming so may vegetables can be very overwhelming, but I definitely see a CSA in our future for years to come!

Easy is Good

After almost 4 years of (barely) updating my own blog, Kel and I are starting a new blog together on Blogger. This is so easy...amazing...we should have been doing this for years. ;) We hope to keep this much more up to date so stay tuned. Also - I want to welcome Kel to the blogosphere - I didn't know if I would be able to convert her and yet here she is nearly as nerdy as me.