the stormy blues, part 2

i had contemplated climbing deer ridge (8,700’) but it was getting late in the day and my gps batteries were on their death beds. i would have made the return into the night and would have absolutely needed my gps to make the safe trip. the ridge would have to wait until morning. in order to pass the time, i meandered around bb's campsite and found some awesome rock outcroppings to scramble. there never seems to be a shortage of giant boulders to scramble around whenever i decide to sleep in my car. the views were incredible from the point i climbed; better than any of the ranked peaks i’d been on recently. the scramble up required some attention and was good practice for the real deal 14ers on the horizon. but of course right when the money shot is happening over meeker, my camera battery dies. i don’t think you can imagine how pissed i was. back down.

some obstacles are actually fun!

last shot before the camera died

i bedded down in the back of bb by around 7:30 or 8:00 and fell fast asleep, but i tossed and turned, switching from hot and cool, paranoid i was being eaten alive by deer ticks. however i never did notice the rain in the night. i “slept in” until about 6:00 and promptly got on the trail to finish out the weekend on top of deer ridge. crossing the same “no crossing” sign as the day prior, i headed sse up deer ridge. there were some wet spots, some dense spots, some rocky spots, some scrambling spots, some steep spots, some airy spots, and some flat spots, though not many. there was a register and turns out no one had been up there since november of last year. not only that, but only 2 folks signed the register in all of last year. i marveled at the great land that we are so blessed to live near, then headed back to my car and civilization. another stop at meadow mountain café and then it was back on to denver just in time as it started to snow. all in all, 15.25 miles, 4,640’ elevation gain. phew, what a weekend. and bb survived, barely. i need to get her in if i’m going to be out there next weekend. no more of this 2.5k rpm crap. come on bb! come on ethan!

deer ridge - 8,700'



 

sign me up!



summit!



so now i sit here on my balcony, listening to sad indie music and buzzin’ from my pipe (my dad used a pipe, not that it justifies it), on a cool colorado spring evening, reminiscing a time when someone stood here next to me and said “i’m right here”. why can’t time stand still? why can’t a moment just live on? it did, for a while. maybe that is what heaven is, that one moment in life, repeating and repeating over and over. that would be a fine way to spend eternity, even if my body is in the mountain soil. not that there’s anything wrong with that either. please, if anyone is reading this, make sure my physical remains are placed in the earth of a cemetery deep in the mountains. somewhere where 4wd is recommended and preferably next to a pine in the shade. gilpin, boulder or summit counties please. someday i’ll have the time and money to arrange a location for my body to become one with the earth, but in the meantime i’m counting on you. suppose i should just update my will. but in the meantime…

in the meantime, i blog. my “arts and creativity” board member is shining bright. i recently took katie to the music man jr., put on by the kids at the studio school where she attends. it was very well done, although the set changes were a little annoying. they’d take a few minutes and one occurred every 20 minutes or so. the lead and most of the lead girls were awesome and made me forget that they were only 11. the “music man” had many lines and was so animated. i wouldn’t be surprised to see him on broadway someday. not that I’d ever see a show on broadway but maybe you will, and he will probably be there. katie wanted to sit in the absolute highest row up so the volume of the actors was poor. that, along with all the big words in the script, made for a slightly confusing story. i got the gist of what was going on but couldn’t follow the finer points of the story. i’m not sure if katie got it but loved it regardless. she especially liked when a bunch of the townsfolk came out dressed as indians and started dancing around. she said they look like choctaw. i’ve been reading john muir’s works (thanks ma!) and a couple others off and on. of course i’m still watching movies but lack the time or motivation to review them. recent watches: scanners (1981); elephant man (1980) – david lynch, anthony hopkins; sling blade (1996), delicatessen (1991), and un chien andalou (1928). i recommend all of them!

and of course i blog. it’s nice to have the time for it. having the internet would be nice but i make due. i think it would be more of a distraction and burn another hole in my wallet more than anything. i have nothing else looming for this particular member of the boardroom, unless you count my growing collection of outdoor signage. in fact i collected up two unnecessary signs this past week. i only take ones that are littered on the ground, or hanging to the tree by a thread and pointless in purpose in my opinion. for example, the one mentioned earlier where there were five of the same sign on one fence, within 30 feet of each other. there was one laying on the ground in jeffco on the way up coal creek peak that i wish i had taken. just think of the damage it is doing right now on the grass trying to grow right there. and in 200 years the tree root that won’t be able to penetrate the 8 inch metal plate. plants will die if i don’t do my part. i will never not take another worthless sign that i come across on my rambles. and plus what an inexpensive way to decorate my place! they’ll look good right next to the moose hide i just picked up. i wish.

so i should have known. those stormy blue eyes. a vacant seat is now open in the boardroom. i terminated a longstanding member, and then the seat was promptly and unexpectedly filled. then that board member up and terminated me. my partner left due to loss of interest in the ceo, his operation, and his other board members. she became unimpressed with him. it was a cold resignation. and then again, too many times had i been in her spot, delivering an emotionless request that the relationship seize from being. this was karma at its best. how my brother was right, karma came back around and broke my other leg. that’s how it feels. worse actually. i would rather have had my other leg break than lose this board member. so now the board is down to 9 members. i’m not looking to fill that seat any time soon, however the most latter member will have a longstanding invitation to return to the table. anyone else will have near impossible shoes to fill. qualifications: accepts ceo and other board members wholeheartedly, and is easily impressed.

my former partner still has some stuff of mine, despite two exchanges already. magazines, pillow, hoodie, mittens, and perhaps map and gps. it’s been made clear that i’ll probably never see these things again. i was told that maybe we’d meet again on the trail. perhaps. i can think of a few opportunities for that to happen. we’ll see. it’s bizarre how cruel i was treated, being kicked aside and cut off, when i’d given so much. punishment for nearly doing the same to the last chairman of the board. it still hurts like a mofo.

as an attempt to press on, i can report little success. the mexi joint’s 18 year old hostess is, well, she’s 18. there’s another little seniorita but she’s left for the day. a particular at work has caught my eye these past few weeks, although hardly anything catches hers. she’s quiet and seems to have no interest in forming relationships at work. she looks my age and out of my league. then again, so was my former partner in crime i thought. guess i had been right about that. there will be nothing like her again.

mtn girl

mtn man

the stormy blues, part 1

another early morning start. folks admire my discipline and drive. i figure, i’m already right in the middle of it so i may as well finish ‘er up. fifty-three boulder peaks now, as a matter of fact. many times that’s how i feel on the trail in the middle of a hike. i’ll be drained and wondering why i’m doing this, then i’ll just say that i may as well finish what i started. but i loathe waking in the morning. i’m not a morning person and love sleep, so much that if i lived forever, much of it would be done snoozing. bb started acting up while i was still in broomfield. she’s having trouble getting above 2.5k rpm’s. i’m hoping it’s just an oil change and not a new transmission. it’s both ironic and unfortunate that my old partner and i continue to have car troubles. nothing was open, so my options were to park at a car place and wait until they open, turn around and go back to bed, or keep going and pray for the best. needless to say…

i drove the buff highway through boulder and lyons, took 72 towards allenspark, and then a left at pine valley. it was a dirt road that gets rough, but not too rough. we parked on a saddle where it intersects with another 4wd road east. i was greeted by a beautiful colorado sunrise over a thin veil of clouds a couple thousand feet on the plains below.

this never gets old



i followed the road for a little while and eventually left it to head up the nw slope of taylor mountain (9,134’). it was a tough, albeit, short bushwhack. the views of the nearby snowcapped cd peaks would pop in and out of the trees once in a while, but for the most part this mountain lacked open vistas. a trail register greeted me and i was surprised to see folks on two occasions had climbed taylor this year. jennifer roach climbed it for the 2nd time in 2010. as i was putting the finishing touches on my own entry, i sensed i was not alone. i whizzed around and sure enough a furry, four-legged creature was within 20 feet of me. a curious red fox was looking for a handout, or just a friendly pat. he came closer and closer, ultimately coming with about 10 feet. i told the little guy that i had nothing for him. i’m not my uncle paul and have no pizza for you. sorry. you’ll have to move on. looking back i should have at least tried to pet him. goodbye my woodland compadre and thank you for the kind visit.



trailblazin'

hi friend! thank you for the visit.

this is for you

just for fun, i decided to keep going east to visit big john mountain (9,100'), in honor of my brother-in-law john. seriously, that’s pretty much the only reason i climbed it. it’s not ranked and was out of the way. it’s just an extra. like in gilpin county, only 22 mountains are ranked and count in my book, however i actually climbed 34. big j is just extra credit. the views were a little better and there was a faint trail i was on and off. the view to the eastern plains was hazy and to the east, partly cloudy. i signed the register, a notepad rolled up in a glass mason jar. 

big john mountain - 9,100'











i made it back down to bb and started back up, heading west now, for the toughest part of the day. olive peak (8,692’) was waay off. i went off trail for a way until meeting up with the taylor mountain trail. this took me down, down, down to rock gulch, where i turned left on the fox creek trail. the trail is awesome as it winds along rock creek below steep canyon walls. olive ended up being probably one of my most scenic hikes in boulder county. i came to confluence of fox and rock, and it was impressive!! fox was roaring through a mini royal gorge and there were steep towers all around. on one of those towers were 3 mountain goats checking me out and posing for pics.
 

fox creek and olive peak - 8,692'



rock creek



non-native mountain goat, not that i'm one to talk

i crossed fox creek on a wet log and started up olive’s slopes. olive has some fine slopes. but once you scale her backside, you find out that her peaks are actually pretty flat. i just found one little spot poking out and summited this biotch. i headed back down and somehow totally missed where i was supposed to go. i ended up going down an extremely steep and loose slope, and then following rock creek east for .6 miles along a faint, and i’m telling you very faint, trail. i had strayed way off course and it will probably cost me my life now. and along the way, as i followed this “trail”, i picked up dozens of deer ticks on my clothes and person. i had shorts on and no repellent and was being eaten alive! i flicked off maybe 30 or 40 ticks in a couple hours’ time. i backtracked and found my trail, making it back to bb without catching lyme disease – that i know of!

i did it my way

fox creek "trail"

you are not welcome here. and neither are you.

we drove on toward allenspark, stopping at the meadow mountain café for a delish grilled cheese con tomates y avocado, and a bagel con cream cheese for breakfast the next day. awesome little place, although always busy. i drove on to meeker park, just past allenspark (my future retirement community), and headed east on cabin creek road. there are lots of private property signs but luckily there’s also national forest access, i think. i drove up and down this road and back down the highway looking for a safe access point, but it was all to no avail. the best spot was going to be this small trailhead, labeled house rock road on the map. i parked at a small campsite before the road’s dead end. there were folks already parked up ahead, and all day, night, and into the next day, cars would drive up this short forest access road, pass me, then turn around to find another locale to camp. i kind of felt bad taking up a legit spot even though i’d be sleeping in my black beauty. and good thing because it rained and i believe snowed during the night. but there was no time to waste. i can’t climb olive without popeye (9,008’)! i backtracked along the road to find a place to cross cow creek and head sw toward popeye peak. for one of the first times ever, i had no other option but to pass a clearly marked sign telling me to stay the hell out. there were no homes around this wild area. the trip reports i’d read from previous peak baggers indicated the same predicament. so i speedily got out of sight of the road and started my ascent. there were some moose bones and after about a mile, i had a fine view of mt. meeker and twin sisters. my first hiking rains of the year started to come down. the return descent was uneventful.

to be continued…