Indian Peaks Wilderness Area

These are some pics looking to the west from Mount Audubon. Geologically speaking, the east faces of these mountains are much more rugged than the softer sloping north and west faces of the mountains because of the glaciers that have passed over these mountains several times, many, many years ago... And I quote... "The underlying rock of the Indian Peaks area is 80-90% Precambrian biotite gneiss formed approximately 1800 million years ago. The area has since been reshaped by at least six glacial sequences dating back 15,000 years.

Vista View....

And finally, from that same alpine meadow, this is the view to the northeast. Way up in the distance would be Rocky Mountain National Park, but the area you see closeby is the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, an area filled with awesomely rugged peaks. Matter of fact, I have a good pic of some of the more rugged peaks, that I will upload momentarily. Aren't I doing awesome with adding images today? It's a feast for the eyes!

My friend, Marmot...

This is Marmot, the marmot. I met him atop an alpine meadow on Mount Audubon while dining on trail mix and a granola bar. (No yogurt, Todd...) This is the first marmot I've ever seen, and I was very excited to meet him, as I've been dying to see one ever since we got out here.

Some photos....

So, here's a pic of my cutie-pie kitty, Mikey, who apparently was just too dang tired to STAND up and drink his water. So he plopped himself down on the floor and lapped it up. For all the cat lovers and Mikey-lovers: Isn't he adorable? Dog lovers, I don't want to hear any comments.

More on awful reality tv...

Does anyone watch 'celebrity fit club 2'??? Okay, I know it is totally an awful show, but I still have got to watch it because of that freak, Gary Busey. He is a nut.

NUT
N-Neurotic
U-Unstable
T-Terrestrial
NUT

If you've seen the show, especially the first episode, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Correction...

I knew when I was typing "Israelian," something was goofy. I meant "Israeli". Just wanted to let ya'll know I'm not a total dope.

Laguna Beach Season 2!!!

I am so psyched. The 2nd season of Laguna Beach is on July 25th! Yay! I couldn't sleep in this morning, so I got up and to my delight, there is a Laguna Beach marathon on MTV right now! Gilad is coming on in 15 minutes, though, so I must go sculpt my body with the Israelian Stud Muffin at that time.

I'm very excited. Later this week, we're going to St. Louis for the long weekend (camping and staying with Rob's parents), then later that following week, we're going to drink some massive amounts of Budweiser with Todd in the Ozarks. I'm so looking forward to everything.

I have a new love...

Yes, I've found a new love and Rob knows about him. Actually, Rob introduced me to him last week. His name is Gilad. And he's sculpting my body into a new and better form. Okay, okay... Gilad is dubbed the "Israelian Stud Muffin" and hosts a variety of workout shows on Fit TV. Basically, they totally rule and really kick my butt. Alright, enough of my love of Gilad...

It's been hot here. Really hot. We just went for a bike ride to this pond by us, and I turned a few shades darker in like 30 minutes. The intensity of the sun out here is nuts.

Okay, I gotta get some work done now. Wait. No. Gilad is coming on... Must hang with Gilad for a while.

A Haiku For You (well, mostly for Todd)...

Budweiser is good
It's yummy-Todd thinks so too
Go drink some today.

I drank it last night in honor of Todd. For some reason, I just was in the mood for Bud, perhaps it's the upcoming Ozarks trip or maybe I was just really missing my super cool friend, Todd.

Anyways, last night we went to The Soiled Dove to see Tender Trio (dude from Spacehog and dude from Blind Melon and some other dude) and Esthero. The show was pretty sweet. Tender Trio was cool and Esthero was definitely cool to see in concert. I didn't know what to expect seeing her, but it was different from any shows I've been too. Since her music is more hip-hop, dancy, the crowd in some ways reflected that. For instance, in front of me were two sluts that were getting hit on by some macho man and a gay guy, and they didn't even pay ANY attention to the show. They were too concerned with playing with their cell phones, taking pictures and getting phone numbers. They annoyed the crap out of me. The Soiled Dove was a pretty cool venue. It reminded me of the hall that you would see a performance of "Grease" on a cruise ship. Okay, not in a bad way like that, but it was interesting, lots of tables, tons of chair, and waitresses coming around. Rob thought I was nuts for thinking it was weird, but come on, how often do you go to shows and sit the whole time? Or how often are you at a venue where the chairs outnumber the attendees?? (slight exaggeration)

On the ride home, STP's "Plush" came on and I belted out the whole song, practicing for our upcoming camping trip to Gillespie... Then "Girls just want to have fu-un" came on, and I sang that one too... just because.

Itchy or Scratchy???

Either way, I'm freaking dying over here. I'm itchy from head to toe, and scratching ain't helping. What is wrong with me?

holy crap

I had the doorbell ringing and pounding on the door at 720am this morning. The pounding sounded like the police were at the door and were about to bust it in. I woke up abruptly, freaked out, thinking that the building was on fire or that one of our neighbors was hurt or in trouble. I run down to the door. I open the door. No one is there. There's a tag on my door and a FedEx van driving away. Actually, a Budget Rental Van was driving away. Apparently the FedEx van was in the shop. Who knows. Luckily, he turned around and saw me standing in the door, with my CarrotTop hair and dazed and confused eyes, and came back to deliver the package. I think this guy was new, because according to new FedEx policy, they leave packages without signatures at residential addresses. UGH. Needless to say, it took me a good long while to get back to sleep!

That's all...

My dogs are barking....

That was some hike- 8 miles, 3,000 feet elevation change. I know numbers don't mean much if you haven't really hiked in the mountains before; it really was a LONG and steep climb up and down. I have blisters on the back of my heels the size of quarters, and quite possibly every muscle in my body is aching and sore. I must say, I don't think I could have done it without my trekking poles and my new hiking boots (those saved my ankles big time). Even with my super heavy duty hiking boots on, hiking over a trail that's made up of primarily rocks is a killer for the pads of your feet, ankles, knees, and just about every other muscle and joint in your body. I saw some people, both older and younger, doing the hike without trekking poles and even in just regular gym shoes, and also, I saw an older man running the trail. I repeat, RUNNING. I was lucky to crawl! No, really, it wasn't that bad, I was just amazed at the stamina and athleticism of some other individuals on the trail.

Anyways, the bummer of it all is that I didn't even go up to the top of the summit. Rob did, but I was about 100 feet from it and was freaking out by all of the rock scrambling that needed to be done to get up there. Unstable boulders and rocks apparently are NOT my thing. That, and carrying a pack and being completely exhausted and sore from the ascent... Anyways, even though I didn't get all the way up, I got some awesome pictures, which I'll post soon. And I got a lot farther than I thought I was going to get- it's amazing to come out of the timber and look at this mountain you're supposedly going to summit, and the people on top of it are the size of ants. Seeing that and it was looking like there were going to be some storms coming in, we almost turned back about 1/2 way up there, but we pressed on, and I'm glad we did.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, we stopped for lunch just before the final ascent on a saddle between the summit and another smaller peak, and got to see a real Marmot about 10 feet from us. Marmots are kind of like groundhogs or prarie dogs or something. I don't know what they are, but they are cute and I got some pics of him as well.

Well, I have a feeling I'm babbling and my thoughts are not in order, so I must stop... The end.

Sorry!

Okay, it's been way too long since I've last wrote... I heard through the grapevine that my lovely aunt, Julie, has been upset that I haven't updated. SORRY!

What's been going on, you ask? Hmmm... Let's see..

First off, I'd like to mention that on 'On Demand' (through Comcast Cable) there is a station called "boomerang" which is the Cartoon Network's old school cartoon station. Maybe you get the real station, maybe you don't, but nonetheless, I was in cartoon heaven last night watching the Flintstones and the Jetsons! I never noticed this before, but Jane Jetson is pretty hot.

We celebrated the 4th of July in true Colorado-fashion. We went west of Boulder to hike up a short trail to the top of Bald Mountain, where we hung out to watch all the fireworks in the area. It was pretty awesome- we could see all the fireworks going on from Boulder to Denver, in addition to towns north and east of Boulder. It was pretty amazing. We hiked down with our new headlamps (I was so psyched to get to use those!) and took a different way home, discovering a whole new part of Boulder, which totally cemented my feelings of love towards Boulder. It really is a great town.

Speaking of Boulder, we were in town last weekend, I think, and found an awesome vintage store that had super cool (and really nice quality and condition) vintage furniture. They had a few Eames chairs, some amazing Danish furniture, and they also showcased some awesome local, contemporary artists on the walls.

On to other things of note... I'd like to congratulate my former co-worker for quitting that place we both lovingly refered to as "hell", and it seems my leaving has caused quite a chain of events... After he quit, they fired the girl they hired to replace me! Sounds like that place is going down the drain, I can only say I wish I would have left there sooner than I did!

Tomorrow we are planning a moderate hike up to the summit of Mount Audobon, which is west of Boulder. I believe it's a 7 mile hike with an elevation gain of 3K feet, so it should be a good hike with some spectacular views of the Continental Divide and the Indian Peaks WA.

The power seems to be going off and on. Could be that the daily thunderstorm is coming through.. Well, not even like it rains, it just gets dark, windy as all heck and cool out, which is usually welcome since the high today was 98. Sorry if there are some misspellings or grammatical errors today, I'm not going to proofread this one. :)

POP QUIZ: What IS the Continental Divide? (and don't google this, you internet savvy fools!) reason I ask, is I didn't know what it really was until a couple months ago, and I must say, it's moderately interesting, if you're a geek like me.

Dillon Rules!

This weekend was a good-ol' outdoorsy type of weekend. We started on Friday after work, going on a difficult hike west of Golden. When I say difficult, I mean it- I am still sore from it! Lots of steep portions of the hike and the overall hike was probably 7 or 8 miles. I was definitely feeling it the next day!

Saturday we headed up to Dillon Reservoir (in the mountains, about 1 hour 15 mins. away) to kayak and camp. We lucked out and got a campsite super close to the water, so we were able to just walk our kayaks down to the shore and get in the water. The lake is really big and surprisingly quiet, considering the size and location. We shared the lake with a few other kayakers, some sailboats and the occasional pontoon and fishing boat. Anyways, the campground was pretty nice, with the exception of our neighbors to one side of us, and their poor, pathetic dog, 'Tiny'. We heard the word 'tiny' probably more than 250 times over the course of the weekend, because they were too DUMB to put the freaking dog on a leash and obviously too DUMB to train the dog to listen to them. Not the dog's fault for wandering around, but the owners were just freaking ignorant. It says at the entrance of the campground that all pets must be leashed. Just because the dog was the size of a rat, doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be on a leash... Anyways, I just felt bad for the dog and our other neighbors with awesomely well behaved dogs on leashes, because Tiny kept going up to those dogs and barking at them.

Enough of me harping on our dumb campsite neighbors... It's hot here this week, like 90˚, but no humidity, so it's totally bareable. Though, my plants outside are suffering- I am watering them 2-3 times a day, because they just start wilting so quickly! Poor things! Anyways, no big plans for this week, maybe a hike on Wednesday if the weather is good, and a short roadtrip for the weekend...

I 'Heart' Boulder.

Tonight, after work, Rob and I headed up to the foothills west of Boulder for a hike up a mountain. Well, it was more like a foothill, but it's called Bald Mountain. Why? Because it's bald... As in not trees up top. Duh.

Anyways, it was a very quick hike up and back (Sidenote: the views from the top were cool- you could see Denver and the Plains, parts of Boulder, the mountains to the west, south and north, the foothills, and the flatirons), so we stopped in downtown Boulder to check out the infamous Pearl Street Mall. I was expecting it to be all yuppified, and don't get me wrong, it sort of was, but the combination of numerous outdoors stores, street performers, and friendly homeless people made me realize that I love Boulder. They even had a outdoors store totally dedicated to women (you don't know how difficult it is to find women's hiking shoes at a place like Dick's or even REI, the selection just sucks). We had dinner on a rooftop deck of a sports bar/grill that ruled and then came home. It was an awesome night.

Summary: Jackie + Boulder = LOVE

P.S. Can you believe I am STILL wound up from the coffee I drank this morning? Doesn't make sense, I know, but I'm still wound. Maybe it's just the thin mountain air, but I DO make my coffee strong...

fun week...

Well, the week started out a bit bland, but on Tuesday, Rob got a call from Art from '...for all i care', a band he recorded back in chi-town, and they were all in town for a show! So, we met up with them to watch the White Sox/Rockies game at Coors Field on Tuesday night and went on to fadó after for some drinks. Wednesday night we saw them play at the Climax Lounge here in Denver, then Thursday night they all came over for dinner at our place. So, we had a lot of fun with the guys and gal of '...for all i care' this week, and also met a couple cool people they knew out here.

We had plans of climbing Mount Sniktau today, but the weather wasn't looking too promising. There was a chance of snow in the mountains overnight, and today, threatening storms in the afternoon. Can't wait for it to really be summer, when there won't be continual snow up at the higher altitudes! Anyways, so today was a day of running errands, dying my hair, and planting some flowers... oh yeah, and watching the Cubs beat the Red Sox... Again! I couldn't believe it. I was really torn watching it, not really knowing who to root for! We just ate some good pizza and now we're watching the White Sox. Guess we'll just be taking it easy tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get out and bike or hike or do something outdoors, though the weather isn't looking too promising! Guess we'll just have to wait and see....

Couple things...

First and foremost, if I have to see another six flags commercial with that annoying song and that even more annoying old guy, I think I may puke.

Secondly, we went to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail yesterday- very cool. Got to see some Kayak Rodeo, bouldering, and some other competitions, as well as collecting a large bagfull of free stuff.

Friday and Saturday were very blah- it was raining like nuts, flash floods all over the place, and in grand Colorado news tradition... Everytime the weather isn't sunny and gorgeous, they will report on the news NONSTOP for a minimum of 37 minutes. No seriously, on Friday, they broke into Oprah several times, informing children home alone to seek shelter in a room without windows, because there were tornado warnings, also showing pics of the flash floods all over, the traffic jams, etc. Then the news started at 5pm, and went non-stop, and I mean without commercials and all, for AT LEAST 37 minutes (I changed the channel at that point!). People out here really freak out about 'bad' weather!

Am I back in college??

Once again, it's been too long since my last post, however, it's been a very, very busy last couple of weeks, so that's my excuse! Rob's brother came in last Sunday and was here til Thursday. Then the long weekend proved to be very boring... So, I'll rewind to Ryan's visit since that's when all the excitement occurred.

We took Ryan up to the mountains for a drive on his first day here, traversing some crazy highways all the way up to Leadville, the highest incorporated city in the US. The scenic drive was sort of lame, but it was nice and relaxin, though I was working on my laptop in the backseat 90% of the drive! We checked out Vail as well, which was under some heavy construction and not as Disney-esque as it's been on past visits. We walked around the desolate town for a bit, (apparently May is the off-season there) and took off for home.

The next day, we embarked on a real adventure... A hike up a mountain! We hiked up Chief Mountain through about 3 feet of snow (for the most part, we were walking on top of the packed snow), and made it to the summit just in time. We were able to enjoy the views of Mt. Evans, the Continental Divide, and just a mixture of beautiful scenery for a few minutes, then heard some thunder, and thought we should get the hell down off the mtn!

The rest of the week we took it easy... Oh, we did have an absolute blast at Fadó singing along to some great Irish Drinking songs one night.

Anyways, the weekend was boring- weather sucked- cold & rainy. But, I did get to take some naps, read some of my book (that I started a year ago), and went grocery shopping at... yep, you guessed it, Super Wal-Mart.

Well, I must get back to watching the Cubs!

Oh man, I posted this and didn't even reference my blog subject... We have some new neighbors who are either in college or act like it and they were screaming obscenities out back and driving wrecklessly this afternoon. This will be a fun situation. Yay.

They say it's my birthday...

Lots of fun news! First off, my parents are in town and we've been having a blast. We went to the Rockies-Giants game on Wednesday and I got Moises Alou's autograph and a picture with him!!!! I was so excited, I was shaking! Secondly, last night we went out to dinner for my birthday celebration and we went to The Capital Grille- Yummy, yum, yum. It was divine. I think the best meal I've ever had. Great wine, great company, and great, great food! For dessert, we had an ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery- can't go wrong there! And I even got to open my presents a day early (or like a 1/2 hour early, is more accurate!). I got a nifty GPS unit that has all sorts of cool hiking tools on it, including an altimeter- I have been dying for an altimeter, despite not knowing how to say it's half the time. They rock. Also got some other stuff, but I won't bore ya'll with the details... (Not that the presents are boring, just that I have them and you don't!). Today, I'm getting some work done early and then we're going to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park this afternoon for some scenic driving, fishing, and exploring. Well, I better finish up my work... Oh yeah, and I'm officially old today. ;)

been busy...

wowee- I've been keeping busy. brief recap: NIN concert ruled, been busy working on my business, framed some cool prints for my office, painted a few paintings, went back to Chicago for a brief trip to go to a wedding and now, trying to catch up on all the other stuff that's been piling up! Well, that, and sitting on my balcony enjoying the gorgeous 80 degree & sunny colorado weather!

First off, I apologize to anyone we did not get to see while we were in Chicago. That just means you have to come see us! It was a crazy and hectic stay and as much as I am missing everyone, it's nice to be back home where I can get a little sleep and see my Mikey. The month of May continues to be busy from here on out as well, as I have my parents coming to visit tomorrow, my birthday is later this week (ugh, I am getting so old!) then Rob's brother will be out here. I love crazy, so I guess May is going to be my month.

I can not describe how beautiful it is here today. It's sunny, but not too sunny. It's warm, but not hot. It's breezy, but just breezy enough. It feels absolutely divine to be outdoors amidst my (dying) plants, herbs, and flowers on my balcony.

Well, I am sorry for not keeping up with my blogging as I should, but will try to be a little more consistent in the future!