Monday, September 28, 2009
I write (ok, type), this entry on the plane from Denver to Baltimore where I will meet my connecting flight. After a long summer in the mountains, which flew by (despite spending all my time being spent on a massif, where time for it passes so slow), I’m headed home in time to see the colorful fall of New England. I have to say, it will be a nice change to see trees other than conifers and aspen (though the aspen were beautiful the last few weeks). Well, I suppose I should buckle down now and start saving for my next trip and getting some research for it done.
Last Saturday was not the most productive day. I believe I just did some cleaning, a run and workout in the morning. Then for lunch and in the afternoon I hung out with this young man Chris, who had helped me with my federal resume, which I will eventually be able to send out. We did this short, easy, off the beaten path hike. Then went to Nepal’s for some Chai tea.
Sunday, I went with Sam to Dream Canyon for some sport climbing. It’s a pretty nice area there, with a stream right next to the climbs to jump in on overwhelming hot days. The rock was solid, many of the routes we tried were fantastic. I lead my second 5.11 (b), which was this burly route with a roof. It was called something like Funky Monkeys. I didn’t even climb this one on top rope first or watch Sam do it first, though I will confess I didn’t get it clean (but I will note that Sam didn’t either). After we were finished climbing, we stopped my Walt and Sally’s for a short while since they were just up the road and it was my last chance to see them. We ended up staying for dinner. They’re working on winterizing they’re tent-which gave me an idea for the tent I ended up buying on the Internet several days later.
Monday for work, the whole crew was supposed to head up and around to Shadow Mountain on the West side, to have a big bonfire to burn the two privies we took down a couple of weeks earlier, but unfortunately Trail Ridge Road was closed do to snow (supposed to get 6-16 in, was getting a bit excited, but the we got almost nothing, especially down in Estes). So instead we hung out in the cache, cleaning and painting.
Tuesday, our last chance to go to Shadow Mountain, stolen from us again, because Trail Ridge Road was still closed and talk of storms still stirred. Most of the crew was then sent on the wonderful duty of hiking several loads of crap out of the composting privies at one backcountry campsite. Kevin and I however, had the worse duty of doing computer work all day-trying to sort through backcountry campsite photos for the backcountry campsite book. This was the most boring day of all our workdays this summer. I wouldn’t have volunteered if I knew everyone was doing a hike the next day no matter what job they were given Tuesday. But I thought at the time, that the people who did bookwork Tuesday would switch jobs on Wednesday with the Tuesday hikers, and just clean out a different privy. I chose Odessa privy over Upper Milner’s. That day reminded me that I would never be able to stand a desk job. I would lose what little sanity I have.
But of course, Wednesday, everyone ended up hiking. Luckily though, I got on the good hike. Three people went to hike out some waste from a different compost privy, while the other lucky three (myself included), got to join Tara on a nice long hike to inspect campsites. Starting at Longs Peak trailhead and ending at Storm Pass trailhead (about 10ish miles). We hiked through a small snowstorm over Granite Pass, and the snow coated peaks where beautiful. My pictures sadly do not do it justice.
That evening, I went to Jim’s house, split some wood, did a little research, and enjoyed dessert with Jim at Oskar Blues (the first restaurant we ate together at after our first adventure).
Thursday was my last day of work, only no work was involved. First we went to an all staff meeting, where they talked about H1N1 (noting that it’s bad to cluster a lot of people in one room together-“starting after 10:00 am today”), they gave an award to someone for something, and then the interesting part-we watched a preview about the new series on National Parks coming out on Pubic television.. After the meeting, we cleaned out our lockers, handed in our keys, signed some forms, went out to lunch at Nepal’s Café, and did some last minute cleaning. I started the sad, and tedious job of packing and cleaning.
Friday, though the weather didn’t look promising at first, it turned out to beautiful day (and I’m happy to say the two days after that were clear, warm and beautiful as well), and Sam and I got a full day of climbing in at little twin owls-a 5.6, 5.9, that brutal 5.11 a finger crack where I think I damage to my nerves in my hand a second time, and a 5.11 c (twice) with sharp painful holds in the beginning. After that, Sam wanted to go Bouldering and I thought I was up for it, until I tried a problem I did the day before and I could no longer do it because of fatigue and the pain throbbing through my raw fingertips. I gave up quickly. That night, I went to the Rock Inn to hang out with Christina, Garritt, and Brain Drew.
Saturday morning, I went for a run, packed up my bike (which took forever) and met with the Hills family in the afternoon. We dropped off my bike at the UPS store and then went to lunch, before heading for an easy, though beautiful 8ish mile hike by Emerald Lake and Lake Hayaha. It was a stunning day. After our hike, we went to eat dinner at Napel’s Café, which was unfortunately packed and short on staff (we waited a bit long for a dinner I believe we were all very hungry for, though it gave us time to talk). The food was delicious though when it finally arrived.
Sunday, I joined Kelly and Rohan climbing at the Iron Clads. It was a slow start to the morning, for we stopped at Kelly’s friend’s house, where they were waiting for some others. We spent a couple of hours there, and conveniently, Jim lived right next door, so we stopped in. Little Rohan and Phelan (find out it’s Gaelic for wolf) got to see the reptile room. They were absolutely ecstatic. Jim then joined us climbing-his first climb since surgery on his shoulder about 3 weeks before. Of course he starts off on a challenging 5.10. But he did well, shoulder was just a little soar and he was happy with his progress. He then left us to work on his book (which he’s making great progress on). Kelly and I did two more climbs together, while Phelan and Rohan had a blast playing together (a few tears hear and there, but that’s to be expected). The two of them even had a little screaming competition at one point. That night, I had dinner with Kelly and her family.
4:30 Monday morning, Terra arrived to pick me and all my luggage up, and we headed down to Denver. While driving through downtown Estes Park, I saw my first bear of Rocky Mountain National Park (figures all the time in the backcountry I would never see it). He was a big one. We watched him for a few minutes wander the streets, until he ran down a back alley, before we continued on our drive.
