1200 Miles West

If you want to come over and visit, we’d love to have you you stop by for a drink.  Just keep in mind that the temps are best after 7pm.

Mike installed this shoe rack for me last weekend.  It’s nice to have some organization in the closet, but it still doesn’t accomodate all of my shoes…

Oh yeah…there’s also 10 or 12 pair under the bed.

Maybe I should see someone about this…

This weekend we finally broke down and bought a piece of artwork for the family room.

Let us know what you think.

Mike’s birdboose was auctioned off on Thursday night at the Denver Botanic Garden’s Annual Birdhaus Bash.  The winning bid was $125, which isn’t bad!

My bird hosue wasn’t in the live auction, but someone purchased my contribution for $80.   Not bad!

Mike and I are already looking forward to next years event.

Friday night we invited Sara over for a BBQ and some fireworks in our backyard.  One of the benefits of living in Unincorporated Arapahoe County is that we are allowed to set off fireworks, but only if they remain on the ground.

After enjoying a fine dinner cooked entirely by Mike on the grill, we enjoyed some CO grown cherrys while we anxiously awaited the fireworks.  Actually Mike was the eager one as he had gone out earlier in the day and bought a small asortment to help us celebrate the 4th.

Within the first five minutes, Mike had already exploded a firecrack on my NEW patio.  Thankfully the remaining fireworks were set off in the yard.

Most of the neighbors were out on their decks and patios enjoying the display not only in our backyard, but also downtown.  We’re not sure which displays we could actually see, but we’re fairly certain we saw pieces and parts of the shows down at Coors Field and at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

All in all, it was a great night spent with a good friend.  Thanks for joining us for a fun hike and an enjoyable evening.  Thankfully Mike (or Mikey Three Thumbs as we were calling him) didn’t set anythng on fire or lose any fingers!

On July 4th, we headed up past Georgetown to check out a new trail with our friend Sara.  I gave Mike a hard time as the book listed the hike as 3 miles, which after last weeks hike seemed like a waste of our time.  He proceeded to remind me that we were at a higher altitude and that we could extend the hike up to a second lake if we wanted to.

The first part of the hike actually had us descending, which is great when you start out but what you have to remember is that the last piece of your trek back to the car will be uphill.  Here’s a snapshot that I grab during the first half mile or so.

Starting out at 11,000+ feet we knew it would be a little chilly as we gained elevation.  The trail was a little bit wet and there was still snow in places.

The same book that we used last week listed this hike as moderate, but due to the higer elevation we had to stop and catch our breathe a few times.  Once we reached the first lake we took a break and enjoyed some trail mix and spicy pumpkin seeds.

We decide to push ourselves a little more and head up to the second lake.

If you’re wondering, yes…his foot did get wet!

While climbing down, Mike and I decided that we’re going to make Mt. Bierstadt our first 14er.  It’s the mountain to the very right in this picture.

We estimate that it will take 6 to 8 hours to climb.  Wish us luck!

I’m delinquent in updating the blog as w hiked the South Chicago Creek trail last weekend (June 28th).  Mike doesn’t like to hike at less than 10,000 feet, so we headed up past Idaho Springs.

Trail Rating - moderate to strenuous
Trail Length - 5 mile-out-and-back
Elevation - 9,960 to 11,300 feet
Location - Mount Evans Wilderness, Arapaho National Forest

We had a rough start to the morning as the book were were using to locate the trailhead did not list the name of the street we were to turn on, so it took us an extra 30 or 45 minutes to figure it out.

Once we found the trailhead, we set out on our adventure.

I immediately realized that this was going to be a tough hike as we immediately started climbing and kept climbing for the first hour.  Good butt workout right?  You got that right!  If you figure that a standard flight of stairs is 14 feet, we climbed 95 floors during this hike.  Here’s a snapshot of one of the sections that we trekked up.

If you’re not an experienced hiker, note that the upper part of the trail is thick and requires that you follow the cairns left by the hikers who had previously hiked the trail.

While we didn’t see much other than a chipmunk or a bird, we did see some droppings…

Not sure what animal left these behind, but I’m going to study up on what to do if a bear attacks you just in case!

A picture from the top.

Overall, I believe that this is the most strenuous hike Mike and have ventured out on to-date.  Hopefully we’ll hit a few more before the Summers over!

If you’re headed up to the area and want to check out the trail, you’ll want to turn right off of Mount Evans Highway (CO 103) onto Hefferman Gluch Road - as seen here.

Clever idea, but I’m not sure if I’m going to run out and start a franchise!

One of the first upgrades we did to our landscaping was to add low voltage lights.  We decided to go with actual lights versus the solar option for the added effect and usefulness.  We’ll save the planet later by adding some solar lights to the farther reaches of the yard.

Erin picked out some nice classy looking lights and of course I then proceeded to do the hard part by by rooting around buring cable and installing lights in the 90 degree heat.

Nicely highlighting our container garden special from the nursery this weekend.

Nice overall view of the patio in the dark.  We’ll have to wait to daylight to show the actual details of the lights.  Hopefully no planes will miss DIA and end up in our backyard.