my super authentic colorado weekend

my friend lily's dad was in vail for a lacrosse tournament that he plays in every year. he rents this really nice condo, and lily and he go to the tourney, then hike and raft after the games. this year i went with lily as a nice mini vacation (one of many so far this summer). i planned to do a 14er as well since i haven't done any yet this year. i was going solo since my regular 14er partner ditched me for the tetons... then we went rafting in buena vista, followed by a house party in vail complete with bbq and bluegrass. got up sunday to watch a lax game, go for a hike, and pick up my friend zach (!) who was visiting from alaska. then we cooked out and hot tubbed it up before driving back to boulder. whew!

the indoor pool at the hotel. you can barely see it, but to the right is the outdoor hot tub we used quite a bit in that short span.

sunrise over buena vista as i headed up the road to get to the trailhead. it's a 3+ mile trek up a curvy, one-way mountain road. quite the experience to do by yourself at 4 in the morning.

more sunrise on the trail.

when you hike by yourself, this is how you have to get pictures

of your own awesomeness.

this was around 5:15 am.

these were the first people i ran into on the trail, and father-daughter pair. the girl was in front with a makeshift splint and crutches. she was hobbling along the trail, and apparently she had gone off-trail to pee, and a boulder came out of nowhere and rolled over her knee and dislocated it. her kneecap was hanging off to the side. she seemed to be holding up fine, but yikes. it made me be extra careful since i was alone with no trekking poles.

on the way up. that's the summit on the right. you switchback up to the ridge on the left, then ridge walk the rest of the way up. it's a fun climb with lots of loose scree to watch out for. this is also the second time i attempted princeton because we tried it last year in early spring, and got turned back because of whiteout conditions and ice covering all the rocks.

me on the way down. happy to be going down. there were easily 100 people i passed going up. many of them wearing shorts, jeans, and no packs. it always amazes me how little respect people have for the seriousness of these mountains: how the weather can change in an instant, even a prepared hiker can dislocate a knee, or taking a tumble down the scree. oh well. natural selection at its finest, i suppose.

my awesome blisters after the hike. i never get blisters, especially not with those shoes, but i'm pretty sure all the loose rock and bending and twisting of my ankles made my shoes really loose. they felt fine, so i didn't tighten them up. this is the result.

a note: i picked these with a pin before we went rafting because i knew they would undoubtedly get popped when i jammed my feet in the raft. each blister resulted in a spray of at least 4 feet. i was pretty proud of myself.

lily getting ready to go rafting and looking hawt.

"these are expensive ray-bans, jackass."

lily soaking up the sun at her dad's lax game on sunday morning.

they won handily. (look at that hair!)

a nice aspen grove on our hike up to some falls near vail. a great hike

with some good people. a bit unnaturally green for colorado, but it was late june!

p.s. can i just say that i'm pretty proud of my summer so far that i can get so many pictures in one post that talks about one weekend? and in the few weeks since this adventure, i've done a lot more! stay tuned for the rest of my kick-ass colorado summer.

weekend with dre!

one of my closest friends from yellowstone came to visit a few weekends ago, so all the colorado yellowstoners got together and made our annual ruckus.

now that i'm fully recovered from that weekend, i can put pictures up.

dre, me, and pants at late-night happy hour sushi on thursday night.

a crappy picture, but we all look so cute, i had to put it up.

my awesome iphone panorama of the sun setting over

downtown denver from pants' and brian's sweet terrace.

an obligatory visit to the coors factory. this is my...8th time?

pauly wogs being, well...wogs on the way to the rockies game.

rockies vs. detroit tigers. we were the only tigers fan in a sea of rockies fans.

needless to say, we were not popular...

me and dre. that joy is real, people. you can't fake that.

a classic dre-wogs moment.

pretty sure pauly did/said something stupid, and dre reacted.

camping.

nature really does heal all wounds. i was feeling down and out and lonely and sad at the end of last week as evidenced by my blog post....

then i went camping in some of my favorite mountains in colorado with two of my friends and my lizzie dog. we camped and ate good food and hiked and bonded. it was great. i came out a happier and healthier person. i need to remember the outdoors as my fix and my savior in situations where i can't get out of my own head.

words can't do it justice, so here are some photos instead (all taken with my new iphone!):

my partners in crime:

lily having way too much fun pumping water.

dave looking like a rock star.

lizzles looking skittish and nervous (as always). she managed to butt-down run back and forth on the snow and had the time of her life the whole hike. she's definitely a snow dog.

pumping water. i remember being so happy at this moment. a nice rushing creek, sun on my back, long hike done, two good friends, fresh cold water, a warm hearty meal we would soon cook, and cold beers we would soon drink. a moment to end all moments. i remember thinking to myself, you need to store this moment in your brain and remember it whenever you're not happy. this will make you happy. it's worked so far.

nice sunset on a random mountain on the drive in.

mt. princeton

the creek where we filtered, surrounded by a green meadow.

lizzie and i on the ride back. we were both tuckered.

sunset over a lake on the drive down friday night.

training

i have some big plans in the works that will require superb physical conditioning, that includes endurance, strength, power, balance, and excellent cardiovascular health. having been sidelined because of a back injury for the past 3+ months, i'm just now cleared to hike and bike,

so it's go time.

i plan on developing a relatively regimented three-month workout routine that will get me into kick-ass shape. it will be a lot of hiking and stairmaster, but i've always liked those things anyway. i've done this a few times with injuries and periods of laziness: gotten out of it for a while only to come back with a vengeance, so i'm used to this sort of 3 months on-3 months off training. my mindset is incredibly positive, and i can't wait to start seeing results.

5 points to whoever can name the peaks below.

crutches

as i've gone out into the world on my own, i've left the comforts of my childhood home behind. of course i'm mainly talking about cable television. the last time i had cable was in the dorms in college when it came with the place. i never really watched it then; my roommate had a tiny tv that was pretty far away from my lofted bed, and i'm pretty sure she usually had the remote. that meant if she fell asleep, i would have to get out of my cozy bed and turn it off. not happening. (speaking of the lofted beds reminds me of a cute little story that involves my drinking too much and jewel being incredibly not happy with me for a few days, but that's best left for another time—or never.)

anyway, i haven't had tv for a few years, and it has made my life better and more involved and honestly richer. but then there's the time suck of the internet, especially now that hulu and netflix are in existence. it makes tv so accessible, that it's hard to turn it off. especially when you can watch exactly what you want, when you want it. i'm not saying that i overdo it at all—i probably have a pretty respectable track record relative to most other people—buuuut there are times when i come home tired from working long hours and just wanna plop down and turn my brain off by turning hulu on. a few days ago, i made the conscientious decision to cut down on my hulu/netflix/overall internet time. i made the same decision with facebook about a month ago, and i can already tell a difference in my brain function. spring and summer are here, and i want to do more. i want to sew, paint, draw, read, take pictures, write, sculpt (yay summer pottery class!), create, hike, run, play with lizzles, and have more adventures.

also, i want to be a more fun person.

it might seem like hypocrisy as you read this on a blog... that's on the internet. but i see this as a form of creative expression, and i'm actually doing something instead of just absorbing or viewing. i'm the creator and the protagonist.

i'll leave you with a picture of mine and a picture of a drawing of mine (nothing special, there was just nice light so i took a picture) as a reward for reading through this whole post.

back to my roots

i just signed up for a summer pottery class at the boulder pottery lab. i'm absolutely ecstatic. i majored in studio art with a concentration in ceramic sculpture in college. i haven't taken any real art classes since graduating, so it's going to feel so good to get my hands back in that clay. it's something i've really missed the last few years. i love throwing on the wheel, but hand building is also something i really like. the possibilities are endless. below are some pictures of a huge turtle i made my senior year. his shell comes off for secret storage. :)

big changes

i remember having specific thoughts this winter about what made me happy. usually i would be having a good day at work, and i would step away from my desk and think to myself, "i have a great life. i have a great boyfriend, a great dog, a great house, and a great job." and i was genuinely happy. of course those peak times were riddled with low points and so-so times, but for the most part, i identified those 4 elements as being a great source of joy for me.

as winter has given way to a wet spring, i only have one of those things left (luckily it's the great dog! and i still have my job—it's just been not so great lately), and the rest have gone by the way side. it's funny, though, because when i realized the other day that 3 of those exact elements that comprised my happiness were actually gone (or dramatically changed), my happiness didn't just evaporate. my thought process went something like this, "your boyfriend is gone, you have to leave your house, and your job isn't what you want it to be any more. oh... ok." and then it was immediately on to other things. i didn't dwell or even feel any bit of sadness. it just was. that for me is a really empowering realization because i've had the tendency to brood about and obsess over unhappy events/times in my life. like if i think about it enough and make myself hurt enough, it will be over sooner. (not usually the case)

either way, this is promising to be an amazing spring and summer, and i'm glad to be able to share it with y'all.

before hiking longs peak, rmnp, colorado, summer 2009.

hiking mt. clements, glacier np, summer 2008.

lizzles testing a product called "doggles" in the office, fall 2010.

Morning Thoughts

i woke up this morning with a really confusing and great feeling. you know that feeling you get in the summer where the world is full of promise and your days lay ahead of you for the taking? you can do whatever you want because you don't have any obligations; the weather is beautiful, and the sun rises really early. i woke up before my 7:30 alarm with the feeling that i had overslept because it was so light out. the thought eventually crept in that it's monday and I have to go to work, but for a few minutes—seconds, actually—it was incredibly peaceful and left my mind blessedly clear. it's barely spring here in colorado, but it already feels like summer in my mind.

p.s. this image is via Katarina 2353, but i will be adding my own images soon.