Greyrock Mountain

On Saturday we went hiking at Greyrock Mountain, which is about 10 miles up the Poudre River Canyon.

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I read about this on a local outdoors blog and it turned out to be a fantastic hike. We started along the river and climbed about 1400 feet over about 3 miles to the base of Greyrock itself.

From Greyrock Dec 2008

It was cold, about 25 degrees or so, extremely windy, and there was still a good bit of snow around. We were skeptical that the trial up would be doable in these conditions but we were wrong. It wasn't so bad until we got to the very top. The top was beautiful, with a small frozen pond and a few trees growing up out of the rocks.

From Greyrock Dec 2008

I was determined to get up to the very top because I wanted to see the view to the north and west. The wind up top had to be 60 or 70 miles an hour. We had crouch as we scrambled up the rocks. We were rewarded with quite a view

From Greyrock Dec 2008

From Greyrock Dec 2008

From Greyrock Dec 2008

From Greyrock Dec 2008

But we didn't stay long to enjoy it. The wind was too painful. So we made our way back down and took a different trail back to the car. We crossed several high meadows where we decided we would do some camping this summer. Not the best picture, but you get the idea:

From Greyrock Dec 2008

And more:

From Greyrock Dec 2008

We had gotten a late start and spent a little too much time enjoying the views, so we made it back to the car just before darkness. This is a hike we'll be doing again and again. Here's what the GPS track looks like in Google Earth.

From Greyrock Dec 2008

We don't need no stinkin' snowshoes

(by mark)

Yesterday we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park for our first taste of the high country in winter. We did some hiking at RMNP in August and we were eager to see it shrouded in snow. We don't own snowshoes (yet), so our plan was to hike or ski, depending on what the snow conditions would allow. It's been snowing quite a bit in the mountains of Colorado, but it is quite localized, so we weren't sure how much snow to expect. We discovered quite a bit of variation in the snowpack even within the small area of the park that we drove through.

Here's the view from Loveland just a few minutes from home. The big mountain in the middle is Longs Peak in the Park

From RMNP Dec 21

We entered near Estes Park, a cute little touristy town that is teeming with shoppers in the summer. It was pretty calm on this day. We decided to head up the Bear Lake trailhead, where we had been back in August. This is Bierstadt Lake, near Bear Lake, from last August.

From Colorado Visit Aug 2008

So we were expecting great scenery. We found a surprising crowd in the parking lot. It was packed last summer, but even on this 15 degree Sunday, there were 30 cars and a lot of people. Two groups pulled into the lot at the same time as us and they were, well, interesting. They had some serious gear (avalanche shovels, avalanche transponders, mountaineering boots etc.) so we wondered if we were getting in over our heads. It turned out to be fine and we think they were part of an avalanche class. We hiked up from Bear Lake to a series of small lakes, with nice views all along the way. There was a lot of snow--probably 2-3 feet--but the surface was packed and hard from snowshoers so we were able to walk on it without sinking in.

From RMNP Dec 21

We eventually got to the edge of Dream Lake where the view was just stunning.

From RMNP Dec 21

We were alone and we stayed a few minutes to enjoy the view. Cassie remarked that if this kind of scene doesn't make you believe in God, then nothing will. So then we debated the existence and nature of God for a bit. It is certainly awe-inspiring. The size and scale are hard to grasp.

Beyond this point, the track on the snow got softer and we began sinking in, so we turned around. It's a good excuse to buy some snowshoes. After a snack, we drove back down to a trailhead with a long dirt road to try some cross-country skiing. There was much less snow in that area, but just enough to ski. After skiing for a while, we photographed two scenes that we had photographed back in August. This picture appears at the top of this blog (cropped).

From RMNP Dec 21

And then we did a winter version of a previous self-portrait:

From RMNP Dec 21

From Colorado Visit Aug 2008

We'll be doing more outings like this, and with snowshoes in the futures so we will be able to go further. Here's a link to the rest of the photos.

Winter wonderland

(by mark)

Mild winters. Right. The Western US is in the grips of an arctic weather pattern right now. Officially, the low for Fort Collins yesterday (Dec 15) was eight below zero (F). But one weather station was reporting 15 below zero at about 9 am yesterday. For some reason, I find weather more and more fascinating, so I looked around the west (you can just click on points on the National Weather Service Map) for the coldest I could find. The lowest I saw was 35 below zero in Glasgow, Montana. That's cold.

The cold weather blew in on Sunday. On Saturday it was balmy (around 50) and sunny. So Cassie and I went out for our first bike ride together. We explored some of the bike paths here in Fort Collins, of which there are many. The city is really committed to bike transportation. After snows, the bike paths get plowed quickly and somebody de-ices the paths everyday (it may be volunteers). In addition, on the cities website there is a link to information on how to continue commuting by bike through the winter. Pretty cool. Anyway, on our ride we made our way up to the Poudre River Trail. The Poudre River is the focus of my work right now, so it's nice to see it. The trail follows the river toward the mountains and ends in Laporte, a little town northeast of Fort Collins. The scenery, as you might imagine, was gorgeous.

From Poudre Ride Dec 2008

From Poudre Ride Dec 2008

From Poudre Ride Dec 2008

From Poudre Ride Dec 2008

(that's an old irrigation viaduct)

We had hoped to do a larger loop, including some roads in the foothills, but the new arctic weather change started blowing in. The winds began to howl and we were practically assaulted by tumble weeds! We could see the storm approaching

From Poudre Ride Dec 2008

So we turned back.

By Sunday morning it was zero degrees, with about 2-3 inches of new snow. I took the opportunity to go hiking at Horsetooth Mountain. I was so bundled up that I was hot on my way up the mountain. Mine were the first tracks up the trail, so it was a pleasure. But it was too hard to take pictures with big gore-tex mittens on, and too cold to take the mittens off, so no pictures.

The bitter cold really isn't so bad. I'd take this weather--dry and zero degrees--over typical Baltimore winter weather (35 and wet) any day. Minus 15 may be a bit much, though. The dogs certainly don't like it, as the cold snow hurts their paws too much for them to walk. They're getting cabin fever so it's probably time for some dog booties.

That's all for now.

Settling in and getting out

(by mark)

We've been here 5 days now and it feels pretty good. We arrived on Monday, Dec 1st and slept on the floor of our new house.

From Move2008

Our stuff arrived the next day, we unloaded it (with the help of some movers), and unpacked most of the boxes. We're pretty well settled in now, with only some books and some framed photos to unpack (for which we need new bookshelves). Overall, the house is great--a nice change from our old house, which was charming but had it's challenges. So far, we love it here. We can walk to some needed places (like a grocery store), we have a nice park nearby, the people are friendly (our new neighbors brought us brownies on Friday) and, of course, the mountains are minutes away.

Monday and Tuesday were warm, sunny days (65 degrees or so). By Tuesday night it had cooled off and by Wednesday morning it was snowing. It snowed a good bit and by Friday morning, we had this:

From Move2008

And it was COLD (in the teens with a good wind). The perfect time to do our first XC ski outing as Colorado residents. So we went skiing Friday morning in the foothills, but we forgot the camera.

Today we went hiking in Lory State Park


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There was still plenty of snow and the scenery was fabulous. Here's a taste.

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

From Lory SP Dec 6 2008

We made it!

We got into Fort Collins last night and it feels great. There's much to write about and pictures to share, but first we need to unload and organize. The house is great and the location seems perfect (a nice surprise). For now, here's proof (note that Colorado is really big, and when we crossed the border on I-76 from Nebraska, we were still about 150 miles from Fort Collins and the mountains):

From Move2008

A Whole Lotta Iowa (by Cassie)

We started the morning in Bettendorf, Iowa with a trip to the local dog park to play in the snow.

From Move2008

Bettendorf is one of the "Quad Cities" (that include Davenport IA, Moline IL, and Rock Island, IL) that sit on either side of the Mississippi River. For those of you who, like me, were not aware -- John Deere World Headquarters is located in Moline. Also, jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke
is from Davenport.

It turns out that Iowa is not so flat (as I had assumed). The landscape is rolling and pastoral -- and kind of pretty despite its empty fields and monochromatic earth tones. One of the most impressive sights we saw was a huge wind farm off of I-80 near Council Bluffs (the last town before you get to Nebraska).

From Move2008

This whole windmill idea is not a new one to the people of Elk Horn, IA (the largest Dutch settlement in the U.S.) -- who cleverly tricked the nation of Denmark into selling one of its old broken down windmills to them as a way to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial.

Other notable communities in this part of Iowa are the Amana Colonies and Coralville -- "where some 1300 Mormon immigrants stopped to make camp in their migration of 1856 after having traveled west by rail to Iowa City, which was the westernmost rail terminus at the time. They built handcarts out of native woods during their encampment so that an adult could haul a 600-700 pound load and cover about 15 miles per day on foot in their continuing trek to Salt Lake City."

And, as we made our own trek across Iowa today -- I thought about those first pioneers and sincerely thanked God for U-Pack ReLoCubes.

From Move2008

Two and half states

We crossed two and half states yesterday:


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And it all looked about the same. But some of it was new. We saw Indianapolis (from the car):

From Move2008

From Move2008

We saw Peoria:

From Move2008

But for the most part, it all looks like this:

From Move2008

Wait, that's the picture of Ohio from my previous post. Anyway, the point is that the heartland of this country is vast. In many ways it is the least interesting part of the country through which to drive: it's rather monotonous and boring. But it's called the heartland for a reason. Cities like Indianapolis were the backbone of our industrial economy for many years, and all those farms continue to feed us cheap food, for better or worse. So it was still kind of interesting to see.

I wish we had time to visit some of these towns, especially where we stayed last night--Davenport, Iowa. Davenport is on the Mississippi River, across from Rock Island, Illinois. Both towns are shaped by their location on the river. I'd love to see more.

From Move2008

But we got Iowa and snow to deal with today. But first we'll take the doggies to local park for a little romp in the snow. Look for pictures tonight...

Road Trip.

Every relationship has that place – the place where you and your significant other suddenly recognize deep truths about each other while also discovering irreconcilable differences in your views of the world. For me and Mark, that place is the road trip.

Our most recent philosophical debate is the value of the GPS (global positioning system) Mark bought a few months ago. In Mark's view, the correct pronunciation of this navigation technology is "G-P-Yes!" – based on his use of the gadget for finding routes for bike rides and coffee shops when he is on business trips.

From Move2008

I refer to it as "G-P-I-don't-know" – based on the response I get when I ask "Where are we? Should I turn now?" and Mark informs me that he isn't sure because the GPS (instantly calculating our position using 4 orbiting satellites and complex math calculations) is "confused" about our location. At that point we are forced to go really high tech and get out the map and read road signs – or, as we did tonight, stop in a parking lot and call the hotel to ask a human being for directions.

From Move2008

Mark doesn't like it when I criticize the GPS and insists that I am judging it too harshly. I must admit that my sense of direction is well – really bad. Now that I think of it, I did once drive an entire loop of the Capitol Beltway in search of Ocean City. But how hard could it be to drive to Colorado really? We can follow the sunset.

Goodbye Maryland, Hello...Ohio?

The downside of moving to a great new place is that it means you actually have to move. You have to say goodbye to good friends and your family. You have to go through the hassle of gathering your belongings into some kind of portable container (in our case, "Relo Cubes"). You have to spend money. And if you're moving far, you have to do it in increments. Today, after a week of visiting family in Connecticut and Virginia, we completed the first increment of moving ourselves (and our dogs) to Colorado. That first increment has landed us in a Quality Inn right next to a large Budweiser brewery somewhere outside of Columbus, Ohio (and we're toasting our successful first day with a Sam Adams and Stella Artois).

Much of the route today was through familiar territory. I've driven out to Western Maryland probably about 10-15 times over the last 2 years, because of my work in the Potomac River Basin. It's a pretty drive, but, "been there, done that." We left Fairfax, VA around 9:30 a.m., so we were ready for lunch by the time we got to Frostburg, MD. We stopped at a familiar cafe there for lunch and took the dogs for a quick walk. Then it was back in the care to finish the trip to Columbus.

From Move2008

We decided to take a slightly scenic route (which became longer than we had planned--see completely exaggerated blog post by Cassie regarding my beloved GPS). The scenic route took us through the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. This is a beautiful area with many parks and typical eastern mountains. There was snow!

Funny story, when our Cassie's inability to grasp the wonder of GPS reached it's pinnacle, we decided to stop at a McDonalds to use the bathrooms. A bunch of old men were sitting a table in the restaraunt having a grand old time. As I walked by, one of them yelled to me, "hey buddy, you wanna eat?". "Huh," I said. He pointed to dozens of buy-one-get-one-free coupons they had. I laughed and said, "Uh, we already had lunch." He urged me to take some for breakfast tomorrow. As much as I like Egg McMuffins, I declined.

Anyway, we eventually made our way to Ohio.

From Move2008

From Move2008

This is what Ohio looks like (this may be a picture of Pennsylvania, or even Maryland, but I think it's Ohio).

As a water professional, the most interesting things were seeing the back end of Yougheniny Lake, the Ohio River (which I had never seen before) and the Muskingum River (also a first for me). Unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore these places at all. Maybe next time.

The dogs were mostly unfazed by the long drive and they've made themselves at home in the hotel room.

From Move2008

From Move2008

From Move2008

Animal farm and memory lane

(by mark)

We've been in Seymour, Connecticut for the last few days, staying with my parents and visiting with the whole family. It was the first time in a while that we were all together and it was a very enjoyable visit.

Probably the most prominent feature of the visit has been the animals. We brought our dogs along, and my parents have a miniature poodle and a kitten. The kitten, Mini, is a cutie:

From Move2008

Betty, our hound, is in heaven here because there are no furniture restrictions and my mother feeds her pounds of left over turkey. Here she after a turkey feasts and before a nap on the couch:

From Move2008

George, our mystery mutt, is in heaven because he loves cats. He has yet to eat one but he is obsessed with cats whenever they are around. This is pretty much how he has spent his weekend:

From Move2008

From Move2008

From Move2008

I've been back to my hometown many times since moving away. But this visit has felt more poignant since we're on the verge of moving really far away. I will almost certainly visit Seymour and the area again, since my parents are not likely to move away any time soon. But it has felt significant this time around. The house is next to a wooded park:

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I spent many hours roaming around those woods as a kid--playing hide and seek, riding bikes, lighting things on fire...you know, good ol' fashioned boy games. We took several hikes in the woods and it was quite nice to revisit my old stomping grounds. And I was glad to see the old land marks out in that park appropriately designated by the locals:

From Move2008

We also ran some errands to neighboring Ansonia, where we lived until I was nine years old. Ansonia is kind of a sad working class town, with all the industry long gone. It's strikingly similar to our former neighborhood in Baltimore, actually. We drove by our old house in Ansonia, which I hadn't seen in years, and visited a few memorable spots from my frist nine years of life. I'm glad I don't live here anymore, but, nevertheless, there's something inviting about the area. It still feels like, well, home.

And we had lunch at Pepe's, the best pizza anywhere. Period. Legend has it that pizza was invented here, but a lot of old pizza places lay claim to that distinction. But there's no doubt that they serve fabulous pizza. It's worth a visit if you're ever in New Haven, but get there early or prepare to wait an hour for a table.

Tomorrow we leave Connecticut and head down to Virginia to spend turkey day with Cassie's family. Baltimore really feels like a distant memory now. And I need to finish planning the drive to CO.

Life's a voyage that's homeward bound.
-Herman Melville