Grand Junction and Climbing

Grand Junction was cool and I found a new mtn biking spot in Fruita. I went through the national Monument and grabbed these pics. it was cool to drive through!

Came home and continued the job search. The Muscular Dystrophy Association position seems to be still in the mix! I will hear for sure next week! Cross your fingers!

Today I met up with Mark and Daryl (Mark is one of the founders of Bands for Lands, a non-profit I am the Development Director for, and Daryl is a guy I met through a climbing site that is actually from Nashville.) Mark has lived and climbed out here for a while and wanted to check out this place called Avalon in Boulder Canyon. It was great! We climbed 4 routes and had to cross the raging creek on a traverse rope of sorts. (not sure the technical name for that)

I also ran into 4 guys form Indiana who all went to Purdue for college. So random and such a small world.

Anyway we climbed some 10B's and C's and one 11A that was so fun! Here are some pics! Mark was fun to climb with and I look forward to getting back out on the rock with him.

Tomorrow holds more climbing...this time in Clear Creek Canyon in Golden. Wahoo! Then I fly back to Nashville on Monday to start working on CMA Music Fest. I guess I'll give the mountains a breather! haha

Mesa Trail and More Skiing

Last Sunday I got out on the Mesa Trail in Boulder and had a blast as well hiking around back there. Michelle these wild flower pics are for you!

Hurry up!!

Monday was bad weather...rain all day.

Tuesday was great! I was helping Dave's friend Todd get to Grand Junction by Wed so we went to A Basin and went skiing on Tuesday! It was slushy and heavy and I couldn't ski very well on it. I fell and popped my shoulder out and in and it is still pretty sore. But i just went and got some advil and kept on going. It was fine. We did see these mountain goats though...that was cool! Eric! here are your Billy Goats!!
The guys have a condo up in the mtns where they stay overnight when they go skiing and so we were fortunate enough to get to stay there and met up with his other friend Dana. We hung out had a great dinner and then hit the hot tub! Ahh that felt awesome! The next day we were on to Grand Junction...

My 1st Backcountry Ski Trip!

So in the days since my last post I have been busy! Hiking on the mesa trail in Boulder, job searching, camping, job searching, skiing, job searching...get the picture! haha

Over Memorial Day weekend I had the best time in Rocky Mountain National Park with my friend Dave and his buddies. We camped out Friday night and then went back country skiing the next day after the wind died down a bit. OUr camp site was awesome and had a great view of the Diamond! We went to Happy Valley which was pretty mellow and doable for me. It is an old ski resort. Dave hooked me up with some skins and platforms for my skiis and off we went! I thought it was awesome! I'm not in tune with my skiing yet but it was still great to get out there and give it a whirl! After that Jud and Sarah cooked us all an amazing Mahi Mahi dinner over the fire and we headed back into town to meet up with one of Dave's friends from out of town. We had a blast and I was so cool to be skiing out there! Here are some pics!

South Table Mtn and Boulder Mtn Biking

TUESDAY: So Yesterday I went and met up with a good friend of a friend Mark, who Tory and Michelle introduced me to. He is a climber and adventurer and showed me some fun routes at Table Mountain. This is going to be my outdoor gym of sorts during the week. I loved it! So many routes and so quick and easy to get to and find. Here are some pics. We did 5 routes and they ranged form 8 to 10a. It felt good to get out here and it was another beautiful day!

WEDNESDAY: I spent most of today in Denver running some errands and job searching but in the afternoon I drove up to Boulder to have a late lunch and check out some things in town. I ate at one of my favorite places Mountain Sun and then met up with David for a short mountain bike ride. It was beautiful! I bit it two times along the trail..slippery sandy gravel and fast sometimes don't mix. oops....guess I'll be wearing pants to that second MDA interview I scored today to hide the scrapes up and down my legs...it's been fun to take advantage of not having a job right now!! Haha!

Dirty Half Mile

I've have had a great weekend! I acquired a new rope from the gear swap at wilderness exchange, met a climbing buddy, and went to two bouldering areas this weekend! Saturday I met up with a fellow climber from Nashville who jsut moved out here and we headed to Morrison to find the bouldering there. The insane Clown Posse was coming to Red Rocks so we couldn't go in and check out the theater but the bouldering area was near by so we go good views of the rocks...soo cool! The bouldering was ok...nothing like what i am used to and really shitty landing areas!

Today I decided to go check out another bouldering area in Clear Creek Canyon just west of Golden. (I love Golden!) Lots of people were out enjoying the weather on their bikes, kayaks and on the rock too! I was heading to one of the only bouldering spots in that area and I had a guide I printed online. I totally messed it up though... turned in to the pullout 1/2 a mile early so the gully that I was supposed to hike up was 1/2 a mile away. I should have known when it was so steep I was sliding the whole time...scary! I got stung by a bee too!

Ohh and I found the remains of billy the goat...yikes!

I hiked for about 2 hours and finally gave up and headed down the other side of the hill where it wasn't so steep and low and behold there was the trail I was looking for...1.2 mile up the road...
Ohh and I this huge dirt smudge on my face all day from the hike...no wonder everyone was looking at me funny! I need to look in the mirror every once in a while.

So I eventually drove back up later int he day after I rested a bit in town and watched some kayakers! The problems were too hard for me to send any of them anyway but I did some good exploring!!

Interviews!!! YEAH!!!

So I have a couple interviews lined up so far! The Muscular Dystrophy Association and Endeavor Marketing called me today to come in for interviews next Tuesday! Wish me luck!!!

Endeavor might not work out but I think it will be a good experience etc. and I think I would like the Muscular Dystrophy Association as a resume builder and to work on bigger non-profit budgets and events!

I also have either applied for positions or have sent position inquiries to another 25 companies between today and yesterday and dropped off some resumes for part time work down town.

While I was walking around downtown yesterday people were putting in the river and surfing at this little hole...so cool!


Whats on tap this weekend?

I'm going to a cookout with a local climbing group to meet some possible climbing buddies and going bouldering in Morrison in the afternoon. Then maybe up for a short hike and camp on Sunday. Then I guess I should come back down and keep searching for jobs...haha I just love seeing those mountains so close!

Garden of Gods and 14,000 ft

So after we got all moved in Dad and I went to Colorado Springs yesterday and visited the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak! We drove down and had a blast all day! The rocks at G.O.G. were awesome and definitely a place I would like to go back and climb! Pikes peak was fun too. We took the COG train up and had some amazing views. Saw a mountain goat and some marmots on the way. It clouded over at the top and started snowing so we didn't get to take any pics up there.

We were feeling the elevation though for sure! I learned that the softer granite that makes up pikes peak is only found one other place...Illinois! Elephant Rock...which is supposed to be a great place to climb!

I also learned that Patsy's salt water taffy stand was the place that the recipe for Cracker Jack's was invented. Patsy had made the caramel corn and in a poker match put the recipe up and lost....that guy took it and created cracker jack's. So now Patsy's family uses butterscotch corn instead! haha


Anyway we had a great day being tourists and it was gorgeous! We came home and crashed.

I took Dad to the Airport this morning and now and off to job search!! Wish me luck!!

"On the Road Again..."

As i said Dad and I left Mothers Day morning and drove 789 miles the first day. We had rain and high winds until St. Louis and we stopped and I switched and proceeded to drive all of Mossouri and almost all of Kansas the rest of the day in the sun! It was nice but we still had the wind which hurt our gas mileage. I think we got about 10 miles to the gallon. Ugh! The truck was definitely struggling. I wanted to make it to Hays, KS and we would have, but the last half hour on 70 we ran into a wreck where a semi turned over and totaled his truck. I think he was ok...cause no ambulances came. But we were stuck...stopped for an hour. So I turned the truck off and slept.

We made it one town back when the wreck cleared and stayed at a super 8..haa it was around 12 or 1 by the time we made it there...so tired! The cool thing though is about the time we hit the wreck was where the wind mills are right by the interstate. It was cool to see those in the sunset.



The next day we left and made it with no problems into Denver by like 3:30. Had no trouble in town or finding my place. It is great and really close to everything!

My roomies are great too and I am finally settled! Whew!

Indiana Babies: Denver or Bust

So I made it up to Indiana a day late and a bike short. I had to leave the motorcycle because of the weight but Jamie is kind enough to load it in his truck and drive it out when he comes through for a wedding next month! I miss it and I wish I could have taken it with me but...better safe than sorry.

So we had my sisters baby shower which went great! She is doing great and it is so exciting! I got to feel the baby kicking before I left! So cool! After the baby shower we had our family over for a cookout! My uncle Randy has restored my Grandpa Wood's old 57 Bug! It is emaculate! We took a really cool ride in it! I can't wait to be able to restore an old pick up truck one day...or old GTO!

Before I left I was able to get together with some high school friends Justin Lacey and Kanen Hashman as well. That is always nice to hang with them and catch up!

Dad and I left Sunday (Mothers Day) morning after a storm blew through....see next post!

Last Days In Nashvegas - and U-HELL

OK so I'm going to catch you up...

On some of my lat days in Nashville i had most things packed up in boxes so I got to have some fun with friends! April 19th weekend Tory, Michelle, Camden and I went to a really cool water fall over night hike just east of town near Crossville, TN called Virgin Falls. That was a blast! I rode my motorcycle there and we hiked in until it got a little too dark to keep going so we found a nice camp site and set up out tent, had some popcorn and went ot bed. The next morning we hiked int he rest of the way (about 4 miles total in) to the falls. Along the way there is another waterfall called Big Laurel Falls. Really cool! There are so many caves and sink holes in this area that these falls go into sink holes! It is really wild to see the water fall and not go anywhere or fill up! Virgin falls was similar although it came out of a cave and back into a sink hole! Impressive! We had a blast finding wild iris and other wildflowers along the trail. We also saw a wild boar!! Tory and Michelle being from Colorado got a kick out of hiking down in the beginning of the day and hiking up at the end of the day! they are used to hiking up mountains the beginning of the day and down at the end! haha!

Anyway a definite cool destination!

I also got to go fishing with Jamie on one of my last days! It was great! We took a geenue (sp?) canoe like boat out to the Caney Fork river and caught some trout on the fly. It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast! The water was really clear and we saw a slew of cranes and other fish through the clear water! Jamie saw a huge trout too. Said it was the biggest he has ever seen.

He took me out for a really nice dinner that night and that was nice!

The next day (Wednesday May 7th) we started loading the U-haul and got the bike and everything in. It took all day and so I decided (with encouragement from Mom and Dad) to leave the next morning to drive up to IN. It was a good thing because when I got on the road the next day the trailer did not pull well. It was overloaded and off balance fishtailing everywhere!! So scary! I thought i was going to flip the truck! So I pulled off the interstate and we proceeded to un-pack and re-pack the trailer. Ugh!

Got that taken care of and I left with no problems around 3:30PM!!

"Back home again in INDAINA...."