Saturday morning, Laura and I quickly decided to pack our bags and head up to the mountains. I didn't tell her where we were going, because ... well ... I wasn't even quite sure. We ended up heading out on I-70 to Vail and then down to Leadville. Both places we hadn't been before.
Vail was beautiful and super fancy as expected. We didn't stay long.
Leadville is a quaint little old mining town at the top of the Rockies (10,200'), and we stayed the night there. They were running the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. A completely insane 100 mile race up and down and through the mountains surrounding Leadville. It was great to watch the experssions of the racers as they finally finished after 11 hours of torture. We found out the next morning that Lance Armstrong was in the race and came in 2nd. Lance entering their race was similar to The Beatles coming to America for this little town.
On Sunday, we got a later start than we would have liked, but still drove south of Breckenridge to a spot where you can climb four 14,000' mountains in a single day. We'd hope to climb at-least three of them, but ended up climbing none of them. We had a nice little adventure scrambling along the side of Mt. Democrat though trying to find the trail until the afternoon thunderstorms started rolled in. Oh well, next time we'll know where to go, and we'll get an earlier start!
We stopped in Breckenridge on the way back for lunch and reminisced a little. A year ago, we decided while visiting Breckenridge (after just getting engaged) that we had to move to Colorado. It's great to actually be here a year later!
And of course we took plenty of pictures!
Click here to see them.
On Tuesday night, I got back from spending eight fantastic days in Southern California with my family. I flew in on Tuesday, July 22, and spent a night with my brother (David) and his girlfriend (Megan) at their amazing Marina del Rey apartment. We had a fantastic meal at a local Thai place, spent some time by the marina, and watched a bunch of old family videos. Here's a pic of my brother getting ready to bike to work.
On Wednesday, I went to my grandparent's house for three days. My grandmother and I got to spend a lot of quality time together and had fun shopping in LA. We had some delicious meals together with my grandfather, and like always, it went by too fast. On Friday, my grandmother hosted a small luncheon with her friends to celebrate her granddaughter's soon-to-be wedding. Here's a shot of my grandmother, my mom and me -- three generations!
Saturday morning, my dad and I woke up at 5am and drove to the mountains for an overnight backpacking trip on Mount San Antonio (10,064'). The reason for our early departure? We volunteered to help carry aluminum roofing up to the San Antonio Ski Hut (around 8'200). I soon found I was somewhat useless trying to help carry these 12' long 70 lb. aluminum sidings up the switchbacks to the ski hut with my overnight backpack on. However, my dad was a big help... he made it look so easy!
We spent a few hours at the ski hut enjoying some refreshing beverages and some jalapeno hummus (yum), and around 4:30pm, we decided to make the trek to the summit. Around 6pm, we made it to the top, made dinner and tea, and spent a great night under the stars at 10,064. We hiked backed Sunday on the Devil's Backbone trail, which took us by the Mt Baldy ski resort. It was a great trip. It was a good chance to meet a lot of my dad's hiking buddies, spend some quality time with my Mtn Dad, and get a good workout.
Click here to see pictures of our backpacking adventure.
Monday, we went to Zuma beach for some relaxation and sunshine.
Click here to see pictures of our beach trip.
Saturday morning, Laura and I quickly decided to pack our bags and head up to the mountains. I didn't tell her where we were going, because ... well ... I wasn't even quite sure. We ended up heading out on I-70 to Vail and then down to Leadville. Both places we hadn't been before.
Leadville is a quaint little old mining town at the top of the Rockies (10,200'), and we stayed the night there. They were running the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. A completely insane 100 mile race up and down and through the mountains surrounding Leadville. It was great to watch the experssions of the racers as they finally finished after 11 hours of torture. We found out the next morning that Lance Armstrong was in the race and came in 2nd. Lance entering their race was similar to The Beatles coming to America for this little town.
On Sunday, we got a later start than we would have liked, but still drove south of Breckenridge to a spot where you can climb four 14,000' mountains in a single day. We'd hope to climb at-least three of them, but ended up climbing none of them. We had a nice little adventure scrambling along the side of Mt. Democrat though trying to find the trail until the afternoon thunderstorms started rolled in. Oh well, next time we'll know where to go, and we'll get an earlier start!
...and it wouldn't truly be a hike without spotting a snake, or a rattler for that matter!