End of Summer

 8/19/25

Mom got into town for bro's birthday. We all went out to a lovely Thai dinner.

There is much drama at Eleven as they are getting rid of (selling) one of the lodges (Taylor River Lodge), but also reducing staff at Scarp Ridge Lodge (the one Elisha works at. They are cutting a lot of staff and also reducing pay and benefits for other staff, so many people are very angry. They did offer Elisha a position, but it would be a demotion in pay. They only gave her 1 day to decide, but she decided to turn it down. What does this mean for us? Who knows, but a new life adventure

8/20

We went for a hike with mom and bro and Mary and Ellis to the Devil's Punchbowls, where we did some jumping off the rocks into the cold waterfall.

Then in town there was a bbq for bro's birthday where many of the folks from their wedding were there. We then played a couple games of "cops and robbers" downtown, which was a lot of fun. At the very end, on the bike home, we saw a huge bear.

9/2-9/4

We went on a camping trip to Summit County. On the first day we biked a super sweet flowy trail on Copper Mountain, but before we got there we stopped in Leadville for $1.25 Taco Tuesday. We camped that night along Lake Dillon on the Frisco Peninsula. The next morning we rode some fun flow trails on the Peninsula before heading into Frisco for breakfast and thrift shopping. In the afternoon we rode some fun trails in Breckenridge and then went out for pizza. We camped above Breckenridge on Boreas Pass. Our last day there we rode a trail in Breckenridge, then one in Dillon, and finished off with a fun flow trail in Copper.

9/5

I had a hike from Aspen to CB for my shuttle job in the fog and a bit of rain. It was the first snow of the season on the peaks!

9/8

We did a group work hike up to the top of Mt CB. The main purpose was to take Evelyn, the Bahamian who was visiting us for a month to help. She definitely struggled getting up, but loved it.

9/10

Did a really big bike ride in Gunnison, but flatted out at the very end.

9/11

I drove Elisha to Montrose so that she could fly home for a her dad's 70th birthday and a family reunion. Since I was there I did 2 bike rides in Montrose (at Buzzard Gulch and Electric Hills), both of which were a lot of fun, but the Electric Hills area was just awesome.

9/12

I had another single shuttle and hike from Aspen to CB. It rained basically the whole hike! And sometimes hard. Snow up on the pass and up on the mountains. Nasty weather, but a fun time.

9/13

It snowed hard overnight on the mountains around CB. I woke in the morning to a huge hailstorm. It rained basically all day! I drove out to Gothic to enjoy the fall colors of the willows with the snow on the peaks and to walk a bit. As it rained so much, I didn't bike today, but instead did a run in the pouring rain and then soaked in the hot tub.

9/14

I drove out to Montrose again and biked some more sweet trails in the Electric Hills and then pitched my tent to camp up on the Rim Rock.

9/15

I did a fun ride in Montrose in the Spring Creek Canyon before picking Elisha up in Montrose from her flight.

9/17

Today I rode every single (non double black) mountain bike trail on Crested Butte Mountain Resort. It ended up being over 50 miles and 9500 feet of vertical!

9/18

I did a hike back from Aspen for a shuttle. Fall colors are starting to get nice. We went to a nice pre-season potluck at the Nordic Center. Someone made a turkey, which was awesome, and there was lots of good food. Also saw Kaitlyn there and caught up with her.

9/20

Another hike back from Aspen. A bit of snow up in the mountains! Beautiful rainbows too.

9/21

Elisha and I biked the 401, which was really great with all the rain we've had recently to make the dirt nice and tacky

9/22

We did a beautiful fall color ride up the slate river before the rain and snow came in.

9/23

The mountains were beautiful this morning with snow on the peaks and yellows in the valley

9/23-9/26--Took a van trip to Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley for fall colors and biking

9/23

We drove to Aspen over beautiful Kebler Pass. My parents are staying at a hotel in Snowmass, so we met them in Snowmass for pizza. We just parked in the parking lot of their hotel for camping, which was nice because we could walk into the hotel for the bathroom and to get tea!

9/24

We biked down from Snowmass to a super delicious bakery for cinnamon rolls near the airport. The bike ride was beautiful as you could see Capitol Peak (a 14er), snowy in the background with the fall colors in the foreground. We biked along the river for a while to get to the bakery. After the bakery we went to a little cafe for a burrito and Elisha to get some coffee. 

Next we biked up to Maroon Lake. The road is only open to the shuttle busses, so it's a great place to ride bikes. Of course the fall colors were just gorgeous! Super gorgeous. The view from the lake was was stunning as the Maroon Bells were covered in snow, the aspens in front were yellow, and the lake azure. From the lake we did a bit of a hike up into the aspens.

In the afternoon I did a mountain bike ride up on Snowmass' bike trails amongst the fall colors before we headed to Basalt to get Ramen for dinner.

9/25

In the morning we went and got more cinnamon rolls. First we drove up Castle Creek to the start of the Pearl Pass 4WD road back to Crested Butte to look at the fall colors. Then we drove to Aspen, got tacos (the cheapest in town) at the gas station before driving partway up Independence Pass, descending the bike path there, and then starting the Rio Grande bike path that goes all the way to Glenwood Springs. The trail was really nice, and mostly downhill from Aspen to Glenwood. It followed the river almost the whole time and was mostly shaded with yellow cottonwoods. We stopped in Carbondale to eat lunch at a Mexican diner, and then we biked all the way to DQ for some blizzards. After the blizzards we biked to the bus station. In total it was 53.97 miles. 

When we got to the bus station, a bus driver for a different route said we wouldn't be able to put our bikes on the bus as it was after 6. I hadn't known that rule, otherwise we would have skipped DQ! This was a problem for us because our car was actually 4.3 miles up Independence Pass from the bus station. So if we had to lock our bikes up in Glenwood, take the bus up, I'd have to jog 4 miles up to get the car in the dark. But I sorta figured all bus drivers wouldn't be so strict, and luckily our bus driver back to Aspen didn't care. When we got to Aspen, I biked the 4.33 miles up to the van. I met Elisha at a yummy Thai place for dinner.

9/26

I did a couple of really awesome mtn bike rides up on Snowmass. I pedaled up to the Elk Camp summit a couple of times, which had great views of the Maroon Bells and other 14ers as well as across the Roaring Fork Valley. Not to mention the purpose built trails were long and flowy and through the golden aspens.

Elisha took a hike in the Aspens and then drove the van back to CB. I picked up a car in Snowmass to drive back to CB for my shuttling job, which worked out perfectly, allowing us to stay an extra day and for me to do some extra riding.

9/27-9/30

More hikes and bikes through the beautiful fall colors. Did I mention Clawdia has been staying with us? So lots of fall Clawdia snuggles.

9/30

Our first day doing the weather station at RMBL as part of our winter caretaking duties.

10/1-10/2 Van camping trip in the Ohio Pass/Kelber area

10/1

We drove up and over Ohio Pass in the van and found a great camping spot amongst the Aspens. We then drove back over up to Lake Irwin to do a hike up Ruby Peak. From the top of Ruby Peak is just an insanely expansive view of a huge swath of aspens--the Kebler aspens. It's one of the largest, if not the largest living organism on earth (it's close between the Kebler grove and the Pando grove in Utah). Aspen groves are clones and thus considered one individual organism, and not a thousand separate trees. Anyways, the view was stunning. There's also a beautiful view of the beautiful sapphire colored Blue Lake below. 

Back at camp we started a fire in a meadow surrounded by aspens and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.

10/2

In the morning we took a hike in the aspens around camp. Then we drove to brush creek and biked the gorgeous, aspen-filled Strawberry trail. We then drove up up Cement Creek to "leaf peep". I ended up biking the beautiful waterfall/fenceline trail amongst the aspens all the way to CB South while Elisha drove back home. I then took the bus back to CB. To end our awesome "weekend," we biked up to the top of West Wall and sat on the chair lift there looking out over the golden aspens and having happy hour with cheese and bubbly.

10/3

We woke up early and hiked up to the top of Mount Crested Butte for 360 views of the aspens. After we'd been at the top, we saw a guy climb/running up Guide's Ridge. He did a quick nod as he went up and over the summit and started running down. His name is Cam Smith, and he's training to qualify for the Olympics in the brand new sport this year of SkiMo (Ski Mountaineering). 

In the afternoon, for work, we went to Taylor River Lodge for an end of the year bbq. And actually it was an end of forever for TRL as it now listed for sale by Eleven. It's a beautiful spot along the Taylor River, and it was good to see Nolan and some other people.

10/4

I started stacking wood at RMBL for the winter.

10/6

I biked the Dyke Trail up on Kebler pass for some more good aspen action. But the aspens are starting to dwindle as we got a pretty good wind and snow storm this past week.

10/8

I got my covid and flu shots and then we went to a talk at the Center for the Arts by Bill McKibben and environmentalist who is famous for writing the first book for the public about Climate Change. Here he was talking about his new book "Here Comes the Sun" about the power of solar energy. The talk was simply amazing. He was so well-spoken, knowledgeable, and funny. We went with Benn, Sophia, and Benn's parents who were visiting, and we all loved it.

10/9

Mom is out visiting, so we had a fire at weenie roast at Gothic

10/11

I drove a car to Aspen and then had to hike back in heavy rain most of the way (snow and sleet at the top of the pass). But it was beautiful with the clouds and mist. When I got home, I definitely hit the hot tub! And then of course snuggled with Clawdia.

10/12

One of our guests at Eleven had gifted us a gift certificate to one of the super fancy restaurants in CB, so we got dressed up and went out for a fancy dinner

10/13 

Funny story. I got a text in the morning from my good friend Lael. It was a forwarded message from a friend in college (Chris Holcomb) with a picture of my car. It said something to the tune of "Lael, is this car Travis Guy's? It has Antarctica and College of Idaho stickers, and I think he was living in Colorado". Because of his recognition of my very noticeable car we met at the Eldo for beers and Indian food. It was really good to catch up with him.

During this last part of the fall, there was definitely some stress. Because the fall colors are so beautiful, and we want to enjoy them to their fullest, we really got out and played amongst them instead of packing for our move to Gothic. So the last week or so, we were really busy finishing work at Eleven and Maroon Bells Shuttles, starting work at Gothic, moving to Gothic, getting our condo ready to be shown for selling (oh yea, we're trying to sell our condo b/c the fire insurance just went up way too much for us to deal with), prepping for our trip to Indonesia (I'll be gone for a month guiding a couple trips and Elisha will join me for 1). So yea, that's a lot to deal with! Any of those alone would be a lot, but moving, selling, trip prepping, all a lot! We were definitely feeling excited to get to the airport where we could most of those stresses behind us. Though, when we "moved" into Gothic, we were simply just throwing all our stuff in the cabin, so we'd have to fully move in when we got back

Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS)

 This summer I worked on the CHESS campaign (Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study) funded by NASA and run by RMBL.

The campaign was collecting data to ask 3 main questions:

1. How are landscape patterns of leaf area, foliar chemistry, functional traits, and plant species distributions shifting? How do these patterns relate to changes in climate and land use?

2. How is environmental stress changing the structure and function of forests? What are the drivers and thresholds of change for different species, successional changes, and landscape positions?

3. How do the shifts described above feed back to changes in the energy and water balance?

To answer these questions, we used 3 levels of data collection. At the highest and broadest level, we used data collected by a NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) plane (a twin otter) that was fitted with several instruments including LiDAR, hyperspectral sensors, and RGB cameras. At the mid level we used a drone fitted with some similar instruments. At the most precise level, we conducted ground truthing at various sampling areas (3 larger locations: Almont area (Lower Taylor River), Crested Butte/Gothic area (Upper East River), and Taylor Park area (Upper Taylor River). We collected the data during peak green-up time at the various locales.

For the ground truthing we collected data at plots such as species ID, percent cover, plant height, functional groups, tree health, leaf area index (LAI). We also clipped all the plants in the plots to determine foliar traits back in the lab: leaf mass area (LMA), leaf water content (LWC), foliar nitrogen, foliar carbon, and foliar delta-13C. We also collected soil cores to analyze the soil and geochemistry of the soils. We had 4 separate groups all collecting something slightly different. There was the meadow team, the shrub team, tree team, and soils team.

I was one of 4 leads hired. I was a meadow lead, and I was also in charge of plot selection. However, I helped out with shrubs quite a bit, and even a little bit with trees.

A typical day was spent from 8am until 1 or 2pm in the field. Then from 2 pm until 6 or 7pm in the lab sorting samples and doing lab processing. We worked long days, and sometimes 8 or 9 days in a row without a day off. This was due to the fact that the NEON plane could only fly when the weather was favorable (no clouds, no wind), so whenever we had good weather we worked. We basically needed to be collecting the ground data within 48 hours of the plane overlight.

The project was definitely very cool, and it will take a while to sort through and analyze all the amazing data we collected. But the best part of the whole project was the crew! It was such a fun and amazing crew! We instantly became good friends. We worked hard in the field and then chatted and listened/sang to music while doing sometimes mindless leaf sorting tasks in the lab. But we just really became really close!

Here is the team:

Ian: He was the PI and who secured the funding from NASA

Amanda: Overall field lead

Sophia: She is in RMBL's spatial ecology department. She mainly ran the LAI instrument. She went to UCLA for undergrad.

4 leads/techs

Me: meadow lead and plot selection

Cassidy: meadow. She's born and raised in Aspen and went to Denver University for undergrad

Piper: shrubs lead. She's a 3rd or 4th year PhD student from UCSB

Bradley: Drone operation lead. He's a master's student in Ian's lab at Western State University. He went to Thompson Valley High School in Loveland.

4 Western Undergrads

Bayden: in charge of the GPS.  He's a long distance athlete and on Western's XC and skimo teams

Reagan: meadow team

Yahaira: tree team. She's on Western's Search and Rescue Team.

Jack: tree team

The tree team was run by Marshall, a postdoc with NASA's jet propulsion lab. He was assisted by Dre, a Western Master's student. Anna, a German PhD student was also on tree team.

Other scientists rotated in and out, but the above was the core team

Summer in CB (a hot and dry one)

 6/7

Today I did a 34 mile bike ride in the beautiful flowers and green landscape. I met Sophia and Benn at Oh Be Joyful creek to watch the Oh Be Joyful kayak race. It was pretty cool to see because the river is just crazy white water full of waterfalls and it's amazing that kayakers go over it.

6/12

Elisha and I did a very beautiful bike ride amongst yellow and purple flowers on Snodgrass.

6/14

We started data collection for CHESS out near Almont.

6/17

We started 2ish weeks of cat sitting Clawdia (Steiny's cat). She is so sweet and a joy to come home to everyday after work.

6/19

I did a beautiful bike ride full of lupines on deer creek, but making it a huge loop from our condo, around Mt. CB, over to strand, over deer creek pass to Gothic, and then back to Mt CB

6/20-30

Lots of beautiful bike rides through the Lupine. Also the monument plants have been huge and blooming this year.

6/25

Our CHESS team drove to Buena Vista where the NEON/NASA plane that is doing the hyperspectral data for us is stationed. We got a tour from the team there. It turns out that my former co-worker at Summit Station (Elissa) now works as a tech on those planes, though she wasn't assigned to the Colorado campaign, and instead was in Alaska.

6/27

Today was the chainless bike race. We did it with Sophia, Bradley, and Cassidy, and as always, it was a lot of fun.

My op-ed to the CB News in support of public lands was published. It was also published in the EP Trail Gazette.  I'll paste it at the bottom of this blog.

We've also started working in the Crested Butte zone for the CHESS project

7/1

All us CHESS people wore NEON bright colors in honor of NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) of which our research campaign is part of. 

7/3

Elisha and I hiked up to Scarp Ridge where there was a super bloom of Old man on the mountain. We also saw a mama ptarmigan with 6 or more chicks. We watched the fireworks from our condo's deck as it was kind of drizzly.

7/4

We reinstituted the Gothic 1/3 marathon. This was an annual tradition for nearly 50 years before covid put an end to it. We decided to get it going again this year. It was a rainy, but beautiful morning with the fog. I hadn't run since last early November, except for 1 run this spring where I pulled my hamstring. In fact, I was considering not running b/c my hamstring was still nagging me. However, when I got there, with the excitement of it all and a smirnoff ice* I ended up doing it. I started out really slow, but was feeling great, so then I picked it up. I ended up getting 2nd! (amongst all those youngins.). In the end, I just didn't quite have enough distance left to catch the person in first (Kathleen, who is an avid marathon runner). If I had started earlier though...  The course starts in Gothic and runs up to Snodgrass, through Mt. CB, and finishes at rainbow park in CB. 

*Today was the start of what I would later call an ice age that has descended upon Gothic. At 7 in the morning, right before the race started, I was "iced". I didn't know what it was. Somone pointed behind me, and I looked and there was a smirnoff ice, and they said "you've been iced". As I didn't know what it was and as my hamstring had been hurting I thought it was to ice my hammy, haha. But then I learned I was supposed to go down on 1 knee and chug it. I was the first one at RMBL iced, but soon it would be a thing that went around to everyone. And Ice age in Gothic.

After the run, I joined the 4th of July parade with the KBUT disco inferno float. We then went to a catered bbq with our realtor Alex. After that it was chill time until going to a bbq at RMBL, which is always delicious. We ended the night hot tubbing at our condo, which has a very nice hot tub and pool.

We're still enjoying the snuggles of Clawdia

7/8

We were doing field sampling up by North Pole Basin, and we found some juvenile boreal toads! Something I did surveys of in Rocky Mountain National Park a long time ago. Unfortunately boreal toads are susceptible to Chytrid fungus, so their populations are struggling.

7/9

While working down in Schofield Park, we were visited by some grazing Yaks.

7/10

Happy Anniversary to us!

To celebrate our anniversary we biked the 401 trail on our brand new bikes. Their inaugural ride! We had bought them over the winter when they were half off! They're awesome bikes, and we were excited. The flowers on the 401 were of course amazing.

Mom and dad took us out to Slogars for a our anniversary. Always delicious

7/11

The family played mini golf up at the "free" mini golf on the mtn. Free as long as you go after hours and you have your own putter and balls.

The CHESS team is now working in Taylor Park area

7/12

Elisha and I biked up to the umbrella bar and enjoyed sunset and happy hour from one of the chairlifts. On the bike down, we biked past a mama moose and her young calf

7/13

We saw a bunch of bighorn sheep and their lambs on our drive back from the field. Benn brought down his espresso machine and made fancy coffees (and London Fog tea for me)

7/14

Some smoke from a fire in the distant vicinity made for a fantastic sunset over Red Lady mountain as we played spike ball at the Alpenglow concert. Also, have been seeing the cute fawns on my bike commute to and from work.

7/15

Elisha and I hiked up to Rustler's gulch where the flowers were amazing!

7/16

Elisha and I hiked up to North Pole basin where the flowers were just stunning. We hiked up to one of the mines and did some rock hounding and then went for a cold plunge in one of the ponds. 

Elisha cut my hair

7/18

I started my Maroon Bells Shuttles job for Evan. I hiked back over West Maroon pass and the flowers were stunning. Also tons of pika out and about!

7/19

Bro and I both had a shuttle over to Aspen. We took our bikes and then biked back to CB on a 40+ mile journey that took us mainly on singletrack from Ashcroft up Taylor Pass, up Star Pass and then sweet singletrack back to brush creek.

7/23

After music on the mountain, Henry (RMBL GIS guy) and I did a fun mtn bike lap on the mountain

7/24

Nat Geo + the BBC are here filming a thing (I believe called "Underdogs"). They are mainly focused on the salamanders. It's been cool to watch them set up their aquariums and film the salamanders. 

7/25

Last day of CHESS. We had Butte Bagels at Totem Pole Park. I gave out superlative awards to everyone with small chess pieces and then I gave Amanda and Ian (bosses) giant chess queen and king pieces that I had everyone sign and draw flowers on.

I had to drive my Aspen shuttle car up to the trailhead, so I took advantage of this by putting my bike in the car and mtn biking down the 401 which had beautiful fireweed blooming along the trail.

My op-ed on affordable housing (penned with a pseudonym) was published in the CB News. See this letter below as well.

7/26

A fun night of Karaoke at RMBL with the CHESS team and other RMBLers

7/27

A few of us CHESS team visited the Mexican Cut and Galena Lake. It's a beautiful area full of flowers and small ponds where salamanders live. There are also lots of mines and tunnels full of cool crystals. The area is run by the Nature Conservancy and is off limits to the public, so it's special to get to go there!

7/29

On my bike ride today I got to hang out with a black bear for awhile.

7/30

I helped CBMBA (Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association) build a new trail up by Lake Irwin

7/31

We got a tour of the local Crested Butte ski factory, Romp skis. They were also supplying free burgers and dogs and adult beverages.

8/1

Today was the no talent show at RMBL, which was really funny and then the Cabin Crawl, which was amazing. 10 cabins hosted, and they had different themes. One played an outside movie with popcorn for a RMBL remake of psycho. There was some video game themed one (minecraft?). A survivor themed one, where contestants had to crack a coconut. One with drinking games. One where there was a boyband "concert". One with a 1920's style gangster theme. My 2 favorites was an Abba dance them and then a French Revolution where they cut off the head of the king and chanted "no kings". One could obviously see the parallel to the current administration. 

8/2

I drove a Tesla to Aspen today. It has a computer that rates your driving. I got rated as aggressive and the clients complained. Well, they actually complained that the car was muddy. Well, duh, it was raining on a dirt pass. So then after they found out that information they tried to blame a scuff on the side-view mirror on me. Well, I had pics before I drove that it was there. So then trying to get something, they checked the computer driver rating. But when I googled how tesla rates the driving, I learned that going over a windy, steep, and narrow mountain pass would of course lead one to get a low rating, unless they were driving at a snail's pace.

A very rich dude is staying at the lodge. Tonight they paid to bring in the well-known musical group Sofi Tukker. It's one of Zach and Mary's favorite groups who they've gone to Red Rocks to see. Elisha and I worked during the small "concert" so we could hear and see them. Mary gave them massages, and Zach came in to be the bouncer. At the end of the night Tukker asked me for some water, ha. They played until past 1am. Also, of course, a bear got into the trash in the alley that night.

8/9

We got a new battery in the van for some roadtrips. We've been so busy this summer, we haven't had 2 days off in a row together to do something.

8/11

I drove very early in the morning to Salida to meet up with Hess. It was an amazing day! We started with breakfast burritos at Mo burrito. We then went for a 23 mile mtn bike ride (cottonwood tour). We took a dip in the Arkansas River, and then we then had lunch at Mo burrito. Then we went for a short mtn bike ride on Methodist Mountain trail system. Then it was back to town for pizza and brews. It was really great b/c we got to talk a whole lot and catch up and have some deep conversations. Jake and his family recently took in a refugee from Guatemala, so that's really cool. I camped in the van up on spiral hill.

8/12

I drove back to CB, picked up Elisha and then we drove to Leadville where we did a quick and really fun flow trail near the Colorado Mountain College. We then got lucky and found $1.50 taco tuesday downtown with $6 margaritas. And at the end they gave us a free shot of tequila. We camped over by the college. 

8/13

In the morning we did some more fun trails by the college before driving to Vail where we did a ride up on the mountain: Radio Flyer, one of my all-time favorite flow trails. Back in vail village we went to the red lion for their world famous huge nachos. We then swam and hung out by the river before going to city market for ice cream. Then it was on to Avon to utilize their "twilight hours" ($10) pool, lazy river, jacuzzi, and steam shower. We briefly stopped at Avon's free outdoor music concert before driving to Eagle to camp.

8/14

We biked the pool and ice rink trail, which is also one of my very favorite flow trails. After that trail we did the Haymaker loop, which was constructed to be used to host the Colorado High School Cycling League State Championships. After riding that trail, Elisha went to the thrift store, and I did another fun loop (Eagle Ranch Loop). Then it was off to Costco for food and ice cream before heading home.

8/16

It's been an incredibly hot and dry summer. The monsoon rains never came, which was especially bad considering we had a record low snowfall winter. There have been quite a lot of fires around, which have led to some smokiness here and there in the valley. The trails are dusty and the wildflowers shriveled up much earlier than normal. The raspberries looked pretty weak so far this year, and I haven't seen many huckleberries. And believe it or not, I've seen aspen leaves changing color already in Aspen, on CBMR, and on Kebler pass! Crazy.

Contact your senators to tell them what you think about Public Lands

Dear citizens and visitors to the Gunnison Valley

In my opinion, one of America's best ideas was to set aside land in the public domain to be used for the enjoyment of all people--Public Lands. Public lands have touched my life incredibly, and I am guessing the same is true of you. 

A recent proposal to the budget reconciliation bill would mandate the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land in the near future with 250 million acres vulnerable. Public lands are not a partisan issue. They are set aside for all and enjoyed by all. They provide recreational activities including hiking, skiing, hunting, biking, foraging, jeeping, horseback riding, camping, and fishing. They are also important for education and research.

A visit to public lands does wonders for people's mental health and soul. The benefits of access to nature are well documented in the scientific literature, and there is strong evidence that decreased exposure of children to nature leads to a wide range of health and behavioral issues including anxiety, attention difficulties, and reduced emotional resilience.  Of course there are the less obvious benefits. Our clean water mostly originates from public lands. Our air is cleaned on public lands. A huge segment of the economy (tourism) is driven by public lands. We are healthier--mentally and physically--because of them.

And you know what the best part is? The public lands are ours! We own them collectively as Americans. We can visit the VAST majority of public lands for FREE.

Even those that require a huge amount of infrastructure and staff (e.g. National Parks) are one of the most affordable things a family can do. A week-long pass to Rocky Mountain National Park costs $35 per car and a year pass to every NP in the country costs $80. Did you know that to take a family of 5 to see a 2 hour movie in Denver will cost $81.75 right now! A privatized natural space in Colorado Springs (the so-so 7 Falls) owned by the Broadmoor will cost a family of 5 during peak hours $102. This is the future when nature is privatized, if we’re granted access at all.

Even if all else were equal, it’s the magic of our public lands that make them special. Have you seen the look on the faces of kids to senior citizens alike when they gaze upon one of the wonders in our public lands, when they traipse through a trail full of sweet smelling plants and dancing butterflies, or dip their toes in a crystal clear stream moments after coming face to face with a gentle deer?

Public lands enrich our lives. They make us happier people. But once they're gone, they're gone forever. We the people certainly won't be able to buy them back.

No matter what side of the political aisle you're on, I'm sure you're stressed, unhappy, worried, angry, etc about the state of the world today. But I'll bet when you find yourself on public lands, many of those stresses fall away. You're healthier in mind, body, and spirit. This should be all that you need to know.

Please, please, reach out to your senators (email/call) about this, especially if you’re an out of state reader/visitor. It's easy: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Travis Guy

Thoughts on Deed Restricted Housing

Dear Mark,

We appreciated your editorial in the 11 July paper regarding housing for locals. We agree with you that adding more and more homes to the market will not reduce prices, at least not to prices that locals can afford. There are so many wealthy folks in our country that would like to own a home in a place like this, that we don’t think the market would ever get satiated. There will always be someone with more money out there than locals who will willingly buy up homes at prices out of reach for us locals, especially since short-term rentals have made unoccupied places so lucrative. As you mention, as more homes are added, more people are required and housing shortages continue. As you scale up in desirable places, adding more homes doesn’t seem to reduce prices. Just look at other places bigger than us in Colorado from Eagle County to Summit County to Durango to Golden to even Denver.

As you suggested, we do think there should be housing set aside for locals who have lived in the valley for a time as well as some sort of work requirement to keep wealthy folks with high paying remote jobs from “stealing” homes from locals.

Shifting gears a bit. You mention that deed restricted housing can be “a heavy yoke on working locals”. We bought a deed restricted condo on the mountain a couple of years ago, and we wanted to provide a few examples of how the deed restriction has been that heavy yoke.

-Our HOA dues just jumped from $760/mo to $1250/mo in 1 year due to an increase in building insurance. This is almost untenable for us when you include our mortgage. We can make it work for now, but we can’t deal with much more of an increase. When we bought the place, we weren’t stoked on the price or the HOA dues, but after too many heartbreaks with the housing lotteries, too many bad roommates, and moving 5 times over 3 years, we felt it was the right thing to do, but now we are questioning it. In our condo association, we would guess 80-90% of the units are airbnb’s or second homeowners. They can deal with this increase in dues easier than us (deed restricted units) as they can simply raise their airbnb rates or sell on the free market if the finances don’t work for them. We fear, due to the restrictions involved with the deed restriction and the fact that we’d be likely selling to those working in the tourist/service industry making so-so wages (like us), that we won’t be able to sell the place for what we bought it for, and would take a big loss. We don’t know who in their right mind would buy a house with HOA dues increasing like they have for us since we purchased.

-With the sudden turn in our housing situation, we have looked into some more affordable deed restricted places that have come onto the market recently. But we have been told we don’t qualify since we now own property in the valley, even if we agree to put our place on the market as soon as we close. We were told that the only way we could close on a deed restricted place is if the place we’re in now is sold on or before closing on the new place. This is basically impossible to make happen and rather scary. If our current place sold, but the new place fell through, we’d be homeless. If our old place didn’t sell, then we’d lose out on a better opportunity. Not to mention in the non-lottery deed restricted sales, the seller is not likely to choose someone who would be barred from buying in the event that the buyer cannot sell their place. This seems like a really bad situation, especially for locals who may want to upgrade their place if they have a growing family or have been promoted at work and can now afford a better living situation. We think it should be made easy to move up in the deed restriction “world”.

-Deed restrictions, at least ours, require that 80% of your income be made in the valley. I overall like this idea as it keeps it local. However, I wish there could be exceptions every now and then for people who will stay local. For example, if someone wanted to teach English abroad for a year, was involved in a work trade/experience and had the chance to go somewhere cool for a year, or needed to go out of town to caretake a sick parent for a year or 2. In our situation, we’d love the chance to go work a quick high-paying 6 month contract job every now and then to put some money away and help us afford the increased HOA dues, during which we’d of course rent our place to folks working in the valley during that time.

-Our friends who live elsewhere in desirable places often fund their vacations by airbnb-ing their places while they are on vacation. Due to the uniqueness of our tourist jobs, we are often out of the valley visiting friends and family for 4-5 weeks per year, and it would be awesome to try to make a little cash by short-term renting them during that time. Although this goes against the letter of the deed restricted law, we don’t believe this would go against the spirit of the law.

-Since the deed restricted housing is either capped with a certain growth rate, or is essentially capped due to limits on who can buy it (AMI restrictions), it means that the homes do not grow in step with the national growth rate. This means that if you own a home here for 10 or 15 years, but must move out of the valley because of some life situation (job change, health of a family member, growth of your family, etc), you will once again be behind in the housing market wherever you move to next.

Overall, we believe that the idea of deed restricted homes for locals is a great idea and probably the only way that people like us could ever dream of affording a place in this valley that we love. However, we believe that the way the system is set up now really limits options in life and creates the potential for some major hardships.

Thanks

Cassa and Theo

Notes from Gothic after winter: low snow year, marmots, billy barr, and pollinator phenological mismatch

 Notes from Gothic as winter comes to an end:

It was an extremely low snow year this winter in Gothic (3rd lowest winter since records began). With only a few weeks left when we might typically get snow, we're sitting at 225 inches (Historic average is 405.6", max snowfall was 646" winter of 94-95 and min snowfall was 186.6" was 76-77, also known as the "Winter of None"). I was looking back at photos I took May 1st from the Gothic bridge over the East River, and the difference is dramatic.

This caused me to look over billy barr's data set. For those not familiar with billy, he permanently moved to Gothic in 1974 and has been measuring snowfall and SWE (snow water content/equivalent) twice daily (a.m. and p.m.) since that first winter of 1974. He started doing it because he was curious (and bored, being one of only 3 people out here). He has used simple methods that line up with the now more sophisticated SNOTEL (automated snow telemetry) sites. His data is publicly available at https://www.gothicwx.org/

When graphed out, there's an obvious trend in Gothic towards less snow and for an earlier melt of the winter's snowpack. In the past 14 years, there has only been one year above the long-term average!

The 2nd graph is when the winter's snowpack melts to bare ground for the first time, not the last time snow is on the ground as mid June accumulating snows aren't uncommon. The red line is the trend line, the green dashed line is the average since billy began measuring snow. This year 0 cm was marked at May 4th. The latest the snowpack has subsisted was 19 June (winter 94-95) and the earliest it has melted out was 23 April (winter 11-12). On June 1st, there is on average 3.5" of snow still on the ground.

One of the things we noticed with the early snowmelt and warmer spring was that the flowers bloomed many weeks ahead of normal. Claytonia (common name: spring beauty, pictured) bloomed and faded before any pollinators had started flying (phenological mismatch). I talked to a pollination biologist this week, and he is unsure how this will affect their reproduction this year, but he will know by the end of the summer when he measures Claytonia seed set in his plots.

The marmots came out of hibernation in early April this year (graph courtesy of a trailside sign provided by Dan Blumstein of UCLA who has been part of a marmot study at RMBL dating back to 1962: https://sites.lifesci.ucla.edu/eeb-rmbl-marmots/ It's one of the longest continuous studies of a mammal in the world) Their research has shown that the earlier marmots emerge from hibernation the more negatively affected they are.

This is just the smallest of snippets from my personal observations and the research going on here at RMBL. RMBL has been operating as an outdoor lab since 1928, so they have been documenting change and species ability/inability to adapt for almost 100 years.

Take this info how you will. Here's to a deeper winter next year!

Spring in Gothic

It was a really warm and dry winter, so the snow melt is over a month over early compared to most years. It's crazy to look at pictures from this year at the end of April that have less snow than our other years at the end of May. Because of this the road will likely open much earlier than normal, and it means that we'll get 1 less month of skiing. When we arrived back to Gothic, there was lots of dirt showing, but when I looked at pictures from other years, at the same date the snow was white and deep and the river was hardly showing through the snow. I was also still skiing amazing powder runs. Crazy the variability between years.

4/24

We chilled around Estes. Mom and dad took us out to dinner Nepal's Cafe where we enjoyed the bottomless Chai

4/25

We drove back to CB. The snow is getting thin, but we were able to ski in and pull the heavy sled full of our gear and groceries back to Gothic

4/26

Did a ski up valley

4/27

Did a ski upvalley and ran into some snowmobilers who were illegally there!

4/28

Got some snow overnight, and Elisha and I skied up valley

4/29

We started to do cabin openings

5/1 Happy May Day!

We got a nice and beautiful overnight snow. Sophia and Benn had us over (as well as Dylan, who is studying plant phenology in the changing climate) over for dinner.

The plows came through today and plowed the road to Gothic on May Day

5/5-5/6

I took my WFR recert course with Billy R in CB South. It was fun and a bit cold, snowy, and wet. As you would expect in CB, it was an elite group of talented people (SAR, ski patrol, high mountain guides, etc).

5/5 Happy Birthday Elisha! Feliz Cinco de Mayo

For Elisha's birthday and Cinco de Mayo, we went to Pita's for Carnitas Pitas and $5 super grande margaritas

5/11

We hosted a bonfire for the people here (a few plant researchers and a couple staff) with s'mores, hot dogs, and a full flower moon.

5/12

The road to Gothic opened. Benn, Sophia, Elisha, and I biked out to get our cars to bring them back in. We had a beer at the gate.

5/14

Drove to Estes and arrived to Estes in a snowstorm. Mom gave us cheesecake and carrot cake for our birthdays.

5/15

Went down to Denver with mom for my birthday. First we spent the whole day at the zoo, which I love. Then we went out to eat Ethiopian on Colfax, which was delicious. Next it was onto Fortissimo for a fun night of cocktails and Dueling Pianos. We didn't make it home until 1am!

5/16

We met Rick, Hess, and Mitch in the RiNo district of Denver for fun mini golf at a cool place that was very technological. Then we all had dinner at the Denver Central Market.

5/17

We spent the day in Estes sorting through stuff we had stored in my parents' basement

5/18

Drove back to CB and arrived back to Gothic in a snowstorm.

5/19

A beautiful snowy and white day in CB

5/20

Had a our annual HOA meeting. Found out our HOA dues would be increasing by over $450/month. Yikes. Stress city

5/22

We went to the opening day of the Crested Butte Words Festival. It was a tribute to George Sibley who was the first caretaker in Gothic, way back in the 70's. I read his memoir "Part of a Winter" this winter. One of the speakers was the woman who wrote Go as a River. At the end I had George sign my copy of "Part of a Winter"

5/23

We went to watch the the movie "High Country" which is about Crested Butte. It was playing for free at the Majestic Theater

5/24-5/25

We started moving to our new place in Mount CB as we need to be out of Gothic at the beginning of June. Moving...ugh

5/26

I went with Janelle (she studies flower chemistry and how it relates to pollinators) for an adventure. The road up to Emerald Lake is still closed with some snow drifts, so we took e-bikes and biked up to Emerald Like. We then boot-packed (me in ski boots, Janelle in crampons) up Mount Baldy. I did 2 awesome ski laps (you can still ski to the road) and Janelle glissaded on her butt with an ice ax. Afterwards we went to Emerald lake which was still completely frozen

5/27  My birthday

I worked, but then we went out to the new Thai restaurant in CB

5/30

We biked up to emerald lake. The road is still closed as there is still some snow plugs. Emerald lake is still completely frozen

5/31-6/1

Moving. ugggh

5/31 

Mr. and Mrs Schmatz (Benn's parents) had us over for an AMAZING end of winter seafood feast. They had 2 types of shrimp, Colorado lake trout, mussels in white wine sauce, potatoes, coleslaw, bacon wrapped scallops, snow crab legs, and lobster tail! We had wine with dinner and then a digestif for after dinner. Dessert was a selection of 5 types of ice cream. Awesome!

6/1

Stayed up late to watch some weak aurora borealis.

6/4 

My first day at my new job at RMBL. It's called the CHESS project (Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study). It's a NASA funded project being run by scientists at RMBL, Here's some info as detailed by the PI

Spring will soon be here in Colorado, and my team is in the final stages of planning CHESS, our big NASA-funded aerial hyperspectral imaging study, in collaboration with teams at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. 

If you haven't already heard about the project here's a synopsis: RMBL is bringing the NEON Aerial Observation Platform to the Upper Gunnison basin from mid-June through mid-July this summer. The NEON flight team will collect high-resolution aerial imaging spectroscopy (e.g. "hyperspectral") and laser scanning (e.g. "LiDAR) data over three large domains in the RMBL vicinity, including the watersheds of the East River, Almont Triangle, and the Upper Taylor Basin. In coordination with the flights, RMBL and LBL are mounting a big field campaign to ground-truth the measurements, including coordinated measurements of plant communities, forest health and soil properties. We anticipate that the data collected in this study will be broadly useful to anyone interested in RMBL ecosystems, how they function, and how they are changing over time. Datasets collected as part of this work will be publicly available, and a number of research teams are already coordinating with us to take field measurements.

 It's some really cool science and despite the fact that it's going to be an intense field campaign, I'm really excited for it.

6/5

It was our last day at Gates cabin =(  Now we have officially moved to our condo in Mt. Crested Butte

Portugal

 4/19/25

We took an early bus to Faro, Portugal. We went to the airport there and rented a tiny little stick shift car. We stopped at a supermarket to get supplies and then drove to Albufeira, a cute, but touristy beach town were we walked the beach, climbed up on the cliffs and had some lunch. Our plan was to rent the car to have freedom to explore the beautiful Algarve coast. 

After Albufeira, we hopped into the car and drove to Praia (beach) Marinha where we hiked the Sete Vales Suspensos (7 hanging valleys) trail which followed along the beautiful coast for many miles, coming across hidden beaches, lots of natural arches, and sinkholes. It was super gorgeous as the cliffs are a bright yellow and th water a pretty jade. The coast is also very rugged. To get to some of the beaches, you have to take secret passageways cut into the rock. We also peered, from above, into the Benagil cave and beach. After the hike, we found a hostal in Portimão and ate dinner (Chinese) there near the Praia (beach) do Rocha.

4/20/25 Happy Easter!

It was an off and on raining, clouds, and sun day, but we spent a lot of time at the stunning Ponta de Piedade near Lagos. Ponta de Piedade is full of cliffs, hidden beaches, and nooks and crannies in the cliffs. It has some similarities to Utah geology (like Bryce Canyon), but right next to the ocean. We hiked out to a lot of cliff points to explore the rugged coastline. We enjoyed our chocolate easter bunny and then I went for a swim at Praia do Camilo. Cold! 

We then drove out to Sagres to visit Cabo de São Vicente, which is the most Southwestern point in Europe. There is a lighthouse and really high cliffs that we walked along. We visited Praia do Beliche where we watched the surfers. 

Next we drove to the Alfanzina lighthouse and hiked a bit along the cliffs there before driving to Carvoeiro to see the beach and have dinner (Indian). It's a cute little beach town with the white buildings. We then drove to Faro to stay at our beachside hostel.

4/21/25

Enjoyed sunrise over the beach and ocean from the terrace on our hostel. We then dropped the car off early in the am and caught a bus to rainy Lisbon (Lisboa). We took the subway to near our hostel and checked in. The hostel was a really well-designed hostel (Avenue Hostel) that had unlimited FREE Hot Cocoa!

We waited for the rain to stop and then headed out to the city. We took a cool free walking tour of the old Alfama district checking out churches, squares, the castle, the famous cable cars (including cable car 28), and viewpoints of the 7-hilled city. We tried the famous Pastéis de Nata custard pastry (eh, so, so). After the tour we hiked up to several more viewpoints where we had a bucket of Sangria and a shot of the cherry liqueur Ginjinha in a chocolate shot glass and enjoyed the sunset. We then went to have a traditional Portuguese seafood meal at a food market. Then it was back to the hostel for cocoa!

4/22/25

We got up early to walk to some viewpoints in the Alfama district. It was a nice sunny day, and we had great views of the old city with its redd roofs, the river, ocean, San Francisco style bridge, and mini Christ the Redeemer statue. 

We then walked to the train station and took a train to the cute and charming town of Sintra where we hiked through a cool boulder-filled forest to reach the whimsical palaces and Moorish castle. We walked by the National Palace of Sintra, then climbed steeply up the forest to go by the Moorish castle. We then visited the Pena palace, a multi-colored palace atop a hill, with a cool architectural style that could be straight out of a fairy tale. We then hiked on the trails around the palace to viewpoints (including one that required some rock climbing) and past little lakes filled with salamanders and ducklings. We then visited the Quinta da Regaleira where we toured the inside of the palace, visited a waterfall, climbed some cool towers, then descended deep into the bowels of the earth by taking the stairs down the initiation well and then walking through cool underground passageways. 

The Quinta da Regaleira has some fascinating history and is worth a google search. It was owned by Carvalho Monteiro who had a love for the natural sciences by was also fascinated by (and probably a member of) the Freemasons and Knights Templar. He was also interested in lyrical poetry. These combination of interests, mixed with his spirituality gave rise to the magical Quinta da Regaleira. As one person put it: "But what drew me to the place, most of all, was how it seemed to have been conjured up by magic from the stones of the mountain of Sintra itself. Its towers and bridges seemed not to be man made, but created by the spirits of nature. The Quinta da Regaleira is a place half in the real, and half in an imagined world. WIth clever architecture, tapping into a multitude of mystical beliefs through time and many different cultures, the palace has managed to conjure up an atmosphere of enchantment. The genius is apparent throughout the site. THere are many structures that seem perfectly natural, but are not."

The Initiation Well which descends 27 meters into the ground, is, perhaps, one of the most famous attractions in all of Sintra. It is more or less an inverted tower. It was built for spiritual reasons. It was designed, so it is said, to represent the nine circles of Dante's inferno. It was used for initiation rites for the Knights Templar where the candidates for initiation would descend blindfolded, holding a sword close to their heart potentially representing a symbolic journey to the center of the Earth.

After visiting the sights of Sintra, we hopped a train back to Lisbon and ate at a small, cheap, and delicious restaurant (seafood). We had some Ginjinha shots, got a $2 bottle of wined and then went back to relax at the hostel.

4/23

Very early flight, so we took a bolt rideshare (like uber) to the airport. Then a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then Lufthansa flight to Denver (watched 4 movies!). Mom picked us up and drove us to Estes

Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain (and Gibraltar)

 4/17/25

We boarded the ferry in Tangier and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Tarifa, Spain in about an hour. In Tarifa we boarded a bus and headed to Algeciras, a Spanish port city where we checked in to a hostal. We quickly caught a bus to Linea de Concepcion. We disembarked the bus and then walked across the border to Gibraltar where we had our passports stamped. Once in Gibraltar we had to walk across a runway (active) to get to the town. Of course they close the runway if a plane is coming. Once we arrived to the town it was like a whole new world--Gibraltar was established by Great Britain and still has close ties. So there were the classic red telephone booths, London style busses and buildings/architecture. There were also drunk British boys (maybe Gibraltar is a nice warm, southern Spring Break style destination for Brits). This stood out to us more than normal after having just been in a country where alcohol is basically prohibited.

We hopped on a bus to get to the other side of the town to get to a trail called the Mediterranean steps that would lead to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. When we got to the trail, there was a chain across it saying it was closed for the day. And that normally you have to buy a pass for  a ridiculous 30 GBpounds. So in a way we sort of lucked out. Plus it means we had the whole "rock" to ourselves. We just ducked the chain and continued up the really cool trail, which ascends a cliffy area with the blue Mediterranean directly below you and the mountains of Africa off in the distance. 

The hike was awesome, going up steep staired sections along the cliffs with those nice aforementioned views. When we got to the top, we were treated with 360 degree views and an absolutely gorgeous sunset! We saw monkeys, rats, and snakes, and an endangered endemic bird along the way as well. We had to share the top with a couple monkeys. We walked along the top ridge a bit and then took this crazy, long stairs along the old fortification wall straight back down the other side of the mountain to reach the town, arriving right at dark. We crossed the border again, and then took the last bus back to Algeciras where we had Kebabs and went to bed

4/18/25

We caught an early train to Ronda. Upon our arrival in Ronda, we dropped our luggage at a hotel and then walked through the old city to get to the famed bridge. Along the way we got kebabs and watched some interesting Good Friday processions through the street, complete with stations of the cross and marching bands. We walked across the bridge, which sits impressively over a deep gorge (how did they build it!?). We then walked down into the gorge to several viewpoints of the bridge. Afterwards we walked around the town looking at other sites: other bridges, famous oval bullring, castle, churches, wall) and enjoyed wine slushies and McDonald's ice cream.

We then caught an early evening bus to Seville. Seville is very famous for its holy week festivities (this is not why we were going there, it was just a transport hub on our way to Portugal), which means that basically every room was booked up. We were able to find a room for about $110 USD, which is crazy expensive for us (and it was a tiny room with a shared bathroom). We went out at night to try to see some of Seville's sights, but we just kept getting trapped by running into Good Friday processionals. We just couldn't find our way around the city without being blocked by parades! And it was incredibly crowded. The processions had bands and people carrying large "floats" that appeared to be the stations of the cross. The people in the parade wore robes and then pointed hats covering their faces with holes for eyes that are very similar to the KKK hoods/hats (though of course these costumes outdate the KKK by centuries.) So in the end we gave up and went to bed.

Morocco: Land of flying carpets and genie lamps or land of cats and tagine?

I highly, highly recommend reading In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah (not to be confused with The Arabian Nights: The book of a thousand nights and a night translated by Sir Richard Burton...also good) if you're interested in learning about Morocco AND the story in your heart.  

3/30/25

We left CB to drive to Estes. It snowed a bit overnight.

3/31/25

I went for a morning backcountry ski with Lisa Foster at Hidden Valley. We ran into Aaron Reichardt, so we skied with him 2. We did 2 laps up in the bowl. Lisa has started a new youtube channel, so she filmed me for some of it. You can watch it here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYnVz7pi_x0

In the afternoon, Elisha, mom, and I hiked up to half-frozen Gem Lake out by twin owls. 

4/1 Mom drove us down to Denver where we caught our Air Canada flight to Montreal. Then it was an overnight flight to Casablanca, Morocco.

4/2

We arrived early to the Casablanca airport. We took a train into the city center where we hopped off and walked indo the medina and through the souks. They were mostly empty, being morning. We stopped at supermarket to grab some food and then walked to the gitan Hassan II mosque (so huge!) where we took a tour of the magnificent building. It's one of the largest mosques in the world and can accomodate 105,000 worshippers (25,000 inside and 80,000 outside in the plaza). In the winter it has heated floors! It sits in a beautiful location out on a peninsula with the green ocean surrounding it. From the mosque area, you can also see the large Casablanca lighthouse. 

It started raining and we headed to a fancy mall for lunch. We then headed to the train station to catch a train to Marrakech, but we had to wait a long time (several hours) as the trains were all booked up. We eventually got a train and made it Marrakech. Upon arrival, we checked into our hostel and then had a good dinner of Tagine with olives and mint tea from a tiny little place in the souks owned by a very nice man. Cats are EVERYWHERE! and so friendly.

4/3

We started the day with breakfast on the terrace of our riad hostel that had nice views over the city and the snowy mountain in the distance. We started the day off by walking to the Djemaa El Fna (place of death in Arabic). We explored the the square with its snake charmers and monkey wranglers. We walked to the main mosque and then had 2nd breakfast on a terrace overlooking the square (also with nice views of the snowy mountais). We walked through the medina (walled city) and explored souk after souk (narrow passageways) with their carpets, lamps, curios, oils, spices, etc for sale. We visited the spice, blacksmith, and dyeing souks. We also walked by some other mosques. We went a bit outside the main part of the medina and visited a souk area more for locals, like a flea market. We excited the medina through the city walls and walked along a road where people were selling very old (and perhaps often reclaimed from the trash) wares on the sidewalk. 

We then went back to the hostel and took a nap in the hostel courtyard. After the rest, we explored more souls. We got tours of the spices and dyes, including "moroccan vicks". We watched an amazing sunset with smoothies from a terrace overlooking the Djemaa el fna. 

We then went down to the square to feast at the food stalls where we had Tagine and Tanjia (so yummy! especially Tanjia). At the meal they give you bread, olives, and mint tea. In the square, especially, the food people are fairly aggressive to try to get you to eat at their place. For dessert we had khunjul (Moroccan spiced tea) and ginger cakes. We then walked around the square a bit, looking at street performers and storytellers. There are also people selling random wares, snake oil salesmen, and difference chance games setup.

4/4/25

We had breakfast on the terrace and then moved to our new hostel (Riad Jennah Rouge), which is a cool and ornate riad. It was through a cool, winding passageway to get there. Easy to get lost! Google maps/Maps.me certainly help to navigate. When I first visited Morocco (in 2008), there was none of that GPS, so you just wandered around lost and then could pay some kid a few coins to get you to your hostel or whatever. 

We took a public mini bus to Ourika and then a taxi up the steep, winding road, full of rockfall to Oukaimeden ski resort. We were going up there to ski, but unfortunately, just like Colorado, they were having a warm and dry year, so the snow had melted early at the ski hill. We walked around enjoying the views and laughed at the ski in/ski out "condos" made out of stone. Also the "ski bums" wearing snow pants and now selling geodes and bracelets.

I tried on some skis and rear entry boots for a photo op before heading back down the hill. A tree (cherry?) with white flowers was in full bloom. We took the bus back to Marrakech and read while lounging up on the terrace. We had dinner at the Djemaa el fna (Tanjia, soup, sweet pretzel, dates, egg & potato sandwich, spicy tea, ginger sweet, and nutella/banana crepe. 

4/5/25

Today we started our trip to the High Atlas. We took a taxi to Imlil at the base of the mountains where we met our guide Said (Say-eed). We rented crampons, had some mint tea, and then headed off our on our trek. 

We started out by climbing a pass (Tizi n'Mzik--2480m = 8,136 ft) above Imlil where we had a picnic. I then climbed up a small peak with nice views of the snowy mountains and the desert. We then descended into the Azzadan Valley to our gite (homestay) at Azib Tamsoult (2250m = 7381 ft). Along the way we stopped at a small little shelter where a solitary man served us mint tea. The gite was in a cool valley with terraced agriculture and goats all below steep, snowy mountains. We read on the terrace and then at night again after enjoying a dinner of Tagine and soup.

4/6/25

We hiked up a cool gorge where there was a pretty waterfall coming down onto ice. Then it was a beautiful hike up 2 passes (tizis), with the high pass being Tizi 'n Aguelzim at 3540m (11,614 ft). We then climbed a bit more to summit Jebel Aglzim (3650m = 11,977ft). We had a picnic there with amazing views of the snowy High Atlas as well as Jebel Toubkal, our eventual goal. We did some glissading and then crossed some deep snowfields as we made our way down to the Toubkal base camp (3207m = 10,519 ft), which is situated in a beautiful and snowy valley. 

I tried my best to find skis there or have mules bring some up from Imlil (so that I could ski on my 7th Continent), but had no luck =(  We hung out reading in the mountain hut and had dinner of soup and tagine. 

4/7/25

The Gators played in the Final Four in the middle or our night, and there was obviously no way to watch them. Sleeping was in a crammed bunk room where everyone got up at 3am. They were SO loud and rude, which was annoying since our wake up call was at 4:30am. I couldn't believe people would talk so loud and turn the lights on when others are sleeping.

After breakfast, we started at about 5:15am after donning crampons. We hiked up the snowy ravine to reach Tizi (Col) Toubkal, passing all of the other groups along the way (My training for the Grand Traverse wasn't for nothing I guess =/  On the col, the horizon was a fiery red. We continued on to the summit of Jebel Toubkal (4167m = 13,671ft), arriving before anyone else, so that we had the summit to ourselves as we watched the sunrise. There were great views looking down on the snowy high atlas and towards the desert. It was very cold at the top, so we headed down and did some glissading along the way.

We had some tea at the refuge and then headed down a different way than we had come. We had lunch at the cute and tiny village of Sidi Chamarouch, with a river running right through it. Next, we hiked by the village of Aroumd, which was cool with how it was built on a hill with snowy peaks in the background. Back at Imlil, we had drinks on a terrace with mountain views after walking around town. Getting service in Imili, I learned that the Gators had won their game and would be playing in the National Championship!! We then took our ride back to Marrakech.

Back in the Marrakech medina, we checked into our new hostel (Juli's) and went out on the town for dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Tanjia place that the Moroccan king had visited. Delicious!

4/8/25

Woke up to find out that Gators had won the National Championship!!!!!!

We spent the day exploring more of Marrakech. We visited the Mellah (Old Jewish Quarter), Jewish cemetery, Bahia Palace, and an old ruined palace. We had cold drinks in a square, watching people and horse drawn carriages go by. We got a tour of a spice shop and all the spices. At the Dejma al fna, I tought some people how to do the gator chomp and took videos with them. It was pretty funny. Back at Juli's we had more cold drinks on the terrace. Dinner at a new place and big/cheap crepes for dessert (8 dirhmas = $0.80). 

4/9/25

Another tasty breakfast from Juli. We then took a bus to Essaouira, a coastal town. We explored inside the city walls (Medina) and climbed up the ramparts for ocean views. There were lots of happy cats here b/c of all the fish around. We walked to the port where there is a mess of blue fishing boats. We walked through the fish market where they were selling shrimp, huge lobsters and crabs, fish of all kinds, including various sharks (even epaulette sharks), and stingrays. We had a lunch of fresh caught fish (sea bass). Unfortunately our bus back was almost 2 hours late, so we got into Marrakech late where we had a late Tagine and Tanjia dinner.

4/10/25

Today we started our desert tour. We piled into a sprinter van early in the morning and then headed up over a pass in the Atlas to reach Ait Ben Haddou. We had a tour of the really cool Kasbah there, but the tour was slow and annoying and the guide wouldn't let us go by ourselves. So during lunch I went back and had a better time (all the tour groups were eating lunch so it was empty) and visited some viewpoints and walked in the river. Ait Ben Haddou is famous for being a place several movies/shows have filmed there, including Game of Thrones and Gladiator. 

Back in the van we passed through Ourzazate and drove through the valley of roses and the road of 1000 kasbahs. There were indeed lots of cool Kasbahs around. Then we headed into the Dades Gorge, which was really cool with unique rock formations, dramatic cliffs, a river, and cool towns and Kasbahs perched on ledges or nestled in canyons. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel. Super windy overnight. 

4/11/25

After breakfast we hopped in the van and drove to the Todres Gorge, which is a steep and narrow canyon with a creek running through it. We did a short hike, then we walked through some date palms (palms lined the valley) and walked through the narrow streets of a small village to a ruined Kasbah. Then it was mint tea in a carpet shop where we learned about all things carpet. We continued driving past more villages and Kasbahs until making our way into the flat desert (the Sahara!). Eventually we saw the big orange dunes ahead. We loaded into the back of a pickup truck and drove towards the dunes where we met our camels and berber camel herder. 

We hopped aboard our camels and went for a relaxing and scenic plod across the dunes. It was very beautiful (and quite windy with the sands shifting around). At the base of the largest dune, we got off the camels and climbed to the top. From the top it was endless dunes do the south. We then rode camels to our Berber "camp". We were staying in luxury tents that even had a toilet and shower and the biggest bed I've maybe ever slept in. But we did find a scorpion in the tent. 

We had a nice buffet dinner and then listened to Berber and Gnawa music by the fire and did some dancing. It rained at night, as crazy as that is. Supposedly in this part of the desert it only rains 4 or 5 times a year. We'd learn that a couple days later it would actually the snow, the first time it had snowed in over 13 years.

4/12/25

We woke up and got on the road towards Fez in the rain. It quickly started to rain hard. We saw flash floods and had to drive through flooded washes, which seemed rather sketchy. It continued to rain as we worked our way up the barren and dramatic escarpment. Waterfalls were coming off the cliffs everywhere. Rivers, which I think are normally dry, were swollen. Eventually, we hit trees as we drove above about 5,000 feet. We made a stop to see some Barbary monkeys (some people were feeding them to get close). 

Next, we stopped in Ifrane (the "Switzerland" of Morocco), with its trees, green grass, gardens, and buildings with pitched roofs that look European. It was pouring rain, but we walked around a bit outside and ate a Belgian waffles. We also visited the lion statue which pays homage to the last Barbary Lion killed in the area. We then drove onto Fez, arriving at dusk.

Our hostel was a super cool Riad with a fountain in the center of the courtyard and cool lanterns and stained glass window. They also have 3 cute and very friendly tiny kittens.

4/13

We took a tour guide in the morning to explore the ancient medina and the small souks and passageways of the old city. THere are 9700 streets inside the city walls, some as narrow and dark as the narrowest slot canyons in Utah. We visited a tannery, a silversmith, and a carpet shop, where we saw them weaving on the looms. We also visited some viewpoints of the city and had some fresh-squeezed OJ. The OJ is incredibly delicious right now as the oranges are in season. After lunch we explored the souks on our own and visited the university and its mosque. It's one of the oldest universities in the world. We walked out to the "middle" city and walked to the palace and its famous gates. On the way we walked through a beautiful garden.  In the evening we explored the souks some more and then had a confrontation with a guy who acted like a friend, but then wanted money in the end. You should have seen Elisha argue with him! We had a nice Tagine dinner and crepes by the blue gate.

4/14

After the big and delicious breakfast, we hiked up to some ruins and a large mausoleum via a cemetery for great views of the city. 

We then caught a bus to Chefchaouen. It was an interesting drive through rolling green hills before arriving to the Riff mountains. We walked from the bus station up the steep  hill to our hostel (Riad Baraka), within the medina. It was a bit rainy, but not too bad. We had dinner at a good and cheap place where the proprietor was really nice. 

We walked around a bit exploring the "blue city" or the "blue pearl of Morocco". Chefchaouen is famous for its blue buildings--painted blue perhaps to ward off the evil eye (muslims), b/c of peace represented by the blue sky and ocean (jews who previously lived there), or to keep away mosquitos. 

4/15

We walked around the narrow, winding, and very blue path of the Chefchaouen medina. Lots of cats!! It's a cool contrast between the bright oranges and blue walls. 

We did a couple carpet bargaining sessions: 1. You walk in  2. They give you tea v3. Small talk   4. Carpets are pulled out.   5. Which do you like?  6. Select ones you like.  7. Only then are prices offered.  8. Bartering  9. More small talk.  10. Settle on a price  

We eventually bought a carpet and blanket from Abdullah. He was very nice and sincere. He walso had these hilarious sayings and anecdotes and quips. When I asked him if he sold any magic flying carpets, he told me "When you buy it and take it home on the airplane, it will be a flying carpet". We eventually the price down from $300 to $80 for the carpet + blanket. 

The orange juice in Morocco has been amazing, and we enjoyed several glasses of fresh squeezed juice from our favorite juice stand (run by a super nice deaf man). Also, we've been enjoying the to-go hot cocoas for the chilly, drizzly days from a nice man in a little shop. We hiked up to the Spanish Mosque viewpoint and had Moroccan "tacos" for lunch.

There was a really sweet homeless looking man who had secured some sardine fish. When he arrived to the alley we were in, all of a sudden cats were jumping down from the roofs everywhere. Something tells me he does this often.

We laugh because most of the me wear jelabas around here. Jelabas are hooded robes which look like what Star Wars Jedi Knights wear. So we're always pointing them out and saying "As-salamu alaykum. May the Force be with you!

In the evening, we ate at our favorite budget place with the nice proprietor of the restaurant. We then went to cafe clock for fruit smoothies while we enjoyed live Oud music (nice sound). We hadn't seen any alcohol on our entire trip, but we had heard that there was an underground speakeasy place to get some. We found it and walked into the smoky bar where we got beer to go in a black bag.

4/16/25

I got up early and enjoyed walking along the blue streets all to myself with a hot cocoa to go on a chilly morning. 

After a delicious breakfast (oatmeal with fruits and fresh juice and pastry), we took a shared taxi to Akchour where we started a hike to Akchour waterfalls. The hike was scenic through a beautiful, mountainous canyon that had dense foliage along a beautiful turquoise river. We saw lots of flowers and some monkeys as well. There were lots of small cascades along the way, but the final high waterfall was just stunning, crashing from way up high into a turquoise pool below. We had some mint tea at the falls, cooked by folks there, and then headed back down the canyon.

I did some cliff jumping in some nice pools on the way down. We then hiked up to "God's bridge," which is a natural bridge a thousand or so feet above the river. Back down at the bottom, we had fresh OJ before taking a shared taxi back to Chefchaouen. When we got back to town, we found out that the hostel we were going to stay at had lost our reservation, but we were luckily able to go back to Riad Baraka. We had dinner in the main square by the Kasbah and then did some shopping. Elisha bought a cool lantern from a metal worker.

4/17

We got up early and took a shared taxi to Tangier. A kid in the back was vomiting from the winding roads. 

At Tangier we wandered around the medina a bit and checked out the castle and city walls. We had a last Moroccan lunch before boarding a ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Tarifa, Spain.