The "journal" below is very basic day to day highlights; however, a day to day description of what goes on may be of interest.
I'm still working for the DOE's AMF2 (ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) Mobile Facility) that is located in Gothic, CO at RMBL (Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. The summer is beautiful in Gothic. It's green with flowers everywhere, clear creeks rushing by and wildlife out everywhere, including the resident deer, moose, marmots, and foxes. We even had some small birds build a nest with little chicks on our covered entrance. In the spring, we even have a couple creeks that rush right by the cabin, one that is a cascade we can see out the window. RMBL is fairly busy in the summer with lots of researchers (professors, post-docs, and grad students) as well as undergrads and even some high schoolers taking courses. During the summer I mostly stay at our condo in Mt CB when I'm working in Gothic since the road is open. It's about a 6 mile commute from home to Gothic, and I commute via bicycle. It's a beautiful ride full of views, rushing creeks, and wildlife encounters. I do the morning work at our site, but often do the paperwork from my cabin, which has the wonderful view of Gothic mountain. Gothic is always a quiet and beautiful paradise to chill at if I don't go home.
After work I commute home by bike, and then almost always go for a mtn bike ride somewhere in the valley, though occasionally I go for a hike. We have lots of trails that are reached right away from near our Condo. And then others that are a few minutes drive away. Then there is a really classic one--the 401--that I can hit right from Gothic. It's a great loop to do after work or even for a longer lunch. Anyways, there is a seemingly endless amount of mtn biking in the area if you include MT CB, CB, and CB South. Then of course there is Gunnison and over Kebler Pass.
We also have the site up on the ski resort (Crested Butte Mountain Resort aka CBMR). The schedule is that I work 4 weeks in Gothic and then 2 up at CBMR. But because I cover weekends, I'll visit bot the CBMR and Gothic sites on weekends. To reach the CBMR site I take a steep single track from nearly out of our condo up to it. Then coming home I have my choice of 8 or so single track trails that come back down to the base. And I usually do this routine at lunch as well. Ride a singletrack down to grab a quick lunch at home and then head back up.
We also were on a softball team that we had a game weekly. Then Monday nights is Alpenglow, a free concert series down in CB and on Wednesdays is Music on the Mtn up at Mount Crested Butte.
May 31-June 2: Birthday Trip!
We drove over cottonwood pass to Cottonwood hotsprings, where we enjoyed the beautiful hot springs in the evening. We then camped in my car up by a lake in the area.
The next day we stopped by the hot springs again and then went and did quite a lot of mtn biking in Buena Vista. We also enjoyed the river and some ice cream around town. We then drove to Moffat to Joyful Journey Hot Springs where we soaked and stayed in a really cool Teepee with a backdrop of the Sangre De Cristo mountains.
The next day we mtn biked the really awesome Penitente Canyon near Del Norte! Super cool with lots of granite rock riding (like moab style over the rocks). Really fun. On the way home we stopped for Mexican at one of the small towns
June 3-June 4
More mountain biking and more fox pup viewing. Watched Avalanche Stanley Cup game at pitas in paradise with the free jello shots.
6/5
Climbed Mt Crested Butte
6/8
Climbed Mt Crested Butte with Elisha before my mom came and she took me out to a birthday dinner at an Italian place in town
6/9
Mtn biking by myself before mtn biking with mom and Elisha. Showed mom the fox pups and toured her around Gothic. Campfire with mom at the Gothic Campground for a weenie roast and cookie dough
6/11
Camped out at the Gothic campground with Elisha
6/11-6/14
Many mtn bike rides and the flowers are just starting to really pop!
6/15-16
I got a stomach bug (the runs) so we didn't start on our trip to Telluride too early. But eventually felt a bit better so drove to Ridgeway and had gnar tacos and then camped at the foot of mt sneffels. Long night with the runs!
Next day did some mtn biking in Telluride and then went to the Telluride bluegrass festival. Went to some of the free shows but then accidentally snuck into the festival via a bike trail
6/17-6/20
Chilling around Crested Butte with lots of mtn biking and flowers of course. Very beautiful out in Gothic.
6/21-6/23
Drove to Estes via beautiful Trail Ridge Road. Went to water world with mom! A bit chilly but lots of fun. Then went to an Avalanche stanley cup watch party in downtown denver with Mom
6/24
CB Kebler Pass Chainless Race! I dressed as an avalanche player and Elisha as an Avalanche Forecaster. The race is fun. No chain and you just glide down. Everyone is costumed and there are people with big speakers. When they pull over it just starts a dance party on the road. Very fun. Avalanche game party afterwards
6/26
Avalanche win the cup! I watch at the eldo with some new friends and fellow Avs fans
6/27-7/3
Lots and lots of mtn biking. Flowers are really popping. Deer fawns are out. I help out with a night survey of bumble bees. Free music festivals (Wednesday night at Mt CB and Monday night at CB) are going on. Some hiking as well as biking. Cool sidewalk chalk art competition. Paul from LANL is helping out.
7/4
Independence day parade and town water fight. Evening "fireworks" show at Mt CB. Not really fireworks but lasers.
7/5-7/7
Mom and dad are visiting. Do some hikes including up to Scarp Ridge with all the flowers and hikes around Mt CB. Some nice dinners as well
7/8-7/12
More flower hikes and mtn biking, including climbing up in to Virginia basin. Campfires by the cabin. I climb up Avery peak. Lunch at a thai place in town to celebrate our Anniversary. Sunset drinks and appetizers sitting in a chairlift up on the ski hill.
7/13
Climbed White Rock mountain with M-nugget. Big and cool climb!
7/14
Hike up West Maroon pass and 2 other passes. Such AMAZING wildflowers! So great. Also house sitting some cats
7/16
Gunnison county rodeo
7/17-7/19
More mtn biking and flowers
7/20-7/21
Hiked over West Maroon pass to Maroon lake with the gorgeous views of the Maroon Bells. Took a bus down to Aspen to walk around town and get a pizza and ice cream. Then bussed up to Snowmass to meet our old ice rink boss, Sara. She treated us to a nice dinner and drinks and then we watched a comedy show there. Spent the night at Sara's and then the next day hiked up over East Maroon pass to Copper Lake and into Gothic where we had dinner at RMBL's cafeteria.
7/22-24
More biking and also a drive paradise divide for a sunset picnic
7/25
Climbed Gothic mountain.
7/26
Biked 401 with Elisha. (Have already biked in many times)
7/27
Hiked Treasury mountain before our softball game
7/27-8/1
Lots more mountain biking amongst the beautiful flowers!
Last softball game with our Irwin Mother Tuckers softball team.
8/2-8/4
Drove to Silverton and camped in the car up on Red Mtn Pass. Next day we got up early and hiked to Columbine Lake. It was super beautiful! The blue color was just amazing! We also hiked up a peak nearby (T11) with views of other lakes including one that looked like a heart. After our hike we soaked in a non-developed (and secret) hot springs before heading down to Silverton and setting up a tent at a nice campsite along the river (had to cross a little stream to get to it, so on a little island). The next day we hiked to Ice Lake in a beautiful basin. The wildflowers were amazing but better yet was the amazing reflection of the red San Juan mountains in the blue water. We then hiked up over a pass (not the standard way, no trail) to get to a gorgeous overlook of emerald Island lake before descending down to Island lake. As the name suggests, it has an island in the middle of the glacier green colored waters, surrounded by wildflowers of course. We then hiked up another pass and I climbed up to the top of a peak (Vermilion 2). Made it back down in some hail and thunder.
8/5-8/9
Plenty more fun mtn bike rides in the area and life around Gothic
8/10-8/11
Drove over Cottonwood Pass to Mt. Princeton hot springs for a soak. Then drove up to Alma where we camped in our car and got up really early in the morning for the DeCaLiBron loop hike. It covers four 14ers (Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross). We were able to successfully summit all 4.
8/12-8/24
Many more mountain bike rides and hikes amongst the flowers. 80's cover band at the I-bar ranch
8/25
We hiked Schofield pass down to the ghost town of Crystal and the famous Crystal Mill, which is very picturesque
8/26-8/29
More biking around Crested Butte
8/30-9/1
Made a trip to the Front Range to climb Longs Peak. We got up super early on the 31st and arrived to Chasm lake before sunrise. Super beautiful up there. We then hiked up the Loft route to the top of Mt Meeker (13,911), before continuing on to summit Longs Peak (14,259, meeting the trail at the Homestretch). Great views from the top, including Lake Haiyaha, which had recently changed color to a glacial green after a major rockslide in the basin above it (Chaos Canyon). Unusually, it was an empty summit, and for a while we were the only ones up there. We hiked down through the standard homestretch, narrows, ledges, keyhole, boulderfield route. That night we had ice cream with Lisa Foster and her daughter to celebrate. Lisa is famous for being the woman with the most ascents (197 and counting) and for being the person with the most consecutive months climbing it (36 and running).
The next day I hiked up to see Lake Haiyaha and it's changed colors up close. Super cool! We also bought Elisha a van for camping (Gunther). We drove down to Denver and went to Meow Wolf, which was cool. Their dancing room where the lights and such would follow you around was one of my favorite experiences of the entire summer! I could have danced and chased lights in there for a long, long time. But then before it got too late we headed out to spend the night with my old boss Nate Dub. The next day Elisha drove Gunther over Cottonwood pass to CB
9/2-9/6
More fun mtn biking. And Lisa stopped by Gothic for a visit
9/7
I hiked up famous Teocalli mountain. I first biked the Teocalli ridge loop to get up close to it, then hiked the last 2000 or so feet. Then of course when I was reunited with my bike I had the fun descent back to the car. That evening we went to Teocalli burritos to celebrate and then drove up the Slate River to camp in Gunther for the first time.
9/8-9/13
More biking, including a bike trip that took us to a lake where we paddled around
9/14-9/15
We were given a free night to stay at Elisha's Taylor River Lodge. Super fancy! They served us fancy hor's devours and cocktails. We biked the tandem bike around a little bit and walked along the river. We had a fancy (several course) dinner and then got to hang out at the hot tubs, pool, an steam rooms, before retiring to the nice riverside cabin.
9/16-9/18
More mtn biking
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