Sunday, July 14, 2024

Spring in Crested Butte and elsewhere around Colorado

 5/17

We returned back to CB after a mud-season full of travels. It was definitely nice to be home and back in all the snow.

5/21

It snowed really hard, and it was very beautiful. I took a hike out to Gothic.

5/24

We saw two sets of fox kits on our walk. So cute and not too scared.

5/25

Elisha and I skinned up to the top of the High Lift and skied to Headwall and Paradise bowl

5/27  Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday we slept in and had a slow morning. Elisha made a yummy breakfast. We then headed up recently opened Cottonwood pass and skied a couple of laps, skinning a bit, and utilizing ye olde hitch-hiking method.

After skiing, we headed down to Gunnison and mountain biked a fun loop at Hartman's. Then we went out for a BBQ dinner. When we got home we had some White Russians.

5/29

First day of work for me at Eleven (Elisha's company). I'm going to be working there part-time as a Shuttle Driver for the new Sprinter vans they just got as well as general Lodge Staff. It was training for about 1 week. The best part about training was lots of good food and then practice making fancy cocktails (which we could drink) and fancy coffees. And Nolan took us on a townie bike tour of the town and got us all gelato.

Also had our first softball game. We have so many guys on our team, that I only got to bat once, but I took full advantage of it and hit an inside the park homerun.

5/31-6/3

Elisha, Bro, M-Nugz, and I all missed my grandma's memorial in Tucson. It happened in the middle of winter, and we all had winter/ski related jobs which made it hard to take time off. Plus it's quite hard to get quickly from Crested Butte to Tucson, even if flying out of expensive Gunnison. So we decided it would be better if we all got together in Estes this summer, a place that she loved, and did the fun things that Grandma really loved.

The first day we all drove to Estes after work.

We spent the morning of the 2nd day renting a pontoon boat on Lake Estes. We also managed to grab 6 rogue ducks from the recent ducky derby who had escaped being picked up. We then went to the swimming pool that we used to swim at. Grandma sometimes was in town during the summer Northern Colorado districts meet, often held in Estes. The old pool is still there, but they've built a fancy rec center around it. I was pleased to see that my record from 2001 was still up!

We then went home and had lunch and then all drove up to Trail Ridge Road in a suburban mom had rented. There was lots of snow up there, and we took a little hike near the top amongst the snow flurries.

Then it was time for fishing at Trout Haven where we all caught pretty good sized fish! Back home for happy hour and cocktails (champagne with st. germaine and then white russians.) before the yummy grilled fish. In the evening we watched grandma's 90th and 100th birthday slide show movies.

On the 3rd day we went to Grandma's favorite Catholic Church. Then we all headed up to Allenspark to eat brunch at Meadow Mountain Cafe, a place with big and delicious breakfast and lunch options that grandma liked. We then went to Wild Basin and hiked up to Calypso Cascades. It was then back to Estes to get shakes at the Malt Shop where grandma used to always take us. We then walked around town a bit.

We got up early on the last day to drive back Crested Butte as Elisha and I had a mock-dinner practice at Taylor River Lodge.

6/6

We drove over Cottonwood and Tennessee passes to go to Vail to watch Xavier Rudd at the Mountains of Music Festival. It was out the outdoor Gerald Ford theater and Mike Love opened for him. It's a small venue, so it was close, and the concert was awesome. I really love Xavier Rudd. He's super impressive b/c he doesn't have a band and plays so many instruments himself from guitar to slide bass to drums to keyboard to didgeridoo. And his music is so powerful! He sings a lot about nature, animals, earth, adventure, social justice issues, and rights of indigenous peoples. He has a very positive vibe and message. 

After the concert we slept in the back of my subaru up near Piney Lake.

6/7

We had hoped to go hike around Piney Lake, but the road there was closed still due to snow. So we took a short hike in the area where we camped with nice views of the Gore Range. We then went down to Vail, did some business (a McSesh) at McDonald's, and then biked the Vail Bike Path from West Vail to Vail Village. At Vail Village they were hosting the 4 day long Go Pro (formerly Teva) Mountain Games. They have lots of events going on (trail running, mt biking, kayaking, rafting, slacklining) but the most fun to watch were the doggie athletes competing in the long jump (jumping into a pool) and swimming race. We watched some of the dog events for a bit, then milled around all the various booths in Vail Village, taking in the free samples and watching some cool slackline acrobatics. We then continued up the Vail bike path. We had hopes of going to the top of Vail Pass on the bike path, but because of how much time we spent in Vail (and b/c I got 2 flat tires), we didn't make it up very high before we had to make our way down to Denver.

We drove down to Denver where we met Nate Dub and Treasure. We went out to pizza in a Detroit style pizzaria in their neighborhood. We then headed off to the Ogden Theater to see Xavier Rudd and opener Bobby Alu. This concert was also amazing. We were only 3 rows back from the stage, so we were right there! It was general admission standing, so it was lots of dancing. Afterwards we went and got a snack at goodtimes and an ice cream at a gas station

6/8

We hung out with Nate and Treasure for a bit, going to a bakery cafe in their neighborhood before heading back towards Crested Butte. On the way we stopped in Salida with is swollen river full of rafters and had take-out tacos along the river in the Salida park.

6/9

We had the day off and did some good mountain biking. I'm starting to mountain bike every day now. The upper trails are still snowbound, but the lower trails are starting to pop with flowers

6/13

We put an offer on a deed restricted, locals only condo at the 3 seasons.

Helping Elisha get the Irwin ski cabin up by Irwin Lake prepped for the summer season picnics since the snow just finally melted out up there, and we can access it by our vehicles now (brand new sprinters and suburbans!)

6/14

Went under contract for the condo...yikes!

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