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
