Summer in the Rockies thus far

 6/14

Elisha and I went up to Lake Irwin to set-up a picnic for some guests. It was rainy, sleeting, and snowing up there, so it became more of a hot cocoa picnic than anything else.

6/15

We drove to Bailey for Slow Song Saturday. SSS was one of my very favorite (invite only) events at McMurdo. The SSS committee (Liz, Joni, Tony, and couple others) would give you the invite and let you request a couple of songs. The songs are mostly 80s (some 70's and 90's) power ballads. People would make microphones (out of paper towel cardboard rolls) and everyone would sing all the songs together in a rather dark area with disco ball and other similar types of lights. I loved the people invited and how into it everyone got, and how it always turned into a circle with everyone's arms around each other, singing their hearts out. Well, when I heard that Liz, Joni and company were having an off-ice Slow Song Saturday, I was so incredibly excited. We drove Gunther to the party to camp with everyone on Joni's property in Bailey. Joni and her husband Cory (South Pole traverse) had lots of food and burgers and everyone brought drinks to share. Mitch was there as was Liz and Alex, Neal and Clair, Kate Fay, Dan Vedra, Marissa, Jamee, among others. It was of course a GREAT time, and we sang late into the night

6/16

Neal and Clair hosted us and Jamee and McNifty for brunch at their place on the other side of the highway in Bailey.

6/16-18

Mom came and visited to look at some condos and property and of course to hike amongst the wildflowers. We also had a hot dog roast out by Gothic.

The flowers are really starting to pop, especially the lupines and larkspur, and some sunflowers. So we've been biking a lot amongst the flowers.

6/24

Started the day by hiking up deer creek trail above Gothic to enjoy the SPECTACULAR lupines and views of Gothic Mountain.

We then drove to Salida in Gunther where we biked some fun trails right above Salida, went out for pizza, and then camped in Gunther on the hills above Salida with good views of the 14ers (Collegiate Range) and the stars and Salida down below. We also watched some of Anne of Green Gables on the tiny TV in Gunther.

6/25

Biked the really awesome Rainbow Loop out of Salida. We then drove home in time to go to a seminar at RMBL given by Truman Young. Truman is the advisor of my advisor Todd. In other words, he's my academic grandfather.

6/26

Biked Deer Creek Trail (out and back) and the Lupines were just amazing!

6/27

Hiked West Maroon pass and Belleview Mountain. The day started out rainy, but then opened up to a mostly sunny day with beautiful views. Lots of snow still on the ground on the way to Maroon Pass. The rainy morning, snow, and lack of wildflowers (except for glacier lilies) meant that the pass was completely empty and I had the whole basin to myself, an extreme rarity in the summer.

6/28

The chainless bike race was today! Elisha and I dressed up in a stars and stripes theme and had a good time. Also got to see Lisa who was in town for a bike race that her daughter was competing in.

6/29

I had the day off, and so I did lots of biking amongst the flowers. Storms came in after Elisha got off work. Once the rain mostly dissipated, we went out and were treated to a wonderful double rainbow over the East River valley.

7/1

Went for a bike ride amongst the flowers in the morning, and then drove up to Paradise Divide (11,300 feet) in Gunther in a driving rainstorm to camp up there. It stormed (lightning and thundered) all night long and the thunder was really loud as the lightning was rather near.

7/2

Woke up to clear skies, so I hiked up Treasury Ridge and skied a nice run down towards North Pole Basin. Got almost 2000ft of vertical in!

When we got back to town, we went for a short hike at Brush Creek to enjoy the flowers

7/3

I started my new part-time job at RMBL (invasive species technician)

We went to enjoy the live music and fireworks show up at Crested Butte Mountain Resort

7/4

We were working in the morning, but still got to catch some of the parade, including our favorite floats (RMBL, KBUT, Red Ladies). After work we went for a bike ride amongst the flowers and then went out to RMBL for their famous 4th of July BBQ. The executive chef this year is Zeke, who I know from Antarctica as he was the lead chef at the South Pole. He's from Texas, so his bbq was amazing (brisket, smoked turkey, various sausages, brussels sprouts, etc).

7/5

More amazing wildflower mountain biking up at Point Lookout and Walrod cutoff

7/6

Started my new (2 day a week) job with Maroon Bells Shuttles. I basically drive peoples vehicles between Aspen and CB and vice versa. So far I've just had doubles. Drive a car from CB to Aspen and then pick up another car and drive it back to CB, but if I have a single, I would just hike back over the 12 mile West Maroon Pass. It's an awesome job so far. I drive fancy new cars with all the bells and whistles over the incredibly scenic Kebler and McClure passes between 2 beautiful mountain towns, al the time while listening to an audiobook. When I get to Aspen, I either use their good bus system or their free e-bike/pedal bike transport option to get around from car drop off to car pick up.

7/7-7/12

My parents are in town to see the wild flowers!

7/8

We did a hike on deer creek trail to enjoy the wildflowers, then went to the free alpenglow concert series

7/9

Elisha and I hiked up to Green Lake (which is actually a beautiful blue). It's a beautiful hike, but was a bit of a crazy day. Right as we got up to Lake Irwin, my car died. (I have a coolant leak and had forgotten to check it lately, so it overheated right there and turned off. Some kind folks helped us push it to the parking lot). To get to green lake, the road goes by private property of a jerk who is claiming it's his property. (There is a lawsuit between him and the forest service). Anyways, he puts up all these scary signs (ex. I have a gun and a backhoe). This got Elisha nervous, so instead of taking the standard route, we navigated a longer way around to avoid the area. The one nice thing about this property issue is that it means that you can almost always have this lake all to yourself. Indeed, this was the case today. The lake was still 3/4 ice filled, but I jumped in. We played with some of the ice crystals, as this lake makes really unique ice crystals for some reason.

On the way back down, my phone fell out of my pocket (hole in my pocket), and it took us over an hour to find it. We were actually lucky to find it with al the vegetation (I have a green case) and considering we were hiking off trail, so we didn't know exactly where we had walked. But I knew about where I had last checked my phone, and then we used my speaker to try to narrow it down (almost like an avalanche beacon). When my speaker gets close enough to my phone, it gives a ding that it's connected.

Mom and dad took us out to eat for our anniversary at a new restaurant called the hideout.

7/10

Happy Anniversary Elisha!

We worked in the morning. Then we went on a bike ride before all going out to eat at the RMBL cafeteria (pork adobo as the main meal). Then we went back to Mt CB for Music on the Mountain (they were good), and then I did one more bike lap on the mountain, starting to pedal up the hill while listening to the band's encore.

7/11

Elisha and I took mom paddle boarding down the Slate River. Elisha had her own paddleboard, and mom and I shared a double. I paddled her while she just sat and enjoyed the view. She called herself Cleopatra! Haha

7/12

There were so many deer out and about my field site while I was in Gothic today. They were very curious about me, including a very cute fawn.

We signed our contract today for the condo, which means that the condo is officially ours! Yikes! It's a deed restricted condo (meaning that it for locals and has a salary AMI cap (at 120%)) that we will be paying $287,000. It's a great deal for the area, but it's not our perfect place. It's more of a place to call our own so that we have guaranteed housing (housing isn't assured in this valley) at a decent monthly mortgage/rent, and don't have to play roommate roulette where you might have to move 2 or 3 times a year and have multiple roommates. I've even heard of some people moving 5 times a year and others living in their trucks in the forest. Housing is a major issue here, so although the place isn't perfect (high HOA, very small, weird condo building, market resale value different than normal due to being deed restricted, other deed restricted restrictions, etc), it will be nice to have secure housing. So here we go! We've been married for 7 years, and during that 7 years of marriage, only for 1 year have we lived by ourselves in our own place without roommates or sharing a kitchen or bathroom (communal living like in Antarctica: and that place was the small 1 bedroom place in Phoenix. So we are excited to have a place just to ourselves! The condo complex does have a hot tub and pool and is within a 5 minute walk of the ski hill. It's up in Mount CB.

So come visit us!

7/13

Biked the famous 401 for the first time this year today. The flowers still aren't blooming up top, but they are starting to pop midway down.

7/14

I'm sitting in the Aspen public library (amazing library!) right now as I type this. I had a single shuttle today, but Elisha and I are heading this way for our anniversary camping trip, so I'll just take the bus from Aspen to Carbondale to meet her, and then we'll head to Glenwood Spgs and eventually Vail

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!

I tallied up my number of days skiing for the '23-24 season.

Downhill days = 64

Back country days = 9

Cross Country days = 13

Total days on skis = 86

Chasing the Eclipse

 4/3

We took Abby into the deep snow of Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked up to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald lakes. Lots of snow! And of course the lakes were frozen We then took her to the Stanley Hotel.

4/4

Today we started our journey to search out totality for the total eclipse occuring on April 8th. We originally were going to take Gunther to roadtrip to Texas and back, but then Elisha was named the Employee of the Year for Eleven, and they awarded her (and me) with an all expenses paid trip to Eleven's property in France. So we decided to rent a car one way from Boulder to Houston, then fly to Europe and then fly back to Denver. It turned out being a good idea, bc we drove A LOT and the car we got (Toyota Corolla) got amazing gas mileage (nearly 50 mpg) and had all these fancy technologies to make driving easy (plus it had AC, which Gunther does not!). 

Mom drove us down to the rental car agency in Boulder and then we continued on to Colorado Springs. We showed Abby Pikes Peak and then did a quick tour of the Olympic Training Center. We then drove into New Mexico to Roswell and stayed at a hotel using points.

4/5

We explored downtown Roswell. We visited a few of the curio shops, looking for postcards for Abby, then went to breakfast at McDonald's, which was constructed as a spaceship. We visited the UFO museum to learn all about the Roswell crash as well as other extraterrestrial activity and events. We had to admit, it was pretty convincing. We then visited a really cool black light art alien/space exhibit. 

After spending time in Roswell, we drove over a pass through Ruidoso to White Sands National Park. We hiked out into the pure white dunes made of soft sand. We took several small hikes from the sandy loop road in the park. We then hiked out at sunset for a truly magnificent sunset over the dune field. Beautiful pink and orange clouds, with dark mountains as the backdrop, and then the soft white dunes.

After sunset, we then drove over another pass through Cloudcroft to a town not far from Carlsbad, where we stayed in a cheap hotel.

4/6

We got up really early and drove to Carlsbad Caverns National Park to try to get a last minute guided tour ticket to a part of the cave that the general public is not allowed on their own. But, we had no luck. Since we were there many hours before our time-entry reservation to enter the main cavern, we drove to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.  We did a hike in the national park to a cool little cabin. The scenery was really nice, which very steep mountains and deserty flora, but it was crazy windy. While we were driving through Carlsbad Caverns NP, we saw a large herd of non-native Barbary sheep (native to North Africa).

Back at Carlsbad Caverns NP, we did the natural entrance hike to go deep into the bowels of the earth. It was really cool and ket going down and down and down. Eventually we met up with the main loop, which circled around the ENORMOUS main rooms of the cavern. The stalagmites and stalactites were so cool and very ornate. It was just spectacular! To leave the cave, we rode the elevator that most people enter (and leave) the cavern from. The elevator descends 754 feet from the ground level.

We went to a pizza buffet in Carlsbad to get some....salad, believe it or not. We'd been eating so much fast food that we craved a salad, and this cheap pizza buffet also had a salad bar. We then drove to Andrews, Texas where we stayed in a cheap hotel.

4/7  T-minus 1 day until the eclipse! 

We spent the morning in the hotel looking at weather models and trying to figure out where the best place to see the eclipse in a cloudless sky would be. Our original plan had been Southern Texas and then stay with Linnah in Austin or watch it near Dallas and stay with Elisha's friend Hannah. However, weather models indicated that Northern Texas would have a better chance of clear skies, but Arkansas would be the best bet. A giant storm was moving in and the timing was going to be tricky as to when the clouds built compared to when the eclipse happened. So we drove all the way up to DeKalb, Tx. On the waay, we passed through the outskirts of Dallas and saw Hannah and her daughter and boyfriend at a park for quick bit. 

The flowers on the drive in Texas along the highways were magnificent! We got to our campsite in DeKalb that we had pre-booked. It was on a horse training/competition ranch. We met some other eclipsers, then set up our tent and went to bed.

4/8 Eclipse Day!

We did some last minute weather checking and decided to head to Caddo Gap, Arkansas. It was dark and cloudy in DeKalb--but predicted to burn off; however a storm from the gulf was predicted to arrive very close to eclipse time, and we didn't want to risk it. When we got to Caddo Gap, it was clear skies and everyone was in a cheery mood, but updated forecasts made us feel even more comfortable if we drove just a bit more north up to Royal, Arkansas. 

We pulled off in a little space where there was one other guy with a fancy photography set-up and a cool app that announced out-loud the difference phases of the eclipse. 

As the eclipse progressed, it got darker and darker. Shortly before totality, these strange waves ran across the ground (I can't remember the name). Then totality hit, and it was pretty dark! We could then take off our eclipse glasses and look straight at the sun. It was surreal. The lit up corona around the moon shone bright like a jewel in the dark sky, and the moon itself was the blackest black. The sky was so dark that stars were out! I could look at it forever! It was just so cool. The totality lasted for 4 minutes. When it was occurring, the birds went quiet and the crickets got louder.

After the eclipse, we had another big decision to make. We needed to get to Houston for our flight to France by the next afternoon. We wanted to go through Dallas so that we could stay with Hannah, but nasty, severe weather was predicted with "damaging winds, softball sized hail, and tornado potential" in a huge part of Texas for 2 days, including Dallas. And of course we had declined the extra insurance on the rental car. Houston was outside of this severe weather zone, so we decided to go straight to Houston. We did drive through a pretty good hail storm, but otherwise it was fine. We stayed at a hotel in the vicinity of the airport.

A great eclipse is in Egypt in 2027. See you there!!

Winter in Crested Butte

 12/18

Arrived to Denver.  Since my mom and dad were still in Tucson due to grandma's health, we rented a car and drove up to windy and cold Estes Park

12/19

Mom and dad arrived to Denver and I drove the rental car down to meet them and drive home with them.

12/20

Elisha left to go back to CB, but I stayed in Estes. 

12/21

Spent most of the day talking to doctors and my insurance trying to figure out how much a rabies treatment would cost. Since I was nipped by that dog in Yunnan, China (which peer-reviewed journal articles indicated has a significant amount of rabies). The IGG that you need can cost around $7,000-10,000, and that's just the shot. But you have to be seen in the emergency room, which of course really increases the cost. Then you have to get 4 rabies vaccines, which also are at the ER. Reading articles online (such as this one: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/7/16851134/rabies-treament-expensive-emergency-room  Titled: "Why a simple, lifesaving rabies shot can cost $10,000 in America"). Because I was just nipped and it only made a small scratch and I was wearing pants, I was stressed trying to figure out if spending $10,000 was worth it.

12/22

Drove with the parents to Crested Butte. Went to the hot tub at my parent's place

12/23

Spent tons more time on the phone with insurance, hospitals, etc. Skied out to Gothic. The rest of the family went part of the way, but I went the whole way because I hadn't been to Gothic, my old stomping grounds, in a long time. We went out to eat at the Thai place. Yum!

12/24 Christmas Eve!

Went to breakfast at my parent's hotel. Then spent the day prepping for people coming over, cleaning up, organizing, and wrapping gifts. Went to Christmas Eve church service with my parents. Then we had cheese fondue dinner at our place and opened gifts since Mary would be working Christmas morning. Played some Code Names as well.

12/25

Elisha and I skied at MT CB for a bit early in the morning. Elisha made a breakfast brunch of cinnamon rolls and Kucha. Then mom, bro, and I spent the day watching Christmas movies, including Home Alone 2. For dinner we had shrimp bisque and artichoke dip and other appetizers and Zach and Mary's. That night we played the game "That's what she said" which was hilarious with my parents. My dad learned what motor boating was. haha

12/26

Spent a ton more time calling hospitals and insurance. What a mess. The insurance says only the hospitals will know the price, the hospitals say I need to call the insurance. No one knows! Pizza dinner at my parents' hotel and then hot tubbing

12/27

Some more calling of hospitals, but then I got lucky. While in Estes I had called the Boulder County Health Services and talked to a very helpful and friendly nurse. She was trying everything she could to figure out how to make it cheaper. She was really knowledgeable and had read up on rabies in Yunnan and such. She told me she would call over to Larimer County Health and have them get a hold of me. Well, Matt, an epidemiologist from Larimer county called. He was also very friendly and super knowledgeable. He told me that since I had received all the vaccines back in April 2009 (when I was bit by the rat in Thailand), that I only needed 2 shots and no IGG, and that he said my PCP should be able to write a script for the 2 shots so that they would at least be outpatient at the ER.

I would just mention that of all the many, many phone calls that I made, the most helpful, patient, understanding, and informative were the County Public Health folks, so a shout out to them. Larimer and Boulder counties were super helpful, and I imagine Gunnison would have been too, but their infectious disease person is on maternity leave so the person covering her, while very nice and understanding, was less knowledgeable. However, she took the time to call Matt the epidemiologist with Larimer to get up to speed. I guess maybe some of this is b/c the insurance companies and hospitals are out for money and profit while the government organizations aren't.

12/28

Saw my PCP to write the rabies vaccine script for me

12/29

Drove to Gunnison to get my first shot.

12/31 New Year's Eve

Watched the ski torch parade and the fireworks

1/1

Went for a ski and also ice skated on Blue Mesa Reservoir at sunset, which was absolutely spectacular. Got my 2nd rabies vaccine.

1/2

Drove to Montrose for a podiatry appointment. Tried to skate at Taylor Reservoir, but there was too much snow, so skated at CB's Big Mine Ice Rink instead

1/4

First day of my job as a mountain lion tech for Colorado Parks and Wildlife

1/5

Started really early in (5am from CB) to look for lion tracks. We split up as a team. One person found some and then we used hounds to track the mountain lion in through the snow and eventually tree her. She was a very big mountain lion! Unfortunately she had a collar on her, so we didn't need to dart her to do any work on her or fit her with a collar

1/6

Skied early morning (and cold) groomers with Bro. Then we heard that despite CB getting less than 1" of snow, the Kebler area had gotten 2 feet! So we snowmobiled up to Kebler pass and did 4 runs up in the Anthracites and the ridge beyond. And it was truly deep and very blower!

1/7

Went out again looking for mountain lions. Found some tracks out towards Lake City area. The hounds picked up the scent, but the cat was able to evade them

1/14

We got a big storm over the holiday weekend totalling 4 feet! I got to ski on Sunday and it was super deep and awesome!

1/15-16

Some challenging snow mobiling for work with all that snow. But starting to get the hang of it, I think.

1/17

A nice day of powder skiing with Elisha. They opened the North Face Lift for the first time this season, and we were one of the first to get to ride it so we got amazing fresh tracks! We did 4 laps up there on mostly untracked snow as hardly anyone was skiing today. We had an apres ski hour at Elisha's work with fancy snacks and a delicious cocktail (coconut margarita). It was free for us because some of the sales team was visiting and it was set up for them.

1/18

Elisha had a really good day skiing the fresh powder. I had a crazy drive in a white-out blizzard to Gunnison in the dark. But it was worth it as we did some cat tracking and were able, with the help of the hounds to tree a beautiful mountain lion!

1/19

We went out searching for lion tracks and found some. We used the hounds and were able to tree the lion. We darted it up in the tree, and then I got to belay it down from the tree. We did the various measurements of it. I had to lift the whole lion up to weight it. 95 pounds. So cool to get to touch a living, breathing mountain lion!

1/20

Another day searching for tracks. Again we found some. This time it was in a cliffy area with few trees. The dogs chased it along the cliff edge, but since the mountain lion felt threatened and couldn't climb a tree it took some good swipes at a couple of the dogs. Eventually it hid in a cave. I was the 1st one up to the cliff cave (besides the houndsman). It was my job to make sure the cat didn't run from the cave, so there I was less than 10 feet from the mountain lion as it stared at me from the cave for about 10 minutes as I awaited reinforcements. We darted this one as well, a young male. I got to help put on the collar and ear tags

1/27-28

Bryan Cheyne and his wife Sunaina are visiting from Denver. I went to school with Bryan at the College of Idaho, and he is now a doctor in Denver.

2/3

Today was the Alley Loop ski race through downtown. I did the 5k skate ski and dressed up as a giraffe. Bro was the king of soul and pulled a sled with a speaker behind him.

2/4-2/9

The Stringfields (Lucas, brother Jordan, and Papa Ken) stayed with us for the week. They were here for the Blister ski demo summit and of course to ski and visit us. Definitely a fun time! We got some decent new snow, shared cooking meals, and went out one night to the secret stash.

2/14

For Valentine's day, we went to the Butterfly (Monarch mountain), where we'd never skied before and then afterwards went to Waunita Hot Springs near Gunnison. It's a cool hot springs on a ranch back in the woods, with lots of cats running the place (and coming to get pet while you're soaking). Then we went to Sherpa Cafe for dinner in Gunnison

2/17

Jack Snow (a friend from my winter in Gothic) came to visit and to race the around Gothic Mountain race, so we hung out with him for a bit before going to see a Brett Dennen acoustic show. It was a very small and intimate show where he took lots of requests. He also played barefoot, while drinking tea, and sucking on some sort of hard candy. He also poked fun of rich people in the audience who owned weekend ski condos

2/18

Jack crashed out of the around Gothic race with a broken collarbone

2/20-22

We did a 10th mountain division hut trip to Jackal Hut outside of Camp Hale (near Leadville). We skiined up in the late afternoon in a snowstorm and arrived just after sunset but before it was dark. There were 8 other people at the hut: 2 brothers from Steamboat, a couple from Vail, and a group of 4 friends from Carbondale, Evergreen, and Boulder.

The 2nd day, we did a couple runs off of Pearl Peak, then came back to the hut for lunch and board games (The wikipedia game). Then I went back out for a couple more runs off of the ridge that the hut is on. Then we played some bananagrams at night. For dinners we had freeze-dried backpacker meals that Sue had made in her new freeze drier. This night, it was only us and the group of 4 friends. We enjoyed listening to them talk that evening as they all have had interesting lives with big adventures, and they are all very well read. One of the guys, Jon Waterman, was especially interesting. He used to live in Crested Butte, but now lives in Carbondale. But he is a writer and photographer for National Geographic as well as an author (he said his favorite book he wrote was In The Shadow of Denali). A lot of his work has come in the Arctic where he has had some some big adventures. But he was also a rescue ranger on Denali. (https://jonathanwaterman.com/bio/)

The view from the cabin was really great. You could see several 14ers including Mount Massive, Mount Elbert, Mount of the Holy Cross, and I think some more. 

One the last day we did a quick run off the north side of the hut ridge and then skied back down to Camp Hale before heading to Leadville so that Elisha could go to Melanzana. 

2/23-2/25

Mom came out to visit to watch Zach and Mary dance in Move the Butte. She stayed with us, and we had fun doing some cross country skiing and going out to the Thai place as well as Move the Butte of Course

2/25-2/26

Drove with mom back to Estes for the night to pick up my car. On the drive to Estes we stopped at Taco Bell (mom's favorite). The next day we had pizza at Costco (my mom's 2nd favorite).

3/6

Date night! I took Elisha on a snowmobile ride to check on some camera's for work and then we went out to authentic tacos in Gunnison

3/12

Skiing has been good, but I had a bad crash and tore my left calf muscle. Had to ride down the toboggan with ski patrol. It didn't stop Elisha and I from enjoying a $2 PBR happy hour

3/13-3/15

Linnah who lives near Taos came and visited. She is a good friend from Antarctica. We all were 1st time Antarcticans together in shuttles and then we all moved to the Crary Lab together. I was gimpy so she xc skied and downhill skied with Elisha as the snow continued to fall. She took us out to a yummy Nepalese meal at the Eldo.

3/22

Last day at work with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Because of my calf injury, I was mostly doing data entry and camera trap photo sorting the last couple of weeks.

3/25-4/1

Packing up and cleaning and moving out of our place. Our landlords will be coming back to Crested Butte to live in their house this fall, but they didn't like that we were looking for other places before then, so they changed our month to month lease, so we had to move out. We're moving into a room in Zach and Mary's for now and also putting a bunch of our stuff in a storage unit in CB.

Also, during this week Flab Abby arrive. It is a Flat Stanley version of Conrad's daughter Abby. It is kind of like the travelmate that I did in 5th grade. Our task was to take Flat Abby on adventures with us and send photos of her doing cool things. And also send postcards to the class. Little did Conrad and Abby know, but we had BIG plans for the spring, so she was going to get a lot of adventure!

3/26

First day back on the slopes after the calf injury. But took it slow and tentatively. But it was a powder day, so I was excited to get out.

4/2

We skied our last day at Mount Crested Butte, before hopping in our van Gunther to drive to Estes Park.

Christmas time in Seoul

 12/17

Breakfast buffet at our hotel, then the subway to Kunming airport. Took a flight to Jinan, China on Shandong airlines where we had access to a lounge due to a reward perk from using trip.com so much for booking guest houses and trains. We then had a flight to Incheon, South Korea. From there we took the train into Seoul to our hostel. It was super cold (single digits), and we went out for a late meal of steaming hot noodles.

12/18

We had breakfast at our cozy hostel (complete with Christmas decorations) and then walked to Namsam park where we hiked up Namsam hill to N Seoul Tower, which has great views of the city. It was a very cold and grey day in Seoul. We then took a bus downtown and visited Gyeongbokgung Palace where we explored the grounds before heading to a lunch of some traditional Korean cuisine. As we walked and bussed around Seoul, we couldn't help but notice how decorated for Christmas it was. We then took a bus back to our neighborhood where we explored a bit of the huge and famous Namdaemun market and sampled a couple Korean snacks. 

Then it was back to our hostel to pick up our luggage before catching the train back to Incheon for our flight to Dallas. Korea was nice because, they, unlike China, were in the Christmas spirit. On the flight to Dallas we talked to some flight attendants at the back of the plane during our flight, and they had caught a Chinese man smoking in the bathroom. Classic...! haha

12/19

Arrived to Dallas and then the flight to Denver.

Yuanyang Honghe Hani Rice Terraces

 12/13

We arrived early morning to Kunming in the rain (first rain we'd experienced on our entire trip). We went to the hotel we'd be staying at before flying out and dropped off our big luggage and partook in the yummy breakfast buffet. We then walked to the train station to take the high-speed train to Jianshui. On the train, the old man sitting next to us gave us some oranges. At Jianshue, we took a bus to Nansha where we caught a minivan to Xinjie, where we switched to another minivan taking us to Duoyishu. From there we walked about 10 minutes to the village of Pugalao, which has no roads: only stone paths and steps along rushing water. We checked into our guesthouse where we had splurged on a terrace view room as we were here to see the famous Yuanyang Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. The owner Lucian was nice and spoke good English as he had lived in Nepal before. He had a sweet old dog and a young cat who liked to cuddle together. So cute!

Our room had a great view of the terraces out a huge window as well as a nice electric blanket for the chilly nights. It was a bit cloudy and misty, but it was still a really nice view of the terraces at sunset. We hiked back up to Duoyishu for dinner where we met a nice Chinese lady who spoke English and helped us order. We walked back in the rain.

12/14

We woke up and watched the sunrise over the terraces from our BED with tea and had a generally slow morning. We had flower cakes from Lijiang for breakfast. 

We then spent the day walking from village to village and viewpoint to viewpoint. This time of year the terraces are flooded, so they are really beautiful as they reflect the sky or shimmer if the sun is low. The terraces were constructed by the Hani minority group who have distinctive clothing and headwear and live a very traditional life. Most of the villages can only be accessed by foot and are full of chickens and ducks and geese running around the narrow, twisting streets. The Hani also have gentle water buffalo that will be led through the paths out to the terraces. Water runs all around through little aqueducts and channels the Hani have built. Their homes are called mushroom houses because they are a bit in the shape of a mushroom and have thatched roofs. The rice here is pink rice. It was cool both to tour around the villages and to walk amongst the rice terraces and check out the viewpoints.

A very friendly and playful dog (though it didn't know how to be pet) followed us for about 9 miles of our journey and waited for us even when we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and visited villages. It seems like on all of my trips I always have a dog follow me for a long hike at some point. I always name the dog after a local food, so we called this one Bao (after the steamed bao buns), but also Bao ze Dog as a play on Mao Zedong. As we were hiking through one village, a crazy old lady, who was doing something with manure, came after us a bit with manure in her hand like she might throw it, so we had to deploy our umbrellas as protection. We wondered if in her mental state and with her age if she thought we were crazy white spirits.

Before sunset, we caught a minivan to the Bada area where we did some more hiking and then watched the sunset, which was cool reflecting on the water. Then we caught a ride back with 2 friendly women in their private car who spoke a little English. An Italian guy is staying at the guesthouse. He had started in Moscow and done the Trans-Siberian Railroad. He was the first westerner that we had conversed with since Kathmandu!

12/15

We woke up early and climbed up to the main road to watch the sunrise from Duoyishu with the hordes of Chinese tourists (and their drones). But it does afford a really spectacular high up vantage point of the terraces. After this, we walked back to our guesthouse. On our way a friendly seeming dog ran up and nipped at my calf causing a small scratch through my pants. This would eventually set off a very annoying and expensive rabies ordeal (you can read about it in a later blog). Back at the guesthouse, Lucian made us egg and noodle soup, and we sat out on the porch with the cat and dog and gazed at the terraces while we ate. 

After breakfast, we set out once again to hike through the village and terraces including Quanfuzhuang, Qingkau, and Bada villages. Again, it was nice views of the terraces, and we also walked along some more natural areas. We watched the sunset at a different spot and got a ride back with a Chinese couple staying at our guesthouse and had rented a car. Lucian had killed a chicken that morning, and he made us a dinner with chicken and other items and served us wine as well.

12/16

Again watched the sunrise from our room and had noodle soup for breakfast. We then took a minivan to Xinjie where we transferred to another minivan to Jianshui where we toured the twin dragon bridge with its 17 arches. Then hopped on a high-speed train to Kunming and walked to our hotel: Ibis. Very nice and on the 10th floor with nice views of the city. We went out to eat dinner in Kunming. Had some yummy noodles. THen we watched ping pong and short track speed skating on the TV.Yuan

Shangri-la

 12/12

We got up early and caught the early high speed train to Shangri-la. Shangri-la is famous because it might actually be the location of James Hilton's Shangri-la in his utopian novel "Lost Horizons". Shangri-la is also in a Tibetan part of China, though not in the province of Tibet. It's at a high altitude (3160m/10,370ft) and surrounded by snowy mountains. In 2014 a devastating fire destroyed half of the old town, but it did not damage the main Tibetan Buddhist temple on the hill in town.

When we arrived on the very cold morning, we took the bus to the ancient town and walked a bit along the cobbled, carless streets. We then hiked up a steep hill to a Tibetan temple that has the world's largest prayer wheel. And indeed it is huge! It takes about 15-20 people pulling on it to make it turn! Next we caught a bus to take us to Ganden Sumtsenling monastery that very much resembles the Potala Palace in Lhasa. There is a lake in front, from which there were good reflecting views of the monastery complex. We then climbed up the stairs to the monastery, which was beautiful with its shimmering gold roofs. Of course there were lots of Han Chinese dressed up in old Tibetan outfits holding prayer wheels. It's rather annoying to me because the Han Chinese have not been kind to the Tibetans. It would be like me dressing up in Native American regalia and going for a photo shoot to Mesa Verde or some other pace of spiritual importance to Native Americans. We climbed to the top of one of the buildings which afforded us good views of Shangri-la town and the surrounding mountains. 

After this visit, we went to lunch and walked a bit more around town while Elisha shopped. Back at the huge and brand new train station, we had fun trying to get all of the prayer wheels in the giant square to spin at the same time. We were able to because they were well oiled. We then took the high-speed train back to Lijiang. The train route to and from Lijiang and Shangri-la was probably 80-90% long tunnels; however it crosses a bridge over Tiger-Leaping Gorge, so we got a good glimpse of the gorge with its steep wall, rocky mountains, and blue-ish river below. The river had been a raging brown when I was there before because I had visited during the rainy season. I had really wanted to take Elisha on this awesome trek, but we just ran out of time. 

After arriving to Lijiang, we took the bus to the old city. I hug out with Dragon for a bit while Elisha shopped. Dragon gave us a parting gift of a box of flower cakes, then we went out for dinner before heading to the train station. We boarded a double-decker overnight train to Kunming (soft sleeper). This train was cool because not only did it have a dining car, but it had a disco car with a piano and disco lights

Ancient city of Lijiang and Yulong Jade Dragon Snow Peak

 12/9

We got up early and flew from Xi'an to Kunming (the "spring city"). We noted how clear and fresh the air was in the city of eternal spring. Because the the transfer to the train station went smoothly, we changed our train ticket to an earlier train and then had a yummy lunch in Kunming. We boarded our high-speed train for the journey to Lijiang. En route we passed by Dali and it's large lake

We saw no foreigners (white people) during our entire time in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. But even on our whole journey thus far we've only see 4 or 5 westerners total. We figured that because Lijiang is more touristy we'd see some more westerners, but we didn't see any there either.

We arrived to Lijiang and took a bus to the outskirts of the ancient city. No vehicles are allowed in the ancient city with its maze of narrow, cobbled streets, so we had to find our way somehow to our guesthouse. We walked a bit over a kilometer and up a hill on steep stone steps to find our guesthouse. We checked in and then went out to explore the town. 

I visited Lijiang back in 2010, and it has changed a lot. Now it's a lot more of a chic place for young people who are all out taking glamour photos with fancy, traditional costumes and often personal photographers. There is a bar street where every building has a live band, and you can hear multiple bands at once. But there are also things I still remember, like the free samples of yak jerky and lanterns hangings along the narrow streets that often have little waterways. In the old time, they created canals and waterways to that each and every house received water from the glacial river. 

We went out for some noodles and local Naxi (the minority group here) bread with fillings.. When we made it back to our room and took a shower, the toilet was clogged as was the shower. It turns out the shower drain was connected to the toilet pipes, so when the toilet flushed sewage came up out of the shower, so you took a shower with poop in the basin! The room we were in had been fancy, but we had to change to a different, less nice room that had a mattress that Elisha really didn't like. The owner/manager is named Long (dragon) and is really nice. He showed us how to make tea in the special way here, made tea for us, and then gave us a free brick of tea.

12/10

Because Elisha really didn't like the room, we transferred to another one. This was back to the fancy side of the hotel. It's a fancy room with smart lights, curtains that close mechanically with the switch of a button, heated toilet seat, and all these other smart features that we didn't know how to use because the buttons are in Chinese. After switching rooms, we walked to the black dragon pools where there were great views of the Yulong Jade Dragon Snow mountain, including a reflection in the pools. In China, if they call a mountain a "snow mountain" it means that it's heavily glaciated. The black dragon pool area not only had great views of the giant mountain, but cool Chinese buildings and coy fish in the ponds.

After exploring here it was time for a delicious lunch and then it was off to explore the twisting, cobble streets of ancient Lijiang. The city is cool with its narrow lanes, often with little creeks running through. All of the houses (now many turned into guesthouses) open up into beautiful courtyards, all decorated and designed a bit differently. Along our journey, we visited the Mu mansion and a Buddhist monastery. And then just lots of interesting streets and alleyways. Along the way we sampled lots of free dried fruits, sweets, snacks, and jerky along the way. And also had some of the famous flower cakes.

The public restrooms in Lijiang are so crazy and fancy. They have a digital board letting you know what is occupied. It's all touchless, with a wave of the hand to open and close the door. And a plastic wrap is automatically deployed to cover the seat. At the end of the day, we climbed the hill near our hostel to a large pagoda for 360 degree views and to watch the sunset over town and on the snow mountain. At night the pagoda was lit up really cool, and the walk through the forest was also really cool as it went through a (plastic) mushroom forest that was lit up, including with moving/dancing mushrooms. We had dinner at a fancy place in Old Lijiang town amongst all the picture takers.

12/11

We had arranged a classic Chinese day: A group tour to the Yulong Jade Dragon snow peak, to be scaled, not by hiking, but via a cable car. The hostel employee who was supposed to take us to meet the tour slept in, We contacted the hotel owner (Dragon), and he was very apologetic and made the employee buy us breakfast (hot soy milk) and take us in a cab ride (surely expensive for him) to meet back up with the tour. The tour had 4 other people (Chinese of course) and the guide. The guide couldn't speak English, so in some ways, it was a guess as to what the program was. But Dragon had give us one of his spare phones that had WeChat (Chinese social media app used for nearly everything: paying, social media, messaging, etc) so that we could text with the guide because that way you can easily translate, especially such things as when to come back or when/where to meet. 

Our first stop with the group was moon valley which was an area with several of these amazingly clear and turquoise/emerald lakes. Incredibly beautiful color! As a backdrop was the snow mountain as well as waterfalls between the lakes. It was just a truly stunning area, and we spent several hours there. Then it was back on a bus to a lunch spot where our group shared a big hot pot bowl. Then it was a bus to the gondola where we waited in line to board the gondola.

The gondola took us from 11,000 feet above sea level up to 14,783 feet. There was a boardwalk/stairway that continued up to about 15,350 feet through the snowy landscape. There were a ton of Chinese struggling to walk up the stairs, all sucking down on oxygen bottles. The tour provided each person with 1 bottle, but most people bought extras and took multiple bottles. It was a funny sight! And quite comical to me as, of course, the oxygen cans are just gimmicks and won't really help with the altitude. Same as the ones they sell here in Colorado for tourists. There were really nice views from the top, including of a glacier we could look down on. Besides oxygen bottles, the tour companies also supplied everyone with parkas, so everyone had matching blue, green, or red parkas. It was all just a funny sight. 

Because you go up so high, so fast (especially if you flew in from Beijing, Hong Kong, or Shanghai), it's easy to get altitude sickness, and we saw a few people vomiting. After hiking up to the end viewpoint and hanging out in the snow for a bit, we headed back down the gondola. 

We ate a delicious meal for dinner (eggplant, lotus, and pork dishes), then had a tea ceremony at our guesthouse. We tried to book a tour to both Shangri-la and Tiger Leaping Gorge since we had only 1 day left, but that tour unfortunately wasn't running.

Traveling the Great Karakoram Highway (Chinese side)

12/5

Today we started our journey up the Karakoram Highway, the famous highway connecting China to Pakistan via the highest paved road in the world (a towering 3500 feet higher than Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the US and 1500 feet higher than Pikes Peak Road, the highest paved road in the US). It traverses through stunning scenery in the Pamir and Karakoram ranges and reaches a height of nearly 15,500 feet). It has always been my dream to travel the Karakoram highway, so this was a chance to do half of it. The most spectacular side is the Pakistani side, but the Chinese side is also gorgeous. 

We hired a driver (Fu) and a car (Toyota Rav-4). Our first stop was a police station to get the permit to dive the road. This road is highly controlled and foreigners must have the permit as well as a driver and car permitted to take foreigners. After obtaining the permit, it was on to the highway. The road is magnificent (at least on the Chinese side)--wide, smooth, and as good as the best American highway and probably with more safety features. Of course it stood out as a crazily stark contrast to the Nepali "roads". 

The first stop on the trip was the Oytagh Canyon which as very red mountains. Continuing past a couple passport checkpoints, we were climbing up in a deep canyon with a glacial blue river below very steep, dry mountains. The mountains made me think how I imagined the rugged mountains of Afghanistan (which makes some sense since Afghanistan is nearby). As we continued up, we began catching glimpses of white and glaciated mountains. And as we continued higher up, more and more mountains and glaciers came into view. We then popped out of the canyon at the large White Sand Lake (Bulung Kol Lake). 

We first took a road that eventually goes over a pass into Kyrgyzstan to get some views of the lakes and surrounding mountains.  Then we went back to the Karakoram Highway to a spot where we could go to the lakeshore. The lake was frozen, so we walked out on it a bit. Additionally we rode a yak for some classic Chinese photos. Surrounding the lake are many glaciated peaks. We continued driving along the shore of the lake to reach another viewpoint which had views of large, smooth sand dunes on the opposite side of the lake. They were simply beautiful. 

Back in the car, the beautiful scenery continued, going past snowy peaks and meadow areas with the occasional yurt and flock of sheep with a lone (and presumably cold) shepherd. The next stop was stunning Karakul Lake (also frozen), which is surrounded by tall, glaciated mountains, including Muztagh Mountain (7548m/24,757ft), which means "Father of Ice" Mountain in the local language. Then it was up Subash Pass (13,400 ft), which of course had great views. The next viewpoint stop was the Taheman Grasslands, where a river winds its way through a grassland in front of white peaks. Here we saw the sunset glow on the glaciers.

Just as it was about to get dark, we arrived to Tashkurgan (aka Tashi). Being low season, the first couple of place we stopped to get a room were closed, but we eventually found an open hotel. Their list prices for a room was 500 yuan, but they asked for 300. However, we bargained them down to 150 yuan! It was a huge double room complete with an oxygen machine for the altitude and view of the police station. We went out for dinner (had a delicious eggplant dish) then back to the hotel where we watched some TV (in Chinese of course): ping pong and short track speed skating.

12/6

Slept in because sunrise is after 10am here! We went to a steamed bao buns place for breakfast and also had a bowl of hot soy milk. Then it was in the car to continue up to Khunjerab Pass (15,397 feet). First we took a little side road that goes over a pass into Afghanistan and stopped at a viewpoint to peer into Afghanistan. We saw some camels walking along the dry and frozen terrain. As we continued to ascend, the ground became mostly snow-covered. At one break in the mountains, up a valley, I think we saw the tip of the pyramid of K2 (the 2nd highest mountain in the world). We eventually reached a spot 3km (~1.8 miles) from the border and that was as far as China would let us go at this time. We were at an altitude of almost exactly 15,000 feet. We took a few photos of the border signs and then the police ushered us back down the hill.

The next thing we were going to do was to take the "dragon road" (Panlong ancient road) up some mountains on the opposite side. It's a crazy road with something like 604 switchbacks (google image it), but unfortunately it was closed due to being the winter season. Fu said we could see it from the top, however, by going a different route up from the backside, so we headed for this route. It followed a glacial blue river and then along a beautiful turquoise lake (Lake Xiabandi) that perfectly reflected the dry mountains. We continued along to a village famous in area lore where a Chinese soldier met a local woman, and they fell in love. My understanding is they made a movie about it that became famous--something called something like "Why are flowers red". Here at a police checkpoint, they didn't like something about Fu's registration. Fu said that it was because the car was a personal car and not a registered tour car, but I think there was some translation issue (or he wasn't being honest) because the car would have had to be a registered tour car. I think what happened, after talking to someone at the tourist center, was he hadn't gotten the permit needed to go on that specific road at the police station in Tashi. So sadly we had to turn around.

Back in Tashi, I walked around town, and then we went out for dinner. It was a bit of a bummer that we couldn't go up the dragon road, but it was great how far up the Khunjerab pass we got because I was prepared that we might have to turn around right after Tashi. 

Something really cool about this area is how it's such a crossroads of so many cultures and countries. Within a small radius of the area you can cross into Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Tibet, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan with Kazakhstan and Mongolia not too far away either. There are still yurts in the area and shepherds with their flocs, but China has also built more permanent housing structures as well.

12/7

We went back to the steamed buns place for breakfast. We then visited the old Tashkurgan stone city (mostly ruins) and the fort , which helped to protect the silk road traders back in the day. It was pretty cool with a nice mountain backdrop behind it. We then walked down on the boardwalk of the golden grassland, which is a summer march pasture, but during our visit was frozen. After touring around these areas we hopped back in the car for the gorgeous journey back to Kashgar.

Our driver, Fu (34 years old), was an interesting guy. He spoke decent English, but he still couldn't always relay deeper, more complex thoughts, or would have to use the translator app. He really likes basketball (Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson are his favorites) and has lots of criticism for Chinese basketball players. He knows his Chinese history. When talking about China or politics, he definitely recited the party line and talking points. For example, he said that America is a the better trade partner with China compared to Europe because of America's lack of industry regulations compared to Europe. He (and most Chinese) are big supporters of Trump because they really value a strong and authoritative leader. He told us he was a big supporter of Trump, even though Trump cost him his good job: He was supposed to manage some American factory in the area before a Trump policy shut down such American factories in China).  He is of course a big supporter of Xi Jinping because he is a "great and strong leader". 

Regarding the Uyghur people, he believes China is helping them by bringing them out of poverty and bringing infrastructure and modernity to them. He says the best China is a China of one, for the people, and a strong China. He says China doesn't see race like other countries do (and like America does he says). He said that in China, all people are just people. He also thinks that it's better for the people, the more land that China controls and that they should control everything that was once controlled by China at the very height of their empire. In Kashgar, the Chinese government is tearing down a lot of the old city and building a more modernized city. It's definitely true that the area is prone to earthquakes and that the old city buildings were rather dangerous--an EU report found that they were severely under code and that the next earthquake or fire could kills tens of thousands. They are now putting the people in modern buildings and have given them other infrastructure such as high speed internet and cell service. The Chinese have definitely brought money to the province and the people so that they are now richer in the things that we as westerners tend to think are important: hot showers, heated homes, indoor plumbing and sewage, clean water, communication (internet and cellular), etc. However, there is also a lot of thought that the Chinese had an ulterior motive in all of this modernization. It has been said that they also want to tamper down the culture or the Uyghur people and that by destroying their old buildings in the name of progress/safety, that they are achieving that goal since a place has so much meaning.

There's a long history of Chinese conquest and defeat. I remember learning some of it back in Mr. Vik's world history class in 7th grade and then again in Mr. Wells world history class in 9th and 10th grades, but over the centuries, the Chinese empire has expanded and collapsed as they have conquered neighboring areas and then been defeated by others. For example, back when Kublai and Ghengis Khan were running the Mongolian empire, the Mongols conquered and ruled a huge swatch of China and the Chinese empire was small. At some point, and I 'd have to read about it again, the Chinese controlled Xinjiang province and then lost it, and then recaptured it again. The people living there (mostly the Uyghur Muslims) haven't loved the Chinese rule, so in the late 1990's and early 2000's they did quite a lot of bombings and uprisings, which caused the Chinese to answer with their police state and "cultural genocide" as many have called it as China attempts to make the Xinjiang province something they don't have to worry about by basically getting rid of the strong Uyghur identity and making them all "one China". The Chinese, however, for tourism, still try to highlight the Uyghur culture and they emphasize visiting their handicraft shops and music and dancing and such, making their culture something more like a show than an actual part of them. While it might be a greatly impoverished country, it does seem like that Xinjiang should be an independent country.

I guess something sort of of similar could be the US and the territory/state of Hawaii. Hawaii was a militarily strategic place for the US and we brought "modernity" and American culture to the people, removing a lot of the traditional values and practices such as how they governed with chiefs and chiefdoms and their traditional ways of marriage, land ownership, religion, sacred sites, and such. Now, we like to highlight certain parts of their traditions and customs by having Hawaiians dress in traditional costumes and dance and eat fire and such at luaus for mainland American tourists. And I didn't necessarily realize the angst and anger that many Hawaiians have towards Haoles (Americans) until my Hawaiian friend (close friend in college and roommate in Boise), Yosh, told me all about it. In fact, he told me that in many places outside of the touristy areas of Hawaii, he would fear for my safety if I visited. When Elisha and I visited the Big Island a few years ago, and I had more knowledge about all of this, we certainly noticed this feeling towards Haoles when we were in some of the more remote and rural areas. Not exactly the same situation, of course, but just something that we thought related in our own country's history.

He also has a major aversion to risk and danger (much like most Chinese)--for example, skateboarding is too dangerous as is swimming in a big lake. He says people in China don't play baseball because of how dangerous it is with the fast pitching. I have to admit that China is probably one of the safest countries I have ever visited. Not only is crime basically non existent due to all the police and video surveillance (and b/c the Chinese people are just really good rule followers), but they really don't allow you to do risky behaviors. For example, you can't just hike wherever you want, you have to be on these perfect paths, with all the warnings and handrails and such. They have warning signs for everything everywhere; they have beautifully constructed roads with all sorts of safety features and slow speed limits (which are followed). They have modern vehicles, etc. And they have safety features like fire masks and such in every room. 

As we drove along the road, it was fun to have google translate the communist party propaganda on giant billboards along the highway. I noticed them more in Xinjiang than elsewhere, though we were on the roads there a lot more since we mostly traveled by train in China.

We didn't really talk to many people about politics in China, mostly because we came across so few people that knew enough English where this would be possible, but also because it's just better not to. I would have loved to ask Stella what she thought about the Uyghur situation since she spoke good English, was highly educated, had Chinese friends living in NYC, and was a Han Chinese visiting Xinjiang. But, you just don't really want to cause a problem with a new friend. She did acknowledge how China blocks google, but didn't say much about it. And she also said she was excited to see the new Barbie movie since it has a feminist theme to it. So she clearly wasn't entirely on board with the communist machismo. 

Back in Kashgar, we said hello to the family and little tiger before going out to get some dinner, including some Shawarma style burritos. That evening while Elisha rested up in our room, I hung out with the family in the family room (Mrs. Li, her son and daughter, and of course little tiger). The kids talked to me in English and mom was practicing too. We snacked on dried fruits, oranges, and pomegranates. The daughter was face-timing with a friend who also wanted to practice her English with me. They told me they thought I was 30! And that I was kind and sweet. Then the daughter sang a Taylor Swift song (Love Story) and a Chinese pop song for me. Definitely a fun night with the family.

12/8

Mrs. Li made us noodle soup and HUGE steamed buns for breakfast. Then we headed out on the town for more exploring of both the ancient city and old city and a visit to the pagoda. We had a meal at our favorite restaurant, getting steamed buns, meat on a stick, and eggplant laghmon. We then visited a famous "ancient" teahouse where you sit on the floor in the traditional way. Some Uyghur men were playing music with their traditional instruments. Next we watched a camel show right outside our guesthouse that was highlighting Uyghur culture and marriage practice. We then had to say a sad goodbye to Mr. Li and her family before catching a taxi to the airport.

We flew from Kashgar to Xi'an, and they served Laghmon and plov (rice dish) on the plane, which Elisha got a huge kick out of. We arrived very late (after midnight) to Xi'an and stayed at a hotel near the airport. The hotels are just so chea. This was a nice hotel with free airport pick up and drop off for 11 USD.

Traveling along the Silk Road to Kashgar (Kashi), Xinjiang

 11/30

Xi'an in generally considered the start/terminus of the famous silk road. We got up early and took the subway to the train station and then a high speed train to Jiayuguan in Gansu province. The train ride was interesting, passing some mountains and agricultural areas, some sand dunes, and some big cities. Upon arrival to Jiayuguan, we took a taxi into town. Unfortunately, we had a problem checking in. I had booked a private room at a hostel via a hostel booking website, but when we arrived, they didn't have any record of it. The girl wasn't good with the translator app, so it took forever to arrange to get something else. Dorms in China always seem to be male and female segregated, which we don't prefer, but we were willing to do this. However, they had these cool space pod things. They are actually pretty sweet and do look a bit like a space capsule. The door opens like and capsule and then inside the rectangular pod is a mattress and mirror as well as a charging station and way way to control the lights for different moods/reading. One of the light settings is a cool space-age blue. 

We went out into the cold night for dinner at a clay pot place. We then tried to find something resembling a supermarket to get some tea bags and maybe good snacks, but there was nothing resembling a market save for tiny convenience stores. We had kind of a rough night because there was so much smoking in the hostel. In China, people just smoke like crazy and don't seem to follow no smoking rules at all.

12/1

We arranged for a private car to take us to the 3 famous Great Wall of China sites here, though the lady who was our driver didn't listen to my instructions of where to go first (I wanted to go to the fort first b/c the light would be best on the snowy peaks in the background). First we visited the "first beacon tower", which is the farthest west extent of the Great Wall of China. This farthest west tower sits on top of a  high and sheer cliff overlooking a frozen river. This last tower is now pretty rundown as it has not been preserved and the desert is starting engulf it. From this tower, the great wall (adobe here because of the building materials available) runs east. The wall here has also been eroded and is now just over 9 feet tall as sand dunes are encroaching on it.. They have dug out part of the ditch in front of the wall to show what the ditch looked liked, but the rest of it is now filled in by sand. In the same area, we also crossed to the other side of the gorge by walking across a suspension bridge. On this other side there were some buildings and other things they have set-up that are traditional dwelling places from the great wall time period.

Next we visited Jiayuguan Fort (Jiayu Pass). It's a really cool walled fortress with several towers and views of high snow capped peaks with glaciers. Jiayuguan is the western gateway to China proper, and for the imperial Chinese, the beginning of the back of the beyond. It was of course important for safety on the silk road.

Lastly we visited the "overhanging" Great Wall, which snakes up a desert mountain ridge. There were views across the valley to the big mountains as well as to the factory filled city. There was also a little (little!) ski field where they made snow, since of course it's in a desert. For dinner we went to a delicious hot pot restaurant where you cook all sorts of items in either a spicy broth or a a tomato broth. We felt a small earthquake when we went to bed.

12/2

Got up very early to catch a train to Kashgar in Xinjiang Province. We were in a "hard sleeper" car, which actually has a soft mattresses with a pillow and blanket, In our berth we have 2 bunks stacked 3 high. Elisha was in the bottom bunk, and I was in the very top. Lots of desert scenery and windmills as we traversed across the desert landscape. We passed some snowy mountains as well. We continued along very flat desert in the Turpan Depression that is below sea level (2nd lowest place on the earth at 505 feet below sea level). At the city of Turpan (near Urumqi), we switched trains. Now we were in a "soft sleeper", which has just 2 bunks stacked 2 high in a berth with a door that can be closed. And, as on all trains, there is an endless supply of hot water for tea or noodles. After boarding we went to the dining car to enjoy a yummy meal and watch the scenery go by. After the sunset set, we retired to our bunks to read.

12/3

We arrived to Kashgar early in the morning (7:30am) and in the pitch black dark. Because the country runs on Beijing time and Kashgar is very, very far west of Beijing, the sun doesn't rise until 10am, but sets at 7pm (this time of year). It was very cold when we arrived. Because our guesthouse would be in a narrow and and carless street, we had the taxi drop us off a the mosque, a main landmark. It was dark and completely empty everywhere: not a person in site. We walked in the direction of our guesthouse, but were having trouble locating it because of course everything was listed in Chinese characters. Then we saw one Chinese lady all by herself and we walked up with our translator app, but turns out, she spoke English. She was a Chinese tourist our looking for breakfast. Her English name was Stella. She helped us find our guesthouse (Qingfeng Geya Guesthouse) and called the number at the door since the door was locked and the guesthouse owner (Mr. Li)  was asleep. She came to the door and let us into the warm interior. The guesthouse was a traditional style with an inner courtyard, but covered). Inside there were 3 cats, including the extremely friendly xiao laohu (little tiger). He loved to hang out with us in our room and sit on our laps. After settling into our room, which was built in the traditional style (Central Asian looking), we made plans to heat out with Stella to the Sunday livestock market.

Kashgar (aka Kashi) is located in Xinjiang Province which is the place where the Uyghur muslim ethnic minority live. What China is doing to the Uyghurs--attempting to wipe out their culture by tearing down mosques, old city sections, and importing Han Chinese is a whole can of worms. Due to violence from the Uyghurs (bombs and such around 2013/2014), the province is more or less a police state with so many police and the most police stations I have ever seen. And of course, like elsewhere in China, they require to see/copy your passport at hotels, train stations, and subways. China definitely has lots of cameras monitoring everything at all times, but there there seemed to be SO MANY. Also, they have x-ray scanners for bags for entering the old town, shopping centers, some tourist sites, and other places. However, these seemed to be fairly lax now (except at the airport and train station) since the violence has been very quiet lately. 

The livestock market only occurs on Sundays and it's where the local Uyghur and Taji people bring in their sheep, cows, horses, and camels to trade. The Uyghur people definitely don't look Chinese and look very Central Asian . They wear dark colors and fur hats. The bartering for animals is done in small groups using fingers and knuckles and ending with a handshake. The sheep here have major bubble butts of fat! It's pretty hilarious. Aside from livestock, other wares are sold and, of course, food as well. Most of the food is mutton or mutton based: mutton on a stick, mutton soup, mutton with noodles (laghman = the Uyghur noodles), and mutton steamed buns. But also lots of middle east style nuts and dried fruits (ex. raisins, goji bears, dates, apricots, and other fruits we don't know). And we also had some fresh-squeezed pomegranate. They also bake wood oven bread (naan) and have weak tea provided with every meal. After the lively livestock market, we rode the bus back to town to seek out the daily bazaar that we read was even more lively on Sundays. They have the saying "You can find everything at the bazaar except for milk from the chicken". We found some areas selling carpets and food (nuts/fruits), and other things, but nothing like we'd heard/read about. Then we learned that the large bazaar area had been torn down. I would guess the Chinese are going to build a new and modern one without the Uyghur history and character; however, that has not happened yet. We did find the huge area of rubble of the old bazaar on a different walk. 

We next headed to the Kashi ancient city which has mostly been rebuilt/modernized (but in the old style). However, you can view some of the original ancient city from a platform where the buildings do look dilapidated and unstable. The building style is adobe. This viewing area might serve a purpose to the Chinese to prove that their tearing down of parts of the city was necessary for safety reasons. There are many places in the ancient city that we couldn't walk down (alleyways blocked by barriers) due to the demolition/construction. The remodeled areas, however, still looked really cool as they were built to replicate the old style. And in many of the buildings there were local craftsmen (ex pottery, musical instrument making, knife making, blacksmith, tea shops, etc). 

Next we moved over the to walled old city. There are no vehicles here either. There are several main streets selling food, wares, and crafts and then more narrow alleyways leading from the main streets to residences. Many of these buildings--but not all--have also been remodeled, but again in the old style. We split with Stella in the afternoon and we walked around some more to get some views of the walled old city from afar and across a little lake. We also found the biggest (and legit!) supermarket that we would see in China (and our whole trip for that matter). We spent the evening hanging out with the guesthouse family (Mrs. Li) and her son and daughter and of course Little Tiger. We talked to Mrs. Li mainly via google translate, but her son knows decent English and her daughter is learning. She shared tea, dried fruits, nuts, and fresh fruits.

12/4

We had a breakfast of cornflakes and milk (first western style breakfast in a long-time, bought from the supermarket). Then we met with Stella and took the bus to the train station where we took a train to Shache (Yarkant) south of Kashgar on the southern route of the silk road. From the train, we could see some big snowy mountains in the distance. When we got to Shache we went straight to a restaurant to have pidgeon . It was surprisingly delicious, being a dark meat like turkey. We then proceeded to walk through the old town and explore the street bazaars. At one point we found a table tennis table and played a bit of ping pong with some locals. We also watched some Uyghur folks dancing. We visited a tea shop that was very dark and smokey and filled with only Uyghur men. They were playing Kung Fu moves on an old TV with a DVD player. In the teahouse we had tea and bread, which the local men broke into pieces and put into their tea bowls (tea is drank out of bowls). 

We took the train back to Kashgar. Stella talked quite a bit to the conductor. He said foreigners rarely rode this train. In the past year he had only seen a group of Japanese (he didn't like them) and a group of Pakistanis. 

When we got back to the train station, we took a cab. When we got to the city, due to me sitting on the side where the traffic was, I scooted across the backseat. In the process my phone fell out of my pocket. I noticed pretty much right away when I got out that my phone wasn't in my pocket, but the taxi had already sped away. I immediately began panicking. It's a big city (nearly a million people) with hundreds of taxis, and we had no idea who the driver was, let alone what taxi company it was. Keep in mind that my phone had all my photos from Nepal and the beginning of our China trip and also all the apps we used for email, texting, booking trains, hotels, translating app, etc, etc.

Stella remained pretty calm and called the police, and then we went over to some nearby police to talk to them while Elisha waited by the curb in case the taxi came back. The police we talked to summoned an English speaking captain from somewhere and he came to talk to me. But I figured all of this would do little good unless whomever got in the taxi next (or the driver) was a kind hearted soul and turned the phone into the police. On my phone I have a message that says "if found please call my wife Elisha at 208-xxx-xxxx" but of course it was in English and doesn't have the +1 country code. When I calmed down a bit, I had the idea of Elisha calling it with her phone, but not only was service a bit spotty for us, but I unfortunately had the phone on silent. I also searched, using Elisha's phone, how to track my phone. To do so I would need to log in to my google account. However, with 2-factor authentication, in order to log into my account, I would need to get a code sent to my (lost) phone. I tried to contact google-fi support, but, as I said, service was spotty and I couldn't connect. I had the thought of mom accessing my account from my computer at home, but she and dad were in Arizona with Grandma.

Having exhausted options for the time being, and it being cold and dark, we headed back to the guest house. I had the son of the Mrs. Li text a message to my phone in Chinese with his phone number in case the driver or passenger saw that notification. But then suddenly Stella came rushing into the guesthouse breathlessly saying the police had found it!!! I could hardly believe it, and in fact, wouldn't believe it until I saw it. But sure enough, a few minutes later, the English speaking captain and about 4 other officers stopped by with the phone!!! I hugged the captain and Stella! The police squad wanted to take a photo with me and the phone and them, all beaming proudly. Of course, we couldn't take a photo with our phones of the celebration because you can't take photos of the police in China. Wow! So unbelievable and such a relief. The phone is just so valuable to me. 

You know how I said that the area has just so many cameras...well, based on when we said we got into the taxi and when we arrived to our guest house, the police were able to use the cameras to determine what cab we were in and then use the license plate (or maybe facial recognition) to determine who the driver was and then call him. Pretty incredible! It was now after midnight, but we all went out for laghman.