“His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand; the serenity of a clear blue mountain lake”-John Denver; Rocky Mountain High When hiking through the mountains of the centennial state, it’s almost as if the voice Colorado’s most famous native son softly echoes across the land. The lyrics of John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High Read More…
Category: Passion
The Long Haul
“You will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory”-Stephen Hillenburg; creator of Spongebob Squarepants “Super Tuesday” as I suppose it could be called began at around 6:15 as the sun rose over the Maroon Bells. Finally acclimated to the 12,000 ft elevation, because we needed to make up Read More…
Into Thin Air
“The very basic core of a man’s spirit is his passion for adventure”-Chris McCandless Sleeping at 11,000 feet isn’t easy. Until your respiratory system becomes accustomed to the thinner air, you’ll have a headache due to lack of oxygen reaching the brain. As the bright rocky-mountain sun dried up the remainder of yesterday’s hail, we Read More…
What the hail?
“Man, Colorado is whack, do people here even have jobs or are they just outside all the time?”-Matthew C. Cruz; Renowned Backpacking Enthusiast Starting our day off early, I noticed a reddish tint to usually bright blue Colorado morning sky. I then remembered the old sea saying, “red in morning, sailor’s warning.” Unfortunately, my predictions Read More…
Hazardous Conditions Exist
“If you fellas think you can just waltz in to Aspen without knowing what you’re doing, your gonna have a bad time”-South Park Ski Instructor Well, today’s your lucky day where you actually get to read about backpacking. After another early wake-up, we grabbed our complementary continental breakfast and headed to Snowmass Trailhead realizing that Read More…
Pikes Peak or Bust
“Pikes Peak or Bust”-Saying of the Old West Waking up that morning I saw an extraordinary sight, the sunrise over Pikes Peak. After grabbing an exquisite continental breakfast that included green chili eggs (a staple of the Colorado diet) we headed to Garden of the Gods, a park in Colorado Springs. Garden of the Gods Read More…
Off to the Silver State
“All great days begin at 3:00 am” Bob Sutherland; former Troop 380 Scoutmaster Side note: If any of you decide to ever rent a 15-passenger van, remember that they are only meant to take 15 people short distances, not 13 people and two weeks’ worth of camping gear for those said people, to Pittsburgh at Read More…
Colorado Sights Map
Since I will mention several sites across Colorado in the next several posts I thought this map would be good for reference. I will additionally post a trail map of of the Maroon Bells when I get one.
PhilNOT
“We didn’t start the fire. No, we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it”-Billy Joel There are moments in life when things unfortunate things just happen. The cause of the Ute Park fire is still unknown but obviously no one wishes that such a thing to happen. However, that was the reality we Read More…
Rocky Mountain High
“Depend on your feet and you can climb the highest mountain”-Lao-Tzu Wise words to live by—and words that I came across in of all places, inside of a fortune cookie my friend ate at the Ultimate Chinese Buffet in Colorado Springs. Life can often be full of surprises, but without those surprises, my amazing Read More…