Dogs like snow too.

All of our skiing so far has been at the ski area. This has been good for us to get our legs back into the groove, but that has meant hours at home for our furry friends. Here are a few shots of some exploring we've done with them this week.

Hati lives for snowbaths.

Soli lives for attention.

Every time we are out, Hati's primative instinct comes out and she scavenges for food.

This time Soli decided to get in on some tasty Mule Deer as well.

Why we like Salida!

I'll be the first to admit it, we've been a bit hermitlike since we've been in Salida. Not that that's a problem at all, just a bit out of character for me. This past week I feel like things are starting to change out here. For example, on Thursday night Monarch Mountain put on a season kick-off for employees and community members. There was a history presentation by a professor from Western State University. He gave a cool history of skiing and ski area development in Colorado, including a fun slide show. The thing that impressed us was that people in this valley take pride in the fact that they have the oldest ski mountain in Colorado. Monarch's slogan is "Unspoiled since 1939".

To back up a bit. We spent a few days down in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving day over at Cousin Rob's house. There were aunts and uncles and cousins and spouses. It was really fun, it felt just like the family holidays I remember growing up. The following day we had another Thanksgiving dinner with our immediate family at Tom and Angie's house. That was also really fun, I think we all ate ourselves into a serious food coma. Here's a fun picture of Jacob at his new house with a New Mexico snowman! Not a bad view of the Sandia Mountains.

On Tuesday of this week I started training for my 'second' job. Some of you might think I'm nuts, and I probably am, that I took a job as a snowmobile guide. Yes that's right, maybe I just miss coming home smelling like exhaust after a long night of grooming ski trails. So Tuesday and Wednesday were spent riding around on snowmobiles, learning the local trails, and having some fun along the way. It might be fun to work some at this job, but I have a feeling that once the skiing gets good, I will not want to spend my off time burning through more than my fair share of fossil fuels.

On Thursday I started my 'real' job. Monarch Mountain was scheduled to open on Friday, so I spent the day with a small crew getting the two lifts that were going to open ready to go. It was fun to get to know a few folks who also do these jobs so they have the privilege of skiing, a lot.

Friday was the big opening day! It started out in a bit of a frenzy, working out all of the bugs as any ski area has to do. It was mostly season pass holders out skiing that day, and I realized one thing about this group of people. They love Monarch and the lifties too! Skiers would talk to me like I had known them for years, some people even handed out goodies to the lift operators. It is fun to be a part of that energy. The day went well, I didn't crush any skiers trying to get on the lift. I was looking forward to skiing a bunch on Saturday, then my boss called and asked me to work on Saturday. Hey, it will be a long ski season, and money is money, I went to work.

Saturday we were scheduled to open Panorama Lift. Panorama might still be the only lift in the country that ends on the Continental Divide. I took a couple of pics from the top of the lift, I think on a clear day you might be able to see Utah. The day was another success and even better, no one called me to work on Sunday, sounds like a ski day.

Saturday evening we headed to the Salida Cafe to see our friend from Superior play some music. James Moors plays at Lutsen Resort quite a bit, but I had never really heard any of his songs from start to finish, so it was nice to see some live music, especially someone we know. The Salida Cafe puts a lot of effort into the arts, I'm sure we'll spend quite a few nights there during the winter.

Why we like Salida....On Sunday we headed up to the Mountain to get some turns in. It was what we call blue bird. We skied for a couple of hours, got familiar with the mountain, got a sun tan, and most importantly ended the day with a strong cup of coffee on the deck of the chalet. Some would think that was a good way to spend a day, which it is, but the day was only 1/2 over and it was in the 50's down in Salida. I loaded up my mountain bike and did a couple hour ride. It was more than I was expecting, the first 5 miles were uphill, taking an hour. I had anticipated an easy ride back down the mountain, but was surprised to find a trail that was quite rough, steep, loose and almost scary. I played it pretty conservative since Mica was out running and would have no idea where to start looking for me if I didn't show up by dark. Turns out she had a good run and I had a good ride. That's why we like Salida!

Mt. Shavano

Well, we decided to put our flatlander lungs to a test today. We figured that since we wake up every day looking at Mt. Shavano, we should climb it. We didn't get the classic 'Alpine Start', but we knew we had nothing but blue bird all day long. Leaving the trail head at 8:15, hopefully not a flatlander mistake as there were already two parties ahead of us. The first 1/2 mile or so is on the Colorado Trail, meandering through subsidized ranchland, thank you U.S. Forest Circus. When we hit the spur heading up Mt. Shavano the trail became very rough, like hiking on softballs and footballs. After about 1/2 mile of that, the trail became much better, maintaining a steady ascent. The trail is about 3.5 miles to the top, gaining 4,349ft. from the Blank Gulch trailhead at 9,880ft. As far as Colorado Peaks go, that is a fair ammount of verticle gain, many of the peaks have 4 wheel drive roads that go well over 10,000ft.

After about 1.75 hours we emerged at the end of the treeline. This offered up some panoramic views of the valley below as well as the "Angel Snowfield". The snowfield, which is now just a small ribbon of snow, takes the shape of an angel in the spring as the snow begins to melt. As we continued up the trail we saw the two groups that had started before us ascending the snowfield. We were definately traveling faster, passing one group and catching up to the other. As we passed the snowfield on our way towards the saddle near the summit, the wind began to howl. We were expecting wind, but this was 30-40mph gusting to 55+. I was worried that Mica might blow away, luckily she was attached to Soli who provided good upward momentum. We reached the Summit in three hours and 20 minutes, that made us flatlanders pretty happy. We had the other group of hikers snap our picture at the top.

A bit of coffee and tea and we were ready to descend out of the wind. On our way down we hopped, skipped and jumped down the loose scree, reaching the Saddle in 20 minutes, at least twice as fast as it took us to get up.

Hati and Soli are great trail dogs, they generally stay pretty close to us and seem to appreciate getting to the summit as much as we do. The only trouble is that Hati blends into the geology quite well, can you spot her in this next picture?

Once we reached the treeline we stopped for a longer lunch, out of the wind. The dogs were mellow for at least 5 minutes. Their metabolism is such that they can recover way quicker than us humans are able to.

After lunch Hati and Soli were ready to go. But before we were done, we had to take a picture of Stanley. Stanley is our sweet new thermos that keeps tea incredibly hot, even in below zero windchills. Stanley came to us from our friend Eric, who gets all kinds of Stanley products as part of his sponsorship in his quest to make it to the North and South Poles and Mount Everest in one year! Good luck Eric, check out his website www.savethepoles.com We made our way down the trail we came up, stopping periodically to give our knees a rest. When we got back to the trailhead the temperature was close to 50 degrees and there was hardly any wind, it felt like summer.

Up A Trail Without A Shovel

We woke up today socked in with fog, or maybe it was clouds, we are at 8,000ft. Either way, there was a light dusting of hoar frost on all of the vegetation which gave everything a winter wonderland feel. We decided it would be a good day for exploring. A couple of properties had sparked our interest, so we headed out armed with a topo map and a full tank of gas. This also served as an excellent opportunity to test out the off-road prowess of our Red Rover.

Forest Road 230 looked pretty good on the map. Heading north out of Garfield we had about three miles before we were to encounter a property that 'may or may not have a sign on it'. The road started out really rough, putting the traction control system to a test. Red Rover, with horrible tires, handled the loose and steep road very well. Along the way we encountered a couple of cabins and a beautiful stream full of beaver dams.

Not long after we took the picture above, we encounterd a small 'glacier'. We had driven through a couple of small streams and a fair bit of snow at this point, so I was feeling pretty confident with Red Rover. With the forementioned tires the ice prooved to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated. It is not like a man and his truck to back down from a challenge without giving it a fair shot (much to Mica's chagrin). We spun and slid our way about 20 yards up this frozen road and were not able to make any more forward progress. Now, if this was dirt, no problem, just stop and back up. Well, as soon as we stopped, I could feel us slipping. Some backwards and some sideways. We were off camber and the glacier wanted to push us sideways into a water bar. Bad news for us, if we slipped sideways we would probably high center Red Rover. Like I said before, we had a full tank of gas and that was it, no shovel, no chains, no salt or sand, no winch - all things we should probably have with us at all times - I'm sure Mica won't let me forget I said that.

With a good deal of dirt and rocks and debris (you can see the dirt patches we made on the ice), we were able to inch our way down without slipping sideways. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but have you ever tried to collect dirt and rock off of frozen ground? The ordeal took about an hour, we still had an hour of sunlight left and a half mile of walking to find this parcel of land. As we hiked up the road, there was a good bit of snow making it so much fun for Hati and Soli. We eventually found the piece of land that is for sale, which is the picture below. Pretty cool spot for a ski in cabin or summer retreat, no vehicle access during the winter.

We ended up driving down the road in the dark. We had smooth sailing, we were still talking to each other and Red Rover did not let us down. We will reward Red Rover with some new tires next week, but what should Mica's reward be?

Land Of Enchantment

This past week we spent in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We visited family which we had not seen since last December. The weather was super nice, sunny every day. We spent a good deal of time relaxing, did some exploring, and helped to break in Ann and Daniels new home. Tom and Angie took us up the tram to Sandia Peak, which is about 5,000ft. above the city. I was amazed at how rugged the Sandia Mountains are. Comprised mostly of granite, there are thousands of rock climbing routes all over these mountains. The tram is the longest in the world if I am not mistaken. At one point you are traveling 1,000ft. above the jagged rocks below. It was cold and windy up top, but the view made you forget about the wind all together. This is a definite must see if you are in central New Mexico!

Another cool thing right in Albuquerque is the Petroglyph National Monument. We read about some mountain biking there in one of our guide books. Although most of the biking was pretty sandy, the views and cultural history were worth the ride. This picture is of Mica, with the Sandia Mountains in the background. The city is in between the mountains and the escarpment we were riding on.

One of the best things about the Southwest is the food! We found our new favorite restaurant in Albuquerque. It is called El Pinto and it is amazing. It has been frequented by celebrities and politicians. There was a recent picture of President Elect Obama on the wall, too bad we missed him. El Pinto has great atmosphere and a wide variety of Southwest Cuisine.

We're looking forward to heading back to the Land of Enchantment for Thanksgiving!

Our Casa

We are getting our little tin can 'winterized' due to some unseasonably cold weather. That is not a bad thing however, now we will be more prepared for January. Sure we live in a campground, but, the location is pretty amazing. Here are a couple of pics from the homestead.

This is Mt. Shavano, sitting at 14,229, it is the 17th. highest peak in Colorado. This is our view out the front door. Out the front window we can see Monarch Ski area. We were on the southern edge of the big storm that made it's way across the country in the last couple of days. Monarch Ski area recieved about 15" of snow, they are pretty sure that opening day will be November 26th. I drove up to the top of Monarch Pass, it was a winter wonderland. Trucks were required to have chains, and they actually closed the pass for a few hours to deal with 3 semi-trucks that went off the road.

For a couple of inside pictures, we have a small borrowed woodstove (Thanks Pete & Jeff) that keeps us warmer than the outside air. We collect sticks when we go hiking, a couple handfulls keeps the chill off for an evening.

We spend a lot of time in the Kitchen. It felt incomplete until we put up this great hook system that friends at the North House Folk School got for us before we left Grand Marais. Super Cool!

With the howling winds coming off the pass, they've been 30-50mph up there, we were loosing way too much heat from the floor, so we put up some roofing material around the bottom. Although it is a nice night tonight, we feel like it made a big difference. Temperatures last night were right around zero, but it was 52 degrees in town this afternoon. As soon as the sun hits the tin can in the morning, I think it warms up about 5 degrees in the trailer. This view is to the East from our Casa. This view is looking out over the Arkansas river, this gives us great sunrises. It is about 10 miles to Salida down the valley.

We need your help! We can't keep refering to our little shelter as the 'tin can'. We're asking you to submit names. This is like a contest without any real tangible prize, just the satisfation of helping us sleep better at night.

Road Trip

In search of snow, we departed Grand Marais on November 1st. headed towards the rockies. Our goal was to drive about 400 miles a day, during daylight. For those of you who know us, that might sound pretty wimpy - we're used to driving all the way at once. The reason for our lazy pace, was that we were pulling our new home behind us, a 1948 tin can trailer.

The end of the first day brought us to Canby, Minnesota. We met up with our friend Matt, who just moved there this summer from the North Shore. He gave us a tour of town, including the campus where he is going to school to become a wind turbine technician. Sounds like a great program with tons of potential work opportunities in the future. After a super filling dinner at the local grub joint, we spent the first night in our camper on the street infront of Matt's house.

We knew Sunday was going to be long, we were shooting for Custer State Park, somewhere around 500 miles from Canby. We got an early start and the winds of the Great Plains were slightly out of the east, pushing us down the road. Things were going well until we hit a bit of road construction and the trailer decided to 'jump' off the ball. That slowed us down quickly. Because we were in this road construction site, the truck behind us had no choice but to stop and help us out. We put the trailer back on and made our way the next 1/2 mile to the closest gas station. I found some string in the rover and tied the tongue onto the ball. That made Mica fairly nervous, but it was Sunday and there were no hardware/auto parts stores open. We hit the capital city of Pierre and to our suprise, found a farm store that had tons of hardware. We fixed the trailer and made our way westward. We hit the Game Lodge campground in Custer State park right at Sunset, 10 good hours of travel.

Monday was going to be a shorter day, so we spent the morning touring the wildlife loop and hiking through the prairie. We saw bighorn sheep, pronghorn, bison, mule deer and Mica's favorite- the prairie dog. We proceded south and made great time, ending our day in Sterling, Colorado. We stopped at a travel center there and tried to get some advice on Camping in the area. Well, the best option the gentelmen in the travel center could give me was to camp at Walmart, "that's what most people do". So my distaste for the worlds largest distributor of cheap plastic crap has now pushed campgrounds out of small towns as well. We compromised and spent the night at the travel center.

Tuesday would have about 300 miles in front of us to reach our destination of Salida, Colorado. It was a really windy day and the rover got a workout on the long grades. After about 4 hours we were in Colorado Springs, stopping very quickly for gas and then on our way into the mountains. We passed through Canyon City and quickly found ourselves winding up the Arkansas River. After stopping for lunch we continued up to Salida, rolling into the Heart of the Rockies campground at 2:30 in the afternoon. We settled in and went to town for dinner. We should have a good night sleep, there is supposed to be snow for the next couple of days!

I know, this is the Skiers Journal, and I am sitting with Mica in a boat. It will not be long, however, before all that water starts to evaporate into the cold dry air, blanketing the Lake Superior Basin with layers of snow. This is my first blog entry. The point of this blog is to let our friends and family follow along on our 6 month journey this winter. We are leaving Grand Marais in search of the steep and deep. We will depart near the end of October and hopefully be able to add to this blog every week or so. We like visitors, so if you know someone who has too much time on their hands and wants to read this blog...pass it along.