Pikes Peak - Laboring on Labor Day

I'm finally gonna do it. I've had a goal to do this since I moved to Colorado and this weekend I'm making it happen. I am taking on a 14er - Pikes Peak. A fourteener (or 14er) is a mountain with a summit above 14,000ft (4267m) MSL (mean sea level). The highest 14er in the contiguous United States is Mt. Whitney (14,491') in California. Colorado has over fifty 14ers, making it the highest state in the US. Some other famous 14ers include Pikes Peak, CO (14,110'); Mt. Rainier, WA (14,410'); and Mt. Elbert, CO (14,433'). Stay tuned for photos.

Difficulty:	Class 2
Exposure:
Summit Elevation:	14,110 feet
Trailhead Elevation:	10,100 feet
Elevation Gain:	4,200 feet
Round-trip Length:	11.50 miles

Life on the Farm - Cedaredge, CO

Last weekend I made the trek over to the other side of the Rockies to visit my friends Jane and Ron from AZ. They bought some property in Cedaredge, Colorado to start a tree farm - their retirement dream. They are living off their land, complete with a large garden, chickens and cows. The drive was beautiful and took me through an area called Grand Mesa which had spectacular views from windy roads climbing over the mountains. It was great to see old friends and they treated me like a princess - just what I needed. They sent me home with a cooler full of fresh picked fruit and veggies... mmmm - fresh picked tomatoes are my favorite!
Thanks Jane and Ron!

Another pin in the map - NYC

Work sent me to New Jersey ...about an hour bus ride from the Big Apple. I was only able to make it into the city in the evenings .. but was able to get a few pic's of what I saw.

Time Square

City Skyline from the bus window.

Tyson V. who I hadn't seen since January of '06! It's funny how I always seem to meet up with this guy all over the world.

maintaining positivity

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. ~Author Unknown

Today I'm just trying to learn from life's lessons and keep on marching with my head held high.

Simple things that bring a smile to my face: spending time with my girlfriends, finishing a hot yoga class, catching a Frisbee, wild flowers, sunsets, calls from old friends, wearing new clothes, hiking, beautiful views of the Rockies, playing my guitar, sittin' in a sun beam, roller blading in Wash Park, Happy Tree Friends, listening to new tunes on my I-Pod, puppies, thinking about the places I've been, thinking about the great life I've had, fantasizing about all of the good times to come.

Amazing things in my life today to be grateful for:

• finding my way home safely using public transportation in New York City last night
• friends who call me back when they know I need support
• having a huge hotel room to relax in w/ beers in the fridge
• payday
• coincidental timing that led me to see Tyson and Tanler and his wife Molly last night

Fake it till you make it!

Mohawk Lake - Spruce Creek Trail

Last week the girls (Sheila, Cindy, Kelly and Cass) and I - and a dog named Bowe - headed up to Breckenridge to hike the Spruce Creek Trail up to Mohawk lake. Cindy picked out the hike and let me just say - that girls got talent when it comes to finding beautiful places to hike! Days like these make me happy to be livin'.

Bowe (the best dog ever) and I - checkin' out the Falls.

Sheila collects heart rocks...this one was too big to carry home!

A swimmin' hole for Bowe - you'd think that boy was a fish the way he loves water!

She and Cass - happy smiles : )

View of lower Mohawk Lake
Colorado Rocky Mountain High

MILE HIGH MUSIC FESTIVAL

I spent two amazing days last weekend at the Denver Mile High Music Festival. Great music + hot weather + good friends + beer = a fabulous time had! I danced, I sang along, I sweated it out in the 100 degree temps with what seemed like over 100,000 music fans.

97.3 KBCO - Boulder - my FAV Colorado radio station and sponsor of the event
Bob Schneider - " I just want to feel good,
I don't want to hurt no body,
I just want to get a good time out of my life"

Funky art surrounded the festival, including this transporter straight out of a Star Wars movie.

Chris, 1/2E and Becky - Barefoot and Dancin'

Funky Monkey art display

Jason Mraz -
" Well open up your mind and see like me,
Open up your plans and damn you're free,
Look into your heart and you'll find love love love love,
Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing,
We're just one big family,
And It's our God-forsaken right to be loved love loved love loved"

Laura and Jenny - smitten with Jason

1/2E and I - sweatin' but happy in the 100 degree heat

Martin Sexton - "
You and I here all alone,
Sunday morning here at home,
The sky is blue as the coffee’s strong,
It’s true,
But then I open my eyes
To this dream realized
In front of me,
Oh and I haven’t got a clue
What in the world is happening to me,

I think I’m happy,
Like the first day of summer vacation,
Happy when I get some rest and relaxation,
Happy like the choir on Sunday morning,
Sweet and true"

Beautiful sunset over the Rockies

" Be who you are nothing more nothing less, and let the beauty that you love be….. the very best, Sing praises to the highest with your feet on the ground, And reach for your brother with the words that you sound and Don't let mistakes be so monumental, and Don't let your love be so confidential, and Don’t let your mind be so darn judgmental And please let your heart be more influential."

John Mayer

She and B-Rad

music and funky art makes me silly -
or maybe that was the heat and the beer : )

Isabelle Glacier Hike

I snuck in a couple more "firsts" yesterday by hiking to see my "first glacier" near Ward, Colorado. Cindy and I hiked to see Lake Isabelle and Isabelle Glacier which sit at about 11,500 feet on the front range of the Rockies, just a short drive west from Boulder. This hike has ranked itself as my favorite hike I've done in Colorado so far.


At the risk of revealing my lack of intelligence, my mental image of a glacier is a large chunk of ice that sits in icy sea waters, testing the abilities of ship captains to steer around them and avoid becoming another "Titanic". Because I paid more attention to the movies and not enough attention in geology class, I posed the questions, "what is a glacier exactly, and if it is sitting on the sunny mountain side why hasn't it melted already?" Here's a bit of what Wikipedia has to say on the subject...



A glacier is a large, slow-moving river of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure. Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. Glaciers cover vast areas of polar regions but are restricted to the highest mountains in the tropics. There are two main types of glaciers: alpine glaciers, which are found in mountain terrains, and continental glaciers, which can cover larger areas. Thermal classifications of surface conditions vary, so glacier zones are often used to identify melt conditions. The dry snow zone is a region where no melt occurs, even in the summer. The percolation zone is an area with some surface melt, and meltwater percolating into the snowpack, often this zone is marked by refrozen ice lenses, glands, and layers. The wet snow zone is the region where all of the snow deposited since the end of the previous summer has been raised to 0°C. The superimposed ice zone is a zone where meltwater refreezes as a cold layer in the glacier forming a continuous mass of ice.







Cindy wanted to go on this particular hike to see and take photos of wild flowers. I got to see my "first Columbine", the white and lavender State Flower of Colorado.





I was definitely tempted to go skinny dipping in the beautiful glacier lake until realizing the glacial runoff was the coldest water I have felt EVER!

So beautiful!!!

click here for more AMAZING photos taken by my friend Cindy...

http://picasaweb.google.com/canne3618/IsabelleLakeGlacier07182008?authkey=2JrD1d1GJ7w