I’m back from California and over my cold/sunburn and the weather is gorgeous! Kate planted some flowers in the pots on the porch and it looks like our first poppy has blossomed.

Today we went for a little bike ride up the Ten Mile Canyon Trail along with the rest of Colorado. Today was also the conclusion of “Ride the Rockies“, a 435 mile bike ride from Durango to Breck… so the roads were a bit congested.

Oh, we FINALLY got our truck back from the shop yesterday evening. Three weeks later, we now have our poor 4Runner back… however the rear hatch door doesn’t open still. It broke when we were in San Francisco and now I can’t figure out how to fix it. Without opening the door, I can’t take it apart, so if anyone has a suggestion I’m all ears. (and driving it 2 hours to the nearest Toyota dealer isn’t on the list of possibilities at the moment)

We’ve been out biking almost every weekend (mainly because we’re fighting the cabin fever we have during the week), and we’re amazed at all the trails that are around. Last week we did the Breck to Frisco trail, and this weekend we went from Dillon towards Keystone. I’m trying to convince Kate that before we leave, we need to do the trail to Vail that follows I-70. (it looks tough)

We tried to pose in front of Dillon lake but the sun wasn’t helping.

Here you can get a feel for the bark beetle infestation that’s taken over the forests around here. There are large sections around the area that they’re clear cutting, I imagine to get rid of the dead trees.

We went skiing at A-basin last weekend (sharing one single run with hundreds of drunk teenagers isn’t a ton of fun), and planned on experiencing Keystone this weekend, but as you can see, it’s been a weak opening-day. There were plenty of people skiing, but they obviously couldn’t ski down to the bottom of the mountian, so they had to “download” by riding the gondola back down to the bottom from mid-mountain. I’m biding my time and waiting for the snow to come and the rest of the mountain to open up.