While I was in California stuck in meetings all day and barely hanging out with the Pearcys, Molly flew out to Colorado for a visit.

When I got back later that week we went for a hike up McCullough for one last time (I think it’s like my seventh trip up the ‘ole gulch, but still a beautiful view).

Then the next morning we had a visitor in the driveway looking for some treats.

We then took Molly on an off-road adventure over Mosquito Pass.

And at the top of the pass there were some anxious snowboarders getting some early season practice in.

On the other side, in Leadville, we had a looong lunch, then headed for another short hike up Mayflower Gulch where we explored what was left of old Boston Mine.

The next day we woke up to Kate’s birthday, and Molly and I served her icecream in bed as requested by the birthday girl. We then packed up and drove to Colorado Springs to ride the Cog Rail Road to the top of Pike’s Peak (Kate has a thing for trains if you haven’t noticed).

Then sadly we trudged to Denver to drop Molly off at the airport. But since we’re leaving CO behind and moving back to Kansas City in a week, we’ll see her and the rest of the gang soon enough. Where did our year go?

See more pictures of time with our last visitor to our mountain retreat.

Our friends Rob and Sarah came out to visit us for a week and Kate and I took them on their first backpacking trip to the Maroon Bells outside of Aspen. The weather wasn’t the best and we had some slight food issues, but overall it was a good trip.

On the way to Aspen we took them over Mosquito Pass which was also another fun adventure for them. No broken shocks this time on the ole’ 4Runner, so that’s good.

After roughing it for a night, the four of us headed to Boulder for a few days of shopping and eating. Oh, and during a detour to Fort Collins, Rob and I took a tour of the New Belgium Brewery (makers of the popular Fat Tire amber ale)… which turned out to be a very interesting tour. So if you ever find yourself in Fort Collins…

See more of our photos here.

Kate and I had the day off on Thursday, so we took a hike to Torreys and Grays, two 14ers side by side and separated by a short saddle.

Here you can see Grays on the left and Torreys on the right. It’s an optical illusion from this angle, but Grays is actually the taller of the two by 3 feet.

Kate hiking up Grays. You can just see the trail in the valley that we hiked up.

Us at the top of Grays before we head off to Torreys.

Kate didn’t have fun going down the snowy ridge of Grays.

In the saddle.

The top of Torreys.

A nice pano from the top of Torreys. (easy to make using hugin)

View more pictures from the hike.

That’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Our plan was to take a drive through the park then onto Estes, but mother nature had a different plan.

We woke up Saturday morning to a nice little blizzard… in the middle of AUGUST!!! By late morning the little snow we got was starting to melt and we were on our way to RoMo, but when we got there, the Trail Ridge Road was closed due to snow!! (The Trail Ridge Road is one of the highest paved roads in the world, and the only road connecting the west side of the park to the east.)

So we made due and went on a little hike and got a chance to see some great wildlife including 3 moose (one bull and two cows).

(this is a view of Quandary as we left in the morning)

This ended up being just a short scouting trip. Our friends from KS, the Wonnells are coming to visit us the first week of Sept, so we’ll have more time to explore the park (and do some camping).

The whole Sawyer/Sweigart clan came to visit us in the mountains for a week. Despite the gloomy weather, we experiences several fun hikes full of wildflower covered meadows, rocky mountains, abandoned mines and raging waterfalls. Here’s some choice shots from the week:

We had a lot of fun exploring our mountain, but I think Maddox enjoyed it more than any of us. Alyssa posted a poem that he wrote, entitled “Mountain Friend“… it’s a must read.

And these are just the tip of the iceburg, so go see all the rest of the photos from our family vacation in the mountains.

The rest of our holiday weekend was spent camping with my uncle, aunt and some cousins. We met them in Westcliffe, CO then headed west into the Sangre De Cristo mountains. The trail to our camping spot was rugged an fun. So rugged in fact, that I ended up detaching my tail pipe from the muffler somewhere along the way.

Here, Brady and I are enjoying some chips and salsa.

The boys were fishing all day and needed a ride across the river.

The next day, the rest of the group wanted to try a little fishing, so Uncle Fred recommended we try Hermit Lake just up the range, one that he remembered visiting as a kid. Hermit Road, presented itself to be quite a rocky one… and about a mile in we found out that the lake was still a good 6 miles up the mountain. On the drive up, you could see the old Conquistador Ski Area, which prompted Brady and I to ponder purchasing our own plot of mountain and building a private ski area.

The road was getting rougher the higher we got, so we ended up stopping about half way and the boys fished the small stream.

Eventually though, Brady, Andrea, Kate and I started back up the road in search for the mysterious lake. At one point the bone jarring drive was too much, so we parked the car and hiked up about two miles until we found a small trail that led to Hermit Lake.

I ended up finding parts of a fishing pole lying around the area (Kate found half a rod, Brady found a hook and weight), so I was able to do a little angling of my own.

And finally on the trek down, I had to spot Brady on a couple tricky descents. (But judging by the picture, it doesn’t look so bad, but there were some rocks that could remove a transmission or two.)

We had a great Fourth of July weekend… one of the best in memory.

Our weekend started with a return to McCullough Gulch. A month and a half has made a huge difference. For one, we drove to the trail head, instead of hiking the 2+ miles in snowshoes.

Here’s Kate entering the gate, that in mid-May was nearly covered in snow.

And we got a chance to see the old cabin uncovered.

In May we were the only ones, but on this busy holiday weekend, we saw several fellow hikers on the trail. The trail leads to a great set of waterfalls, still partially covered in snow.

You can see one of the snow “bridges” at the top.

This is Kate’s favorite spot… she could lay on that rock ALL day long.

And just a bit further up the trail you can see where all this water is coming from… a small, pristine high alpine lake.

Kate by the lake. I ended up hiking to the peak just behind the lake.

Part of the lake is still lined with snow.

Now most people stop here and then head back down, but we were in the adventurous spirit and decided to head further into the gulch. The trail was very faint, mostly hidden under snow, and required a few river crossings along with a touch of bouldering. So even though we got “lost” a few times, we’d usually find a cairn and rejoin the trail.

Here’s a few from as far as I got… facing towards the Mosquito Ridge at the back of the gulch.

And here’s a view down the valley that we hiked up.

Over all it was a great hike… although we overheard a few hikers complaining that it wasn’t the “easy” hike that the trail book suggested it was. It was certainly easier than Quandary, but if you’re not used to the altitude, I can see it being a “moderate” hike… but the views at the top make it well worth it.

That night we went downtown, had some pizza and had a front row seat to the fireworks show. It was the first time I can remember the explosions happening right over our heads… the pictures don’t do it justice (I wasn’t really paying attention to picture taking, just staring up).

Hope your holiday weekend was fun!

Saturday we got up early and headed for the summit of the 14,265 foot high Mt. Quandary. Arriving at the trail head around 6:30a it was apparent we were going to be behind a few dozen hikers who have already started towards the peak.

The trail starts out in the trees but pretty quickly they thin out and the rest of the trail is all rock.

Here we are nearing the hard part of the hike, the steep climb up to the snowy top.

Finally at the top we were greeted by a none-to-shy mountain goat that Kate posed with.

The views from the top were spectacular and Kate mentioned several times that this was her favorite hike that we’ve done so far. And here’s a few more photos from the trip.

UPDATE: Here’s a video taken from the summit.

Today we went to my favorite place on the planet: Yosemite National Park.

We first made our way to the valley floor to the Visitor’s Center to pick up our wilderness permits. Camping at the typical campsites (complete with toilets and noisy neighbors in RVs) or at the many lodges in the park is next to impossible. Booking for both the campsites and lodges are hard to come by, but REAL camping in the wilderness is thankfully still easy to do. The permit is free if you get it on-site, or $5 if you reserve ahead of time which is necessary for the popular spots near and around Half Dome. They’ll even rent you a bear canister for $5 which is nice and very much needed.

Our site was going to be on the trail to Sentinel Dome. It was an easy two-mile hike to a footbridge where we setup camp. But wouldn’t you know it, I was hit by a massive migraine once we’re away from the truck (and much needed Excedrin). Kate was a trooper though and cooked up some spaghetti and finished cleaning up camp before bed. I think the roar of the river really helped calm Kate from thinking every noise in the middle of the night was a bear.

Kate and I had the day off of work today so we went on a little hike to McCullough Gulch. The nice thing is that the trail head is right next door practically. Basically, the gulch is just on the other side of Quandary… so just one valley over from us.

The road to the trail head was still covered in snow, so Kate and I had to snowshoe two miles just to get to the trail head. We were the only ones out, and will all this snow we really couldn’t see the trail, so we were following a lone ski track up the valley.

We’re still on the road headed towards the trail head. Here, I’m looking at Mt. Quandary from the “other” side.

Rounding the bend and seeing the gulch was a gorgeous sight not captured well by our tiny camera balancing on hiking poles.

There’s a TON of old mine scattered around these mountains. There’s one located just on the other side of the valley that I’m itching to get a closer look at one of these days. More on that later.

Once we reached the trail head and were off the road it became a little more difficult to determine what was trial and what wasn’t. After crossing a snow covered stream we came across a little mining cabin. Super cool.

It seemed that there wasn’t anyone around, so I figured that it’s only occupied during the summer. There’s a bunch of stuff scattered around that I couldn’t quite place it’s use, but we did spot a pickup truck buried in the snow. The “trespassers will be shot on sight” did it’s job and we skirted around the cabin and headed further up the hill. We kept hearing weird noises, thinking there was an elk/bear/moose somewhere close by and the snow was getting pretty difficult to traverse, even with snowshoes, so sadly we didn’t make it to the end of the trail… so another hike goes back on our “try again” list.