Aunt Sarah had a master plan to landscape Grandma’s poor front yard, so Kate and I drove down to Colorado Springs for the weekend to pitch in. As you can see from the photo above, her grass was all but dead and the whole yard needed to be retrofitted for lower maintenance. For all of you ladies who used to live here and want to see the newly improved front yard, this is for you.

Aaron, who works for a excavation company, was able to bring in a skit loader to do all the hard stuff… such as removing the existing dead grass and reshaping the hill on the right side of the yard.

Here we are replacing the old timbers along the sidewalk with new ones.

Only the dirt remains.

Ben and Brady put in a decorative split rail fence which turned out well.

The girls installing the miles of edging. Here they’re framing out the pathway.

The sand has been laid along the pathway and the rest of the bunch is throwing in mulch while Aunt Sarah and I work on the stepping stones in the walkway. (we had to scavenge several stones from the property, hopefully Grandma won’t notice.)

The lovely ladies planting.

The finished pathway coming from side.

It was about to get dark, but this is the final look at the front yard. It looks even better in person.

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.

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)

Kate and I got to do some rafting today down the Arkansas River near Buena Vista. We couldn’t take our camera, so we improvised. We also didn’t want to pay $$$ for the standard photo taken on the Zoom Flume rapid.

Our guide was Kate, an EMT that works with my Kate at the clinic downtown. The weather was perfect, and the water raging at levels not seen since 1995. We’re already planning our next outing on the river this summer when Abby comes to visit. Speaking of which, Abs is in Africa for two months doing missions work. We wish we could have gone with her.

Our final day was spent driving through Nevada, Utah and half of Colorado. We noticed the whole truck start to shake pretty violently the more we drove. Finally home and grabing our mail in town, I noticed the whole truck smelling of oil. Sure enough, the entire undercarriage and rear of my poor 4Runner was covered in oil, and there was a terrible knocking sound as we drove to the house.

First thing the next Monday morning I dropped Kate off at work then drove to the shop. After several hours they finally got back to me that it was the rear differential that was blown. I guess somewhere along our trip, a seal got blown and leaked oil from the differential, which caused the bearings to overheat and basically blow up. Thankfully the rear axle was still in good shape, but the $1,600 repair bill wasn’t something we wanted to hear. The trucks still in the shop and in the meantime we’re being gouged with a $60 per day rental car. You don’t have very many options here in the boonies.

If you haven’t done so already, I’ve posted all of our good photos on the site. You can see them all by following this link:
Pacific Northwest Road Trip Photos

You may also want to scroll down to the bottom of the page to start from Day 1.

I woke up with my headache mostly gone, but still not feeling up to the 16 mile hike to the end of the trail and back. So we picked up and made our way back to the truck. Instead we drove to the end of the road which was also the end of the trail: Glacier Point. The views were phenomenal.

After taking in the view, we scoped out Mariposa Grove, to see some giant sequoias.

Can you guess which pine cone belongs to the sequoia?
It’s actually the small one. Amazing that this little thing can grow to be one of the largest trees in the world and live to be over 2,000 years old.

Here I am counting the rings on one of the fallen trees. Mind boggling.

It was time to start heading home so we drove east towards Nevada… when we came across some yahoo parked on the wrong side of the road on halfway in our lane. But it didn’t take me long to notice what they were after… a BEAR!

This is the first time in all my many wilderness excursions that I’ve ever seen a bear in the wild. Kate and I would comment often how we haven’t seen much of any wildlife, and here, on our final trek home, we come across a bear feeding in a small meadow. We watched it for a while, as it paid no attention to the crowd that has formed by the road, but it eventually lumbered back into the forest out of sight.

But just as I was about to get back in the car, I turned and saw him actually making his way closer to us! We watched in amazement as it slowly came our direction, finding a downed tree and then clawing into it to snack on some grubs. It was the coolest thing ever. I think at one point it came to within 25 foot of me (standing by the open car door ready to jump in). Here’s some more shots of what easily was the highlight of our entire trip:

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.

The whole purpose of this road trip is to get out and explore as much as possible, so we didn’t spend too much time in one place… but we found a few on our trip that we’ll want to spend more time at in future trips.

Case in point, San Francisco. We only had a few hours, so we started with a tour of Alcatraz.

Caleb and I did Alcatraz last time I was in the Bay Area, but this time Kate and I did the free audio tour which was pretty informative. All in all it’s a great place to check out.

We then parked the car and dug out the bikes and made our way across the Golden Gate bridge. It was a beautiful day for a ride.