Hiking up toward Mt Harvard

My blog is still stuck back in June and in Colorado... at this point you could call it "reminiscing".

So here's a little hike up Memory Lane, from our camping spot near Buena Vista.  We had the opportunity to walk out the back door of the property and climb up to the Colorado Trail and beyond.  Seemed like a great idea!

I climbed up through the trees and found this relic in an old mining area:

Must have been interesting living and working here, many years ago:

Fun little trail that connects up to the CT:

Wildlife sighting!  What a poser:

Above treeline and looking east into the BV valley:

At this point I'm off-trail and aiming for ~13,000', enjoying a bit of route finding through the tundra:

Gentle, rocky slopes:

Eeeep!  A pika sighting is always a good day.

Looking up toward Mount Harvard - I didn't feel the need to try to climb it that day, but John did.  He might even be in this photo  :)

The rather-intimidating-looking ridge between Harvard and Columbia:

A couple pictures from John from the top of Harvard (nice climbing, John!):

His spectacular scenery reward for the making the climb:

We crossed paths as he was coming down and I was about to drop into the next drainage over - hi honey!  I guess we didn't feel the need to take a selfie that day.

I went looking for a trail but didn't find it, so I continued cross-country until I located this path heading downhill:

Back on the Colorado Trail - always fun doing some trekking on the CT in various places:

An excellent new bridge:

No idea how this happened:

Fun day!

Almost done reporting about June and Colorado...

Rafting class

In preparation for our Grand Canyon river rafting trip this fall, we did a rafting class in Salida back in June.  Three of our oarsmen were there and I went along for the ride.

Suited up and ready for instruction:

Our two excellent teachers, whose names I should have written down...

John looks to be enjoying himself!

Getting ready for some ferrying practice:

Our instructors had little boatmen toys they would use to explain which direction we should try to face in particular situations, which was a nice visual aid:

There might have been a funny story behind this picture, I'm not sure:

Woo hoo, go Jeff go!

I'm glad I captured this picture, also that I hung onto the camera because I think Jimmy took a hard pull at the oars immediately following this moment:

I enjoyed that level of river "difficulty" (i.e. not difficult), also the ease that the rafts went over obstacles without blinking.  Much different than in a canoe or packraft.

Our instructor even gave me the chance to try out the oars through an easy section; well, OK, cool!  It took some practice to figure out which way to push and pull, backwards from all my other water experience.  Once I got going I could continue the same motion.  Until something changed, like I needed to turn a bit or back paddle.  Not something that came naturally, but it was quite entertaining.

Next thing I knew we were heading down some light rapids, and I distinctly remember saying out loud, "what am I doing in these rapids??"  Again, the raft and the river were forgiving and we sailed on down the stream.  Fun!

Maybe I'll do some flatwater oaring in the canyon, that would be quite the experience.

A successful day and we didn't even get wet!

Thank you Canyon River Instruction!

Also Jimmy and Jeff for joining us and for the entertaining conversations.  See you next month!

FIBArk fotos

We were lucky to get to attend the river festival called FIBArk in Salida CO in June.  Our Grand Canyon river expert, Mark, was already going to be there, so we scheduled our rafting class around it.

John did the running races, including the hill climb (straight up the hill to the town "S" and straight back down), and I joined him for the 10K road run.

The highlights of the weekend, however, were the water events.  Here's Mark getting ready for one of his slalom races:

Go Mark, looking good!

Stand-up paddle racing, complete with fun inflatable obstacles:

An interested spectator:

Mark getting ready to hang some "prize tags" across the river in prep for the hooligan race - anyone who could grab one on the way down the river might win something big (or not), which incentivized lots of flinging of boat passengers into the air to reach for them:

The scene at the water park, with regular rafts floating through the middle of the festivities:

The hooligan race is something to see.  Groups create all manner of creative and curious rafts, which supposedly will stay afloat while entertaining the crowds.  I believe this one is made from beer kegs, and I'm not sure what's going on with that orange mat:

Waterlogged, barely afloat, backwards, but the unicorn looks great:

I cannot recall exactly what's going on here with the smoke, but the floating car was funny:

The Scooby Mystery Time Machine (with working headlights!) and some kind of rudimentary barge:

Rainbow!

After waiting out some rain and waiting for all (or most) of the entrants to get their creations back up to the starting line, the second pass came down all at once, with varying levels of success:

Simple and effective:

The crowd favorite was still upright, and they were declared the winner:

On the final day of events, John captured the scene at the crazy river dog competition:

And the final highlight, standup paddle boxing:

I'm not sure how they do it, but it sure is entertaining to watch!

Fun weekend, go to FIBArk if you ever get a chance!

Colorado hiking (in June)

Summer!  Big on adventure, short on time to write about it all.

Way back in June, we were in Colorado and we took a few pictures.  Firstly, a colorful sky at our boondock spot (an excellent parking location courtesy of a friend of ours with some family property).

Hi John!

What do you suppose is happening here?  I think it was just a spectacular sunset and unrelated to forest fires:

Going on a hike up Pine Creek and admiring this out-of-place boulder:

Some kind of logging operation?

Fun trail above the creek:

Eventually the view opens up toward higher mountains:

I was briefly on the Colorado Trail... hello, trail:

Enjoying a day in the wilderness:

Since we were in the area, and since we hadn't climbed a 14er in a couple years, it seemed like time to "tackle" Huron Peak:

Thank you, trail builders, this is lovely:

The view up the mountain:

Pikas!  We heard them all over the hillside and spent probably more than a few minutes watching for them.  So adorable.

This one decided it was time to set off across the snow:

There it goes!

Eventually we got ourselves pointed back uphill, and as always, took a ridiculous number of pictures of Colorado mountain scenery.  Never gets old.

Here we are, just a hair over 14,000 feet up!

That's worth an... interesting... summit pose:

Enjoying the view in all directions:

Going for a little stroll over the top of the peak:

John took a detour on the way down to explore a nearby ridgeline, and I caught a glimpse of him in the distance:

It wouldn't be summertime without snow - the snowman is a bonus:

Short and sweet and in catch-up mode!