Virgie Valverde

Our thoughts this week are with the Valverde family in Tucumcari: Virgie and Marcello, Nick's aunt and uncle, Valerie, Vanessa, Ronnie, Marcelito and families who we saw in early June. Virgie is awaiting a date to go into the hospital in Albuquerque for major surgery to remove several arterial blockages. Just wanted to let you all know you are in our thoughts and we are anxiously waiting for news of a successful operation and a very speedy recovery so Virgie can get back to chasing after her grandkids!

Here are Virgie and Flo in June, and below (on the right) with Frances, Carol and Flo.

Nick is with Marcello below - who we have been assured is not letting Virgie "do anything"....Good for you Marcello, it's not easy keeping her sitting down and resting!

Update from Crested Butte

Well, I could have spent this morning updating the blog with all the information and photos from our hike this weekend...The ongoing saga of the kitchen just gets worse (one day it will be finished...!) so we decided to be positive and take advantage of the situation and hike through the Maroon Bells and Snowmass wilderness to Aspen, which is something we have wanted to do for a while....Today was too nice though! So instead of keeping you updated, I went for a run...gotta get training for that 10 mile race...and then decided to go out for a bike ride...it is just GORGEOUS here...hope your Monday is happy too!!!!

The Hike to (and from) Aspen

This weekend we hiked from Crested Butte to Aspen and back. For the sake of getting more photos on the page, I made them smaller - hope the effect is as dramatic as it was when I was taking them...let me know if you would like to see the originals...

The first day we hiked over East Maroon Pass in the Maroon Bells/Snowmass wilderness. The trail head is just north of Gothic, which is almost a ghost town about 8 miles north of Crested Butte.

This description of the hike is from the forest Service site, but we also hiked an additional half miles from the lower trail head:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver/rangerdistricts/aspen_sopris/trails/ROGCBEastMaroon.pdf

Length: 14 miles one way (22.5km) Difficulty: Difficult

Trail Use: Heavy

Beginning Elevation: 9,580 (2920m) Highest Elevation: 11,800 feet (3596m)

Notice there is no mention of creek crossings...!

We left the truck at the trail head and started out...realizing after a very short space of time that we hadn't brought our water shoes and that we had to cross the creek more than once on the way up...! Here I am getting ready to cross for a least the sixth time, after Nick went first and went in...here he is with wet feet...we make a good team - I learn from his mistakes!!!

Judd Falls is the first notable site...and then the trail heads up...

After climbing for 4 and a half miles (very steeply at times) - you may not be able to tell from this photo, but it was VERY steep!!! - we ended up at Copper Lake. There were some great camping spots, so we will have to put it on the list for future back pack trips...

From Copper Lake we headed up and over East Maroon Pass at 11,800 feet...the pass was to the right of the one in the Copper Lake photo to the left... and very glad we were too that most of the climbing was done for the day!

10 miles to go, and almost all down hill!!!

That's why I'm smiling so much here as I reach the top of the pass!

Here's Copper Lake from near the top of the pass...

The views from East Maroon Pass were gorgeous. We came across a pack horse group who were out for 7 days...(judging by the amount of gear they had, they were eating and drinking well!)...they said the rain had been torrential the day before (it had looked ominous from Crested Butte) so we kept our fingers crossed and headed down towards Aspen and a cold beer...!!! (Funny how that seems to be a recurring theme in these blogs...bet there's a burger in there somewhere too....)

This is the East Maroon Creek Valley heading towards Aspen...I think Nick has it chalked up to go back and fish there one day - the valley was beautiful, but the creek was just perfect...gotta be lots of pesky trout in there just ripe for the catching...

I may have an issue with camping up there though...the bear that left this foot print in the middle of the trail was obviously a good size...

And this view is where East Maroon and West Maroon meet

We arrived at the trail head in Aspen about 7 hours after we left...the hiking comments we had pulled off the Internet said we may be able to flag a bus down on Maroon Lake Rd so we hoped we hadn't missed the last one as the road is closed to all other traffic....fortunately we found a very civilised bus stop with a bench...and shortly thereafter a bus came by and stopped...very handy!!!

The ride down into Aspen didn't take long and we checked into our (very expensive) hostel...laughed at the room which cost us over $100 for the night, showered and headed out to explore town (and grab that cold beer...)

Dad thought you'd appreciate this one...the view is a little better than the one from KC Stadium!!!!

Dinner in Aspen was very nice. We met some people Nick knew from Crested Butte, who also have a home in Aspen, Todd and Doreen. They treat us to a lovely meal at Rustica...the steak was delicious, the risotto and crab cakes were out of this world and the company was more than agreeable...a bit of an improvement on our usual burger and pitcher of beer!!! Thanks Todd - it was great!

The night took a turn for the worse when we got back to the hostel though...our room had a potent "very sweaty sock/wet dead dog/stinky blue cheese" smell to it which we hadn't really noticed in the few minutes we had been there earlier...but we managed to fall asleep in our single/twin beds. Then the guy next door (if the plywood panel separating the rooms could justify the term "next door") proceeded to have an argument with his family on his cell phone at 1 in the morning...they finally made up and he said he need to go to bed...we heaved a sigh of relief...then his phone rang again...Yankee doodle dandee or something equally annoying at 1.45 in the morning...and it was obviously a long lost friend..."Hi how ARE you?" ' Yeas, I'm great" etc etc...I'd had enough...got up, knocked on his door, and aked him to hang up!!!! Which, surprisingly, he did...sigh of relief, back to sleep...NOT! His room mate came in and they proceeded to gossip about their day...we may as well have booked a dorm room each -it would have been cheaper and certainly no noisier...

After a semi sleepless night, we decided spending another night in the place was not an option so we left the next morning to hike back and decided to save the extended tour of Aspen for later in the autumn when it's hopefully cheaper and we can rent a real hotel room for not much more! The sign in the hostel said the buses started running at 8 so we left a little earlier to try and hitch a lift up...and just missed a bus..apparently they start at 6...hmmm...not such a good start. We arrived at the Maroon Lake shuttle stop to find a hand written note taped to the post stating that the buses wouldn't start until 12 at the earliest today as it was the Aspen triathlon and the one day of the year the road was closed....hmmm...not such a good start.... Sure enough the road was closed to all traffic...well let's walk we said..."how far is it?" we asked a race official: "8 miles".

ACK!!! On top of the 11 we have to walk to get to the trail head on the Crested Butte side and then the 8 down the road back to the car...definitely not a good start. Fortunately Walter (in the t-shirt), Archie and George came to the rescue. Walter, who works for the Aspen police dept, was heading up the road to check on the race...he kindly gave us a lift all the way to the trail head and saved the day...don't think we could have stood that smell for another night...or listened to the phone calls of the guy next door...

This time we were heading over West Maroon Pass. we had been told it was more difficult than East Maroon, but also shorter and prettier. The forest service description is:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver/rangerdistricts/aspen_sopris/trails/ROGCBWestMaroon.pdf

Length: 11 miles one-way (17.7 km) Difficulty: Difficult
Trail Use: Heavy
Beginning Elevation: 8,709 feet (2655 m) Highest Elevation: 12,500 feet (3810 m)
USGS Map(s): Maroon Bells, Snowmass Mtn.

One of the first sites is a perfect frame of the Maroon Bells from Maroon Lake...things were looking up...

and then there was a bit of a log jam in Crater Lake...plenty of driftwood there to keep you warm for the winter!

The trail wound up the valley, pretty steeply in places...but the views were worth it again...the Maroon Bells range was in sight on our right the whole time we were hiking...

As we veered to the right around Bellview Mountain, the pass came into view...

"Holy s*** we have to climb up there?" was the general reaction....or mine at least...Nick is still looking pretty happy about it all...you can't see from this photo, but we could actually see that there were people at the top...they must be mad!

Forty minutes later, there we were...it was one of the hardest climbs I have ever done...maybe I over did it on the risotto, steak, chips (french fries), profiteroles and wine last night (thanks Todd, it was delicious!)

The wind was howling at the top, so we bundled up and found some shelter so we could have a snack before we headed down towards Schofield Pass and Gothic (yeah...downhill!!!)

Here we are on the other side - hard to believe we were that high up on the photos above...the rock behind Nick (above) is the tower to the left above my finger on this photo...

Coming down to Gothic, the flowers were just gorgeous...we had heard they were amazing and were hoping to catch the tail end of them...we weren't disappointed...though the photos don't do them justice. The mountain side was just a wave of white, yellow, orange and blue.

We also passed a couple of ruined cabins for good measure to add to the atmosphere...

Even the view from Schofield Pass when we finally got back to the trail head was lovely...now I have to add the hike over to Crystal and Marble to my list!

Here we are at the end, 11 miles and five or so hours later...the tired eyes are a result of our neighbours last night, and the smiles are in anticipation of the cold beer and burger that awaits at the Avalanche, home of the world famous (well, Playboy famous) Avalanche Warning rum cocktail and my current place of gainful employment. I think Nick had a half pound burger with bacon, cheese, jalapenos and guacamole...hungry business this hiking lark...

And fortunately we didn't have to walk the additional 8 miles over Schofield Pass to Gothic. We managed to hitch a lift about a mile down the road (once we had climbed over the pass at 10,ooo and odd feet of course)...with some people from Crested Butte. They had a friend in the car who was visiting from Philadelphia...he happened to be English...and his sister lives in Hull and works for Social Services...so she no doubt knows my Dad...what a small world we live in!!!

Rena Jane Weekend!

This weekend was Rena weekend!

Rachel and Darren came to visit with their cutie of a daughter, Rena Jane. We have known Rachel since we lived in Taiwan back in 1990, and Darren since they started dating 7 or 8 years ago. Rachel had never been to Crested Butte before and Darren had been just a couple of times for the Art Fair. Rena is five months old and is so much fun. She gurgles and chuckles away and is perfectly happy being handed off to Uncle Nick and Aunt Julie! Here she is in July this year.

Some of our photos this weekend weren't so good, but this one Rachel took at home in Denver came out great.

Here she is on Saturday here in Crested Butte. She still managed to smile and be pleasant even though she was sick and having a hard time breathing properly...judging by our sore throats, I think she also managed to get Nick and I sick! Hope we are both smiling as much as she was tomorrow!









One thing we decided to do was hike over from where we live to the ski mountain for some lunch. Rena had just got her new back pack and was all ready for her first long distance hike!! Here she is getting situated.










And here she is on route with Dad, Darren. She is just styling here isn't she?

Gotta love those sun glasses - she looked like a little old Chinese lady...

I think this one will be kept to share with friends and family on her wedding day!!!





The weekend was a lot of fun, and we managed to eat and drink lots in amongst our hikes ...surprise surprise. But we never did find that perfect plate of nachos...we will have to try again next time they come up!

A storm passed over on Saturday and I was able to snap a photo of a rainbow hanging over Crested Butte mountain...









And earlier in the week, I got a photo of Nick bear hunting...Crested Butte has been having a lot of problems with bears this summer. They have been smart and realized that they can get an easy supply of food from all the dumpsters in town.

We live across from the Golf Club and seem to have a resident bear. Last week we were on the front deck and heard it in the dumpsters...having had a couple of glasses of wine, we decided to try and get a photo of it for the blog....fortunately it was gone when we got there!!!!

And then they resurfaced the parking lot at the Lodge this last Friday. I was waiting for Darren and Rachel to arrive when I heard him on Friday night at the Club. I decided it was a good time to wait for them in the lobby!!! On Saturday morning, there were bear footprints padding across the new surface all the way to the dumpsters! Good job I came inside when I heard him - wouldn't want to get that close!!! On Saturday night, he was apparently very hungry. Darren said he woke him up in the middle of the night, trying to heft the dumpster over! It will be interesting to see how many more bears we have when the new ordinance comes in in Crested Butte on September 1st. All trash containers have to be bear proofed by then - just as the bears are at their hungriest as they prepare for hibernation...not out here in Skyland though...I have a feeling we will be hearing more form them in the next month or so!!! Keep checking to see if we actually manage to get a photo of one or not...!!!

Oh-Be-Joyful

Oh-Be-Joyful

We have been pretty boring and haven't gone far the last few weekends. But there is a reason: we have been installing a kitchen area into our mini condo up here in Crested Butte. Hopefully it will #1, make life easier for us as we will now have a full kitchen (the fridge has seen full use since we got it!) and 2, help us sell the place so we can travel more and write more in the blog!!!

This weekend we did go out for the day on Sunday though -after we watched Contador win the Tour de France of course!

We headed up the Slate River Road and parked at the Oh-Be-Joyful trail head with the intention of hiking to Blue Lake. Unfortunately we didn't get that far as it looked as if a storm was brewing and heading over the mountains, but we covered about 9 -10 miles altogether we figured at the end.

The valley was beautiful and well worth the hike, even if we didn't get to our destination. This photo is heading up the valley once you have passed the Ragged Wilderness boundary marker. As is often the case, the photo just doesn't capture the beauty of the real view...

Towards the top the valley is surrounded by mountains. The trail to Daisy and Oh-Be-Joyful passes goes off to the right, and the trail to Gunsight Pass and Blue Lake veers to the left. I thought this mountain top was a pretty unusual shape.

We stopped to have a light lunch with a view of Gunsight Pass. You can't see the trail on this photo but from our vantage point, you could see it climbing steeply and heading over the ridge just to the right of the domed mountain towards Peeler Lakes - def a future back pack trip (as long as my feet can handle it!!)

We didn't realize it at the time, but we were probably about half a mile to a mile from the lake, you just can't see it from below as it is nestled in a basin below Purple Mountain, probably just over the second ridge on this photo.

The wild flowers were absolutely gorgeous. There were yellow daisies everywhere towards the top (hence the name of the pass presumably), and lots of white flowers which contrasted beautifully with the pine trees. We also saw tons of this blue flower, which we think is wolfs bane. The different colours were just gorgeous - we'd love to get out and hike more in the higher elevations to see the wildflowers before they die off.

Here's Nick with a view of the ridges and Purple Mountain (I think) in the background.

And of course, no trip is complete without a little fishing!!! The brookies were jumping out of the water to hit his line...I just sat back in the sunshine and enjoyed the peace and quiet and the sounds of the water rippling over the rocks!

We had seen a sign in the camping area at the trail head that said "The cows are coming". We were still wondering what this "Crested Butte" talk meant when, low and behold, as we were driving away, there was a cattle drive moving up the valley. Guess it meant "The cows are coming"!!! I had to take a photo. I always get excited when I see a real live cowboy for some reason...I think it's something to do with the cowgirl outfit I got for Christmas one year and just loved...

Here's the view as we headed back into town. And yes, I had to ford that river to get to the trail - coming back we didn't even take our boots off - we just got wet! We'll have to start carrying our water shoes with us. These river crossings seem to be ubiquitous on our hikes this year, and they are just my favourite thing!

It just makes me smile every time I look around and see what an absolutely gorgeous place we live in...now back to that kitchen!!!