Conquering Gothic Mountain!

This weekend Nick set his sights on conquering Gothic. As always I was a little sceptical (!) but tagged along anyway, and also managed to drag a friend, Molly, with us. Nick reckons he managed to complete another successful expedition as the "Never Lost" Expedition Company Leader (hated to him remind of the Castles, or the Bataan death march as we now fondly refer to it!!!). And this in spite of the lingering snow banks which were sometimes up to 5 feet deep and the crossing of a raging river (OK, a fast running stream...). I managed to cover a vast portion of the route down on my butt sliding down snow banks. Effective but cold!!!


The views from the top were incredible as we knew they would be, but it's still amazing every time you get up there to realize how far you have climbed and what you can accomplish with a few hours of hiking.
Gothic is 12,625 feet high, which makes it higher than Crested Butte mountain and one of the higher ones in the valley. From afar (and close up!) it looks very daunting - yep that's it - that big pointy thing in the background!




We started off later than we wanted (story of our lives) and so figured we would stop at the Gas cafe on the way up to have a BLT and fried egg - yum! it definitely kept me going on the way up!

The trail head is at the Gothic campground, about 10 miles from Crested Butte past the old town of Gothic. The trail immediately started climbing on the 403 bike path. All I can say is anyone who rides their bike on that thing is a monster! Not something I am planning to accomplish anytime soon (or could accomplish for that matter - it was all I could do to walk up it!!!). Gothic is a beautiful Valley and the views were amazing from the start. Here we are with Molly.




These photos were taken just as we started to climb. Gothic road is on the right. I still can't get over how green it is up here...just gorgeous




We encountered snow not very far up, though the temperature was great throughout the hike - we didn't even need long pants or warm tops at the peak. No photos of me slithering down the banks, but here are Nick and Molly in the snow.



The hike up took around 3 and a half hours. It wasn't as hard going as slogging up Whetstone, but it was still slow going for me and Molly. Mountain goat Nick never seems to get tired though!



Here are some of the views once we got off the trail and started heading up...you mean we have to go UP THERE?!!!!










Molly living large and happy to be here.










And here's Nick taking a well earned rest. You can see the slope of the mountain from the way he is sitting. Yep, I had to climb up that!





The wild flowers were starting to come out on the trail in the areas that were finally clear of snow! The Wild flower festival is going to be amazing this year...






Molly taking in her surroundings...see how green it is?...still can't get over the colours up here this year...










The view from the false summit...Yep. Got there and thought we had made it. Wrong - we still had another ridge to climb.










Finally getting somewhere - the real last haul up the the top. Can't believe I made it across that ridge - it was touch and go for a while!













Yay - made it!!!!











Views from the top












And Crested Butte mountain - funny how insignificant it looks from up here! Certainly didn't feel that way when we were skiing it this winter!















And finally back down in town with a celebratory beer (of course!) - a great way to end the day. The hike wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, all told, and I always knew we reach the summit despite the huffing a nd puffing and the feeling you were hitting a mega stairmaster at the gym! The false summit killed us and there were groans (read expletives!) all round. But we soldiered on and got there!


Looking forward to the Wild Flower festival. I think at the higher elevations it will still be too snowy, but lower down they are in abundance with all the snow we had. The mozzies are loving it too unfortunately - time to start packing the repellent! Now I've had a taste of a good hike, I can't wait to get out there and do some back packing. Hopefully that will happen over the July 4th holiday.
Happy 4th everyone!!!
And yay Spain - newly crowned European Champions!!!

Day One, June 26th 2005

Colorado Trail - first day out...

http://nicnjules.travelmore.googlepages.com/thecoloradotrailday1

Whitewater rafting on the Upper Taylor

Last weekend I left Nick remodelling the condo (yes still) and headed off white water rafting with Bob, Mary, Ryan and Danny. We had a great time, as the photos attest, and then even managed to get the condo finished - amazing! A great weekend all round, thanks for coming up guys, we had a great time!









The water on the upper Taylor River was running higher than it has in years, despite the damn at the top, regulating the flow. There has been so much snow that they are just having to let it run through as fast as possible so the reservoir doesn't overflow. Not good for fishing for Nick, but great fun for rafting!










Not sure how much paddling Ryan (on the left) managed to get in, but he had a good time getting wet and trying to avoid the water spilling over the front of the boat!

A new beginning starts with a "retirement"!

So for me, this was the start of the adventure. Selling up. moving on, and deciding to try and enjoy more of what we have. These photos were all taken last year, April 2007 at my "retirement" party. I can't tell you how appreciated I felt by the party that the Bank put on for me, and how close I was to tears most of the night that I was leaving all these great friends behind: both co workers and customers. The first photo is Adrianne, Courtney, me and Bob


Tom and Trude with Adrianne




Tim Borst









Gary and Mary Jane Hillam

Jarrett
(and me with obligatory glass of wine...it was a good night!)

Goofing off. Nick, Charles and Courtney







Joanne, the old loan ops crew
Lisa, Cindy, Amy, me, Cindy
and Ang

with Bob, Adrianne and Courtney


Valorie and Paige

shots with loan ops, with Bob and Charles


Yep, the wine worked!!!

But leaving was the right decision. This last year or more of posts can only confirm that. We have had a great time, and although we are working more than we wanted, we are trying to take full advantage of everything living in Crested Butte has to offer...from the gorgeous, lazy summer days to the thrills of skiing on a full moon night down the mountain. I just wanted to finally share some of the photos and the great time I had as we look forward to another packed summer here in Crested Butte and try to decide were we are heading next. Yep, we are hoping to move on the autumn. Winter was a lot of fun, but it confirmed that I am a completely a summer girl, so we will be heading for warmer climates as the weather starts to change!

Warmer days are here!

It has been a while since I last updated as Nick and I have been busy trying to finish a remodel on our small condo and also trying to enjoy some of the warmer weather that has finally arrived in Crested Butte...but yes, it's here and it is just glorious in the valley.

The aspens have just lost their newly budded vibrant green, the rivers are running fast and full and are a sparkling deep sapphire, the sky is a perfect summer blue and the mountains still have their covering of snow frosting. The combination of colours can be dazzling and I can think of nowhere I'd rather be than here at times like this (well eating a leisurely seafood lunch on the harbour front in Chania, Crete does come to mind...)

Work this summer is going to be fun - for me at least. I have the good fortune of being able to pick and chose what I want to do while Nick earns the "solid" income! So I have decided to work a few shifts at The Brick oven in down town CB. The restaurant serves pizza and burgers and has an extensive beer list - they even serve Stella sometimes which is always a plus in my book!
The big advantage they have is a huge outdoor patio right on the main drag in CB which gets sun all day long...when it's sunny - it actually snowed while I was there last Thursday morning...yep, snow on June 12th - can't beat that...or maybe I shouldn't say that and tempt fate! So I will now be spending a couple of days a week hanging out on their patio and serving pizza and beer...way more fun than sitting at a desk inside all day if you ask me...plus the commute is easy: just ten minutes on my bike into town.

My other job is the really fun one. I am working on the outdoor maintenance crew for the Alpengardener. The company builds and maintains gardens for customers as well having a full garden centre. It has been hard work but I am loving it so far. We have just finished spring cleaning all the gardens we care for which is no easy task. it includes taking care of any snow damage, cleaning out the beds and getting them ready for the (very short) growing season, weeding, fertilizing, mulching, even snow removal! I can only hope I am getting stronger as I haul around those huge bags of fertilizer and mulch and shovel all that snow out of the way!!! Now we are moving into planting and maintenance season which I am looking forward to as well - after not having a garden for 18 months I am loving being back out there pulling weeds again! I did have a great day this last Wednesday: the garden centre needed someone to work on the pots that they send out, so I was able to spend the day planting large containers - great fun. I was amazed at how many plants they manage to stuff into those things - no wonder they look so incredible all summer long. It even inspired me enough to finally get my own window box planted. I will get some photos and share them next time. Planting season also means that the hanging baskets are starting to appear again around town - I can't wait to see them fill out and spill over adding their summer colours to the town..guess I am very much a summer person after all!

Hope to be doing some fun things over the next few weeks that I can keep you updated on. Nick wants to climb Gothic mountain this weekend, but I am a little reluctant! I'll keep you posted.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!