But I still have this blog…it’s free and all. So this is going to become a hiking blog. It is going to chronicle great hikes made or attempted by me, hikes I’d like to do, planning for future hikes, and ideas for other crazy adventures that involve hiking.  I think it will be pretty fun both to write and to read. I’m also going to change the name from ‘To Infinity and Beyond’. Any suggestions for a new name?

So, keep checking for new stories and information about hikes large and small.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31040550@N08/

Just hanging around the golf course.

A pretty bird.

Relaxed elk

Now matter how many times we go, I am still in awe of how beautiful it is in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Dave and Hank with a cool rock formation.

This morning was the annual balloon festival at Chatfield State Park (the one about 3 miles from our house). So we got up early and went down and watched the balloons take off this morning.

Looking towards Mt. Lincoln

Dave and Woody at the summit of Mt. Lincoln

Me on top of Mt. Bross

Looking back up at Bross after the decsent back to Kite Lake.

Some beautiful columbines down in the valley.

Tony the Tiger balloon at the festival.

Balloon directly overhead.

Energizer bunny balloon.

The big takeoff.

Independance Day weekend we camped in the mountains and went fishing; last weekend we took Woody hiking at Mt. Evans. Here are the photos.

The lake at our July 4th campsite. This is not a ‘campground’, it is just a spot in the National Forest where other people have camped and built a fire pit and some trees are split for benches. There are no bathrooms, it’s primitive camping, but the reward is: we had the place entirely to ourselves.

Molly and Woody sniffing around the lake.

Our buddies Mikey and Amanda fishing at a different nearby lake.

Dave’s catch!

Dave, Woody, and I on the summit of Evans.

The real stars of Mt. Evans, the mountain goats. They are shedding their coat so they don’t look as pretty as they usually do. They actually bear an uncanny resemblance to Woody…

Dave looking out over the ’saw tooth ridge’ to Mt. Bierdstadt

Woody hiking on Mt. Evans

A marmot on Mt. Evans. At such a high elevation there is an amazing amount of wildlife on this mountain. The mountain goats, marmots, birds, wildflowers, and bristlecone pines. This really is a cool place.

The views were great, there were a few times I could have used a few more gears on the hills, though. My favorite quote was from an older lady I talked to on the first day. She said ‘I don’t like to think of this as a 150 mile ride. I like to think of it as a series of 10 to 15 mile rides with cookie breaks in between’.

Here we are, Team ION, at the finish line. 

Only one week to go! Are we ready? Well, I’m getting a little nervous. I know the first day will be OK but getting back in the saddle on the second day….oh how that will hurt. I’ve been riding to work a few times a week which is about 18 miles each way (sometimes I wuss out and take the train home) but on the weekends we’ve done a few fairly substantial training rides so I think we will survive. But we will be sore. Also, Dave still hasn’t raised enough $$ so you have a last chance to donate if you click here:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/COCBikeEvents?pg=personal&fr_id=9111&JServSessionIdr009=1ow8ro3bp1.app328a&fr_id=9111&px=4829500

Thanks for your support and you’ll see photos from the ride soon!  

I also took a few photos over Memorial Day weekend, we went for a camping trip in the mountains (Woody’s first camping trip). We have had an extremely rough winter here, a lot of our favorite dirt roads were still closed from excessive snow and avalanches over the winter. Even Independance Pass is still closed, which is a paved road that is normally open by now.

Dave, Heather, and Kenny beside the Pike’s Peak train.

The tracks leading up to the peak.

Kenny and Heather with ’ship rock’ at Garden of the Gods.

A view of Pike’s from a distance.

Clear Creek Reservior…we really like this area. When you turn off the highway on to the dirt road there is the beautiful lake, then a free campground right by it. Down the dirt road a few miles is the trailhead to hike 3 14ers, Oxford, Belford, and Missouri. A few more miles down is a cool deserted mining town, a few more miles past that a deserted mine with a great slag pile I like to hunt minerals in. At the very end of the road is the trailhead to climb another 14er, Mt. Huron. Can’t pack much more fun in 10 miles of dirt road than that! Unfortunately there were two avalanches across the road this winter and one of them wiped out a building from the old mining town. What a bummer!

These pictures are from our last two days, we stayed around Tokyo and tried to catch up on things we hadn’t yet had a chance to do although all the museums are closed on Mondays so that turned out to be a bummer.

I tried to upload a video I took at the sumo match and was unable to. This blog is supposed to support video uploads but so far I have been thwarted in my attempts to use the function.

Me in front of the Imperial Palace. They make you keep a fair distance away, the grounds are huge, but at a few locations you could get a peek inside.

Statue of a famous samurai and his faithful dog in the park where the zoo and a few museums (all closed Mondays) are located.

I called this area ‘cat corner’. Just a corner in the park where like 10 fat cats were hanging out. I guess the lady on the bicycle feeds them. There sure were a lot!

Tokyo tower.

View of the city from the observation deck of the tower.

So looking out of the tower I saw these kids, apparently in PE class. I got to thinking, it’s no wonder a lot of Japanese kids take to dressing up in strange outfits on the weekends. They spend their entire life in uniform. All schools wear uniforms and if you graduate and get a good job what you wear to work is about like a uniform as well. Maybe not so much for the women, but for the Japanese businessman a dark suit, white shirt, and conservative tie is pretty much about your only clothing choice. I can see why you would want to dress up as a goth or cartoon character on the weekend.

And just to leave you on the right note here is the control panel for one of the more high-tech toilets.