So I'm at my 3rd cafe with free wifi of the day. Now I get it! It's good thing (I think) that Heather got me hooked on coffee again because now I look legit when I'm sitting in here, with my 3-way outlet splitter plugged into the wall charging my GoPro, my Sony camera batteries, and my MacBook, which also has an iPad and an iPhone plugged into it. Kind of embarrassing. Anyway, this is all taking place in Missoula, Montana. I am camping just south of town in a quiet little campground on a river. I spent a night in Bozeman at a hotel and had my first legitimate shower in over a week. As bad as that sounds, I really didn't smell that bad seeing as I had been in plenty of water at Bear Lake, a couple of rivers, and in Jackson Lake a couple of times. And the pre-storm sailing that I did on Jackson Lake was a sort of power-washing in itself. Between the great breeze, clear mountain lake water, and Teton Range views, that was some of the best sailing I've ever had. Of course I was too excited in preparing for it that i forgot the GoPro so I didn't get any video or photos of when I was actually on the water. I did take some photos that are in the Picasa album though. Anyway, now that I've justified my lack of shower taking, here's what I've been up. And by the way, apologies if this is getting redundant between the photo albums and this here bloggy thing, but this can offer more of a dictation version of events.

Strawberry Reservoir: This was sort of a stop over on the way to the Tetons and was my first stop after leaving my cozy accommodations in Breckenridge at the Goldsmith Inn. I was really on the fence as to stopping there or not, when I arrived it was quite barren as far as trees and shade, but at a turnout on the lake I got out and felt the breeze which seemed a good one. So I decided to stay. I had the itch to get my rod n reel out and this was supposed to be a hot fishing spot. Well I found out the next day that this was the best time of season for it, but I got me a 3.2 six pack and a fishing license for the day and went for it. Notta at the dam, so around lunchtime I went back to the site and put the NACRA in the water to try for a sail. Wind was a little below average but I took my pole with me to see if I could find any fish in the deeper water. Fail again. I sailed into a canal that connects two parts of the lake which was very cool and scenic, but the wind was very sketchy coming down and around the cliffs and hills so getting back out of there was a chore. Just as I was emerging from the canal the wind pretty much failed all together leaving me stranded for a while. Perfect time to take a "shower"! Breeze eventually picked back up and I tacked back to the beach and packed up my goods to be ready for an early departure the next morning.

Bear Lake: My intent was to get to the Tetons that next day, but on one of my self imposed, required scenic route turns, I happened across Bear Lake. A natural lake this time! Couldn't remember the last time I was in an real lake as opposed to the common reservoirs I usually find myself in. This lake, deemed the "Caribbean of the Rockies" is a large glacial body of water if I'm not mistaken. Apparently it used to be a large gathering spot for a lot of trappers back in the day, who would have a big party there near the end of the season. Eventually a lot of farms popped up on the flat lands around the lake, and fittingly used the water from the lake as irrigation for their crops. Still plenty of evidence of this as there are some older buildings still standing, along with a couple of farms still in operation. Most notably thought was the number of Farmall Tractors on the east side of the lake. I wasn't counting but on a bike ride around the perimeter of the lake I had to have seen over 30 of these old tractors. These hold a special interest for me in that we used a Farmall Super MTA on Cope Creek farm for years. IH must have gotten in good in that area, I don't know any other way to explain the mass majority of these Farmalls. Love it though. Plenty of people are still using them to launch and retrieve their watercraft from the lake. In the campground where I was staying, you could drive right out on the beach, the place also rented jet-ski's and boats and used their tractors to launch the craft.

Tetons: After the 2 day detour in Bear Lake, I made my way north via WY89 and found myself following the Snake River into Jackson. I vaguely driving into and through this town as wee little guy when we did a large family trip umpteen years ago. I wondered how much it has changed since then as I walked around after nabbing a bite to eat. From there it was a short trip to Teton Nation Park. Camping in the Signal Mountain campground was pretty easy. Large turnover of campers that surrounded me, in my immediate vicinity I don't think anyone stayed more than two nights, which I found odd, but what do I know? Bears Bears Bears! Bear proof your food and anything that might smell like food! Did I ever seen a bear? No! Oh well, I guess that's for the best, although Ranger Rick did confiscate my camp stove one day when I left it on my picnic table while I was out for a hike.

 Day one I hiked up to Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake which was deemed "very strenuous" on the park map. With my previous attempt at La Plata peak with Ed the week prior, it didn't seem so strenuous. Smoke from some fires, reportedly in Idaho to the west, was reducing visibility quite a bit as far as the vast views were concerned. My poor sense of smell could pick up the odor of camp fire, very faint though as it was. Halfway up the hike, which pretty much did switchback up the face of the mountain, it became hard to even see the valley below me. The closest peaks were in clear view however so there was still plenty to be witnessed. The high lakes were something to behold, and I had always wanted to climb my way up and see one of these on a mountain top, so these two, one spilling into the other, was quite the site. 

Day two I decided I would fish the morning down just below the dam (not much action other than a whitefish and a sucker), then with a forecast for good wind in the afternoon, planned to sail, with fishing gear on-board in case it was "wind" enough. (That one's for you Dan) Well it was PLENTY wind enough. I probably sailed about 85% of the perimeter, and with numerous islands and peninsulas, there was plenty to see around the next corner, all the while doing my best to keep both hulls in the water, most of the time anyway :) This was pre-forecasted storm that was rolling up over the Teton range. Only a few drops actually fell, which I was fine with, because after getting plenty of hull spray and little sun for a couple of hours, it was getting very chilly out on the wire. Back on the beach, with the clouds gone and a PBR in hand, I was warming up nicely and got the shot below before taking the boat out of the water. Diggin this panoramic feature on my camera.

 

The next morning I packed up for departure but wanted to get another hike in, so I drove to Jenny Lake and hiked around the southern half to get to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. I want to say the boat driver mentioned this park of the park being the first as far as recreational hiking and sight seeing, starting around 1912, so these trails have been getting traveled for 100 years!

River rushing below Hidden Falls.

From the Tetons I drove north up through Yellowstone, stopping along the way to see of the sights along the road. 

Caught a couple of waterfalls, and even swam in the river above the Firehole Falls.

Also stopped in for the obligatory viewing of Old Faithful erupting. I also remembered this from our trip many years ago, though here I am confident that the new visitor's center has been added, which explains in great detail the process of the geysers and all of the hotspots throughout Yellowstone. Sometimes I forget this whole place is a massive volcano that would blow up the western half of the US if she decided to erupt. BOOM!!

These Elk were just hangin out in the town of Mammoth Springs, 

enjoying the shade I guess

From Yellowstone I continued on to Bozeman as I mentioned above, then here to Missoula yesterday. The smoke between Bozeman and here was the most prevelant

I have seen and the smell was very apparent, but by the time I made it into town, it had cleared up quite well. Been listening a lot to the XM Satellite radio in my car and found

myself listening to some political channels. One called the "Patriot" and one called "Left". I admire their simplistic names, but their messages were hard to listen to, both sides naturally

being appalled at what was being said and what was happening at the national conventions and both basically claiming what the other side was spewing was straight lies. With

everything being said by either candidate seemingly being the result of spin and fact-bending verbal sewage from both sides, I have little faith in what to believe or who to think is going

to do the least damage to our country. To the guy on the Patriot's credit, he found and played a 2:10 minute long speech delivered by Reagan from before his defeat of Carter (I'm pretty

sure it was Carter), and in those two minutes Reagan said more convincing, factual things than either of our current choices seem to have in weeks. I do not feel confident in our current

leaders as we have them today. I was trying to get info from both sides, and maybe satellite radio is not the best place to do it, but I HAD to change the channel before I pulled into one

of the beautiful ranches along the road and to inquire about being a cowboy for the rest of my life. Where did I find my solace? ESPN Radio of course! It's almost College Football season

and we've got guys saying Notre Dame needs more criminals on their team if they want to be competitive with the SEC, and Michigan is about to beat Alabama down in Jerry World!

GO BLUE!!

Well, all my devices are charged and my coffee is empty, so I'm going to get out of here and walk around

this downtown area until I meet a group to ride some trails this evening. I'll probably catch up again when I am in Seattle, after Glacier National Park.

Lastly, apologies for the formatting here in the bottom half, not sure if my writing is so awesome that Blogger just started

freaking out or if it's a Mac/Apple thing.....

Hangin' with Mr. Cope tonight. After dinner I had a front row seat to an Ozzy Osborne jam session with Cope as the lead rocker/dancer in his bedroom. He's quite the character.

The 3 day bike race was an experience for sure. It still feels like I just finished, even though the last stage was on Tuesday. This week has just flown by. Although maybe I feel like I just finished because Ed VanDeventer and I tried to summit La Plata peak today, via the east ride. Ed has a book on all the 14ers in CO and the description of this east route stating that it's "not nearly as hard as it's reputation depicts" and also mentioning a class 3 climb, was somewhat mis-leading. We arrived at the trailhead at about 6am and got to stepping right away. After about 2 hours through the woods and up a ridge with a river rambling below, we emerged from the forest and out onto a field of massive granite boulders. Trying to remember the words from the guide book, we entertained a couple of different routes, but straight up the loose rocks was what we ended up going for. We would later re-read and find out that this was in fact the correct route. A very strenuous hour later, we had scrambled up about 2400 feet of loose rock and boulders somehow avoiding starting a rock slide onto each other. I'll use the terms adjectives "technical" and "craggy" to describe the rest of the route, NOT class 3. There were definitely some Don't Look Down moments getting as far as we did.

Anyway, by about noon we had gotten worked, and I had to be back in Breck by 330 so we bailed down the west face which had an even more sketchy, loose rock/boulder descent. Further study of some forums by Ed revealed that it takes most people that try this route about 10 hours to summit. Evidently Ed and I tried the even more difficult way of attempting to stay on the ridge most of the way. We gave it 6 hours of our best, then a little over two to get down from where we were. We'll be back...

So anyway, back to the bike race. Impressive field of riders. 20 countries represented and a lot of Canucks. Apparenlty that speaks to the quality of trails in and around Summit county, which really were incredible. Day two was by far the most fun. Muddy as all hell with rain 100% of the day. Didn't even realize it was so cold until I was finished. My support crew of Mom, Michele, Heather, Drew and Cope were bar none the best, greeting me at every aid station they could get to. Thanks to you all!

Michele and I stopped by the Coors Brewery on the way to Denver this past Thursday, the massive copper mash tun's were impressive. Somehow that whole plant is over 5 miles long, crazy.

Soul-journ resumes to the north very soon, probably Monday I head for Wyoming and the Grand Tetons. 

August

Random Deck Shot "Confused Clouds"

StarLounger 1224 aka "Hotel Kyle"

I've always loved August. Lots of close relatives and friends have birthdays in August (including me!), football was either about to start (when I was a more able bodied gridiron guy), or as it is now, the NFL at least has some pre-season games. The weather in Texas is hotter'n hell but in Michigan the lakes have warmed nicely (I imagine even more so this summer) and there was still a month of summer vaca left w no school. Second cuts of hay were sometimes in order, and for many years there was grain to shock, gather and thrash. I'm sure I complained in the early years of farm labor, but my foremost memories are now those of appreciation for the work dad has us doing. It wasn't just the old school way of doing it all, or a good feeling of being physically tired from a day of hard work, but that we were pulling actual sustenance and crops from the earth, that then fed our animals for which dad showed so much love for. I will forever hold onto the memories of riding King, one of our Belgium draft horses, while dad would guide the cultivator through the garden rows. And of raking hay with Pat and Mike, the all metal rake with no motor, purely driven by the power of the horses and large steel wheels that turned the gears that would then rotate the barrel of tines which would flip the previously cut grass and alfalfa into a light and fluffy windrow, perfect to be dried by the August sun and breeze in preparation for baling. As our fields were free of neither steep sidehills nor trailer rocking potholes, my highest priority while stacking a load of hay was to engineer the bales into an interlocking pile that could handle a heavy lean to either side, or the inevitable jump of a corner as one of the wheels fell into and bumped right back out of a mole hole or rut. I used to believe that I could stack the bales so high that I could make the tractor quit, but now I know I was just trying to impress dad. Then after a long day of work behind us, the ultimate reward was that trip to Sturgeon Bay to rinse off the sweat and dirt. I think it was the doing of the work with our hands and our sweat, and doing it along side my siblings and father (and occasionally mom when she would drive the M:) ), that has so permanently kept those memories secured within brainwaves and these feelings in my gut and in my soul. Miss you pops.


In the college years, August meant many a lazy afternoon on the stoop of whoever had the cold beers and a patio, trying to enjoy the last "free" days before it was almost time for 2-a-days again. 


THIS August is going to be one for the books. To start it out right, Heather, Drew, Cope and myself are heading to Steamboat Lakes tomorrow for 3 nights of camping and a plethora of outdoor activities. Sailing, biking, canoeing, fishing and all that other general family camping silliousness. I already feel obligated to show the little ones proper 'mall roasting techniques for s'mores. Then, I plan to make a trip to Denver to see some old friends next week. For the highlight of the month, I will be attempting to finish 3 days in a row of riding Breckenridge trails, almost 40 miles each day. I test rode a portion of the course yesterday, and found that the nicknamed "Heinous Hill" was very much aptly named. Ouch. But even more importantly, two very special women will be making the trip to cheer me on! Mom and Michele, thanks in advance for coming out :) Then from there on the calendar, I will be vacating the spacious accommodations of the StarLounger 1224 (above) and heading north for Wyoming to continue on with this ramble of mine. 


SO, entertaining as he may be, I don't know what this guy's problem is but he's obviously WRONG about August!  Boo on August?? 


Also, as I was talking about farming and crops earlier, I dare you to read this and not get pissed off. SO FRUSTRATING. Don't buy an ounce of this E15. And if you can, stay away from the E10 too. Call this my "awareness" section maybe... EPA, Corn, and our Government's ethanol mandate madness

Lake Dillon Sail

Day 4 coexisting with the Goldsmiths. Three days of riding some amazing trails with many more to come I'm sure. Thursday I went solo just kind of exploring, having no idea how my lungs would do up here but I was pleasantly surprised. After the long ride I attacked one of the projects on my list that has been growing daily via the Goldsmith's requests. This particular project involved cutting up some deadfall trees that fell below their house. Factoring in the slope of their "front yard" and having just finished that ride, my legs were screaming, but the manual labor was enjoyed. I then split some of the wood to round out the "man work" for the day. Next day I worked with Drew up at one of his projects, at the business end of a shovel and pick-axe. The coush desk job I've been working hasn't done much for my landscaping skills but I powered through. He's putting together a pretty cool water feature project up on Peak 8 at the resort. Drew then showed me around to some other bike trails for a couple of hours, continuing to kick my ass for the day. About 45 minutes from the end of our ride, Drew had already started talking about food so by the time we showered up we were both looking for grub in a serious way. Cope's daycare had beach-day on Thursday and at this point he really wanted a hula-hoop. As we were famished, there was obviously no time to go purchase him one, so Drew quickly fashioned him one out of irrigation pipe and duct tape before we went to town to find some grub. This hoop accompanied us for the rest of the evening.

Saturday we took the NACRA out for a 3 hour tour on Lake Dillon. We pretty much cut right through the regatta they were having which was cool to see so many other sailboats. Sun was out and we had mellow winds at first, but it got a little rowdy coming back to the marina after we played on a beach for a while. Here's a short video taken by Drew. http://youtu.be/CdIvksvUR7M

Cope was the gold mining boss on the beach, whilst Drew and I were the miners.



       Below, Heather is super excited to have little brother in CO to play with!!




























I had big aspirations for today's bike ride but those got squashed when I found myself lost a couple of times, going up hill of course, and also due to the hail/thunderstorms when I was up near Boreas Pass. That was a chilly ride back down.

Made it to Breckenridge today mid afternoon. Plenty of great views of the Rockies on the drive from Colorado Springs.

Thanks a whole lotta tons to Jesse Parker for the hospitality and taking time to show me some of the local tracks at the Red Rock Open Space. Apparently the area used to be a quarry and a trash dump, but you wouldn't know it now. Totally different trail than I have ever been on and pretty awesome. The altitude burned me on the insides a little, but my legs surprised me with some stamina after the long hours of sitting in a car the day before. After the ride I got some grindage (homage "Encino Man") at Front Range Barbeque.  Fantastic pulled pork smammich, and yes, it certainly rivaled any that I've had in DFW. The beer taps behind the bar wielded nothing I recognized (pretty much everything in this part of the world is microbrew it seems) so I requested something "light". The lumberjack to my left immediately let me know that the Cucumber Saison from Trinity Brewing was a must, so I did. He wasn't wrong, it was really good and very refreshing. He also let me know that the brewery, which happened to be just a few miles away,  was running low on the batch and that he was on his way up the hill to get a growler full before they ran out. I think I beat him to it though, hope they had enough for him after I got mine!

Growler of Cucumber Beer

Also big thanks to the ride and dine crew who put together a delicious buffet meal last night after they got caught in a rainstorm. On our way to their place Jesse and I caught a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!

Thanks Kennon, Braden, Jess, Christine and Tim. Good eats and good peeps. Good poem at Kennon's place.

Before heading to Heather's, and after some confirmation of it being a good idea to check it out from Jesse and Drew, I figured I would go see what Pike's Peak was all about. Very glad I did. Here's a link to my drive up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q1JlhEnh8I  It was 78 degrees at the bottom when I started, and 41 when I got to the top. I'm also glad my sleep clock is on Dallas time, because that got me up good and early to start the trip. There wasn't much traffic on my way up, but right when I got up there, two of the tram/trains were just arriving so the super touristy store/restaurant at the top became a zoo very quickly. Coming down showed much more traffic on the way up. At the bottom, waiting in line to pay the $12 fee to drive the road, was a long line of Porsches ready to make the climb. I pretty much played manual transmission in the FJ the whole time as the altitude and steeps were a bit much, as I imagine it would be for most. The ranger at the bottom said "Keep it in 2nd and 3rd on the way up to save your engine, and keep it in 1st on the way down to save your brakes." She wasn't kidding. On the way back down I took a lot of shots at some of the overlooks. For a split second thought I was going to see Tyler when I saw this sign, but I guess they just had a statue of him....I'll start uploading my photos to Picasa, which is a google minion now, if you want to see all the raw photos and such.

It was a rainy arrival into Breckenridge. I'm trying to post a video of the trip up Heather and Drew's driveway, for all of those who haven't had the pleasure of that challenge. And of course a large raindrop lands RIGHT in the middle of the lens, but you can still get the hint.

Cope had made it quite apparent to Heather that I was to be the one to pick him up from daycare. He didn't even want Heather to come it at all, just Uncle Kyle. However I don't know the password to get into the little red fun place and I don't think they would take kindly to a stranger walking in and telling them Cope was coming with me. Anyway, home safe, and after some heated playtime with MatchBox Cars and LEGOs in his room, it was dinner time. It was then that he let us know that instead of napping like he was supposed to, he stayed up and talked to his teacher, Michele, the whole time. As I sit here writing this, he is doing sing-along with Ozzy Osborn in preparation for bedtime. I'm going to have to remember that one for the next time I have a hard time falling asleep. Well it's off to the pop-up camper for Uncle Kyle....zzzz 

Okay here goes...my first ever blog.

I tried to do a whole separate fb page for this but it got complicated and I'm not all that much of a fan of fb anyway. So here's to new experiences. A blog? Really? Yeah...

So I departed Dallas area (Flower Mound) this morning about 9am and headed for Colorado Springs. Jesse Parker is being kind enough to houzz me for the night and we plan to get a ride in tomorrow during his lunch. He rode in the B-68 on Sunday (70mile ride/race in Breckenridge) so hopefully he's still recovering from that and will slow him down enough for my sea-level lungs and legs to hang with him.

Rig

Stormy behind, sunny ahead

Extinct volcano in Texas

Drive was easy as far as traffic and weather, the new rig did well. It doesn't seem like it at the time but the road from DFW to where you hit I25 in NM is a steady climb up to over 6000ft. The TRD supercharger would be nice to have for some extra power but that's just not a reality at this point. No idea how much all my gear weighs, plus the pulling of the NACRA, led to some guzzling of gas gallons. I ran the rich stuff to see if it would help with power but I couldn't tell one way or the other, the landscape just changed to much to get any sort of comparison.