Month: February 2019

In a Cloud

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I always get a kick out driving through the mountains and seeing the clouds dip lower than the tops of the mountains.  You feel like you are driving through the clouds.  Actually, I guess you are.  I have the opportunity to see this more often now.  It’s not often you get to come out of the mountains and see the city hanging in the clouds.  One morning, as I was coming into Denver, the whole city was engulfed in a large cloud.  Only the tops of the taller buildings were visible.  It looked like a floating city.  The clouds were a fluffy white and the buildings were shiny in the early morning sun.  It was a very fantasy world sight.  I also got to see this later in the week when I was driving down into Steamboat Springs.  This time instead of clouds, it was more like fog.  The fog looked like you would see in an 80’s rock concert, creaping across the landscape low to the ground, swirling slowly.  It was fun approaching the fog, just above it all and then finally dropping into it.  I didn’t get pictures of the Denver cloud, but the Steamboat fog pictures are below for you to enjoy.

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Field Ready

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Earlier this week I met with my Search and Rescue mentor.  She helped me go through all the stuff in my backpack to make sure I had a pack ready for any Search and Rescue mission.  She also gave  me a short test that went over my general knowledge of the wilderness and Search and Rescue.  I took the required ICS classes back in December.  At tonight’s training, I was granted Field Ready status.  I think this is a shorter way of saying “she knows close to nothing, but is in good enough shape to carry stuff and isn’t a danger to herself or others” status.  They gave me a radio, a t-shirt, hat and a giant red jacket as well as some other gear.  I can now go on missions and continue my education toward the next level.  It’s wonderful to be a part of this group of people.20190213_205149

Winter Carnival

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I was searching on-line for things to do in Grand County around Christmas when I came across some information about the Grand Lake Winter Carnival.  I thought, how much fun would a small town winter celebration be?  Even though it was hard to tell how to participate or exactly what you would be participating in, I put it on the calendar and invited one of my friends from Denver to come up and share in whatever festivities we could find.

When we first arrived in town we saw a bunch signs for Ice Addiction.  What is Ice Addiction?  After we parked, we noticed that there were a lot of people hanging out at the lake and something exciting was going on, judging from the announcer’s voice in the background.  Ice Addiction was fully underway!  It was an ice fishing contest.  I’ve never would have thought that an ice fishing contest would have need for an announcer.  Even though we couldn’t quite tell what the announcer was saying, it sounded very exciting.  The ice was covered in people staring down tiny holes waiting for fish.  Even if Winter Carnival was a bust, seeing this was worth the drive.

After watching Ice Addiction for a bit, we headed to main street to see the other festivities.  We missed the tea pot curling contest.  There was a put put golf course in the snow, a bunch of other races and activities for kids and the main event, the bed races.  What is a bed race, you ask.? Teams like up and push a bed down the snow packed street.  It was fun to watch.  In the evening there was a costume party at one of the bars and then fireworks off the lake.  All in all, it was great small town fun!

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Moose Ski

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Grand County is supposed to be infested with moose.  I’ve lived here since September and haven’t seen a moose.  I’ve been hiking and snowshoeing many times, going places I think moose might hang out.  No moose.  My neighbor, Kathern, and her friend were going back country skiing because he hasn’t seen a moose either.  They invited me to go with them.  She had an extra pair of cross-country skis I could borrow.  I’ve been cross country skiing at the Nordic center once a week since December.  But I haven’t been on a regular trail yet.  Her feet are bigger than mine so her boots won’t fit right.  What could go wrong?

The trail they picked was beautiful, but it started with quite the impressive downhill.  Off to a good start, squealing as I fly way faster than I want down the hill in the largest, snow plow ever seen.  The trail mellowed out after that.  We passed many moose tracks crossing the trail.  There was moose poop on the trail and you could see where they had laid down to rest.  This had great promise for a moose sighting as they were probably here 5 minutes ago.

The trail got prettier, but a steeper uphill and I was struggling with boots that didn’t fit right.  I had to keep stopping to tie them tighter in an effort to keep my feet in them.  Kathern and Mark continued uphill and I turned around knowing they would probably still catch up later.  I’m sure to see a moose now.  The journey back to the trailhead was peaceful despite the 3 flailing ungraceful crashes.  It’s so awkward to try to stand up with long skinny slippery skis on the bottom of your feet.  I made it back up the giant hill near the trailhead with a bit of huffing and puffing and very little backwards sliding.  Over all, I’d call this a win in the ski department.  But, it’s definitely time to buy my own skis.

After they caught back up with me, we took the moose hunt from the trail to the road.  We drove through the National Park – everyone sees moose there – except me and Mark.  We drove through a Grand Lake neighborhood that has moose all the time.  Yep, you guessed it, no moose.  Mark and I must be wearing moose repellant.  With two of us, we really scared them off.

It was a beautiful day with new friends and the wonder of the gorgeous place I live in fills my heart.  Once again, my choice to move to Grand County is validated as a fabulous choice.  I’ll have to wait for another day for moose sightings.

Father Daughter

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There is a local bar/restaurant that has decent food so I go there often when I need to get out of the house or when I don’t want to cook.  Tonight, when I got out of the car, I saw two girls about age 7 or 8 dressed to the nines in pink frilly dresses and Patten leather shoes.  They were with their dads.  Normally, they would be cold in these fancy dresses, but they looked invigorated and excited.  They didn’t even notice it was cold.  The dads were dressed in suits and ties.  I thought maybe it was a wedding reception and these were the flower girls, even though the time of year seemed off for a wedding.

I went inside and sat at the bar and ordered my dinner.  I noticed the girls and their dads sat at a big table with a lot of other girls of different ages, dressed up in silk, tulle, sparkles, and pretty pink, blue and green colors.  Then I noticed that all the adults at the table were men.  Oh, there must be a Father Daughter dance tonight and they were going out for dinner first.  Over the next hour, more father daughter duos came in and took up seats in the restaurant.  It was fun to watch them come in, to see the pretty dresses, the happy princesses and the very proud fathers.  The whole restaurant was full of shiny sparkly girly-ness.