I met Justin in Boquete, Panama, this winter at Habla Ya, the spanish language school I attended for 2 weeks. After hanging out in Bocas del Toro for a week I decided to meet Justin in Costa Rica to spent 3 weeks at Finca Bella Vista working in exchange for a free place to stay.So last week he flew in from Portland, OR, to spend a week with me exploring downtown Denver & hiking a big loop in the montanas.
Sometimes we took pics with his phone when I didn't have or forgot my nikon. This is us in an old gutted truck in a bar, Crash 45, during our custom made pub crawl last Saturday. Besides the pub crawl & big hike, we played at Water World water park, made a little bust & mask out of clay at my studio, saw Harry Potter (Yay, HP7!!, Whoop, Whoop), and spent way too much money eating breakfast, lunch & dinner at all the best acclaimed restaurants in Denver, thanks to yelp. Good times.
This is Lost Creek & Goose Creek loop. A total of 28 miles. 3 blocks loosely equals 2 miles as the crow flies. The elevation varied between 9,000 and 11,000 feet above sea level. We spent 2 nights. It's the longest and most strenuous backpacking venture I've been on. I melted down twice. We made it a little too rough on ourselves because we did not bring enough food or water for 3 full days so the pace was quick and miserable. But very educational. It was beautiful though. 
The trail head at the beginning. I had no idea how much I'd hurt later. 
Great shot, Joot!
Some of the forest had been burnt recently. 
The End. My face tells the tale.
Twenty eight miles in a little over 2 days. This day we hiked ~13 miles, climbing 500 feet at one point. The day before we climbed 1,000 feet twice and did not sleep well that night. I was so Fucking exhausted and my feet hurt really bad at this moment. Argh. Now, after a 12 hour nights sleep and 5 days, I'm glad we did it.
July 17th was National Ice Cream day. We didn't know this before we decided to go to Mitt & Muggs ice cream party in Black Hawk, CO, as advertised in the Westword, before heading south to Lost Creek. They broke the world record for flavors served in a day or party or something. The previous record was 500 something. It was the first world record thing I've ever been a part of. Gladly. No charge. I sampled maybe 25. My favorites were cream corn, and arnold palmer, which tasted like the lemonade & iced tea drink. Lots of happy people. Everyone was enjoying the ice cream, so it was easy to make comments about the flavors with strangers. It was a wonderful little event.
It took them 6 months to make all 1,001 flavors.
Black Hawk is such an adorable little mountain town. It would be too cutesy if it wasn't for all the casinos downtown.
1,001 flavors! They served over 5,000 samples. You can find Mitt & Muggs on facebook of course and they said they'd post a list of All the flavors. They are very proud of that day, as well they should be. So Delicious!!
These guys at the ORIC desk at REI told us about a hike we saw in Backpackers mag in Lost Creek Wilderness off 285 heading south near Bailey, CO. A review somewhere on the net said it is the most beautiful terrain around outside of Yellowstone. I've never seen Yellowstone, but I can say the Goose Creek loop in Lost Creek is the most beautiful hike I've been on in the Rockies thus far.
big funeral parlor sign
Root Down in Highlands, hand made veggie burger with pine nuts on a challah bun. Fuck. Those sweet potato fries with yogurt aioli are so delicious they are equal company to the sliders.
I bought a bike for Joot to get around town for $10 at Goodwill. It needed new brake pads & tubes to be at least rideable. Turns out the seat is so uncomfortable and the handle bars sooo low & unadjustable it's only rideable for 2 blocks. But Justin was a good sport, changed the tubes and rode it to and from my place to downtown a few times, but no long rides to Golden along Clear Creek for us. The bike I bought for myself from Goodwill for $20 and had fixed by a professional (expensive) bike shop is riding pretty well. I can ride to Golden, my art studio and my favorite tool shop and dance hall downtown. Joot & I went on a long hike instead.
Justin is silly
Riding along Cherry Creek towards REI flagship store downtown
Chill'n on the Platte River
So hot in Denver, we had to get in to the Platte River that runs just north of downtown
July 17th was National Ice Cream day. We didn't know this before we decided to go to Mitt & Muggs ice cream party in Black Hawk, CO, as advertised in the Westword, before heading south to Lost Creek. They broke the world record for flavors served in a day or party or something. The previous record was 500 something. It was the first world record thing I've ever been a part of. Gladly. No charge. I sampled maybe 25. My favorites were cream corn, and arnold palmer, which tasted like the lemonade & iced tea drink. Lots of happy people. Everyone was enjoying the ice cream, so it was easy to make comments about the flavors with strangers. It was a wonderful little event. 
It took them 6 months to make all 1,001 flavors. 
Black Hawk is such an adorable little mountain town. It would be too cutesy if it wasn't for all the casinos downtown. 
1,001 flavors! They served over 5,000 samples. You can find Mitt & Muggs on facebook of course and they said they'd post a list of All the flavors. They are very proud of that day, as well they should be. So Delicious!!
These guys at the ORIC desk at REI told us about a hike we saw in Backpackers mag in Lost Creek Wilderness off 285 heading south near Bailey, CO. A review somewhere on the net said it is the most beautiful terrain around outside of Yellowstone. I've never seen Yellowstone, but I can say the Goose Creek loop in Lost Creek is the most beautiful hike I've been on in the Rockies thus far. 
big funeral parlor sign
Root Down in Highlands, hand made veggie burger with pine nuts on a challah bun. Fuck. Those sweet potato fries with yogurt aioli are so delicious they are equal company to the sliders.
I bought a bike for Joot to get around town for $10 at Goodwill. It needed new brake pads & tubes to be at least rideable. Turns out the seat is so uncomfortable and the handle bars sooo low & unadjustable it's only rideable for 2 blocks. But Justin was a good sport, changed the tubes and rode it to and from my place to downtown a few times, but no long rides to Golden along Clear Creek for us. The bike I bought for myself from Goodwill for $20 and had fixed by a professional (expensive) bike shop is riding pretty well. I can ride to Golden, my art studio and my favorite tool shop and dance hall downtown. Joot & I went on a long hike instead. 
Justin is silly
Riding along Cherry Creek towards REI flagship store downtown
Chill'n on the Platte River 
So hot in Denver, we had to get in to the Platte River that runs just north of downtown