Pike National Forest, Aug 21

Sunday I met a hiking group in Denver at 9am to carpool back to Bailey, CO, for a day hike in Pike National Forest. It borders Lost Creek Wilderness where Justin & I's hellacious 28 mile hike took place. If my memory is right, Grandma Clark told me once upon a time that we are descendants of Zebulon Pike.

I hope thats right, how cool. It was a very enjoyable 8 mile loop- no big climbs or rocks to climb around. So all attention was spent socializing. My carpool group was so much fun, a very out-going group of Mark from NY, Eiko from Japan, & Kasia from Polland. We really enjoyed each other's company, it was refreshing and much needed. After the hike 20 of the 27 of us ate lunch at 3000 Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant in Conifer, half way back to Denver. Good Day.

Mask Project

First mask I made loosely in an hour. Very gargoyle like.

The second I wanted to be serene & smooth. This is the beginning shape.

Now it's finished & drying to be fired soon.

I'm making 3 more of similar size & mood, this time using clay that has smaller or less grog so it doesn't have such a grainy texture.

Another trip to Durango, Aug 3-9

Not many pictures taken during this trip. We met up with my mom's cousin, my second cousin, Jen, for brunch and rafting trip down the Animas a couple miles through town. Meeting up with her was high on the list of things I gotta do in Colorado. Check. It was a lot of fun. She is as wonderful & strong as I remember.

Cheyenne Frontier Day, July 29

I drove north 2 hours to Cheyenne, WY, that Friday to check out the Frontier Days. Thirty-three years ago my parents went, thats how I heard about it. 7 days of rodeo? real cowboys kinda? I gotta see this! Best in the country, the announcer said. Twenty bucks a ticket best I guess. This smiley guy in the glasses sold me a corn dog and gave me one for free, after I dropped the first one trying to take a picture of the Coffee Wagon. After that I found my seat for the rodeo. I forgot my zoom lense so the pictures of men chipping away their vertebrae on the backs of bulls & broncos are useless (see below). But it was a hoot to watch- very suspenseful, big injuries could happen like that.

Sure enough a small bronco hurt his back leg. Suck. It changed everything. I left and walked around the fair part of it. Campers brought their best memorabilia, antiques were sold at very high prices, the Boot Barn sold T-shirts with rhinestones, and Native Americans sold jewelry in the "Indian Village" complete with teepees. Not after too long I got bored and starting taking pictures of women in skirts & boots for Ryan. He loved the slide show.

Sunday Hike in Red Rocks

Sunday I tried to meet a Meetup group at Red Rocks but missed them because it wasn't clear where exactly we were meeting, and I admit to not allowing time enough to search all parking lots and the damn pavilion. It was a Sunday. So I missed out on a 2 mile hike with 25 people. One other hiker was looking around for the same group, a red headed vice principle from Jersey. She was fouled-mouthed and good company for a quick 1.4 mile walk.

Justin's Visit, Week of July 17

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