Johns Visit: The Desert

Thomas with Delicate Arch

Now its almost unimaginable to think that just down the road from our snowy enclave in the mountains that you can find yourself in 30 degrees C weather, melting in the desert. But, that’s where we were headed, to Moab,Utah and some of the finest mountain biking on offer and with some crazy rocks too.

We got into town after a early start and set up camp to head off immediately into Arches National Park. With the sunshine on our necks and the unusual feeling of warm air surrounding us, we headed on the Delicate Arch walk. Shortly into the walk I myself found some wild source of energy from within. I was a man possessed. I was just running, jumping, climbing and exploring with such a spring in my step and a twinkle in my eye. I think I was just enchanted by the desert, and man was it fun. We posed with Delicate Arch and I ventured across a steep and narrow crossing to where no one else had ventured. Amy decided to follow, for some reason, and for a quick moment really found herself in a pickle of a situation. Amy sliding 30m down a rock face would have put a bit of a damper on the trip, but it didn’t quite come to that. A relaxing night cooking sausages on the camp fire, of course accompanied by a refreshing beverage or two.

Maybe the most famous mountain bike ride in North America, running from high in the mountains right back down into town in Moab is The Whole Enchilada. It’s a 20 mile descent across the most amazing red rocked desert. It starts so high in fact it would have been many more months till the snow cleared on the top section and it dried out, so we were only able to ride half of the Whole Enchilada. To make up for the half we were missing out on and to get the most of of the riding experience, to really earn it, we cycled the whole route of the Porcupine Rim from town and back. Featuring a 20km 3 hour uphill ascent followed but the remaining 3 hour descent and hour lap back into town. It was a fair journey and it was definitely me and John's most epic adventure together.

It was simply just a blast for the entire ride. Not at all discounting the arduous ride uphill, even that was a scenic spectacular. Passing through an environment so unlike anywhere else, it was quite easy to keep the pedals turning. Reaching the top felt like the achievement, but that was actually the easy part. If you're thinking we were just off on a casual roll down the hill from there, it was anything but. Fast undulating sections, steep chunky sections and sections where off to the side would send you over a 100m cliff. Our full suspension rental bikes were put through their paces but they didn't completely protect us from all those bumps. The ride had literally shaken us to pieces, so much in fact that I spent the following days cradling my hand because it felt as though it was broken, despite having not crashed. When we made it back down to the road section, we re-hydrated from a spring coming out of the side of a rock wall and headed back into town to meet Amy and then drove to a river to try and cool off. We were all melting, and this river was the only oasis in the desert, except that it was painfully cold, with snowmelt from the mountains, we could only dip our toes in. That night we treated ourselves to some BBQ, going to the same restaurant Amy and I dined at with her sister and mom back in 2012 during our road trip and we finished the night back at Arches, where we hiked to a lookout spot, watched the sunset and did some stargazing before sitting around with some cold beers by the campfire.

Feeling like we had achieved life's meaning and having conquered the desert, but our muscles were calling out that the desert had conquered us, we headed one last time into Arches on the way out of town to do an Amy guided journey through some more of the desert spacescapes. I limped from view to view taking advantage of every sitting opportunity or spot of shade. Not long before you know it, we were on our way back into the mountains, where the warm weather had followed us. 

John's Visit: The Mountains

Devo Bros being silly

The highlight of my time in Colorado was having my bro come shred and chill for a week. Using his 30^th  birthday as a great excuse to spring a bit of a surprise trip. He did take the surprise away from us demanding he needed to know what was up to take the time off work, but that's the price you pay for being such a hot shot head chef, the bugger. Other than knowing he was coming over to ski and live the "High Life", he knew nothing of the mad trip we had planned. Props to the Devo Parents and the Clarks for significantly chipping in for his flights and most importantly to Kel for surrendering him for a week and giving him a generous beer budget.

Up Breckenridge

Right from the get go, we got after it. Straight out of the airport parking structure at 7000rpm we quickly got caught in stand still traffic, but only temporarily, while we headed to Boulder. That was of course after a pit stop at the always impressive Bass Pro Shop. Browsing for camo-print sofas, fluro trucker hats and $160 hand guns. Shooting some guns ourselves, only of the laser rifle hunting game variety, the bro-off begins. Making it right to the Flatirons on the foothills in Boulder with a perfectly timed breakdown, we pulled into the car park and had to finish the parking maneuver with John and a stranger pushing.

The Flatirons are an array of impressive steep tilted sandstone slabs pressing against the foothills below Boulder making for a steep and strenuous climb offering magnificent views across the plains and into the mountains where we were headed. No way to better kick jet lags butt than to acclimatise on a leisurely afternoon climb up these mad rocks. That we did and to be honest for myself having just descended 1500 meters the air to me was like breathing liquid oxygen. I’m not sure that it was so for John though, as we were still at 1500 meters elevation. A good few hours round trip and after a wee Cheba Hut snack in town, we were off again rallying up the Boulder Canyon. Taking the scenic route winding up the narrow canyon and climbing over winding mountain roads. John's analysis of the situation was fair, “It looks very North American”. Climbing over the Continental Divide right at sunset was just a magic way to introduce John to our home of Summit County. With pizza and beer for dinner in town at Downstairs at Eric's, the trip had only just got started, and was very "North American."

Picking up some rental gear from my ski shop the following morning, the boys introduced John to the our tough mountain lifestyle, with a controversial Barley Wine that had been hanging in the fridge undrunk for some time. At 9%ABV John was ready to get going. Now, due to an unseasonably warm and early onset of spring, meant that we were able to jet around town in style in the RX7, however it left a little to be desired on the snow front. However, one can only complain so much when you are at 4000m in stunning sunshine snowboarding in the Rockies at A-basin ski area. Casual laps and a few fun runs into the trees while still actually managing to find some good snow. Continuing to take advantage of the strange weather, we baked in the sun on the balcony of our house some cool beverages, good music and better yarns in the early afternoon.

Sunset over lake Dillion from Keystone

Following our interlude off to the desert we returned to this mountain lifestyle for what seemed like 4 more short days. As the old saying goes, how time flies when your having fun. Its a pretty manageable routine, which often was the general makeup of our lives in Colorado, I guess with the insert of a few work days here and there. But the basic formula we went with while John was around was, wake up, have a big breakfast, head out to the slopes, can of mountain dew in the pocket, shred hard and explore the mountain and head back to town for happy hour. That's roughly how its went. We did mix it up actually a day or two, with the insertion of a wee journey out to Beaver Creek. That was quite the unbelievable day as it was just so hot. Literally in the teens, celsius. At times it was more like water skiing, but its always cool to get back to the Beav and explore our old haunches and I believe I had about 10 hot cookies at the end of the day, 3pm on the dot at the bottom of the chairlift. 

Tinkabell at Broken Compass Brewery with us.

Another day we did the double-banger with a morning session at Breckenridge then heading over to Keystone for night skiing, which at that point of the year was more like twilight skiing. Seeing the sunset over Summit County, across Lake Dillion from the top of the skifield was pretty magic. And other than that, it was a bit like, good food and beers at home, playing cards and listening to music or adventures with the dogs to a local brewery or up the hills for a walk. I hope John had a mad time, I sure as hell did and I cant wait for my 30th birthday present ;)

A perfect week in the mountains!

Winter Full On

New Years Day at Vail

Winter really just seemed to blend into a white haze of snowboarding, skiing, friends, dogs, digging snow and I guess there must have been a bit of work in there, too. For myself there was a work change. I was sick of the attitudes and work ethic at the distillery, so I took on full time hours at a ski shop called Base Mountain Sports. This place was my second home surrounding me with good people, friendly tourists, a great working atmosphere and more beer than a brewery! Amy kept at it with Carriage House Preschool and very much enjoyed her four day work week and took advantage with maximum days on the slopes. 

The trusty, mighty Bronco

With nothing special planned for New Years Eve, we took the evening as it came, with friends new and old. We ended up venturing on a night walk above town on Hosier Pass, finding ourselves a prefect out cropping sitting right above town and looking right across to the ski field, the perfect spot to watch the fireworks light up the sky. With the dogs in tow, we wandered through the snow covered forest on a beautiful clear evening, cold to the bone as the time of year generally is. Back at the house we released some lanterns with varying success, a few got going and others caught on fire in the driveway or in a neighbours tree. We drank, we played games, and we made mini pizzas with dough fried in a frying pan. The only actual incident of the evening was during an acroyoga performance back at home. Amy's glasses got tumbled on and the tape around the centre method didn't stick, so they were retired from there on out. To start the year in style, on New Years Day we headed over the pass to Vail to ride and pose for photos with Phil and Sarah.

Into the New Year we had a visit from Amy's high school friend Janelle from NYC. It was great to host and show off our little winter paradise to the city slicker. The busy girl was still sending work emails off at night and all but did manage a good few days skiing. We also met with Amy's mom's boss Emily and her son Ben later on in the season. We met them for some mad sushi in Dillon and they were more than happy to let me play tour guide across the mountain for some skiing adventures. 

Amy and Janelle

There were some cool things going on regularly in town over winter. Particularly the International Ice Sculpting Festival. Over a few days we saw the huge blocks of compacted snow get carved out to the most intricate and innovative designs from teams from all over the world. I honestly cannot comprehend the skill and talent that was displayed. From basic geometric designs to the most intricate intertwined mermaids and dragons. Also we were very motivated to participate in the Science Day march through town. It was very disappointing though that the march was not allowed to make its way through Main Street, instead they pushed us to the backstreets of town.  

Because life wasn't enough of a party, we and every other local made a day of April Fool's Day, renamed "Gaper Day" in the mountains. To celebrate 'The Gaper', those being the woeful weekend skiers and those making their annual ski trip form Texas. Generally adorned with questionable talent and even more questionable fashion sense. Skiing in jeans and an unintentional retro look is how you spot them, but on Gaper Day we take back our mountain. Particularly encouraged by my fellow employees, I adorned my wetsuit for the speed skier look, with trendy headband and undersized googles, oversized poles complemented my custom built mini-skis. Rocking laps around the mountain with Amy, who wore just a dress and leggings and my boss Justin, head to toe in black and also wearing just sneakers strapped into his snowboard, we made as many turns as I received high fives.  

Keeping on the theme of generally having a great time, maybe the best work life balance was achieved with an 8am start at the shop, breaking at 12 noon to head up skiing with Amy and our mate Will for a couple hours, before heading back to the shop and jumping in the hot tub attached to the associated hotel in the building. Having a couple beers and a good old soak, then to head back to finish off an honest days work renting skis to the friendly crowd of out-of-towners. Finishing off the night chilling with friends and the dogs by the fire at home. 

Always loved taking these guys out for a walk.

Thinking that spring was upon us, Amy's work locked in their Sunday BBQ at 'The Beach' at A-Basin. The Beach being the first row of parking spots which have picnic tables set out and where everyone chills out American style as they would at the real beach. Grilling on the BBQ, copious quantities of beer, and generally a year round Gaper Day attitude generally leads to a fun time. However, the sun stopped shinning and one should never complain about fresh snow, but it just meant less chilling on the beach and more time hustling down the double blacks. 

A beautiful day at the beach

The one thing I had really been hoping for over winter was a night ski session where it was just dumping snow. Particularly for the reason that its always very quiet and that means more snow for me. So low and behold, the last night of night skiing ever, about an hour and a half before lights out, the heavens opened up like never before. An accumulation of around a foot in that hour or so made for a heavenly few last runs of the season at Keystone. With the snow falling under the artificially illuminated skies, it was quite possibly the coolest experience, quite surreal because of the contrast of black and white, and there was a lot of white. The skiing was unbelievable and just generally a fantastic memory to cap off the end of the night skiing season. 

Follow the lights the to gates of heaven

One might notice my mentioning a lot of the term skiing. Generally referring to one partaking in the activity of maneuvering down hill on two separate 'planks' rather than the term to ride, referring to the cooler more modern singled planked snow sport. Generally we refer to the idea that 'we went riding' or 'we went skiing'. If you have been paying attention, I have been using the literal skiing wording far more than the term riding. This is because I did myself have a bit of a mid-season crisis and ended up spending a lot of my time on the mountain on skis. Which I loved. Proving a bit more of a challenge and opening up new levels of learning. I would borrow skis from the shop, which then enhanced my sales experience for my customers giving them first hand advice on the skis they were renting off me. Not stopping with just me, Amy even caught the ski bug too. Venturing out a few times to hit up the greens and blues, Amy did good as, and when on the more basic terrain there I would practice my backwards skiing and therefore could give good face to face coaching while on the go.   

 

Maybe our biggest love of all, food. We had some good old american food adventures, very deserving after big days of skiing and riding.  Happy hour specials all round, a few of our favourite spots with their particular deals. Monster nachos at the Quandry Grill, $7 workman's lunch burger and beer at the Breck Brewery, pizza followed by Pacman at Downstairs at Eric's and our best hookup at Cecelia's Cocktail Lounge where its all about who you know.