Tuesday, September 29, 2009

take a walk when autumn comes to town...



Sean and I headed back to Glacier Gorge Trailhead to hike Andrew’s Glacier, one of 16 glaciers in Colorado. Andrew’s can be hiked year round and is relatively easy.  We figured it would be a fun place to practice getting used to our crampons and self arresting.


We followed the exact same trail we took to the Loch and followed the split off somewhere between the Loch and Timberline Falls. While the first 3 miles to the Loch were a piece of cake the trail from the cutoff to the base of the glacier was an obnoxious talus field that makes my feet hurt just thinking about it!


Right after the cutoff for Andrew's Creek


Though it was sunny and 70 degrees for most of the hike, the stretch to the bottom of the glacier was windy and cold! It was a drastic change coming around the last turn.  We hung out at the tarn at the bottom of the glacier, had some peanut butter banana and jelly sandwiches and put on our gear for the glacier hike.

Fun fun talus field!



Cold part of the hike


Andrew’s has a relatively small incline (there is no concern for avalanche danger) and we made it up relatively quickly. The highlight of the trip came with the descent, though. We glissaded down (about 500 or so vertical feet) practicing our self arrests along the way. I  now feel more confident than ever with an ice-ax and feel better about attempting a glacier with a more significant incline.

Heading up the glacier





Self arrest!


I am always surprised at how quickly the seasons seem to transition. Just three weeks ago when we were at the Loch some trees were only beginning to change and only the highest mountains still had remnants of snow on their peaks. Three weeks later and Fall has definitely announced its arrival.

Hike to the Loch from Glacier Gorge- Labor Day Weekend





and this weekend


Colorado Fall


Monday, September 28, 2009

The Dude Abides





The next big event in September was Lebowskifest! Lebowskifest is a celebration of the movie The Big Lebowski by the Cohen brothers. The Big Lebowski was a huge flop in movie theatres but is now what they call a ‘cult classic’. People who love the movie (like us) are absolutely obsessed with it. It is full of one-liners, bizarre characters and countless shenanigans.

Sean and I got our tickets to Lebowskifest in May and had aspirations of spending the summer creating the perfect costumes for the event. Lebowskifest has a costume contest as a major element of the night- as well as a bowling party and an unlimited amount of white Russians. There are a handful of characters from the move that get done time and time again. I wanted to be something different. Well, of course, the week before the party we were still without a solid plan for our costumes. At the last minute we used a little creativity and $30 to throw together an awesome costume.



Us with some of our favorit characters



Autoban



Some of the Maudes during the costume competition



We took our cue from a subtle line in the movie when Walter (John Goodman) says to The Dude (Jeff Bridges) about a dog he brings to the bowling alley “I’m watching him while Cynthia and Marty Ackerman are in Hawaii” We never meet Cynthia (Walter’s ex-wife) or Marty Ackerman (her new boyfriend) in the movie, but we consider them characters nonetheless. It is hard for a female to have a unique character at Lebowskifest because there are only 5 women with speaking parts in the entire movie- but I think it was worth it not to be one of 50 ‘Maudes’ or 20 ‘Bunnies’- all of the Lebowskifest goers liked that our costume was one they hadn’t seen before.

Walter (the ex) trying to intimidate Marty



The event was as fabulous as we could have imagined. A whole bunch of Lebowski nerds just like us- it is fun to be around like-minded people. We were randomly assigned to a lane and totally lucked out! The Dude at our lane won best Dude overall (a HUGE honor in the Lebowskifest world) and the other characters were fun too.


Lane 22



The highlight for us came with winning Best Group overall. Because we went as a pair we didn’t qualify for individual awards- but it was the first trophy we have won as a couple!


Winners of Lane 22 (us and The Dude)



We went into the evening looking to celebrate some great news we had received early that very day- and I could not have asked for a better celebration.




Sunday, September 27, 2009

Then Summer Fades and Passes...

So, this is ridiculous.

There is nothing on the blog for the month of September.

I hope this doesn’t make you think that September was uneventful. Quite the opposite, actually. September has been a month of HAPPENINGS. Big ones. Exciting ones that deserve their own post. We’ll start at the beginning (always a good place to start) and go from there!

This biggest event in September was the arrival of the Strongs! Sean’s parents came all the way out from Philly to spend the week surrounding Labor Day in Denver and Estes Park. They brought plenty of sunshine and warm weather with them and it stayed around the whole time.

Sean and I were able to spend about 3 days with them up at a cabin in Estes Park. Estes is the city right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. The cabin was a perfect mountain log cabin right outside the entrance to the park.

We started our first day (Saturday) with, arguably, the best hike of the weekend. They were all beautiful but there is something about The Loch that takes your breath away. The Loch gives the classic view of the Rocky Mountains, beautiful jagged peaks whose reflection is clear as day in the water below. The hike up to The Loch is just over 3 miles and covers some beautiful terrain. We passed Alberta Falls and multiple stunning vistas along the way. Once there, some of us went on to Timberline Falls and Lake of Glass adding another 1.5 miles each way to the trip. Lake of Glass was especially cool because we had to climb alongside Timberline Falls to get to the Lake.


Hike to the Loch


View along the trail


The Loch


Timberline Falls


Day two had us at Gem Lake. The trail took us around interesting rock formations and more beautiful views of the Rockies (we were literally across from where we hiked the day before so we got the opposite view) The lake was pretty small, but it has a totally different feel than the other lakes we saw- especially with the sandy beach. There were lots of big rock faces that were calling Sean’s name…I think we are probably just a few weeks away from a post about the Twin Owls!

Twin Owls



View of the mountains from Gem Lake Trail





Sean and me at Gem Lake

Our hike finished just as the rain started. Determined to see more of RMNP’s beauty, we hopped in the car and headed to two scenic drives throughout the park. One drive, Trail Ridge Road, is the highest continuous paved road in the United States. Both parts of the drive were awesome, but undoubtedly the highlight came on Old Fall River Road when we saw a huge, beautiful elk! He was absolutely stunning and looked (almost scarily) strong.



That evening we headed into Estes Park and got a drink at The Stanley. The Stanley is a huge hotel in Estes that was the inspiration for The Shining. Though it was not used in Kubrick’s adaptation, the miniseries was filmed there. The Stanley is celebrating its 100 year anniversary this year. I wish that we still valued new hotels the way that they had been valued- old hotels are some of the most beautiful properties out there.

On Monday we headed to the Bear Lake Trailhead to hike to Bear, Nymph, Emerald and Dream Lakes. It is a popular trail because there are very few moments during the hike that aren’t stunning. It is cool how the lakes can be so close together but be so very different from one another. On my way down from Emerald Lake I ran into my brother’s girlfriend! Tyler, who is dating my brother, Brian, was visiting Colorado with her family. We had a brief moment where we felt like celebrities (the paparazzi took 100 pictures) and I told her whole family to check out the Loch (they did. They loved it. ) I love when the world is small like that-in one of the busiest parks in the nation on one of the busiest days of the year (labor day) on one of the most popular trails in the park- I run into Tyler! Crazy…and great.


Nymph Lake (look at all those lillypads!)




The four of us at Dream Lake


Emerald Lake


Tyler and me on the trail!
We were bummed to have to go back home Monday evening, but we were lucky to have fit in an entire weekend of stunning hikes in the sunshine. We had to introduce Sean’s parents to Wahoo Fish Tacos (our post-mountain dinner ritual) before they left town.

This was our first trip to RMNP in non-winter conditions. It is obvious why this selection of Colorado wilderness was selected as a national park. Its terrain is diverse and it has a little bit of something for everyone. Experiencing that wilderness with family makes it even better :)