A Kansas City Christmas

Renae holding my 2nd cousin Charlotte.

Matthew and Charlotte

The fam. Grandma Fuller, me, Andrew holding Charlotte, Linda, Uncle Kirk, Aunt Debbie, and Matthew.

Andrew reading to Charlotte

After finishing with Exploration Place, Renae and I got on the road and headed to El Dorado and dropped some luggage off at Grandma Fuller's. I had contacted Matthew (cousin) several months ago and asked if we could crash their Christmas day in Kansas City. It has been 4 years or more since I've seen that side of the family and thought it would be fun to surprise Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kirk. We then headed towards Kansas City on the turnpike, we got off at Emporia and headed down I35. It had started snowing pretty good around the east El Dorado exit, but the temps were still above 32. By the time we reached Emporia it was 29 degrees so the roads started getting slick. We saw a really bad accident as we were headed out of Emporia. We decided to stop in Ottawa instead of going all the way into Belton, MO where we had a reservation, but the roads were really to slick to continue safely. We got back on the road around 0830 and got to Belton around 0930 were we stopped and got some more gift cards and checked with the hotel because their phones had not been working due to the storm that had gone through.
We got out to Uncle Kirk's and Aunt Debbie's and Matthew opened the door. Everyone was surprised that we were there. Aunt Debbie started crying and Grandma said "Oh my word". We watched everyone open their presents and we held Matthew and Linda's little one Charlotte. Everyone helped cook lunch which we had around 230pm and we sat around and talked. It was a lot of fun. Good belly laughs. My cousin Andrew is getting married next November, hopefully we will be able to make it.

A Strange Christmas

Aimery playing with a garden in Exploration Place.

Athena cheesing for the picture.

Christi trying to get the ball

The fam. Bud, me, mom, Christi, Jeff holding Aimery, Grandma Corfman, and Athena.

Please don't make me eat the flowers.

Well Renae and I made it into Kansas with only a few adventures. While we were at the airport we got checked in and headed to the gate. Once we got there they said the flight was delayed until 1245 (we were supposed to leave at 1135) so we decided to eat something and look around. We found a place and ordered some food. About 45 min later I was walking across the hall to look at one of the newsstands and on my way back I happened to look at the departure times and holy cow our flight was back on schedule which meant we had 15 min to get back to the gate before they started loading. So we gathered all our stuff and made it on the plane.
We landed in Wichita, got our luggage, car, and headed over to the Vohs to get Christi, Jeff, and the kids. We got there at the same time as Christi getting back from El Dorado. From the Vohs we loaded into their van and headed to Kohl's, Walmart, and Chili's. We let the kids pick out their Christmas presents which was lots of fun. Man they are growing fast. Athena is in the 1st grade and Aimery is in pre-school. We got over to mom's around 730pm and then wrapped all the presents. Boy howdy was I tired after. That day it was 75 degrees so mom's house was pretty warm. We opened the windows when we went to bed but it soon started storming pretty heavily. We got up the next day and headed into Andover to pick up some more gift cards for presents and when we got back the Vohs family was there as well as grandma. We opened presents and smiled for the camera then ate lunch. Yummy goodness. Christi, Jeff, Athena, Aimery, Renae and myself then headed to Exploration Place for lots of hands on fun. Here are the pictures from this 36 hours.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Renae and I left after work Christmas Eve because of a big storm that was headed in. The National Weather Service indicated it was supposed to dump anywhere from 4-36 inches in Western Colorado. So we made a last minute decision to leave Wednesday night. We both got off a little early and worked together in making sure we got everything packed and ready to go. We pulled out of Junction around 4:20 pm. We arrived in Denver around 8:30pm and got a hotel in Wheatridge at the Comfort Inn. We soaked in the hot tub and fell right to sleep. It is supposed to be 49 degrees in Denver today. We plan on taking Taysha and Brian to the early movies then moving to the other hotel near the airport so we can fly out tomorrow morning around 11 am. 

Have a safe and happy holidays. 

Home for the Holidays

Well we are in the final preparations for the trip back to Kansas. Naturally it is supposed to snow all week here. Last night we got 5 inches of snow in Grand Junction. It was a record dump according to the weather service. Today has been sunny so all the roads are clearing but another storm is supposed to hit tonight and then again on Christmas eve. We are driving over to Denver Christmas Day and then flying to Wichita on the 26th. I will keep everyone posted as the trip progresses. Happy Holidays everyone.

Kristen is home for the 1st time since August 2006

Kristen came home Dec 17th after attending a Air Force Leadership course in San Angelo, TX for two weeks. Kristen wanted to surprise her mother by coming home. I picked her up at the airport here in Grand Junction. Renae was quite surprised. Roby and the kids were already over at the house waiting to see Kristen. After we got all the "how did" and why did" out of the way we went and ate at the Olive Garden. Kristen had been missing the salad, bread stick, soup lunch at Olive Garden. We spent probably an hour and half there because of bad service but it gave us time to catch up with what Kristen had been up to. Renae suggested we all go see Madagascar 2 at the Regal. So we all piled into the cars and headed to the movie palace. Katie crawled around the entire stadium, which we had to ourselves, while the rest of us watched the movie. Then we went back home and played some games with the kids.

Kristen and Roby having fun at the Olive Garden


Kristen, Renae, and Katie playing a game.

Renae and I both took off Thursday and got up around 5am. We cooked a quiche and when Kristen got up we all sat down to eat. Kristen had some shopping to do, so after all of us showering we got into my car and headed to the VA so Renae could put her leave in. Once done there Kristen needed to go to the DMV. This was an interesting little experience as her license was expired but since she is active duty military is just now renewing it. The lady initially told her she would have to take the test and driving test again, I started laughing, Kristen got this what the F... are you talking about look on her face then said again she was active duty military. The lady then said she has three years to renew her license once it expires. After we got done there we went to Sports Authority, Target, and Walmart. Whew what a day. We came back home and Kristen started wrapping presents then we came upstairs and made dipped pretzels, yummy goodness. We decided to get back in the car after making pretzels to see the lights. That was fun. Roby and Kristen then went out to eat and Renae and I conked.


Having fun dipping pretzels.


Kristen there is more white chocolate on your hands than the pretzels.

Friday I had to work so Kristen and Renae brought me to work as Roby still has Renae's car and we ate some of the quiche that we made. I spent some of the morning registering us for the Bataan Death March in March 2009. We all registered for the 15.2 memorial walk. Renae and Kristen were then going to do a little more shopping and pick me up for lunch. We went to Bocaza's for lunch (another really yummy eating place they don't have in Italy), then to Graff Dairy for ice cream. After work Renae and I went to Sams and Kristen took Roby's truck to go get some groceries for this weekend.

The weather has been off and on nasty but we are headed to Denver tomorrow, Saturday, to see Taysha. Kristen flys out on Sunday morning. And boy was it nasty. It had snowed another 3 inches in Grand Junction Friday night and the roads were pretty slick until we got out of Debeque Canyon. Roby was following us. We stopped in Eagle (customary) then Renae drove. The weather and roads started turning nasty again. Roby passed us at some point before Vail and everyone freaked out watching him fish tail all the way up Vail pass. We made a mandatory stop at Frisco Walmart to buy 240lbs of sand for the back of Roby's truck. Then we were off again. We finally got to Denver at 215pm 6 hours after we left Junction. We called Taysha and headed straight to the Elephant Bar. Taysha and Brian and his dad and sister also met us there. Then we headed to the hotel and Taysha's. We opened the presents that Kristen and Clayton got us all at Taysha's, headed to the mall so we could do a bit of shopping, then back to Taysha's and enjoyed watching people play the Wii game. I conked out around 9pm on Taysha's chair. I guess RJ called around 930pm and everyone talked with him. We finally got back to the hotel around 1030 only to turn on the TV and see that a plane had crashed at DIA. So now that everyone was totally freaked out because Kristen was to fly out the next day.

Kaleb opening his Nerf gun from Aunt Kristen.


Kristen and Taysha trying to open Katie's Dora doll.


Roby being cool.

I wasn't feeling well Saturday night so fell asleep pretty quickly. At one point I woke up to go to the bathroom and Kristen was cuddling a stuffed (toy) turkey it was cute. We all got up around 6am so we could be over at Taysha's by 7-715. We tried calling to let them know we were on the way but no one answered their phone. Taysha and Brian agreed to cook us breakfast, since no one answered their phone we thought they were all still sleeping but when we got there, TAYSHA WAS COOKING SAUSAGE. Holy Cow. We ate and then unloaded our car so we could fit all of Kristen's luggage in to take her to the airport. She checked three bags and carried on a back pack, pillow, can of three flavor popcorn, and something else. I think all of Denver happened to be out at the airport when we dropped her off. Renae and Kristen unloaded the car and got into the check in line at United, while I parked the car in short term parking (insane). Once I found them in the check-in line I sat down and waited for them to check the baggage. It was then 10am and Kristen's plane left at 1051 which meant we had 51 minutes to get her through security (there were maybe 50,000 people waiting to get through security) and to her gate. Luckily there was a line that crew members and active duty military could cut to the head of the line to security so it only took Kristen maybe 3 minutes to get through security. We said our final good byes and off we all went in our separate directions. We got back to Taysha's and loaded everyone up for the trip back to Junction. The ride back home was pretty uneventful other than the fact I had to wait for hot chocolate till we got to Dillon. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get back with about 45 min stop for lunch in Dillon.

It was really good seeing Kristen again. She looks really good pregnant. Next time she will be home will be in March 09 when she PCS's back to the States. She will have a little baby and Clayton with her. Yeah.

Wreaths Across America

This year I participated in the Honor Guard with the 3rd annual Wreaths Across America. This started here on the Western Slope three years ago at the Veterans Cemetery with the help of the Patriot Riders. Each year the Patriot Riders provide wreaths in December to lay on the head stones of deceased veterans. This year there were enough wreaths provided to lay one on each head stone and several along the walls. I believe 864 wreaths were provided. During this ceremony I placed a wreath next to the Army Service flag.
We had to end up holding the wreaths after we placed them because of the wind.



Ensuring the wreaths don't fall over.


After the ceremony we took the wreaths and placed them next to the Service Plaques at the cemetery.

After the ceremony at Veterans Cemetery I met Renae, Kaleb, and Katie at Memorial Gardens Cemetery to place a wreath on Renae's fathers grave.

Renae's fathers grave marker with wreath.

Renae and the kids placing the wreath.

http://www.gjfreepress.com/article/20081215/COMMUNITY_NEWS/812149975/1076&ParentProfile=1059&title=Christmas%20wreaths%20for%20%27family%27%2C%20vets

Link to article in the Grand Junction Free Press featuring Renae Byrd and her daughter Kristen.

First Ski Days in Telluride Dec 08

Above is a video that Renae took of our first ski trip to Telluride for the 08-09 season. I'm practicing my powder skiing.

We got a bargain for stay and ski in Telluride so we headed to Telluride on Saturday around noonish. We stopped off in Delta for some good pie at the Eatery but found that they were closed (I think for good because they were also closed Monday). Then we stopped outside of Montrose at Ray's Jerky shop. WOW.....what awesome jerky, we spent like $75 dollars there and decided we need to take Kristen and Clayton here when they come in March.

We ended up getting into Telluride around 4pm which was check-in time for the hotel. I thought we were at Mountain Village but it ended up being in the town of Telluride Mountside, at the Mountain side Inn. We were actually both pretty sick the couple days prior to going, so we actually collapsed and slept for a while.

Sunday we got up bright and early and made breakfast. We walked the three blocks to the free Gondola and rode up to the base of the mountain, and picked up our tickets. We started our runs around 0900 hrs in the morning on Sunday it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Mid 50's and clear sky's, and freshly groomed runs. We were some of the first skiers on the mountain which was way sweet. We ran three runs and took a break. They only had two lifts going and maybe like 5 or 6 blue and green runs. We had some food at Tracks there in Mountain Village then got back on the slopes for 3 more runs. Renae's last run was a mogul double blue that they just opened up. This was the most runs I've done in a day since like 1994. I forgot my brace but my knee and foot seemed to do fairly well. We rented a locker on the mountain to keep our skiis there for our skiing on Monday.

Renae swishing in the powder on Boomerang Blue run at Telluride

Renae stopping to visit with me

Monday we packed the car and checked out of the hotel and drove up to the mountain and it was overcast/cloudy/fogged in and snowing big huge flakes and about 28 degrees. We got up on the mountain around 1030 hrs and ran three runs. They were blowing snow so at times between the fog and blown snow it was difficult to see. Renae really likes powder runs and by the time we started skiing it had snowed about 2-3 inches of fresh powder and they had probably blown 2-3 more inches since yesterday, so she was really excited. Me, I was trying to hold my anxiety because mostly what I have skied is icy groomed and I lift my back leg in turns which throws me in powder. But by my last run I was getting faster and my turns were better. Renae took a separate run the last run and I thought I actually beat her to the bottom but there she was with her skiis already off and she was calling my name, it was pretty funny. We ate at Tracks again and then got into the car and headed back to Junction.

Thanksgiving in Junction

Well we waited to have Thanksgiving until yesterday as Brian and Taysha came back to town, Roby and the kids came over too. Renae and I got up and started cooking at 6am. It was funny because we were trying to be quiet but had to chop in the chopper a bunch of veggies, which was really loud. When Taysha and Brian came up we cooked french toast and sausage for breakfast then put them to work.

We finished cooking while Taysha and Brian went to the store to pick up a few items. Roby and the kids came over around 1045am. Here's a picture of the turkey about half way through the cooking process.

Taysha and Brian went downstairs and played games with the kids, Candyland I think, of course Taysha came upstairs complaining that everyone was cheating. We gave Roby the task of cutting the 16 1/2 lb turkey.

We all ate lots of great food. Kaleb really like the sweet potatoes and Katie liked the black olives. We had green bean casserole, turkey, stuffing, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffed mushrooms, and pumpkin and cherry pie. After we stuffed ourselves we drove out to the Christmas tree farm and Renae and I picked out our Christmas tree and Roby picked out a tree (kinda).

We also rode the hay ride to scope out the perfect Christmas trees.

Kaleb and Brian enjoying the hay ride.

Renae and Katie on hay ride. Brian and Taysha being cute.

Pollock Bench Kinda with a little bit of Rattlesnake Arches thrown in just for the Hellva it

Well this really should fall under the training blog for White Sands, but it was such the adventure I thought it deserved it's own blog space. Renae and I had decided earlier in the week that on Sunday 11/16/08 we would head back out to Pollock Bench and hike either the entire bench loop or hike as far on Rattlesnake arches trail as we could. Well after we finished talking with Kristen and Clayton on Skype on Sunday (around 10am) we started getting ready to head out to hike. We reached the trailhead, had all our gear on, and was ready to hike by 1115. We had eaten a late breakfast so knew we would be ok for several hours before we needed to stop for lunch. Now the bench loop is approx 7 miles and Rattlesnake Arches is 7 miles one way. We headed out on the P1 trail as we have the last couple of times and when we reached the fork in the P1 trail 1.5 miles later we turned right to head to that section of Pollock Bench loop and Rattlesnake Arches. Another 1/4 mile began the decent into the vally. Part of the way down (will include pictures later) was a trail sign it "said" Rattlesnake Arches ----->
Pollock Bench ----->
but the P1 arrow below the sign indicated <------, so Renae and I of course went right.

"It started out a three hour tour....the weather started getting not rough, but darkness grew, if not for the courage of the fearless crew, the party would have been lost". I always thought that was a funny sitcom jingle until yesterday.

Renae posing in front of the cool rock formations.

What a gorgeous day...Renae and I stopped a few times after we down climbed to take pictures of the unique rock formations. Fairly soon we came to a rock ledge that we had to down climb. Now after the whole Castleton Tower hike with the dogs we knew this would be somewhat of an adventure and Zeus and Kyrie didn't let us down. Renae and I both climbed down to another ledge and thought the dogs might follow us because it was actually a pretty easy down climb, but no luck. So Renae climbed back up and put the short leashes on the dogs to try to drag them to see they just needed to jump like 2 feet down. Kyrie pulled out of her collar like 3 times. So Renae started to work with Zeus we finally got him close enough to me that I could pull him down and he made it down no problem after 20 min of trying to get the dogs down. Now back to Kyrie. Finally Renae with Kyrie scruff in hand brought her to the edge and I got her pulled down. I have a feeling this was quite traumatic to Kryie because she was breathing hard for the next 5 min.

The little arch cairn.

Well we made it down to a dry creek bed and began following the trail again. Soon we met up with two hikers that had passed us on the way up to the fork in the trail. They had come from the opposite direction. We stopped to talk a few minutes we told them that there was some rock scrambling ahead and they told us there was a couple of rock ledges to maneuver. KEY POINT-- the man also said that when they came down the trail it looked like there was another trail fork going down into a valley, but he didn't know where it went. We each went our own way and it was now 2:15pm so we decided to take a break and eat some lunch. We found some rocks to sit on and pulled out the ham, grapes and cheese. We were stopped for maybe 15-20 and then got started again.

By this point I think we were about 3 miles in on the trail. It wasn't long before we hit the rock ledge that the other hikers were talking about. Renae made it up with little problems then it was my turn to try to get the dogs up. After about 15 min of coaxing and Kryie letting out with these pitiful crys thinking we were going to leave her all dogs and humans were up the ledge. Now it was my turn for heavy breathing because I lifted two 60-70 lbs dogs up two or three feet so they could scramble up. It took me some time to recover but we continued on. At this point we began to wonder where we were because we had ceased seeing any trail signs for Pollock Bench. Shortly we came up on a trail sign for Rattlesnake Arches 3 miles. This meant we were 4 miles in and by 4 miles we should be up on the ridge heading back to the trail head, which we were not. We continued on another 1/4 mile then reassessed our situation. It was 3pm would be getting dark in two hours, we had no clue where the trail back to Pollock Bench was, we were tired.....so decided to turn around and head back the way we came in. (Note: we did not see the side trail in which the other hikers came in on as it was not posted, but figured it was around somewhere.) We set a goal to reach and get up the first rock ledge in an hour.

We began retracing our steps back made it to the rock ledge we had just come up and got the dogs down with less difficulty and saw a deer and two hikers that had also passed us coming down the very first decent. Within a short while we made it back to our first down scramble. I had to take a breather here because we had practically been running and by now my feet were screaming at me (wearing for second time new hiking shoes).

Me dragging butt up the rock ledge.

We managed to get the dogs up, Renae lifted them this time butt first, she said they don't fight back as much this way, hummm ok. So it was now around 4:15 and my stomach was also yelling at me so as soon as we made it up the rock ledge I had to poop, so as leave no trace as possible I did my business as quickly as I could. It was starting to get darker and we still had roughly another mile to go to get to the first decent. Renae and I started hiking again both of us trying to keep our minds off our aching bodies. Within about 20 min we could see the first decent and the cool rock formations that we initially took pictures of. It was now about 4:43 when we began making our way up the rocks to level ground. It took me 17 min to get to the top because my body was dragging. Finally to the top, yeah now just 2 miles back to the car.

The sun was down and the sky was changing colors when we made it to the trail fork, 1.5 miles to the car, with lots of down hill uneven ground to cover. Within another .5 miles a hiker couple and their dogs passed us, 1 more mile to the car. Ok back to the initial fence line to enter into Pollock Bench, almost pitch black, .5 miles to car. At this point I asked Renae to get my head lamp out, she put her sweatshirt back on and got her headlamp out. Complete silence the last .5 miles just trying to make it to car, pain, block it, you can do it. We then saw the car in the parking lot and the interior light was on which meant the back door didn't shut completely, meaning that for the last 6.5 hours the car light was on, please start. We made it to the car and I started it up......yeah. Renae watered and loaded the dogs while I painfully pulled off my hiking boots. Off to Grand Junction and Wendy's. Took meds when we got home and then collapsed for the night. Total stats for this little adventure: 8.25 miles hiked, moving time 4 hours 39 minutes, stopped time 1 hour 57 min (of course an hour of that was getting dogs up and down the rocks), total ascent 2153 feet. The complete and udder panic of being lost and having to spend the night in the Canyon: Priceless. This beats our longest hike to date of 7.3 miles in Kannah Creek and brings us that much closer of being able to hike 15 miles for the Bataan Death March in March.

Pumpkin Carving

But Nana I don't want to eat pumpkin guts, that's so sad!

Spooky Spooky! Roby and the two grandkids came over the house last night (10/29) to carve the pumpkins that we picked at the pumpkin patch. We had fixed elk roast and veggies in the slow cooker all day. We called RJ on Skype while the kids were here, ate and then started carving. Here's a look at the night.

Renae you are so funny trying to eat punkin guts.

Below is Katie's pumpkin which she dropped on the floor several times and it ended with a broken jaw!

Roby with some homicidal tendencies!

Spooky Day at the Park and Joufalas Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze

BOOOOO! It's almost Halloween. Today we spent several hours with the grand kids playing at the park and picking pumpkins. We started off picking up the kids at Roby's house and heading to KFC and a pinic at Long's Park.

Kaleb on the monkey bars.

Katie climbing the rope and Renae's arm getting gnawed on by her t-shirt.

Then we drove around until we found the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze at Joufalas Farm's. They have the best maze and patch that we have found. Renae and I found out that it is easy to scare Katie and Kaleb with fake spiders. Both of them also like to pick out pumpkins bigger than what they can carry.

Katie and Kaleb skeptically going through the corn maze.

Kaleb picking a huge pumpkin.

Training for the Bataan Death March in White Sands New Mexico March 29th 2009

http://www.bataanmarch.com/

Myself, Renae, and Renae's daughter Kristen have decided to participate in the Bataan Death March next March. This blog will outline the training that we have done to prepare ourselves for the obviously difficult challenge that is before us. Above you will find a link to the Bataan March.
I think we have decided to do the 15 mile Memorial Walk vs the entire 26.2 mile walk.

October 4th- We participated in a 3 mile walk "Walk for Life" at the botanical gardens in Grand Junction. I wore my day pack 10lbs to make it a little more challenging for me. We completed the walk in just under an hour. Was difficult maneuvering through hundreds of people.

October 7th- We completed three mile desert walk off of 25 Road. Walked along the canal and the normal 2 mile loop walk. I wore my day pack with 10lbs. Took the dogs.

October 13th- We headed out to Pollock Bench around 4pm with the dogs. Most challenging hike/walk to date with much of the first mile or so up hill in sand/gravel/slick rock. We hiked a total of 2.5 miles in 1.5 hours. Both Renae and I were wearing our day packs with about 10lbs each. We plan to head back and complete the entire 5.7 mile loop on Oct 19th. Trying to find good hiking shoes that I can wear my orthotics in.

October 15- Grandma Fuller's 82nd Birthday- Renae and I and the dogs headed back out to the desert around 6pm and hiked our desert loop which is now just over 3 miles. We are trying to figure out different ways to make it longer. We completed the loop in 1.25 hours as we were both pretty exhausted. Since we got started later we were able to see the near full moon rise up over the bookcliffs. It was quite extraordinary. So we are pretty sure we can do 3 miles in an hour with 10lb packs on it's maintaining that pace for another 12 miles. Like I said above this weekend we will try to double our mileage out at Pollock Bench, hopefully we will take a camera this time as it is quite beautiful.

October 17- Tonight we went for a shorter hike out at the desert. We headed out to the 25 Road desert after I got home from work (Renae had the day off kinda). We did the shorter 1.5 mile loop, it took us about 40 min or so. Really jazzed about the hike on Sunday out at Pollock Bench. Tomorrow is Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch so lots of high stepping. Tonight we took the dogs and I work my day pack around 10 lbs.

October 19th- Pollock Bench Loop (P1) to F2 to Flume Canyon (F1)

Renae and I headed out to Fruita again to check out Pollock Bench Loop (P1) we completed the first section we did on October 15 and turned right at the fork in the trail (while talking to Kristen). We came to the part where the trail leads down into a canyon, we decided for sake of knees to return the the fork in the trail and head left. Once we got to the section where the trail headed down into the canyon (to complete the loop) we conveniently took the F2 trail that bridges P1 to F1. We stopped for a bite to eat then completed the first section of the F1 trail. Total miles was 6.6 in a little over 3 hours. We figured we made pretty good time since the trail was up and down, rocky in some places, and loose sand in others. This was probably the most realistic trail for the bataan march. Then we headed to the Ale House to have our post hike lunch. Sweet, and a free dessert.


















October 23rd Homeless Stand Down-I took the rest of the afternoon off after we finished the stand down, I was on my feet all morning and was exhausted. I went to pick up Renae from work and we headed home to get the dogs for a walk out in the desert. We added some to our loop maybe 1/4 mile. So we walked probably 3.25 miles, I will measure it with the GPS next time we head out there for that hike. We also took our new adoptee, Kodiak, a retired military police dog. The plan is to start training for SAR. We finished the hike in a little over 1.25 hours. Neither one of us carried packs (I don't think we realized we'd do a little bit longer hike in the desert tonight). On Sunday I think we will either go back to Pollock Bench or up to Crag Crest (if there isn't any snow).

OCTOBER 26th - GRAND MESA - Well we decided to head up to the Mesa today to hike part of Crag Crest (it is a 10 mile loop with upper and lower section). We left the house around 1115 but didn't leave town until around 1145. We stopped by Safeway to return a movie and ended up eating a hot dog from an organization raising money for breast cancer. Anywho we got on top of the Mesa around 1245 and parked at the trail head parking lot. This time we had 3 dogs, Zeus, Kyrie, and Kodiak. Just a side note to this hike last time we did the lower section with RJ we took a wrong turn, lost Kyrie (for 24 hours) and RJ was late to work. Last time RJ hiked the loop all the dogs got quilled from a porcupine. Needless to say this trail has worked us over. Both Renae and I went to the bathroom and then got the dogs ready. Since this is the first time we've really had Kodiak out he started on a leash and did really good. Both Renae and I had our GPS going. We came to our first little adventure at the first pond where the dogs, Zeus and Kyrie, stopped for a drink. Now since Kodiak is a retired military police dog he hasn't been trained to fend for himself in the wilds, so we walked over to the pond and I showed him he could drink. Well Zeus had muddied the water where we were standing so I moved us over a few feet. There was a thin layer of ice covering part of the pond and also where we were standing. Kodiak put is foot on the ice and apparently thought it was solid, at this point I still had a hold of his leash, well he then started trying to walk on the ice and I started freaking out think I've killed my dog. Kodiak step plunged to the middle of the pond where there was a large rock sticking up out of the water. Kodiak made it to the rock came up out of the water and then skinny dog stepped across the thicker ice to the other side, needless to say he looked like a wet cold noodle. When I called for him to come back he acted like he was going to cross back across the ice so I walked around the pond to retrieve him. We dried him off and on we went. After about 1.45 miles in and about 500 feet of elevation gain we came to a trail fork. Instead of continuing on the Crag Crest trail we took the Cottonwood Trail. Now there was snow and ice on the trail throughout but nothing serious although I slide a couple of times. But this side trail was pretty much covered with snow and ice, but we continued on. There were a lot of trees that had fallen over the trail so Zeus would do his best to get either up and over or underneath. Kyrie of course was running from side to side doing her best to scare up a rabbit or something. Kodiak would pretty much stay right with Renae and I, and at this point he was off leash. We stopped at around 1.95 miles to give water to Kodiak and started back on the Cottonwood trail which only got deeper in snow/ice and continued downward. We decided to turn around for fear of breaking a leg or worse and headed back to the car. The trip back was pretty uneventful other than the Schnauzer that came running up to all of us and Kodiak wanted to play when the other dog started crying for his mommy, it sounded horrific. We made it back to the car, loaded up, and headed to the Wagon Wheel for chili, which they didn't have, so had a cup of cream of broccoli soup. We hiked 4.01 miles with a total of 957 of elevation ascent. I'll add some pictures later.



This picture was taken right before Kodiak did some plunge stepping.

November 1st- 25 Road Desert Hike - I took the dogs (Kyrie and Zeus) to the desert for a short hike. I got out there about 430 and there was a lot of traffic out in the desert. We did a variation of the desert loop. I hiked 2.75 miles in an hour with an average speed of 2.8 miles per hour. I wore my day pack, it weighed about 15 lbs.

November 3rd - 25 Road Desert Hike - Last night Renae and I took the dogs out after work to hike the entire desert loop that we have. I remembered the GPS so we got to measure it. We hiked 3.44 miles in 1 hour and 10 minutes. Not to bad but we need to figure out how to make it about a mile and half longer.

Color Sunday on the Grand Mesa

Renae and I had decided to go up to the Grand Mesa this weekend because it was color Sunday week. But because of everything else going on we didn't leave for the Mesa until 3pm on Sunday. We thought we would drive up Land's End Road with the dogs, get out and walk/hike a bit and then eat supper at the Wild Wood Restaurant at Powder Horn. As we started up Lands End Road you could see in the far off distance the aspen's were turning bright yellow and orange with every color in between, the oak brush was orange, yellow and red on one side of the road and still green on the other side of the road. There was another type of brush that was low cover and had turned a really dark shade of red.
Our first stop was about 5 miles up Lands End Road to let the dogs out to run around because they were getting excited. Where we stopped happened to be where the stream runs through, so the dogs went and got wet and then pee'd and pooped everywhere. Exciting I know. We all got back into the car and headed further up the road. We stopped again about another 5 miles in to look at the different colors. Because it was so late in the day everyone was coming down Land's End and it seemed we were the only one's going up. On some of the more hair pin turns the downward bound cars had to pull over to let us pass because there was only room for one vehicle on the road.
About half way up we came upon some vehicles pulled off/on the road picking boisin berries. I asked Renae what they were picking and she told me the berries make a really good jelly. SOOOOO the next time we passed close enough to some berries for me to stick my hand out of the window I picked a sprig and popped one in my mouth. It was the most foul tasting berry or for that foul tasting anything I had put in my mouth (and that is saying a lot). I immediately if not sooner spit out the berry and began gagging on the after taste. Of course there was nothing in the car to stick in my mouth to get rid of the taste, until I found some 2 year old wintergreen mints that had chap stick and dog hair all over the wrapper, but wasted no time in getting the mint in my mouth. Renae looking offended said "Where is my candy, I want some", I told her she had to eat a berry first.
We reached the top, me still gagging, and passed the observatory, and turned off on a dirt road. We walked a little up the hill and found where the fire had burned part of the Lands End/Kannah Creek area. Snapped a couple of photos and got back in the car. We saw ground squirrels galore and one deer a female deer. We headed over to Powder Horn for supper following every slow braking car we could find. Climbed the 400 stairs to the dinning facility only to find out it served brunch from 10-3 on Sunday. Well, fine, we settled on the Wagon Wheel in Mesa. Followed some more slow braking vehicles down to Mesa and ate. They've done some pretty nice remodeling to the establishment, food was decent.
Anyway it was a very beautiful drive. Fall colors are the best.