Can you believe?

This winter the snow contest is certainly being won by the north part of the state. Our mountains are at best scoring a C- is the snow depth department. All this means is that we headed back to the canyons for yet one more weekend of biking. We keep thinking its the last time for the year...but not yet.

Sundays ride on some nice easy roads above Spring and Hell Roaring Canyons brought us to an abandoned well complete with windmill and stock tanks.

Fortunately the trail just went along the edge and didn't try to descend into the canyon. That is the Window section of Arches in the background.
Riding on the east of Arches looking towards the La Sal mountains a fine looking laccolith!

Changes in plans

The Thanksgiving storm has changed our travel plans. Staying home for the holiday and no one coming to visit. Sometimes the mountains make a large barrier.

Oh ya...the orange color shows a blizzard warning for Wednesday.

Another Canyon Adventure Weekend

The weather was beautiful and it is still hunting season in the mountains so we decided to visit some of our favorite terrain, the canyons of SE Utah! As usual, we pick a canyon, descend and then see what we see. There are so many archeology sites it is difficult to not see something.

An ancient high rise. You can see the roof supports of an ancient dwelling that was seriously difficult to enter... so we didn't even try.

A few wildflowers were still blooming in some of the more protected parts of the canyon.
Always evidence that we were not the first ones down this way.
There were lots of pools left over from the floods of last month. Here a reflection of the canyon wall reflected in the water.

Hiking in Arches NP after the rain

We spent the past weekend in Moab attending a writers/readers conference. Most of the activities we attended were in the evening giving us the whole day to explore. However, this was a rainy weekend in the desert so we stuck close to town and were rewarded with a desert river running high and red.

Lunch on the banks of the wash.

Crossing the river on a beaver dam. They were not at all pleased that the river rose a few feet the night before and even less so that we used their structure to help us cross the flooded area.
What a great spot. The river is usually a few feet across and perfectly clear.
..and from the other side

To Grandma's house and back

After reading Chris' airline itinerary on facebook, we thought we could share a typical drive to Grandma's house and back for a weekend. A total of 840 miles. Of course this is the scenic route. We could have done it in only 706 miles, but it was a pretty weekend. We had this idea as we were driving back, so all of the images are borrowed from the Internet and do not reflect current conditions.

A Waterfall in the Backyard

After a little bit of planning, a lot of digging and many rocks moved we now have a "water feature" in the backyard.

The video portion of our program

Canning

Last week we picked 55 pounds of peaches. We certainly can't eat them fast enough so we froze a few last week and tonight canned another 8 jars. Nothing like eating your own canned peaches in the middle of a February snow storm. It is the culinary analog of cutting wood. You put out the effort in September and enjoy the product all winter long.

Our new jet engine to heat the canning water. Note all the matches it took me to get the dumb thing going.

Watch the thumbs!
Prep work

A Trip Way Back in Time

Last month we visited Colonial Wiliamsburg and had so much fun in 1776 that we decided to travel back to 1140 and see how the Ancestral Puebloans lived during their hayday. This year Mesa Verde NP offered a few longer ranger led hikes to different parts of the park. We decided to visit Spring House ruin in Wikiup Canyon.

This was a fantastic experience. The ranger not only knew his history but knew how to entertain a group for a day long hike (not the easiest thing to do). I would recommend this experience to anyone that can hike 9-10 miles with a bit of elevation gain. And we all earned our junior ranger badges.

The trail we used was created by the CCC and was used by park visitors until the resource was so damaged that the back country was closed. Hence the opening of the resource but with park service employees in charge.

As always when traveling in the American Southwest, ladders help gain access to some steeper terrain...and they are fun to use.
A ruin along the route.
Spring House! This ruin has not been stabilized. The spring that created the alcove is still flowing and most of the visible masonry is original.
Just to remind us that we were traveling in the back country. The rattle snake with full on rattle. I am guessing he did not like us interrupting his meal of field mouse.

A Proud New Junior Ranger!

While on a Ranger led backcountry hike in Mesa Verde National Park, I answered a really, really hard question (!) and I earned my Junior Ranger Badge. I will treasure it for a really long time, or until it breaks, whichever comes first.

A trip back into time

During the summer of 2010, we decided to go back to the year 1776 and see what was happening on the east coast of North America. For our trip to DC during the August recess we decided against a visit to the monuments and we trained our way down to Williamsburg VA. It was an excellent way to remember why and how our country was founded.

Our tour guide to the 18th Century. He took us around the Governors Palace as Williamsburg was the Colonial Capital for Virginia.

Katie discussing the goings on with some of the locals. They kept in character and explained to us what was happening right before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The continental army on maneuvers.
Katie in character
The border between then and now
Even the rest rooms were in character, although the running water was probably not authentic 18th century
General Washington explaining why the American Revolution
Fran in court with her newly appointed apprentice.

Phase 1

Phase one of our orchard! We have been talking about planting fruit trees since we moved to Montrose. Well, today we started the orchard with two apple trees, a Macintosh and Honey Crisp. In theory these two trees will provide the necessary pollen at the right time for each other.

Digging the holes. The Mancos shale insures a nice clay soil no matter where you dig. At least it is not all rock like it was in Ouray.

Rest time yet? Just thinking ahead to apples next year.
Trees are in the ground and now need some TLC to get them through transplant shock.
The happy gardener expanding her expertise into fruit trees. Cherry will be next.

The adventures continue...canoe the Green River

Last week found us floating between Green River UT and Mineral Bottom through Labyrinth Canyon. This has become a yearly event for us as I teach a geology class along this stretch for the Colorado School of Mines teacher enhancement program. This year I did not teach the class, but the outfitters invited us on another trip just because I love this area so much. All of the images below are from prior years as we did not take a camera this year.

This year was a little different as the monsoonal flow was more than generous the week before and washed out many upstream sand bars, while coating the edges with a solid layer of very fine grained mud. That is, most side drainages flashed the week before

A happy boat, floating the Green.

A typical sand bar camp.
Looking at a river runner register.
Lunch below the Wingate. This is one of my favorite spots on the river
This inscription was carved in 1912. I had heard rumors of a strange inscription along the river. It took us three years to find the inscription and another year for a photograph. Not the usual Anasazi or miner writing on the wall. It just goes to show that river people are a strange breed.

Bike paths around Colorado

Fran's purchase of a road bike has opened some new recreational doors for us (like we needed more??) Fran being a consummate librarian quickly researched nearby long paved bike trails preferably part of a rails to trails network. Her results:

Carbondale to Crystal River Ranch 6 miles

Glenwood Springs to Aspen 42 miles

Glenwood Canyon 16 miles

Leadville loop 12.5 miles

Our usual method of exploration is to park in the middle and do an out and back ride. This means that we do every ride twice, uphill and downhill. This was no exception. One day we rode the Carbondale path AND the path from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs. (36 miles) The next day we rode from Carbondale to almost Aspen (51 miles). We then headed to Leadville but were rained out. On the way home we rode the Glenwood Canyon path (32 miles). Total 3 days of riding: 119 miles

At the park and ride Carbondale

One of the sign posts keeping us on the right track
More information about Glenwood canyon
Longest ride of the year
What do you do after a long ride? Hit the riverside hotsprings of course!