Miles Goes to Glenwood Springs

Miles is 3 years old now and for our grandkids 3rd birthday Nana and Papa take them on a trip to Glenwood Springs on the Amtrak California Zephyr.  The conductor is about to give us our tickets so we can board the train at Union Station in Denver on Monday morning. 

We brought lots of activity books, story books and his iPad to help pass the time for the 6 hour train ride over the Rockies.  Miles worked on the letters M and N before watching part of  “Into the Spiderverse”. 

Lots of great views of the mountains, these were near Winter Park. 

We spent some time taking in vertical views of the canyons in the Observation Car before our lunch in the Diner Car. 

Nap time always follows lunchtime for Miles. 

We arrived at the station in Glenwood Springs around 4pm.  Miles used his scooter to get around town with us. 

Staying at the Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge gives us free time in the hot springs next door. We take a dip and play with Miles to work up an appetite before dinner. 

Miles chose the pasta and Angela the tacos at the Glenwood Canyon Brew Pub for dinner. Papa focused on his Octoberfest beer. 

🍺 

A morning swim and playtime with Miles’ new friend, Peppy the Penguin. The weather was beautiful for the whole trip and the swimming pool is kept around 90 degrees warm, like swimming in a giant bathtub. 

We had promised Miles ice cream if he ate all of his dinner last night but by the time dinner was over the ice cream store was closed. We treated him to an ice cream before dinner on Tuesday to make sure it didn’t happen again. Not exactly picture perfect grand-parenting but we thought we could make an exception for a treat before dinner this one time..,,,

Walking back to our hotel across the bridge over the Colorado River and the train tracks we get a beautiful light show from the Glenwood Hot Springs, the largest hot springs pool in the world. 

Our last morning in town, Miles chooses to go back to the park for some rock climbing and play time. 

After boarding the California Zephyr it was well past his nap time. Minutes after this photo was taken Miles was sound asleep on Nana’s lap as we road the tracks west back through Glenwood Canyon and through the Rockies on our way back home. 

Cruising up the Colorado River valley we experience the wide Azure Valley....

Radium Hot Springs empties here into the Colorado River, only accessible by boat or hiking, where the water is always in the 80’s just below the Lower Gore Canyon....

and the Upper Gore Canyon where rafter and kayakers can find Class 4 and Class 5 rapids as we get closer to Granby Lake, the source of the Colorado. 

Wednesday night Miles is home at last into the loving arms of his Mom, and our wonderful daughter, Michelle and his dad, Adam (who was upstairs wrangling an angry Baby Sister Merritt.   It was a wonderful trip with Miles and we’re so glad we did it. 

New Trails Part II

Our second and last day riding on this trip took Angela and I back on the same route we road yesterday, first southwest on the Katy Trail for about 20 miles outside of Sedalia and then about 50 miles WNW back to our van parked at the Pleasant Hill trail head. The trail was the same but the weather would prove to be much warmer today. 

Everything all along the trail was green and blooming, a little surprising so late into the summer.  These yellow flowers littered the trail, especially in the sunny spots like these.  You can barely see a busy bee on the far right flower. 

After 20 miles to Windsor, about to jump off the Katy onto the more sparsely supported Rock Island Trail, we exploit the Casey’s for our favorite guilty pleasure, an apple fritter washed down with a half gallon of milk. Carbs and hydration!  Mmmmmm. 

Does it seem like we’re always eating??  A little after noon we try our hand again at getting some real food at the “Home Town” convenience mart in Chilhowee.  They are open today, and packed so we order our sandwiches and enjoy them in the shade with Gatorade for me and an Arnold Palmer for Ang. 

Much of the Missouri Trails often seem like your traveling in a tunnel of trees but occasionally you get some nice long views of the verdant and rolling hills and farms of Missouri. 

At 2:15 we stop for some shade and to soak our heads in the water faucet at the Medford trail head.  Yesterday the high temps hovered around 90 to 91 degrees. Today we consistently saw 97 to 98 degrees in the shade. It’s hard to believe it’s less than a week until the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of fall. 

Only 18 more miles to Pleasant Hill, lets do this!!

3:45 as we pull into to Pleasant Hill. We stash our gear in the van and find the first place we can get out of our soaked gear, wipe off some of the grit and get headed back towards Colorado.  After a Big Gulp Mountain Dew and a Starbucks Frappuccino we have enough liquids and caffeine to get us to Hayes, KS for the night. Tomorrow we’ll be back home in Niwot!

Old Friends and New Trails

On Saturday September 14 Angela and I traveled to Overland Park, KS to meet up with some great GE colleagues and good friends of mine.  Left to right: Bill Wiltsch, Bill Amos, Steve Richards, me, Jim Dean, Norm McVey, Dan Klenke and in the center, Gene Hersh whose house we invaded for our BBQ bufffet.  Gene is 91 and retired from GE at 70. Gene was always our go to guy to help pull together complex and big project designs and estimates (like multi-million dollar) for projects. He had immense capability, respect across our business and toughness. We wanted to get together and celebrate all the good times and funny stories we shared together. 

Gene was born in Poland in 1928. His dad was killed while fighting with the Polish military against the invading Nazis. He eventually found his way to the US shortly after WWII where he earned his BSEE.  The photo on his study wall above is of him as a young US GI stationed in Germany around 1951.  Gene has faced many challenges in his life and he faces yet another challenge now.  It was wonderful being with Gene, his wife Loraine, his family and the rest of the guys from GE. I wouldn’t have missed it. 

Sunday the 15th we took advantage of being near KC by jumping on a new addition to the Katy Trail called the Rock Island Spur. 

The Rock Island is a new Rail to Trail that runs southeast from Pleasant Hill, MO to Windsor where it connects to the Katy Trail.  We started around 8:15 and pulled into Sedalia, 72 miles later just before 4. 

 

Early morning sky to the east, a nice southwest breeze and temps in the mid-70’s. That would change later in the day. 

About 28 miles into the ride we had planned to stop here in this very tiny town of Chilhowee to have a little brunch in this convenience store/cafe in an old bank building. Apparently they don’t want to be convenient on Sunday’s, they were closed.

☹️

A Mr. Pibb for me from the machine and an apple with peanut butter for both of us. 

The Rock Island is a great addition to the Katy and in the future will connect the eastern suburbs of KC with St. Charles, MO all the way across the state but it’s surface is a little rougher than the Katy and you can tell it doesn’t get the cycling volume that the Katy gets. 

We survived the ride today thanks to the Casey’s convenience stores. In Leeton, around 36 miles on, we gave ouselves ice cream sandwich injections. They were very tasty and cold in the +90 degree heat and bright sun. 

🌞 

It’s always a highlight for us to celebrate the Highest Point on the Katy between Windsor and Sedalia at a whopping 955 feet. 

  

And now the best part of the day, checking in to the historic Bothwell Hotel in downtown Sedalia where we found two bathrooms in our suite which allowed us to not have to take turns to shower off the grit, grime and sweat from the trail today. 

Tomorrow we turn around and ride back to Pleasant Hill. Maybe we’ll find a few cafes that are open along the way. 

🤞

Backpacking with Ryan-Day 2

Coffee courtesy of the most excellent Jet Boil camp stove. Ahhhhh. I slept pretty well last night but Ry, not so much. He’s still trying to catch up on sleep in the tent. He’ll be up shortly and I’ll have a cup for him too. 

About 8:15 last night after we turned in for the night we heard some brakes squealing on the trail above us but that was about it. I woke up to find a tent and two mountain bikes sharing our camp site. Turns out Brad and Matt are very stealthy campers and pitched camp in the dark with nary a sound. They started the Colorado Trail about 5 days ago and will ride through to the end in Durango.  Very nice guys and we wished them well. 

Either a bad ending for a backpacker with a very bad overbite or rather the end of the line for a good sized elk I’m guessing. . 

We met Grant and Steve on our long and hard climb up to Kokomo Pass. They hiked 13 miles from Copper yesterday and are headed to Turquoise Lake near Leadville.  Steve is the Chairman of the Board of the Colorado Trail Foundation. 

Lots of beautiful wild flowers today...

And more wild flowers as we close in on Kokomo Pass and look back towards the Holy Cross Wilderness area and mountain range to the west. 

 

We looked for Columbine flowers but found none. This was the closest I could find, still beautiful. 

Meet Ben, my new hero. He started hiking in Canada on June 3 and is headed to the Mexico border in New Mexico on the Continental Divide Trail. He averages THIRTY TWO miles a day with a 25 pound pack and a tarp to sleep under.  Around noon today he has just hiked 16 miles from Copper Mountain and will make it another 15 to 20 miles to Leadville.  We found him hiking while he was chomping on a tomato and block of cheese. A very chill and nice guy. Glad we got to meet him and wish him well. 

After about 4 miles and 2,000’ of elevation we reach Kokomo Pass but not quite our high point for the day. 

A little further on we top out at 12,400 ft. 

On our way down to lower elevations we catch up with our two buddies, the gentlemen from Wichita, Tim and Bob taking a rest and enjoying the view. 

At Searle Pass we stop for a little rest and lunch and realize we have intermittent cell service.  Ryan’s trying to see how Mattie did on her exam this morning. 

Hiking on down but still above 11.000’ we pass Janet’s Cabin, part of the mountain hut system that allows cross country skiers and snow shoe’ers to stay over night on back country mountain trips. 

Our plan was to camp somewhere around this valley, about 6 miles from Copper Mountain but Ry didn’t sleep well last night and all he could think about was the extra comfy queen size bed in the motel room that Angela was staying in. So being a supportive father I decided to support my son in making this a 13.5 mile hiking day. Later on, in the last miles before we reached his mom, Angela, I began to call this a death march and that he was in cahoots with Angela to kill me!!

But we both made it alive to the base facility at Copper Mountain by 6 where Angela rushed us off to a real food dinner at Dillon Dam Brewery, and to our room for showers and a comfy bed.  It was a great trip and when my feet and legs quit hurting I’ll have fond memories of it!!

Backpacking with Ryan-Day 1

I’ve wanted to go backpacking with my son Ryan for many years but he’s been busy getting to know Colorado with his wife Mattie since they moved out here in 2008. But with Mattie now focused on studying all weekend long since she’s back in school I thought I’d steal him for a 3 day trip in the Rockies. So here we are at Tennessee Pass getting on our hiking boots in the back of our magic minivan that brought us up here. 

Loaded up and ready to hike at 9:15 at the Colorado Trail at Tennessee Pass near Leadville and getting ready to head north towards Copper Mountain where Angela will pick us back up in 3 days. We’re at about 10,400’ elev. here which also marks the Continental Divide.  Angela hiked the first mile with us then headed back to the comfort of a motel room where she’ll do some road biking and hiking while we trample the Colorado Trail. 

About 7 miles into our hike we reach what I believe are ammo bunkers at the old Camp Hale, home of the WWII 10th Mountain Division.  This is where the GI’s were trained for mountain and snow survival and warfare. Many of the surviving soldiers returned here after the war and became pioneers in creating the skiing industry.

After lunch at Camp Hale we begin climbing up the valley towards Kokomo Pass. 

Kokomo Pass is 12,000’ elevation. We’ll find a place to camp before reaching Kokomo Pass today. 

Bob Kitchens and his longtime buddy Tim are from Wichita, KS. Their wives dropped them off at Tennessee Pass about the same time we were there so we’ve been seeing them off and on today. They’ve been hiking the Appalachian Trail and the Rockies together for over 30 years. They will hike one more day then us and meet their wives in Breckenridge.  Very nice guys. I hope we see them again. 

We had all stopped to rest after a long and steep climb here at Cataract Falls. 

We met these two Forest Service workers at the Falls too. They and about 5 volunteers are building a new and higher foot bridge across the creek.  The wire mesh will hold rock that will become the supports for a new log bridge.  The Colorado Trail Foundation does an excellent job of maintaining and improving the +500 mile long trail that runs from southwest of Denver to Durango, CO. 

Lots and lots of beautiful wild flowers today. 

The last of the steeper climbs today as Ryan heads through the flowers and into the shade of an Aspen grove. 

After about 9 miles and 3,400’ of total ascent Ryan puts on his ‘bug’ clothing as we begin to prepare our dehydrated Chilli Mac dinners at our camp for the night while the bugs prepare to eat us!  We had really large amounts of snow last winter and good rains throughout the summer so the bugs are especially bad. Maybe the bugs will be better above treeline tomorrow?  It was a very good first day!