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New Years in Pouder Canyon!
We spent another New Year's weekend in the Poudre Canyon with friends at Archer's relaxing and Nordic skiing. Wendy and I arrived early in the afternoon on New Year's Day to find Tommy and Claire trying to sleep off their New Year's Eve while Markus and Christie departed with out even saying hello as we pulled in behind them. I guess it took them a while to get folks together for a short ski tour on Friday afternoon. We spent a relaxing afternoon at the cabin eating and drinking and playing games and socializing.

The next morning Wendy, Dave Cole and I departed for a ski tour up towards Blue Lake. Of course we didn't make it to Blue Lake, which we hiked by over the summer with Linda. But I knew we wouldn't, yet we still had a fine ski tour, and enjoyed a fun cruise downhill back to the car. Another relaxing night of food and drink and debauchery followed complete with arm and leg wrasslin'.

Finally, on the last day we embarked on a shorter tour with a larger group, 8 of us skiing up to Zimmerman lake and then down the Meadows trail back to our cars. Last year we skied up to Zimmerman Lake. And this year knowing that it would be more fun not to climb 5 miles up hill, I advised that we ski up to Zimmerman and down the Meadows, and was listened to! Even praised for my foresight! A snowy drive home followed and wrapped up another fine New Years weekend in the Poudre Canyon. I'm already looking forward to next year's trip!

Another 3 Day Weekend, Another Home Improvement Project
For Martin Luther King weekend Wendy and I took on a home improvement project we'd been talking about for a while now. The old tiles in our entrance way looked bad and didn't provide enough room to take off your shoes. And our neighbors gave us some fine Italian tile that they had left over about a year ago. So with little new snow and a leisurely three day weekend, we began the task of removing the old tiles and installing the new ones. Removing the old tiles turned out to be a very easy job. They came right up with a crow bar. We cleaned the area, removing the old cement, smoothed it out as best as we could, and then laid the new tile. The tricky part of this job was the carpet. We had to purchase a Knee Kicker to get the job done. Knee kickers ain't cheap, and Home Depot closes at 9PM now, but they let us in at 9:05 and we dropped the $90 on the Roberts Deluxe Knee Kicker, which we'll use later when we do another carpet to tile transition in the master bath. But it was $90 well spent as it allowed us to anchor the carpet to the tack strips, tuck the excess under the tiles, and finish a home improvement project we've been thinking of for a year or so now! Happy MLK Day!

A small celebration
As the world revolves around the sun I get older, and to mark my aging, we threw a party. A fun party, with a great group of folks, good food, and martinis and mojitos. People enjoyed our food and drink and we enjoyed their company. Things may have got a little out of hand towards the end of the night, but that's OK and perhaps to be expected. It might have had something to do with the Chocolate Martinis I was mixing up and passing out to the late night crowd. Yeah, it probably had a lot to do with those. And they were probably to blame for us not making it out skiing today; but that is the price to pay for such a fun party with a fun group of friends!

Leadville
Wendy and I spent another (?) Valentines weekend in Leadville, this time at McGinnis Cottage on Bankers Row in Leadville. We skied at Copper and drove over through the blowing snow, coming to a stop once as a crashed vehicle appeared in the snow. After a comfy night we took a three hour tour in the fresh snow at Tennessee Pass. A walk around town, more comfortable time spent at the bed and breakfast, and dinner at Quincy's rounded out Valentines Day. On Monday we left by 9 and got in a few runs at Arapaho Basin and were home in the early afternoon. Another wonderful weekend was had and I look forward to perhaps making this a Valentine/President's Day Weekend tradition.

Jenny Creek Trail, South Boulder, Leadville
We've had great cross country skiing the past two weekends. In the Indian Peaks we explored a new option to an old trail. We extended the Jenny Creek Loop by heading up towards the hut, and then turned off before the second climb, for a powdery descent back to Jenny Creek. On Sunday I had a late afternoon tour on the Spring Brook Trail on a snowy day. The tour was especially cool since I built a small section of the Spring Brook Trail. I've rode the trail many times but never skied it! Finally, at the who knows how many annual Rockie's Ruck, we got out for a tour that most folks agreed we should have had skins for, at the Leadville National Fish Hatchery. Again, it was a powdery day with an extra fun descent. The cross country skiing will soon come to an end, and I'll miss it, but it will soon be time to hike.

The Fourth Annual
For the past four winters we have skied the 12 miles of the Sourdough Trail from end to end. I recall that it once took us a quick 5 hours for the tour. But the past two years, with clumpy snow due to warm temperatures, we've taken closer to 7. But what a great 7 hours it was! We climbed 5 miles to the high point with very warm temperatures and very clumpy snow. Then the sun went behind a cloud, and the snow was soft and no longer clumpy. We enjoyed a fun descent in the good snow to Brainard, crossed the road where it was just crazy, saying hello to Nate, a friend of Dave and Julie's heading out with his crew for a Saturday afternoon snow stomp complete with a few dogs, and continued a super soft descent to the Saint Vrain Creek. We broke trail again in clumpy snow to the Wapiti Junction, where the tracks resumed and the clumping gave way to more well tracked trail. A hair raising descent to the Beaver Bog Trail head and then over the always windswept knoll, brought us to the final leg, the descent into Peaceful Valley. As usual I was dreading the switch backs, fearful of intense gnarlieness, but as usual the snow was soft and deep enough to keep in control down the last switch backs to Peaceful Valley where our tour ended. Perhaps next year we'll have cold temperatures and deep snow again. In the mean time, hiking season creeps ever closer and the ski touring starts to slip away.

Sick and Gray, followed by Springtime
Wendy and I flew out to Minneapolis on a Friday afternoon to visit with Laura and Sameer and my father. We arrived later than expected because our flight left Denver an hour later than expected, but it was no matter since Kirby was sick. An untimely sinus infection left him feeling ill until he rallied on Saturday night. Saturday was gray and dreary, but Laura brightened our day with a wonderful egg souffle, and short walks got us out of the house. I too was feeling ill on Saturday. I think the Laphroaig I had on Friday night was a little too rich for my stomach. We all enjoyed Gran Torino on Saturday night and a wonderful spring day on Sunday, complete with a 3 mile walk around Lake of the Isles. A fine lunch, an on-time flight, a drive home in wet snow, and an arrival at the grocery store 10 minutes before closing time closed out a very relaxing weekend with the family.