Summer always tends to fly by so quickly, and this summer is no different.  It’d been over a year since I’d visited my good friend Renée, her hubby Dave, and their little girl Lily.  So long that when i walked in and saw miss Lily i thought she must have been a cousin as she was running around and looked so big. I quickly realize my mistake and go to say hi.  We enjoyed catching up over the next 3 days and had fun doing some of our usual outings – champaign’s farmers market, the library for play time (and photos), and even a movie.

Part of our plan was heading back to ISU for our Walker Hall reunion. We signed up for a picnic lunch and headed up to Normal on Sunday morning. It ended up that none of my good walker friends were able to come (besides Renée) but we did get to see some of her friends from long ago which made it worthwhile. It was so amazing to see the campus and how it has changed over the years. Our old Walker Hall has been torn down and been replaced with a new rec/activity center. There are new big buildings where there used to be lawn, and there are some crazy changes in the downtown area with huge hotels and children’s museums… a slight change from the dance bars I remember.

A Meeting with Jennifer Weiner

As fate would have it the same weekend I was visiting Renée, one of our favorite authors happened to be coming to town – Jennifer Weiner. Most people are aware of the film “In Her Shoes” with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette which was based off of Jennifer’s book of the same name. I’ve read a few of her books (and am reading more now) and Renée’s loved her books from the very beginning so we were quite excited when we found out it might fit into our plans – and it did!


After a quick ride back from ISU we went to the Champaign Library. I was so glad we were seeing her there as I could only imagine the chaos that might happen in and around chicagoland. So we grabbed our seats and met up with Renée’s friend. After a few minutes of waiting everyone was seated and Jennifer came in. She’s quite the joker and tells many good stories. She did a quick reading from her new book “Fly Away Home” and then signed everyone’s books which was awesome. I even had her take a self portrait with me

Thursday morning i went out with John and Randy for a sunrise shoot just outside of Ridgeway, we got some pretty fall color with mountains in the background. While out with the boys I started to realize that I wasn’t feeling so great, and we opted to skip out on breakfast at True Grit to make our way back to the cabins. Once there i decided that i’d take the rest of the day off – i took a wonderfully long nap and bela and i laid low while the rest of the crew went off to Jimmy and Wendell’s for a tex-mex dinner. (and i believe there was fishing at Buddy’s as well as we had fish in the freezer that night)

Have you seen the Muffler Man?

Friday I was feeling better so bela and i decided to go geocaching. Neely and Jen went out with a local friend to go horseback riding and andy wanted to get a bike ride in. As it happened our first geocache happened to have the same name as the place andy wanted to start his biking. So as andy got his bike ready, we found our first cache in the area literally 50′ away. We made plans to meet up in a few hours and parted ways to our own adventures.

Our next cache was at the water reservoir near town. We made a quick side trek to the viewpoint – supposedly we could see all four states and i think we did see most of them… we enjoyed the view and moved on to find the cache fairly quickly right off the main road. The next cache ended up being behind a cemetery that had the coolest little outhouse. we didn’t go inside but i did take a few pics. Our final cache of the day was one of the best caches we’ve ever found – the muffler man. This was one of the craziest spots we’d ever been – this guy creates people and scenes out of old muffler and car parts. We were just mesmerized by all the scenarios he thought up – and then factor in there are goats all over and following us around. The goats helped us find the cache that was hidden right in the middle of it all. We wandered around and took pics of our favorite muffler concoctions.

We were about out of time so we headed back to town to meet up with Andy for a light lunch at the local coffee shop. Back at the cabin we enjoyed a quiet afternoon and it was decided to have a yummy final dinner of our fine local ingredients: freshly caught fish from Buddy’s pond and a puffball mushroom found in the neighbor’s field, in addition to some yummy garlic potatoes. Since the gals had been cooking most of the week, the boys were put in charge of cooking.

Things were just heating up when all of a sudden Jen asks if we’d seen Figgy (1 of her doggies). None of us had, and after John had been taunting us all week with the “better watch out or the coyotes will get them!” we were a little anxious to find Figgy. After an initial check around the cabin with no doggie, things started getting a little crazy. Everyone goes out to search – Bela opted to make sure the cabin didn’t burn down and watched the food and I took over with Fiona (Jen’s youngest), while she assured me she knew where Figgy was, as we kept wandering around the cabin looking and yelling for the doggie. Luckily Jen found Figgy a mile or two down the road on some private property and the search party was called off. Dinner was started up again and we all enjoyed our dinner with relief and a bit of sadness knowing we’d be heading out the next day.

Rock Art and Fine Dining

Saturday morning we finished our packing and got on our way to Albuquerque, waving goodbye to the family and wonderful cabins in the mountains. The drive went by fairy quickly, even with all 4 doggies. I have to admit i liked having the wee doggies – they seemed kind of kittie like sitting on our laps. We convinced andy and neely to make the side trip to Petraglyph Nat’l Monument – we weren’t supposed to have doggies so the kids dropped us off so we could do a quick look see. We enjoyed a quick trip around Boca Negra Canyon, which literally borders the city. There were some cool glyphs and some obvious graffiti but overall quite cool to see all of the rock art with a complete view of the city and mountains in the background.

We all opted to take an afternoon nap (actually i think andy may have gone for a ride/run but he’s crazy and we already know that) after checking in to our hotels. The doggies even had their own bed! The kids picked us up and we were on our way to a wonderful dinner at a little french place the urban spoon suggested. While enjoying the excellent food we also were entertained by the kids coming in for their homecoming dinners. We had great fun guessing who was with who and why they dressed the way they did – Neely did not approve of the hat at the dinner table! We found it pretty cool that our waiter was born in chicago but had lived in texas for a while but was now in ABQ – what are the odds of that!? Just another sign of a great trip we think!

We flew home on sunday morning while the kids finished their long drive to Austin. Overall a wonderful trip with great friends as always!

Tuesday morning we got up early and made our way to Moab, Utah – the outdoor mecca of .. well everything outdoorsy! We opted to find a hotel first and as luck would have it they had a computer with a printer in the lobby. With the weather being wonderfully comfortable in the high 60s and low 70s we had to change some of our plans a bit. We had planned to do some canyoning in nearby Arches NP but many of them had wet portions and we were not dressed for that. With our new routes in hand we made our way into Arches. After the obligatory stop at the visitor center (yes i had to get my stamp) we stopped fairly quickly and parked at the Park Avenue Trailhead to begin our first adventure – “U-Turn”.

This canyoning route took us up onto the mesa which required some scrambling and included all of our vertical rise in one fell swoop. The boys of course scampered up like they were walking on flat land, while Neely and i shared a bit of sense and took our time. The hot morning sun started beating down on us and we all stripped down to bare essentials – ok so i had leg warmers at one point – whatever it was easier than taking my shoes off! We had spectacular views from the top of the mesa. We could see for miles and got some great views that most visitors to the park will never get.

The boys were leading us and found our path to the first rappel. We had to cross a small path with drops on each side and even scramble up a bit more before we came to a canyon. We all got our gear on and rapped down – Neely even did it no handed !  just kidding – we thought we’d give her parent’s a small heart attack just for fun and it was only like 10′ from the lip of the cliff – she would have lived

We continue exploring the area quickly come to our 2nd rappel, which is an open space rappel so it was kind of fun…. you pop over the lip and just swing!

We landed on a fairly flat area that just had to be explored for a while. Now the whole time during this adventure, we’d all been commenting on the “balanced rock” which the route description had called Wile E Coyote Rock which we assumed was one in the same… only once we were walking towards it (after about 5-6 different mentions during the day til that point) Andy finally realizes what we’re talking about – we weren’t really sure what he thought we were referring to the whole time but it was like a bulb went off and he went off running towards it. sketchy bouldering followed as well as all of us taking our turns standing underneath it. no comment on getting down from the precarious stance (NEELY) haha! the boys had their fun as we were working our way back to our 3rd rappel. Andy spontaneously attempted head stands, while bela really took the grand prize by doing multiple hand stands on a rock outcropping. (oddly i wasn’t too freaked out, even with the drop-off 10 ft away)

One of my fave pics was on our return walk when andy’s hat flew off and i happened to catch it mid flight!

so our last rappel was the longest of the day at 75′ and i got to be the first one down, which was kind of exciting as the boys tend to take charge a lot. we enjoyed the short hike to the car at the trailhead and truly enjoyed the fact that we got to see a few of the features up close and personal. A great intro to canyoning – 2 hrs short and sweet!

After a yummy lunch and a few quick stops at the local climbing shop and hotel for a quick nap – we were on our way again. this time I’d put my request in to hike to Delicate Arch – one of the most famous arches of the park or possibly anywhere. Andy decided that he needed to get a good bike in so we parted ways at the trailhead and he went off for some real mountain biking fun. We had plenty of time before sunset and I wanted to see the petraglyphs near the trailhead. I’d only read a quick description and had all of us looking around in the brush trying to find them. We finally gave up and wandered upon a big sign just a 100 yards down the trail pointing the way to the glyphs. After the side trek to see them we started the 1 1/2 mile trek to the arch. It was mostly uphill but luckily included many pretty views and cairns to lead the way. There were quite a few people doing the hike as well but many of them were coming down (and miss sunset?!). We got to the top and basked in the view – getting the “i’m in an arch” picture and making many of the photographers anxious. Now being a photographer i can kind of understand some of the anxiousness but come on people – do you really need to freak out every time? Ok so the people camped out at the base of the arch were mildly annoying but they stayed in the shadows so it could have been worse. I decided to camp out to get ready for the nice light right before sunset and I was glad I did – many more people kept coming and ideal spots got more precarious as it got closer and closer.

We were entertained though – there was 1 woman who just had to keep checking to see where the sun was – this included her leaning very carelesly to keep peeking around the corner – 1 time almost falling – we held our breath on that one. There was this other couple as well- the woman kept forcing the man to pose for pictures with the arch in the background. What was awesome about it is that she made him do it at least 3-4 times and each time he wouldn’t smile at all – even the 1 time they did a timer and took a pic togther he wouldn’t smile then either.. we started making jokes regarding smiley man, maybe you had to be there But the best part was that we were just watching the sunlight on the arch and in 1 moment the shadow was gone – which is also when Andy popped up and joined us! He’d finished his bike ride and thought just maybe he could make it in time. He had people cheering for him, some saying “you can make it, hurry!” or some who never thought he would, but he ran and ran (and didn’t kill himself)… we think he just missed the sweet light but he did get to see it with a cool twilight sky and got a pic under it with neely – so we all thought it was well worth it and were so happy when he surprised us We finished the night with a dinner in town followed quickly but all of us passing out almost immediately back at the hotel.

Medieval Canyon Rules

Wednesday morning we chose another canyoning route that promised to be dry with a few longer rappels. The Medieval Canyon route started up at the Sand Flats where many of the mountain bikers go for the classic slick rock. We opted to leave the car at the “put in” (beginning) and left Andy’s bike at the “take out” for our shuttle back to the car. We weren’t entirely sure where the hiking began but apparently all of the drainages lead to the same general area .

We follow a series of canyons and most included small scrambles or small jumps to get around any puddles or brush (Neely had an awesome jump!). We come upon a slot with a steep rise on each side and we weren’t sure we could scramble up them – so bela started doing this crab crawl between the too walls and Neely and I followed suit. It was kind of fun, but as we found out shortly thereafter really not needed as Andy just hiked on up and took pics of us from the one wall top. Shortly after we come upon a cliff on one side and a slot with a dropoff into a pool of water. We didn’t think we needed to swim anything but we also weren’t sure just how deep this pool was or if there was any way to make it up or around. So Andy is well… Andy and he decided to scramble on down to see if he could determine the depth – let’s just say 1 whole leg was a bit soggy and we ended up scrambling (the most precarious scrambling we’d done so far) and ended up finding a rappell down into another canyon bottom that seemed passable and led us to a view of the pool and cliffs that we opted to go around.

Just a short hike further we come to our first major rappel into Medieval Chamber, a 100′ rappel into a slot canyon with 2 levels. The boys set up our ropes and Bela decides to head down first. We can’t see much from the top except a pool of water at the bottom, but we got updates from Bela as he made his way down. He yells up for clarification (is there another rappel? No, keep going! slosh slosh, whoah, hmmmmm, cool!, slosh slosh). Neely and I had heard all that sloshing around and Bela would only tell us that it wasn’t THAT wet. We both opted to go shoeless. I took the camera down with me and got views of the 2 pools of stagnant water, and the awesome view in general. I made my way down the first section and this is where the first sloshing came into play. The ropes led right into the pool – no way around it. I think all of us attempted some kind of pendulum to try to get to the opening to the second drop. The boys made valiant attempts, but still all of us ended up getting wet working our way over to the lip for the 2nd drop. Neely made some of the awesomest sounds during this section – hilarious laughing and squeaking – i don’t think i got all of it on video but i did catch some of her excited squeaks.

The 2nd section also went straight into a pool of water, but luckily Bela helped us gals not get too deep once we landed. Once down we could take in the sights – a small slot canyon leading out the back while the chamber itself was dark and cool- quite the opposite from the desert on top and out the back. Now none of us are rappel fans, but we all agreed that that had to be one of the coolest rappels ever. We could almost understand why people might only go rappeling if they were all like that – but of course we know that they aren’t all that awesome

So we literally walk out the slot into the sunshine and within just a few moments we’re at the top of Morning Glory Arch (which we’re told is really a bridge). We didn’t argue as we went to explore and walked on top of the arch and all around to scope out our rappel. We’d hoped to have 2 ropes so we could do a simul-rappel off the arch (one person on each side of the arch rappelling at the same time) but we didn’t so the boys set up our rappel from the side which meant we got a really cool view looking over at the arch.

While we were checking things out Andy’s hat blew off yet again, but this time went all the way down to the canyon floor – 100′ down. We hadn’t realized but there were hikers down there that had come from the Negro Bill Trailhead (where we’d left the bike) – they were quite confused when a hat came floating down! They yelled up to us and were concerned about how we’d get the hat back – but once our rope came down they figured out what was going on and were a tad bit jealous. We didn’t blame them as this was one cool rappel as well. Once you get over the lip it’s about a 90′+ drop in open space, we all took our time coming down to enjoy the view. Once down we retrieved Andy’s hat and rinsed our hands in a small natural spring that came out of the canyon wall (the ropes were a bit messy having just been in the water and mud from the chamber). Andy decided that since he had to the shuttle back to the car still that he’d get a head start and run the 2 miles back to the bike and power book it back to the car. We took our time knowing it might take him a little while, and enjoyed the hike back to the trailhead. We lost official count but we believe we crossed that creek at least 5-6 times and the trail seemed to be in every direction – a little confusing but quite green despite the desert setting. We decided to continue hiking along the road in the hopes of saving a little time on the shuttle run. Andy made great time and even hit the slickrock a little on the way back to the car – it seemed wrong not to!

Bela and I convinced Andy and Neely to try to do a geocache or two in the area as we started to head home- so we ended up doing a quickie one in town. I’m sure there are some cool ones in the area, maybe next time we’ll get some off the beaten path. We spent the afternoon driving back to CO, already reminiscing about our excellent canyoning adventures.

We all know of Ouray as an ice climbing mecca and Neely had been there once before years ago. It was a super cute little mountain town- the total opposite of Telluride with it’s touristy & money-money feel. We drive around and decide we’d like to explore a little bit and happen upon Box Canyon – which happens to be where the ice climbing takes place. What’s interesting about this “Ice Park” is that they run pipes along the top of the canyon and when it gets cold enough they create their own ice falls for climbing. now some other areas do this but this is the one place that is known to have great ice and has a festival each year to celebrate it’s awesomeness.

Since it was fall and not quite cold enough for ice we continued on up the mountainside in the hopes of more exploration and fun. My photo books had some info about some roads/trails so we kept working our way up and did a little more off roading (at least it felt like it) and enjoyed getting “off the beaten path”. Of course we saw regular cars up at the some of the parking areas – but we all agreed there had to be some good scrapes on the bottoms. After scraping the bike carrier multiple times we finally decide to take it off – but in the process realize we’re now quite hungry. So we start our way back down to Ouray and stop in town to grab some breakfast. The food was so-so but it didn’t affect our opinion of the town.

Our bellies full, we decide to head back to Telluride and see if we can get a view of Bridalveil Falls at prime light. You can feel the money oozing out of people’s wallets as we drive into town, a very different feel from Ouray or even Ridgeway but it’s quite pretty nestled in the mountains with the waterfalls in clear view. We skipped town and just drove straight back to the parking areas to the falls. We decided to give the 4WD road a go and see if we can make it to the top. After some fun bouncing around we decide to stop at the first waterfall – which we determined later wasn’t bridalveil but quite pretty. I think it was here that Andy decided to get in his daily workout and start running back to town. We’d meet him somewhere on the other side after we checked out the main falls. We continue on up a little ways and decide to park at a dicey switchback. It wasn’t terribly far to the falls and the hike was quite nice. We missed the noon light but the double falls were still a sight and the mist felt wonderfully cool if you got close enough. We opted to cut it short and started to work our way back down – eventually catching up with Andy just outside of town.

After our day of exploring we start to feel a bit tired and decide to head home for another family dinner and relaxation. We had 1 small detour as Andy still had some energy left and wanted to try to bike home as well. We got him started at the parking area for the Lizard’s Head. while there we happened upon a hiker who needed a ride back to his car – wife and dog had had enough that day. So, we opted to give him a ride and let Andy get a head start. With the small detour Andy had enough time to determine that it was way too windy and a bit scary to make the whole ride home. So we loaded him back up and made our way back.

Arrival

So we debated on how to get to SW Colorado…  flights to Durango were quite high and most of the other options included getting a rental car and driving 4+ hours once we landed. We opted to fly into Albuquerque since it was so much cheaper (almost $1k cheaper!) and it happened to be on the way for our Texan folk, who would be driving up instead of flying. This way they could pick us up and we wouldn’t have to worry about getting a rental.  We were quite happy with our solution and even surprised to find out that Neely’s cousins who happened to be flying in from North Carolina also happened to be on the same connecting flight through Chicago that we were taking.  How much more convenient could it get? They were just 1 row behind us making it easy for us to get reacquainted after meeting them at the wedding last year. The TX crew pulled up just as our bags were coming up on the conveyor – timing was perfect.

Was so nice to see our friends again we caught up on life on the 5 hour drive from ABQ to CO with fun little tidbits of history from Neely’s dad over the walkies while we were driving.  We went from dry deserty buttes to the higher altitudes and wonderful Colorado mountains.

We rented a cabin just outside of Dolores, CO and were lucky enough to have Neely’s uncles just down the road from us.  So after our drive, we pull on up to Uncle Buddy and Gail’s and are welcomed with a hot bowl of Cowboy stew with corn bread and most of the family to welcome us. Not a bad way to start vacation!

Explorin’ Colorado Y’all

So our first full day the gals (Neely and her sister) go off to Cortez to get our fridge stocked for the week, while Bela, Andy and I decide to go exploring in the area.  We start driving up along the west fork of the Dolores. We decide to take a small detour and head up a fun mountain road to see how high we can get and to see if we can find some of those beautiful aspens that were starting to turn.  We wound our way up and did find some cool aspens as well as some hunters and some very large mushrooms. My GPS decided to taunt us with the thought that there was a through road, but alas it was a closed road and thus a dead end so we wound our way back down to the main road.

We figured we still had plenty of time before our rendezvous and kept going up the main road, where it eventually turns to dirt/gravel. It led us to a restored Ghost Town called Dunton that is now used as a B&B. There was a closed gate even though there was a sign mentioning tours (and it had started to rain) and both Andy and I were like let’s forget it… but Bela saw another sign that said just give a call for a tour. So he did, and we did. We wandered the estate with our tour guide. It really doesn’t look much like a ghost town, but it has the flavor of olden times with the old wooden bar, wheel wagon light fixtures and big fireplaces. The hot spring house and nearby outdoor hot spring seemed quite tempting due to the cold rain but we opted not to pay the $100 lunch and soak fee to continue our explorations of the nearby mountains. (Now if we were super rich we might have changed our minds)

So we continue our drive up some mountain roads to see what we can see. Had some nice views of the mountains as we kept winding our way up. We ran into a few hard core mountain bikers (and we swear 1 of them might have been Ed Visteurs but we’re not positive he mtn bikes) and waved them on with cheers of good peddling.  We decide to try to work our way back down to town via a different route. I’m not entirely sure why we trust the gps for small dirt road information considering our previous experience just an hour before but we did… had we had my wrangler we may have tried a few of these roads (and gotten to town that way) but since we were in Neely’s NEW 09 CRV we decided not to risk it too much.  We did enjoy going through some big puddles and doing a little crawling up roads that had little ATV signs on them. We start up this ATV road (whoossh! though a big puddle), then decided to try another route since it seemed a bit too vertical. so we turn around (whoosh!) and try an alternate road, which also became a bit too rocky and questionable so we turned around yet again and decided to try the ATV road again (whoosh!). We make it a few more miles (maybe!) and come upon a HUGE puddle. we get out to scout to see just how deep or muddy it is and decide the right side might be ok with just 3″ of water, but the left side seemed muddy and with at least 6″ of water let alone how deep we’d sink and possibly get stuck in. Not our idea of fun with no winch available.  so we turn around yet again and really enjoy going through that first puddle yet another time (with fun pics)- WHOOSH!.

Andy likes to claim i was doing the driving but this pic proves he was having a bit o fun in the driver seat.  We eventually just back track back the way we came and enjoy the views yet again now that the storms had passed through – AND we were only a few minutes late even with all that backtracking!  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with all the extended family that night.