Once More. With Feeling!

Well, here we are again.

My cousin Jenifer just got engaged (Yay for her!) and I told her that being married always changes the adventure. I really believe that. Every day with my wife is an adventure. And once again, that adventure is changing. 

Joanna took a job with Far Western Anthropological Research Group (http://farwestern.com/) and we are moving again! This time we are going to the beautiful and exciting Las Vegas, NV. Well, really Henderson, NV, but it's kind of a suburb of Las Vegas, so that counts. And while we're super-pumped to be moving forward in our lives, it's a little bittersweet because we're leaving Colorado behind. We will be back though. We love it here. It does not suck.

So for what is (presumably) our last hoorah here in CO, we decided to go up to Rollins Pass up by Winter Park. Joanna has a Grad School colleague (and good friend) that is working on a bunch of Archaeological sites up there and she has always bugged me to go up there to check out the views. But it gets really cold up there (12,000 feet!) so I've always said no. But now that we have gone, I'm really grateful that I had this opportunity. We had a good time, Joanna did some archaeology, we met some super-cool people, and now I have lots of pictures to show off. Also, it was, in fact, really cold.

 I'm not going to caption each one of these pictures, as most of them are simply in there for the view, but I've got a few things to say about a few of them.

  

We left on Wednesday afternoon as soon as we got off work, and it felt like we were racing along these mountain roads against the sun. Remember that scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula? Yeah, just like that. Only no gypsies. Or Vampires. Just my wife....

This place was only 88 miles from our house but it still took us nearly 3 hours to get there. Stupid mountain dirt roads.

Archaeology Joanna. Now with 30% more Joanna-ness. Certified child labor free.

Here is our friend Jason telling us all about something. Thanks again Jason for having us up!

That's how they work. They walk around and look at the ground.

Joanna's Office.

At a certain point, I just wandered off while they were working and here is where I caught a glimpse of Corona Lake that we would get to later that day.

 

So when Jason was reading off the notes that some Archaeologist had written thirty years ago about the second site we went to, he said it was 150 feet north west of an old Prospector's pit. As I had found this pit on my wanderings, I got all excited because I could help them find it. Then I couldn't find it again. Sad face.

I did eventually find it again, but it took me a while. After all that exhaustive searching, I was really tired. So I took a nap on a rock right next to the pit while they worked. HAHAH.

On our way to the third site, we got a way better view of Corona Lake

You knew this picture was coming.

So what's archaeology without beer drinking and spear throwing? Seriously.

We're using a device called an Atlatl. It is fun. It gives you quite a bit of power in your throw.

Atlatls can be purchased here. Also, I kind of love that there is a guy known as "Atlatl Bob"

This was our target.

If ever I come across a bunny standing very still in front of a cardboard box, there's gonna be rabbit stew for dinner!

Day 2 up there we split off from the group and went off and did our own thing. Look at all those mountains.

Joanna was excited for all the "Top of the world" pictures we could take.

I remember when I got this hat I contemplated cutting off the chin strap because it looks stupid. It still looks stupid but my hat stayed on and it was windy as hell up there. Score one for stupid-looking things!

Here is a hunting blind.

That's our elevation. We could not catch our breath.

Here's Joanna in a cute hat.

Damn I'm tired.

Loaded up and headed home.

On the drive back down, Joanna got to take some of her beloved tree pictures.

 

Here we have an old railroad bridge that was used by blah, blah, history of the area, blah. "Honey, can we get an Atlatl?"

 Thanks for reading!

First Hike, 2012

Lookie what we have here. A new blog post from everybody's favorite blogger. I know you guys say you like Joanna's blog, but I also know that when you are reading it, you are silently weeping about the fact that it's not one of my posts. I can't really say that I blame you. I AM pretty awesome. It is a shame that more people aren't me, but then, could the world really handle that much spectacularosity? Anyway, on to the blog!

Joanna took a weekday off work yesterday so we had the rare opportunity to spend a day together. So we decided it would be best to get our first hike of the year out of the way now while it's still kind of chilly up there (the reason I am so heavily layered) and we can avoid all the other people so that we can stop to catch our breath periodically without the fear of being judged for being so out of shape by all the fit hikers. We (Joanna) chose Maxwell Falls as our destination this go-around, and it was for the most part a good hike for us to get back into the swing of things. There was one caveat, but I will get to that at the end. Now it's time for my exceptionally funny captions under each picture.

p. s. I am also toying around with the new formatting tool for blogger. So if some of my pictures aren't lined up right, too bad. If the new format causes you to not be able to view the blog in your browser, find a browser that works.

Joanna is a little out of practice taking the obligatory "Hold still and look at the camera so we can prove to people that we actually spend time together" picture, so it took a few tries. Half my head is gone in this one.

Now I'm blocking the sign.

Close enough. Let's move on.

Here we see the remains of a campsite which for the rest of the day we referred to as the "Kill Site".

This place got seriously shredded by something.

Something with a serious hankering for some smarties. We found some more smarties about twenty feet away, but Joanna didn't want to take a picture of those.

Who can identify this print?

Nice view to get things started.

 

Again?

At this point, it had more or less just been us walking. It was now time to start our serious adventuring! Gotta check the gear.

My sweet new electronics gadget pouch. I have one on Joanna's pack too. Our phones fit in them perfectly.

I am properly outfitted. Now, let's hike!

It didn't take long for us to get to this rock out-cropping. It was a pretty amazing view. So amazing that Joanna didn't even bother to take a picture of it. Silly girl.

Here we have a gap in the rocks.

See?

Here are some big old rocks



This is my skeptical face. I am skeptical because once I determined the direction that the trail went, another route was plotted. In the spirit of adventure (and because I was already writing this next bit in my head) we went with the new route.

"I don't know if this is the right way Honey..."

"I don't think we're meant to walk along the very edge of the cliff like this..."

"Don't be silly Tony. It IS called Cliff Loop Trail. Now hold still, I just remembered that I am supposed to take pictures of the view on our hikes. O. K. we got that out of the way. Now keep moving along the path that I say is the trail. You KNOW I am right."

Time will tell.

"Honey, I'm sorry for doubting you. This is obviously the way we should be going. It's just that some inconsiderate jerk put this big rock in the way. I'll just move it and we can be on our way."

I am inadequate.

"Maybe we should go through this hole? We can totally fit right?"

"What can we do?"

I like to call this picture "Righteous Indignation".

This is us pondering whether or not the previously identified trail was, in fact, the right direction after all.

Here are the only "falls" we really got to see at Maxwell Falls, but more on that later.

Close up. To make you think that they're bigger.

Joanna takes pictures of trees and stuff.

More trees.

So, that was the bulk of our hike. There were some more trees and stuff, it was pretty heavily wooded. But the trail that we were on, UPPER Maxwell Falls, didn't really afford us a view of the falls when we finally got to them. Apparently, LOWER Maxwell Falls takes you right by the place where people take the pictures  that eventually end up on the website the state or whatever uses to advertise how great this place is. We got to stand at the top of the falls and hear them. Yay. Once we got past the falls however, there was one oddity...

So, you tell me, is this just one person's idea of a really good place to put a church T, or the final resting place of the unfortunate camper that was in the tent at the Kill Site?

Bet you wish you left those smarties in the fucking truck now don't ya?!?