Bluegrass Weekend

Last Friday, after sucking down a few Sawtooth Ales ($2 a pint!!!) at the Groggy Dog in Nederland (quite possibly my future home), Brett and I headed to the dirt road town of Gold Hill. This place was awesome! It is home to the Gold Hill Inn where Spring Creek was playing that night. They were a really good band, and we got a chance to say hello and shake hands with them all. It was pretty cool. We had a couple more drinks, talked to some nice ladies from Denver, and then headed out. Upon reaching Brett's apartment, we drove separately to the nearest Waffle House, which was probably 20 miles away in the direction of my apartment. I finished off an All-Star breakfast in about 5 minutes. We paid and went our separate ways, only to rejoin the following night downtown near the Filmore. We saw The Wayword Sons at a bar called Dulcinea's. We got to meet the lead guitarist/singer, and they put on another good show. We were there with Brett's coworker Patrick, his wife Natalie, and his friend Dav-o. Around 1:30AM, we piled into Patrick's car, and they dropped me at the train stop. I rode home, and listened to the new Modest Mouse and Travis albums. It was a different sort of weekend, but it was good. This weekend, it's whitewater rafting!

Pike's Peak + Beef Coma = Fun

Gayle posted a good question under the comments of my last post asking: What is a fourteener? A fourteener is a mountain with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet.

Yesterday, Brett and I made a 5.5 mile hike up Pike's Peak near Colorado Springs. This was by far the most strenuous fourteener we've done yet, since it was 11 miles round trip and 4,500 feet of elevation gain on the trip up. Nothing too eventful happened, except for one thing. When we got to the top, there's a large parking area, since there's also a road to the top of Pike's Peak. Some jerk had a bumper sticker on his SUV that said OHOWIHATE Ohio State, which really made me mad. I cut his brake lines, so I hope he had a good time making the descent from the top of Pike's Peak:)

After making it back to my apartment, we were in the mood for a pretty good meal, so we headed to Black Angus. I ordered a 16oz cut of prime rib, and ate the whole thing along with a salad, roasted veggies, and garlic mashed potatoes. Following that, we watched Beerfest. After Brett went home, I slipped into a beef coma, and slept for 10 hours.

3 Fourteeners down!

So since I've last posted, I've done 2 more Fourteeners: Mt. Bierstadt and Grays Peak. They were both really fun, and I keep getting better at handling the elevation. I made it up Mt. Bierstadt (3000ft up over 3.5 miles) in about 2 hours, which wasn't bad for what they call a "flatlander". Then last weekend I made it up Grays peak (3000ft up over 3.5 miles) in about 1.5 hours, and I didn't stop the whole way up. My goal was to never get passed going up, and it worked. My heart rate would get pretty high at times, but I'd just decrease my pace to a slow walk, drink some water, eat some Gu, and get back to it. So right now I've done 3/53 fourteeners, and hopefully tomorrow, I'll have 49 left. We're planning on hiking Pike's Peak tomorrow down in Colorado Springs, and then heading to the garden of the gods. If you google it, you'll see the garden is amazing.

After Gray's Peak last week, Brett and I headed to Virgilio's Pizza in Lakewood. It seriously ruled. It was just excellent Pizza made well with fresh, homemade ingredients. After that, we hung out at my apartment until the Rockies game. We headed downtown and went to Fado until the rain cleared up, and then we watched the Rockies beat the Phillies. I love it here!