Mis padres...

Last weekend marked my first visitors, my parents. I was so happy to see them. I picked them up at the airport Thursday night, which is where the adventure begins. From there, we headed to my apartment to drop off the luggage, and then we headed to Bighorn Brewing Co. for an appetizer and some beer. I got my dad to drink Buttface with me, and my mom tried the Light homebrew, which she enjoyed. I don't think my dad was ready for Buttface, but then again, my mom and I are the beer drinkers in the family. After that, we went back to my apartment and crashed to prepare for Friday.

I had Friday off because I've been working 9 hour shifts, and it was so sweet! Anyhow, we headed up to Boulder to meet Brett for lunch at Snarf's. We were early, so we went up to the Flat Irons, and while we hiked, I explained how this geological formation occurred. It was my way of saying, "Mountains meet my parents, mom and dad, meet the mountains". After that, we headed down to Snarf's. What a great place to get sandwiches! We had a good meal, socialized a bit, and then headed up to Estes Park for some scenery. We took the Peak to Peak Highway and stopped at the St. Catherine of Sienna church, which is strategically placed right in front of Mt. Meeker. Once I meet my wife, this is where we will tie the knot (she and her parents don't have a choice in the matter). My mom loved the church and said it was the neatest thing she'd seen yet. From there, we went up to Estes Park and started up Trail Ridge Road. The weather was especially perfect, which is rare, since it normally rains when it's after noon in the mountains. Apparently, my mom is afraid of being inside a vehicle at more than 9,000 feet above sea level because it was right about there that she started asking me to turn around. Like a good son, I ignored her and kept driving. Soon we were above the timberline and driving on roads that thousands of people drive on every Summer, but apparently my mother felt like we could pull a "Thelma and Louise" at any moment. We made it to the top, my dad and I got out, we had our picture taken, and then we high-tailed it back down into mom's comfort zone. Since mom took one for the team, dad and I followed her around for awhile as she looked at shops in town. We ate dinner at the Wapiti Pub, drank some beers, and listened to some live country guy named Ronnie Furr. They were having a great time and didn't realize it was because they were drinking beer at 7,500 ft above sea level (less O2 gets you a better buzz). After that, we got ice cream and drove back into the park to see if the stars would come out, but the moon was too bright. We headed back to Denver.

For Saturday, I had originally planned on taking them up Mount Evans, but after the Trail Ridge Road incident, I figured it was best if I skip that. It's a shame too because the view from Mt. Evans is spectacular and is only open Memorial Day to Labor Day! So Mt. Evans was out, but we went to Red Rocks and Vail, which were both really neat places. We took the scenic route over Loveland Pass to Vail, which only worked out because mom was asleep over the steep parts. Vail was ritzy, but cool. We enjoyed lunch at the Red Lion and followed it up with ice cream from Marble Slab. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. After returning from Vail, we met my dad's army buddy Gary and his family for dinner. We went to Isla Morada, which is located at the local Bass Pro Shop. It sounds fake, but I assure you it's real, and my meal was incredible. After dinner we headed back to Gary's house where he and my father reminisced and told stories about Vietnam. I have a strong admiration for my father, but I think I admire him the most when he tells those stories about the war. They're not about killing and bloodshed, but about people, relationships, and the feelings of war (fear and adrenaline). I would relate the friendships my father made in Vietnam to the friendships I made in college, only my bonds probably aren't quite as strong as those forged in war. After several stories and some awesome homemade pies, we went back to the apartment.

Sunday was low key, and was supposed to be. We went to church, had lunch with my mom's friend Mary, and then we helped mom out as she arranged my apartment. She is an interior decorator, and she is VERY, VERY good at what she does. I have complete faith in her, and rarely contest anything she suggests. I'm not a mama's boy, she's just that good. After decorating, we had a small dinner and just enjoyed each other's company.

Early Monday morning, I dropped my parents off at the airport. It was sad to say goodbye to them, since I know I won't see them again until Thanksgiving, but that's the choice I made by moving out here, and I'll live. Most the time, living here feels great, but sometimes you can't help, but miss people.

Long's Peak

Longs Peak was the last 14er Brett and I plan on doing this summer, although, I bet there's a few we could reach in September if we really wanted. We do plan on snowshoeing one of the easier ones in October. Anyhow, this was a class 3 (of a 1 - 5 system), which means it involved some technical climbing. My hands were a little worn after getting down. The whole route was 15 miles round trip, which is a lot of miles on flat land let alone going up and down a mountain. There were four main parts to the ascent: The hike to the boulder field, navigating the boulder field, navigating the angled rock, and the homestretch.

The hike up to the boulder field was pretty easy because it's very gradual. The boulder field was a bit more difficult, and you can see it below in the foreground and to the right of the snow. It gradually works it's way up to what's called the keyhole. That's the part on the right horizon where someone could walk under the rock. Once you pass the keyhole, you hike along angled rock and just try to follow the bullseyes that have been painted on the mountain.


The next part of the ascent goes along slanted rock, which could get you hurt if you do something stupid. This is what it looks like coming down:


After the slanted rock, comes the home stretch, which is an upward climb that is moderately steep. I never felt like I was going to fall or that I was in danger of any sort. Pictures make it look a lot steeper than it actually is.


After the homestretch, you get to have your picture taken at one of the stores on the top. Just kidding, there's nothing on the top, but more exhausted people just like yourself.


By the end of the day yesterday, we had reached strange physical plateaus:

Muscle exhaustion: Our muscles were exhausted, but you just keep going because you know you have to.

Energy: I'm assuming the calorie burn yesterday was probably around 7,000 (3,500 is one pound), and since I only supplied my body with about 1,000 or so calories during the excursion, my body had to find more energy. I'm sure it started using what I had in my system, but then moved on to fat reserves, but it didn't find much so that contributed to the muscle exhaustion too.

Hunger: After about 7:30AM, I had no appetite yesterday. After Pike's Peak a month or so ago, I was starving. I think once your brain tells your body to start using your fat reserves, it tells your stomach, hey you don't need you to worry about feeling hungry at the moment. In other words, I think my bran supressed my appetite. I'm not sure if this is true, but even once I got home last night, I did not feel like eating, but I ate what I could.

Sleep: We woke up at 2:15AM to do this 14er, and I drove back to Denver and never got drowsy at 5PM. I think I had reached a point where your body ignores what your brain is telling it to do for so long, that it gets easier to ignore it.

Just like what Brett said on his blog for this last part:

Back in May when I looked at Long's Peak, I honestly would never have guessed I would summit it 3 months later.

See all photos from this hike at http://flickr.com/photos/brett_burch/sets/72157601541063519/.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Friday night, Brett and I went to see the Rockies play the Cubs. Cubs win, Cubs win!!! I was very happy to see the Cubs secure a nice W. It was a pretty good time.

Saturday night, we headed up to Rocky Mountain Nationl Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower. The light pollution was very low where we went because, we were pretty much right next to the continental divide. We saw a total of 66 meteorites, which was pretty awesome. It got really cold though, and although I was wearing my down jacket, it got chilly enough that we had to call it a night. Here is where we watched the shower (you can see the rocks we climbed, but there wasn't snow like in the image):

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.413986,-105.723978&spn=0.00292,0.005525&t=h&z=18&om=1

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=40.414056~-105.723656&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1

Torrey's Peak/Keystone Bluegrass/Miami Alumni Picnic

This was another cool weekend. Yesterday, one of my co-workers, Joe, Brett, and I went and hiked Torrey's Peak, which sits less than a half mile from Gray's Peak, which Brett and I had already hiked. That brings our 14er tally up to 5. It was pretty cloudy at the top, so there wasn't a whole lot to see. On our way down, Joe asked if we'd mind hiking Gray's Peak again, so we ended up doing two 14ers in one day. That was pretty cool. Afterwards, we all headed over to a popular ski resort called Keystone for a free Bluegrass festival. There were also 30 different breweries there to sample! We were driving home that night though, so we didn't do the sampling, but we did grab a couple from the beer garden. Joe's wife Mandy and his daughter Lilly met us at the festival, and after a few shows, the left. Brett and I headed to Breckenridge, grabbed dinner, gawked at some females, did an O-H (I-O) to some guy in a OSU sweatshirt, and then headed back to Denver. We decided to go relieve some of the aches from hiking in the apartment complex hot tub. The hot tub heater was broken for a few weeks, so I was really praying that it was working once again, and it was. The temp was 105F, and it was hot, but it felt pretty nice. After a soak and a swim, Brett headed back to Boulder, and I passed out.

This morning, I went to early church, so that I could attend the Miami Alumni picnic to send off the incoming freshman class. We got to meet some nice people including a guy who went to New Zealand with one of my housemates Tripp. He lives in Boulder, and seemed pretty cool, so it was nice to make a new acquaintance. It was pretty cool to talk to some people who have shared the same places and experiences as myself. It made me miss Miami, but I watched Old School and felt better... JK:)

White Water Rafting

Last weekend, Brett's sister Alyssa, he, and I went whitewater rafting on the Clear Creek near Idaho Springs. It was a ton of fun. The previous night, it rained, so the flow of the creek doubled up to 300 cubic feet per second. That's a lot of water! The rapids were class 3 and 4, so it was a crazy good time. I did have a wonderful opportunity to use my wetsuit. That can be seen in pictures 21 - 31 here:

http://www.rapidimagephoto.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?pagenum=21&action=viewphotos&size=fullsize&id=2140202&eventid=28207

Afterwards we went up to Mt. Evans, but it was too cloudy, so we just went back to Boulder, ate dinner at Illegal Pete's, and saw Hurtin Kurtis again at the Lazy Dog.