Lucky Dog

Yeah, I know, the last thing all you people in the midwest and on the east coast want to hear about is how we've had temp's. in the 60's for the past 3 days and how it's going to get even warmer well into next week. The punchline to this cruel joke is that in 2 days I have to leave paradise and go to the frozen tundra of Chicago which I believe had a high of 18 degrees today and that was good compared to the -40 wind chills and 18" of snow they had the few days before. Let's not even talk about the plane fare for this little excursion either. Let's just say there really is no such thing as bereavement/emergency fares which were actually $90 higher than the regular ticket prices on the website. But my family is in a bad state and I need to go so there's no choice but to suck it up and quit my whining.

I did manage to squeeze in a bike ride yesterday and today though my knee's been acting up so I couldn't go for very long, maybe 1 1/4 hours each day. Still it was nice to enjoy a couple of beautiful sunny days on the trails and feel actual sweat dripping down my back. Don't worry, winter will be back soon I'm sure.

I took some photos of the fire damage along the Foothills Trail and looking towards the foothills from the Eagle trail. It still smells like smoke but it wasn't too bad. It will grow back soon enough and by spring I'll bet you won't even be able to tell there was a fire. It's good for the plants and soil too.




This is not a fire damaged area but I liked the view of the Boulder Reservoir from the top of Ice Hill on the Eagle Trail. You can see the snow-packed trail on Ice Hill. I turned around here because I didn't feel like dealing with it with my knee feeling gimpy. It's much steeper and longer than it looks from the photo.


Today's wildlife report includes a coyote in a field off a dirt road and a Golden Eagle that swooped down to eye level and crossed the trail right in front of me. Amazing! Of course I didn't have my camera today and even if I did I never would have gotten it out of my pack in time. Will have to enjoy it as a memory. One of these days I'll go out with my camera with the intention of taking pictures but it's hard to leave my bike at home, especially when it's shorts weather in January.

I shot some running dogwalk video in my yard with the plank at 4' but I think I'll wait until the plane ride to process it. Today's results were 8/14 (45%) for the morning session and 10/10 (100%) for the afternoon session. I think the poor results from the morning were because I had the plank set too high on the table. This changed the angle of the plank and also made it harder for him to get on the plank as he had to come in from the side. Or who knows. I think the break from training next week will do us both some good.

Eldora, Baby

The weather and snow report promised perfect conditions up at Eldora-32 degrees, sunny, 15 mph winds (this is great for Eldora) and 7-8" of new snow. Ha. Quite a different story when we got there-23 degrees by the clock in Nederland and 15 mph winds my ass. More like 25-30 at least and any new snow was long blown away to Kansas. There was a huge squall of blowing snow outside the warming shed where you buy your trail pass. But I figured it would be fine once we got in the woods and it was. The winds died down towards the end of our trek and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Trails were a bit icy in places, especially on the steep downhills but we managed no problem. A few years ago such trail conditions would have stricken terror into my heart but I guess my skiing skills have improved to the point where I'm no longer petrified. One of these years they'll get up to the level of competent but for now I'll settle for not petrified.


We were only out for 1 hour, 10 minutes because we knew we'd be sore the next day no matter what. Cross country skiing uses lots of muscles that have been sleeping all summer. My knee was complaining on my 2 mile dog walk this morning but was fine while I was skiing and seems o.k. tonight. The skiing motion seemed to be good therapy for my foot, I'll have to try to get up there more often. So expensive though, they're up to $19 for a lousy trail pass.

On the way home I stopped for a photo of the lake I swam in for the triathlon I did up at Eldora 2 summers ago. Whenever you tell someone local that you swam in that lake for a triathlon they shiver and look incredulous and this is why. It looked even worse on the way up when the wind was howling and sheets of snow were blowing across it and the road which is the view most people think of when they think of that lake.


Another shot looking the other way toward the ski resort.


And in summer.

BFF

Several months ago a coworker informed me that I've been driving and riding my bike right past a camel for the past umpteen years and I had no idea which goes to show how oblivious I can be. In my defense he's often not visible from the road. He's on my way to/from work if I go a certain way that I don't normally go but I go home that way once a week when I'm taking agility classes from Joy and I looked for him for a couple of months before he was finally visible. I'm glad my coworker warned me because I nearly ran off the road as it was, he's an impressive sight.

His name is Morris and his horse friend is Apache. The woman who owns Apache has a son who rescues exotic animals and he showed up at her place desperate for a place to temporarily house a camel (you people in dog rescue think you have it tough). She agreed (my kind of woman). She had been looking for a companion for her lonely horse and as it turned out the two hit it off and she decided to keep him.

The photos were taken by my coworker. I've never had my camera with me when I've been fortunate enought to spot him. Sometimes I'll take the less desireable route in hopes that I'll see him and it's always worth it if I do. I never realized camels were so huge and impressive. One of these days I'll get photos of my own.

Day After

The fire tripled in size overnight and got to within 1 1/2 miles of my house which was unnerving but we had one come within 3/4 mile several years ago and that was way scarier. Still it was not so very much fun to be awakened by news helicopters flying over the house in the wee hours of the morning. Strummer had a few words for them when he went out into the yard this morning to do his business and Lola was fascinated by them and stood transfixed staring up at the sky. Cody usually goes batshit at stuff flying low in the sky but he was intent on getting back inside for his breakfast so spared the neighbors his opinion on the matter.

It was a noisy walk this morning with all the helicopters blaring but I wanted to see if the fire was still at threat so I headed along the Foothills Trail to see what I could see. I've been meaning to take my camera along the trail to take photos of my morning walks anyway so I thought I'd snap some photos. No dramatic fire pix with flames shooting into the sky, I didn't go chasing the fire last night. I probably could have got some good ones but I'm not really into chasing down natural disasters for a photo op. I'm more of the opinion of 'fire bad, run away'. Plus there were all sorts of circus freaks coming to see the show and driving like maniacs through my neighborhood which has very little in the way of sidewalks and streetlights. Plenty of nice photos here if you're interested.

Here are some that I took this morning.

Sunrise over Wonderland Lake. This has nothing to do with the fires but I thought the cloud formation was cool.


This is looking north towards the southernmost edge of the fire. The fire stopped at Lee Hill Rd. which you can't see in the photo and the shot is taken from the Foothills Trail south of Lee Hill. If you look to the right of the peak at the far left of the photo you can see the Hogback Trail arcing down the hill. I wrote about running on that trail here. You can also see bits of smoke here and there from various hotspots that had yet to burn out.


Token dog photo (don't they look thrilled?) taken at the top of the Kiln Trail looking north. Lee Hill Rd. is between the dogs and the burnt hill in the background. It's a popular cycling route and the Boulder Peak Triathlon goes up it.


Some deer jumping a fence and crossing Lee Hill Rd. Taken from the bottom of the Kiln Trail. Cody was pitching a fit but the deer came towards us anyway.


A closer shot of the burn area. Again you can see the Hogback Trail arcing down the hill at the left side of the photo. It's funny how well you can see the trails after a fire.


The people in the Dakota Ridge neighborhood which is just to the east of these hills (and I do mean 'just') were allowed back into their houses so I feel confident the fire is well on it's way to being controlled, at least the part that effects me so I'm not worried for myself anymore. Must have been horrifying for the people on the plains who have horses and livestock. Lots of people had to open their gates and let their horses go because the fire spread so quickly with the high winds that there was no time to get them in trailers to evacuate. There's a really cool llama ranch that burnt down but thankfully they got the llamas out in time. I'm glad I got out of it o.k. but I feel awful for the people who lost their animals. Thankfully there were no major injuries, a few fireman had minor injuries. Hopefully that will be us done with the fires for a while.

More Jerome and Prescott

It turns out the hotel we were staying in, like much of Jerome, is supposedly haunted. Luckily it was right before we checked out when I read some specific accounts of weird ghosty things that had happened there and not before we arrived because some weird things did happen in our room and despite being sensible and for the most part not believing in that kind of thing I think my imagination would have gotten the better of me. The weirdest things were the digital clock which kept changing time (ie running fast by different amounts of time throughout the night) and Strummy who had strange barking fits at who knows what (he's usually pretty good in hotel rooms). One of the alleged ghosts is a dog that growls in one of the rooms though of course Strummy could have been barking at any number of things that we couldn't hear.

The woman who checked us in was the strangest of all and though she was very nice to us (she took 10% off the bill just for the heck of it as she put it) there was something odd about her. Funniest thing was when I asked her if the hotel had wifi she said, 'What's that?' When we explained it was computers and the internet she did the spirit hands thing and said 'Oh, the wifi's are there loose in the room. It's scary stuff I tell you.' We only saw her the day we checked in, a man was there the next day and a different younger woman was there the day we checked out. In retrospect I'm glad I never mentioned the first older woman to the other 2 clerks because I'm afraid they would have told me that she's been dead for 10 years or something.
Good thing they have a bordello along with their walk-in mine.

Heh.
Jerome is full of a lot of this kind of thing, playing up the old naughty reputation of the town for the tourists.

There was a lot of this sort of thing too, bizarre unrelated objects in store fronts.


Granite Basin Recreational Area, Prescott National Forest




Lola attempting to give what for to a bee.


Sometimes it's tough coming from Colorado and trying to appreciate other areas. I'm incredibly spoiled with the trails I have within an hour's drive from home. I have to confess that I found the trail a bit disappointing. It was nice and there were some cool looking plants that we don't get back home and certainly it was better to be out hiking than to be home sitting at a desk at work but I couldn't shake the feeling that I have trails as nice and maybe even nicer that are 10-15 minutes away from my house. Maybe there are nicer areas but the woman at the Forest Service office specifically recommended this area. Tomorrow we were planning on going to another area that she recommended (Lynx Lake) but we'll see how it goes. Cody was dragging and looked really tired. It's possible it's because it got hot, we were only hiking for 1 1/2 hours or so with a break for lunch in there and back home he gets 1-1 1/2 hours of walking a day so I don't think we've been pushing him beyond his normal activity level. Hopefully it's just mental fatigue/heat because the traveling does wear him out. Tomorrow is a warm-up trial for Champs and he has only one run of standard but maybe I'll give him a rest day which means everyone gets a rest day because it's way too hot to leave him behind in the car. Or maybe we'll go early enough and go a very short easy walk when it's cooler and see how he goes. It's always a balancing act trying to give him enough exercise to keep him fit but not to overdo it. I suppose I have the same problem with myself as well.