In February, I volunteered a copy of my book plus a guided hike to the Shining Stars Foundation, an organization dedicated to fighting children's cancer. The hike/book were to be auctioned off and the lucky winner gets a day in the mountains with me (ok, it's not quite as cool as the bike ride with Lance Armstrong, but hey at least I'm putting myself out there!) As much as I dig publicizing my book, this kind of stuff I'd rather do under the radar since I don't want it to seem like a cheap ploy to bring attention to my professional endeavors. I know my family and friends have been affected by cancer's unwelcome presence in our lives and so in a small way, I'd like to be able to help--it's my pleasure as the token expression goes. And lucky for me, the winners of the auction were awesome people whose company I genuinely enjoyed. Joanne and Angelina parlayed victory at the auction table into a hike to the beautiful Lake Isabelle area in Indian Peaks (my "backyard mountains"). As the above picture shows, you simply couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Natural Habitat Adventures was gracious enough to give me Friday off and what a day it was! Despite the heat wave we've been having in town, this winter was a good snow year so all that melting ice makes for colorful fields of flowers in alpine areas. Joanne was an especially keen flower hunter and clued me into a few I'm sure to remember: Parry's Primrose, Bistort, Globeflower and Cinquefoil. Joanne also owns a catering company and knows how to incorporate a lot of the wild, edible plants from the mountains into great meals, which reminds me, I better invite her to go camping soon! I'll carry the pots and pans if she does the cooking!
I wish I had taken more photos--I think I broke out my camera for 3-4 pictures; luckily Joanne requested the shot on the right of Angelina at the lake so you can actually see how clear the day was. Those clouds in the background were the only ones we saw all day! Overall, it was a lot of fun and I hope to stay in touch with them in the future. And if you ever need an event catered in Denver/Boulder, check out Joanne's company Three Tomatoes. In fact, I'm trying to think of an event to make up just so they can cater it! Anyone up for an impromptu 10-year from graduation college celebration?Now with all that being said, the hike is not a component of this strange summer, as mentioned in the title. There's a lot changing out here and despite some more personal strides--my book is selling well, the job is good and Colorado is beautiful as always--there's an unsettled feeling in the air. This isn't to be confused with an unsettling feeling; a more fitting metaphor may be the way a foot in clear water stirs up mud and the slow wait that ensues as the particles drift down, repairing the transparency of the water.
On Thursday and Friday, I took the mtn. bike up to Hall Ranch, which might have been a ghost town. The 100 + degree temps kept people off the trails and despite my inherent hate of heat, I felt compelled and restless to be out there. That type of isolation however, is when nature feels like a shrine. On Thursday, I got a late start but rode the whole challenging loop until dusk, my head spinning between the technical aspects of the ride, staying focused on the trail and dissecting thoughts about life. Long bike climbs lend themselves to a lot of introspection, followed by a required cleansing of the mental palette unless you want to smack into a tree at 25 mph if distracted by pondering a missed opportunity in the past. That's what's great about mountain biking; it FORCES you to be in the present. Friday (after the hike in the Indian Peaks) I rode hard again, better than the day before, clearing all the technical sections of the trail minus one stupid obstacle I've never cleanly ridden.
No matter. I got the twilight show again, that wonderful light that elongates the shadows of the wheat-like grass and softens the world into darkness. Saturday I felt spent from the heat and the exertion of the previous rides but still brought myself up to Walker Ranch just outside of Boulder. And yet again, I had solitude and amazing landscapes to behold in the waning daylight. As my body was jarred about, the thoughts in my head were no less clear and further less resolved, but luckily they were neatly contained as not to infiltrate places they should not wander.
And finally, the plan for today was to try a third class loop of Mount Audubon via the southeast ridge (a scrambling, off-trail adventure) then traverse over to Paiute Peak for a fun loop. I set my alarm for 5 AM but when it went off, my body and my mountain instincts screamed to stay home. The heat, the mental fatigue and the physical wear and tear of 3 days of hard mountain biking had taken their toll. Plus, something didn't feel right about the day. Usually, the prospect of hiking has me waking up long before my alarm, eager to partake in the adventure. Instead I stayed in, slept a bit longer -- and woke up to rain and clouds in the morning sky. Most likely I couldn't have completed the route in these conditions, so it was a minor victory that was 50% precipitation, 50% laziness.
It was nice to be home on a quiet Sunday, but a persistant restlessness kept me itchy to be doing something. I did sneak up to Betasso and ride 2 laps as hard as I could -- and as my 4th straight day of riding, was a bit sloppy. I even got passed on the trail for the first time in a while but I didn't really care. I was riding because I had to do something, had to be outside and not sitting around. I came home tonight, played with Xanadu a bit and now here I am. Sleep hasn't been coming too easy but I think that my body is going to take advantage of its fatigue tonight.
