A Walk in the Neighborhood

Last weekend, my sister's boyfriend was in town to use my Christmas present to them...a few passes to hit the slopes. It was pretty fun, especially when Chris and I switched my skis and his snowboard. It was my first time snowboarding ever and I was happy I picked it up fairly well. The feast at Pizza Hut afterwards was legendary. Mmmm.

For a more elequint account of the proceedings, I will reference my sister's blog. http://milehighmarshall.blogspot.com/2009/02/snow-bunnies-on-copper.html

Yesterday, I decided to walk around the neighborhood and find good paths for walking a future dog. There are six beautiful ponds/lakes nearby. All of them are home to ducks, geese, and an occasional Nessy-like creature. Here is the neighborhood.

Here is a quick photo tour. I cannot wait to take Fido on daily walks.
http://picasaweb.google.com/N.Marshall.80/MyNeighborhood#

Speaking of Fido, I met my first dog "match" today. I signed up with two Golden Retriever Rescues which provide foster homes to homeless dogs until they are adopted out. The first dog I met was a 4 year old yellow lab, which I was already hesitant about because I really want a sweet golden retriever. I drove up to near Eldorado Canyon to meet the dog. The foster parent introduced me to the dog and I petted it on the head. It quickly turned and tried to nip my hand. "Umm, no thanks!" I thought. I told the lady I didn't want any part of an aggressive dog (hence the golden retriever rescue) and quickly got out of there.

While I was in the area, I hit up Eldorado Canyon and did some good hiking. It had some good views of the Continental Divide.

Lots of rock climbers were out scaling the canyon's walls.

As I was walking up the trail, a train appeared from a tunnel high above the trail and rumbled the entire canyon. It was very impressive seeing it pull so many cars up such an incredible grade. I noticed it passed into another tunnel, so I ventured toward it to check it out.

The tunnel had 1939 cast into the headwall. Pretty impressive. I walked over to the other tunnel and was considering walking through it to get to the trailhead, but I could not see the end of it. Instead I bushwacked down the steep mountainside and jumped back onto the trail. A bit of an adventure for a Sunday afternoon.

Busy Bee

After finally settling into my new home, I was ready to have some fun out on the slopes. My friend, and former boss, Calvin and his family took their annual trip to Winter Park for some skiing. I was fortunate to be invited out to ski with them on Saturday.

Calvin and I have the same skill level, so it was great skiing with him. He caught me up on all the latest KDOT gossip. The conditions were great all day with the sun shining for the first time this year while I skied.

The views were spectacular.

Here is a video of me heading down a blue/black slope. My mogul skiing needs alot of work. After skiing, we scarfed down a bunch of Pizza Hut and soaked in the hot tub. It was alot of fun.

On Sunday, I went snowshoeing up in Rocky Mountain National Park. I hiked up to Mills Lake in Glacier Gorge.

During the descent, I followed Glacier Creek which had sections of steep rock faces. The waterfalls were frozen, so I slid down many of them to get down. It was a very cool experience after hiking by the same creek during the summer while it had water rushing through it.

My first significant home improvement I decided to undertake was painting my upstairs bathroom. The room had an abundance of drywall holes and just looked pretty junky.

Here are some pre-paint pics.

The new paint is a light orange, although the pictures don't really show it too well. I wanted to feel like I was entering the sun when I got ready for work in the morning.

I have been enjoying going to Lowe's to buy new tools and supplies. I got a nice new ladder! Yeah, I am a dork.After finishing off all my painting, Beck and I took a quick jaunt over to Boulder and climbed some Flatirons.

Beck was stoked. The Flatirons trail is pretty steep and was quite the challenge for folks coming out of hibernation.

Beck expression reads, "I don't think you know where you are going."

We made it down just fine and walked through a bit of Boulder's downtown. Beck liked living high on the hog.