I thought life would slow down after getting married… far from it.

I don’t seem to have the time to blog anymore… I couldn’t even get a full wedding post up (though I had the start of one drafted). I may continue to journal for my own purposes but until I catch my breath, which won’t be any time soon, I’ll be taking SLB offline.

If you really want to know what’s going on with me then you likely know how to reach me.

Never say never… I’ll be back.

-Matt

Had an option enabled requiring people to register… turned that off… everyone should be able to comment now

-Matt

It’s been too long without an update. Life’s been busy. Sorry I never posted any videos from the post before. We do still have them all if anyone’s super interested just let me know. They’re mostly just some cops running around in formation with Loni’s astute commentary. Warm weather is upon us and we just got out last weekend into the midst of all it at Srping Training for the Colorado Disc Dogs. I got my first sun burn even. We brought both the pups with Kota tearing it up as usual and Scout making some fairly decent attempts. I’m not sure there’s much of a future in for the guy but he enjoyed himself none the less. We’ll probably take em both out to Thornton Fest next week for the 1st competition.

The wedding planning is in full swing though I’ve still got 81 days at current count and most the wedding vendors will want to meet for the final touches within 30 days prior. Still no sleep for the weary though when it comes to all that stuff. We got our honeymoon to Bora Bora booked which is just as exciting as the wedding if not more so. In all honesty though it already feels like it’s going to be such a busy summer that it’s overwhelming at times. I’m sure we’ll survive though.

Hope to make it to the Mile High Music Festival again this year though I’m honestly not sure we’ll do Glendo. Haven’t ruled it out but it’ll be tough. I suspect we’ll at least get a weekend or two of camping in a little closer to Denver though. We went to a game before but we’re planning on catching several Rapids games this summer and fall so that will be fun to go out support those guys.

Now if only this blog would write itself in the meantime…

-Matt

Got this in the mail the other day… 

We bought em a long time ago… no salmonella to report

-Matt

As has become annual tradition we trek up into the mountains around my birthday for a weekend on the slopes. It started as a birthday trip and there’s been some regulars from in and out of town over the years but we’ve kinda moved it between my birthday on the 6th and Christmas to afford the mountains a little more time for better snow without crowding the holidays. None of the 8 of us that made it up there this year had ever been to Steamboat and we were all looking quite forward to it.

So on Friday December 12th at the crack of dawn we made the drive up I-70 and the cut-over through Winter Park on US40 into Steamboat Springs. It was a little over a 3 hour trip taking us through a different part of the Rockies than we were used to in which our surroundings were less steep and more hilly than you would see through the I-70 corridor up to the front range resorts like Copper, Keystone, and Vail. It reminded me of some of the hillier areas of Wyoming covered in wild grass and shrubs with a light dusting of snow just about everywhere.

We pulled in to Steamboat and unloaded our gear into the condo we’d be staying in over the next 3 nights. The place was pretty sweet; about 1300 sq feet, 2 bedrooms, a large loft with twin beds and it’s own bathroom, 2 full baths downstairs (1 in the master), a good sized living room and kitchen, and a shared deck overlooking the larger deck for the condo complex. The larger deck had 2 large hot tubs, ski lockers, and a fire pit. The place was about a 100 yard walk to a run you could ride down to the main base area for the resort.

We briefly unloaded, got geared up, and hit the mountain for our first taste of Steamboat riding. They’d gotten about 4 inches of fresh snow the previous night and had about 6 chairs and 70 runs open; still pre-season by most accounts. We got a good sense of the lay of the mountain and got about 5 good runs in before calling it quits in the early afternoon well warmed up and saving our legs for the next 2 days. We slipped over to a bar/grill close to our condo call The Tugboat and got some grub before heading back to the condo to relax a bit.

That evening we made the trip from the resort, through town, and up a dark county road to take a dip in the famous Strawberry Hot Springs. The hot springs are located on national forest property which apparently hasn’t always been open to the public. You can see the source of it all literallybubbling out the side of the hill at burning hot temperatures. From there it’s collected and combined at a controlled rate with the river that runs through there. There’s a series of man-made pools then where one spills into the next making the uppermost pool the hottest and the furthest mostthe cooler of the bunch though still very warm. If you should so desire you can slip right into the cold creek as well. It was super cool hanging out in the middle of a forest withsnow falling down and covering the walkways and trees all around you while your swimming around in your bathing suit… or not… it’s adults only after dark and clothing is optional. The entire area is kept natural as well in that there are no lights except for the moon and it’s all very misty and steamy as the temperatures clash. We swam around, dipped in various tubs, and even ran around on the ice and snow with some opting to preform snow angles and test their limits in the cold creek. We were there for about an hour and a half I figure before we packed up and headed back to the condo for some rest before the morning.

Saturday morning we arose as early as possible and made the short walk to the run then down to the base. Aboard the gondola we climbed to start the first runs of the day. Overnight they got about 7 fresh inches of snow and opened another chair. The riding was great. I absolutely fell in love withthe mountain. The terrain is just so different from what I’m used to in that it’s low enough in elevation and fertile enough that aspen trees make up about half or more of the tree cover, mixed in with pine, and the moutain just feels so open. Even at the busiest times of the weekend we still felt like we had entire runs and even entire faces of the mountain all to ourselves. I only saw a handful of roped off areas and you could ride just about everywhere. We (some of us) rode hard all day without stopping for a break and hit some great runs with some great snow. Most epic. We rode back to the condo and changed into some regular clothes.

That night we took a shuttle into town and hit The Smokehouse for some BBQ. Winter Fest was going on in the town of Steamboat that night which sounds  like a big “to-do” in a resort town but Steamboat is actually quite different in this regard. It’s more of a small western town and really along the lines of a classic mountain ski town. Sure, they had several blocks of downtown blocked off for the festivities but it was like 1 tent per block with coffee and cookies… and a camel. Larry the camel stayed in his truck for a good 15 minutes outside of The Smokehouse while several handlers tried their hardest to get him out and onto the street. Eventually he did make an appearance though. After walking around a bit and checking out some stores we took the shuttle back the resort and settled down for the evening after some folks enjoyed the hot tubs.

Sunday morning brought 12 inches of fresh snow from the previous day/night and the conditions were phenomenal. None of us really believed in the coined term “Champagne Powder” as even though we’d hit some great powder runs and blazed some untouched lines it still seemed similar to any other powder we’d ridden previously at other resorts. This was until we actually found some of the fabled snow and it was obvious that it was superior snow for making joyous turns through. This one magic run we took I will likely never forget. It was steeped through an aspen grove with the perfect grade and pefectdistance between trees to make turns that left you covered in fluffy snow as your wake cascaded over you with each turn. More than just floating above the snow it gave you a feeling of lightness and levity and had an almost effortless flow to it like a cushion of confetti as you glided down it. It’s what we came to experience and it was awesome. We continued to ride fairly hard throughout the day and didn’t have a single bad run. Everything had fresh snow on it and it was a good day to be out there carving up the mountain.

That night we ate the Slopeside Grill and checked out some of the shops on the mountain. We again went to the Strawberry Hot Springs after dark. After wrapping up there we pretty much just relaxed back at the condo tired from our 3 day excursion. Everyone slept pretty solidly awakening to our final morning in Steamboat on Monday. We packed up and headed back to reality happy to have experienced Steamboat for our first time and confident it wouldn’t be too long before we returned.

Pictures

-Matt

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/earth_from_above_comes_to_nyc.html

Sweet.

-Matt