Colorado January 2013 Skiing and Hiking.

 All Pictures at the bottom of the post!
(Everything you are about to read is true, that is if you think it is!)

I am getting use to the thought I will never visit my village in Botswana again. To distract myself I decided to try to get some skiing in, "try" is the key word here. The snow in Colorado has been as bad this year as last year. My last trip skiing we got lucky and had some snow, but since then there has been little to no snow.

On this trip joining me in my niece Lauren who has changed her name to Grandma Molasses. Accompanying Lauren is Sam "he is not my boyfriend, boyfriend". As usually we are staying at my brothers.

On our arrival we discovered Jack Daniels and his new wife would also be joining us. I had not seen Jack Daniels since we skied in the Spring of 2011. On that trip Jack Daniels tore up his knee in a fairly bad skiing accident. What happened was Jack Daniels always takes a duce between morning and after skiing and that day he for got. That was all she wrote. This was Jack Daniels first trip back to Colorado since the accident.

It was noon and the weather was perfect for a hike, 60 degrees. We decided to hike at Three Sisters Park. What a great way to stretch our legs after a long flight.

Today we are going to ski Winter Park, it is Sunday and with so little snow we were hoping the crowds would be limited and we could get some nice runs in on the limited slopes.

It turned out to be a good day of skiing, Scrappy, Grandma Molasses, Sam "he is not my boyfriend, boyfriend", and I, skied together. Scrappy knew where to ski and where we might find snow. Jack Daniels still recovering from his injury stayed on the green slopes with his wife.

The next day we skied Copper Mountain. It was Monday so the crowds we very small. We found some blue blacks with very few skiers, all was good. Scrappy met up with a friend so we were on our own.

I am in training for the Krispy Kreme Challenge, which is a running race where you run 2.5 miles, eat a dozen doughnuts, run another 2.5 miles, all in under an hour. A good bit of the training is eating. So we decided to stop at the Empire Dairy King for some Ice Cream.

Today we would take a day off from skiing. A day of rest, NOT! We drove up to Flatirons, just outside of Boulder. We did a 5 mile hike to Royal Arch. The elevation change was 3,000 feet. With the warm temperatures it was a nice alternative to skiing.

After the hike we had lunch in Boulder at Pasta Jay's. On our drive back to Evergreen we stopped at both Buffalo Bills Grave Site and Red Rocks Amphitheater.

Dinner was at Virgilio's for their famous Virgilio Pizza, which is the worlds largest pizza. What a great training tool.

Our last day of skiing and Scrappy's 18th birthday. We headed to Copper Mountain. We told Scrappy since it was his birthday he decide what we would do. He said,"Ski black diamond slopes all day". That is what we did. The conditions were just OK, but the slopes were empty so it was perfect. After skiing we had a nice dinner out.

Before our morning flight, Sam "he is not my boyfriend, boyfriend". Grandma Molasses, and I stopped at Jack - n - Grill (http://www.jackngrill.com/) for a 7 lb breakfast burrito. They have been featured on Man vs Food. Since I was in training I took on the challenge and won.

Next stop Raleigh, North Carolina and the Krispy Kreme Challenge.



Cheers,

DUG

Pictures