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Well this weekend the skeleton crew of the Savage Gulf Posse went on their annual camping trip. Andy, Chris, Ric, and I all made it to camp by evening of Friday. This weekend was definitely the worst weather we had, as nearly the entire day Saturday was in the rain, or a rainy drizzle. We did manage to keep spirits up and have a great time, and got to explore the Red River Gorge which is just a spectacular area. Because of the rain, I didn’t get many photos taken, but the few can be found here. All made it back safely, and we can’t wait till next year.
The Pics are here

After the Phoenix Mine trip we headed a bit further west to Hwy 6 and headed up to Loveland Pass to see the view. As expected it was a bit windy and cold, so our stay up there was short. The Suburban also wanted to overheat a bit up the pass, but we will attribute this to the coolant not being mixed to 50/50 yet. Before everyone froze I took a few photos.

While searching for something uniquely Colorado to take Andrea and the kids to we ran across the Phoenix Gold Mine and decided to head into the front range to explore. We were greeted with a nice tour guide who took us all through a small history of the mine and showed us the many tools used to mine from all ranges of time periods. We were able to see gold veins right in the rock itself, as well as some areas of the mine where it had started to collapse in and was no longer able to be mined. After the tour, we were turned loose in the creek near the mine to try our hand at gold panning for gold. A prospector gave us some tips on how to go about searching for gold, and Steph actually found a small gold nugget. She got to keep it as well. Some of the Photos can be found here

Thursday after school Chloe and I left for a father-daughter camping adventure. With it being so late in the season, many of the roads to reach many of the trailheads were closed, or too far to make it before dusk. For this reason our destination on this trip was Mt. Bierstadt We made through Guanella pass early enough to stop and admire the view before heading on to find a place to pitch camp. Over the pass and down into the valley we found some great disbursed camping spots and decided on one. Being so late in the year we saw nobody during the evening, and only heard a few automobiles pass through the area. We spent the evening enjoying some backpacking instant food and coco around the fire. Another event of note is that Chloe lost another tooth, and seemed quite relieved to have it gone. As the stars came out we both headed to the tent for some rest. Chloe was fine, but I froze over the night. I had only packed my 40 degree sleeping bag and quite honestly was not prepared for the temperature to drop below the freezing point. Lesson learned, and I should know better anyway.

Early the next morning we rose, quickly packed up camp and headed back up to the pass. This Mountain is the first real 14er that we have attempted to summit so we were quite unsure of how it would be like. It was cold, but not windy when we stared out about 7am. As we gained elevation the thinner air became quite apparent, but we headed on. Chloe did a fantastic job of keeping up, and led the way most of the way up. By mid morning the sun was finally over the summit so we were in sunlight, but the wind had picked up quite a bit. It became apparent that we were not going to make it to the top, but we pushed on for a bit more and ended up turning around 13k feet we made the decision to turn back. Perhaps next year we will make it to the summit, but for now we will just have to look forward to the next attempt. We took a few photos. photos

The Fall Campout for the Pack went well and we had a great time. Unlike last year’s spring campout the weather was fantastic. It was the first time we had ever been to Cherry Creek State Park and we had a fantastic time there. The camping facilities are great, and the only downside being it’s right in the middle of Denver so light pollution and noise is a bit more than other parks. Photos here

We made our trek east for High Country Bus Festival.

Trip report can be found here

Photos are here:

After a winter of not many adventures in the state, we all loaded up in the Suburban and headed south to once again try and ride the cograil to the top of Pike’s Peak. We were able to get tickets to ride the Cog Railway this time and had a great time. The ride up was great, but we didn’t plan for cooler weather or an overcast day, so everyone was in shorts. At about 10k feet we started to go into a snow storm which lasted the duration of the rest of the ascent. High winds and snow made for an odd day at 14,110 feet in shorts, but we all lived through it. Because of the clouds the view wasn’t as spectacular as we had hoped, but still beautiful. I can’t wait to climb my first 14er by foot. Some photos can be found

We have been wanting to head to the mountains to enjoy some of the winter sports since the first flakes of snow fell here. With 6 the price sure adds up, so we kept putting it off. SolVista offers a program that included two days of lessons as well as a seasons pass. We took the plunge and made the reservations and this past weekend we headed up to the land of snow and hills. I managed to find a great little place called Trail Riders Motel where we stayed for two days. I would recommend this place as the couple that ran it were fantastic and very nice. That evening the we ate at Longbranch Restaurant which served up some fantastic German Bratwurst, fortunately they also had some pasta and chicken for everyone else. We started the next morning with a breakfast visit to Remington’s, and headed out to Base camp. Up on the slopes everyone spend the first day learning the basics, on the bunny slopes. The boys all took snowboarding lessons, while the girls chose ski lessons. By the end of the first day everyone was worn out, but had a great time. After cleaning up we headed into Winter park for some more grub. Hernando’s Pizza Pub was our choice, but that turned out to be a nightmare if you have four hungry children. The wait was going to be about an hour, so we could hold on that. We started to notice that several groups that arrived after us were seated & we were ignored. Steph went to ask, and it turns out that the pager they had given us was low on battery and not responding. We finally were given a seat, but everyone already had a sour taste in their mouths. Just to contrast this bad service with a good deed, a family in an adjoining table heard about our problem and actually gave the kids half a pizza to eat while we ordered. So while I can attest that the service there stinks, the people that go there are certainly great. After that we all headed back to the room and slept very, very well.

The next morning brought about 3″ of fresh snow, and pop-tarts. We all made it to Base Camp again and soon were all starting on our lessons. After a few runs down the bunny slope I took my first ride to the top of the lift and headed down a green run with my instructor. On the way down I found Steph and her class working the slopes. The real mountain was a lot more fun than the bunny slope. We made a few runs, and then my instructor got me going down blue runs a few times. During this time I also saw Chloe up on the mountain, she was already heading down real runs!!! By the end of the day everyone was very tired and had a great time. Pictures are posted here.

The Savage group once again made our yearly trip into the woods of Eastern TN,Western NC. This time heading to find the community of Lost Cove. Friday evening was spend waiting for all to arrive at the hostel where we stayed Friday night. The next morning we all set out traveling down the railroad tracks to the know trailhead heading up into the past. Many hours later we were greeted with our first view of the existence of a former community. Lost Cove had been inhabited from the late 1800 all the way till the 1960′s when the last of the families moved away. All that remains now is a small collection of fallen houses, most with the chimney still intact. Our exploring found two standing structures which certainly were a bit eery. The remainder of the weekend was spend exploring and trying to imagine what it might have been like in the peak of it’s community.

One of our families holiday traditions is to watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation right after Thanksgiving. Every year we sit and watch as the Griswolds “[kick] off our fun old fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols” This year we thought what a great idea and headed into the forrest to do the same thing. The National Forest service offers permits to cut your own tree for $10 so we took them up on it. We woke to about an inch of snow on the ground, but certainly not thwarted we continued on. Our day started out late as we didn’t have everything ready and it took a bit of time to get going, but eventually we were all loaded up in the Suburban and headed south to the Springs to pick up a permit at the Ranger Station in town. This turned out to be quite an adventure in itself as googlemaps didn’t know about the construction in downtown that prohibited us from following the directions. A phone call to the office and a few more turns later we pulled into the office and quickly picked up a permit. Soon we were on our way again.

On our way up we took a quick stop at the McD’s for some food and restroom break, and were off again up the hill. Not exactly sure what to do we just followed Ridge Road for a few miles looking from the road, as that didn’t seem to work well we stopped eventually and all got out to trailblaze a bit. Following a trail down the hill we started to see some potential trees, but nothing really leaped out as the right tree. We headed back up the hill and took out the old sled to cary Olivia who was starting to complain that she was tired. The next technique we gave a shot at was just walking down the road and looking every once in a while for the perfect tree. I thought I had found it, but saw a truck drive by us on the road with what looked like two perfect Christmas trees. The group took a quick plan meeting to decide to go further in the forest to look for less picked over areas. As we traveled down further it seemed to be a good idea, we saw more and more potential trees. A few miles later we parked again to travel down a road with no tracks on it.

There were quite a few side trips as we explored some areas to the sides of the road, but nothing much really until we stumbled across our tree, about a mile down that road. The tree was much too tall, but the forest service only limits your cutting by the diameter of the tree, our tree was well under the max so we decided to cut it down and just use the rest for firewood. Everyone got a chance to try cutting, but it was real difficult with the sap from the tree. Near the end of the cutting I got Steph to push against the tree to so the saw would not bind, while in mid stroke the tree decided it wanted to fall anyway and did so, nearly falling on my camera that Steph had put down just minutes before. Fortunately everything was fine and the tree only suffered a few minor limbs breaking off. Next came the task of cutting what we didn’t need for firewood, that took a while, especially since I was unable to find my bow saw before the trip and had to cut the tree with a straight saw. All in all it came down well and we got it cut up. I made the short hike back to the Suburban and drove it to the tree site.

After we took a few photos of all of us cutting the trunk down, we turned the kids loose to go sled some down the road we were on. Instead of using them like sleds, they all decided to use them as snowboards and had a blast. All the while I spent cutting the trunk down a bit more and Steph and I worked on getting the tree on the roof. After we got it up there it really became apparent that we would need to cut down some more of the tree as it was WAY BIG. Oh well, not a problem. We finally got it all lashed down on the roof and rolled out as the sun was getting lower in the sky. Olivia had already gone to sleep in the carseat so it was just the rest of the kids that needed loading up. The trip home was uneventful, but I did keep a close eye on the tree so that I wouldn’t leave it on the side if I-25. We arrived home later all worn out and ready to be home. Other than a trip to every store in Parker for the ingredients needed to make a fire-resistant tree we were all done.

All in all a great trip. Time will tell if we do this every year, or just every once in a while.