Rampart Reservoir

Our Sunday School class had reservations at the Pike Community Campground this weekend, so we met up with everyone there yesterday. The original plan was to camp with everyone else. We realized we could be there for the majority of the time and still sleep in our own beds if we just drove up in the morning...so, that's what we did.

I had to fight off two other dogs from the same owner that went after Quincey when we first showed up. Of course, it was the little dog that was the problem. I put Quincey on leash when we first arrived when I saw the other two dogs. When walked into their territory the little dog charged but they only got air and a tuft of fur before I picked Quincey up. I'm sure he was having "terrier flashbacks". After a time out and some dog whisperer techniques, everyone became best friends but had to remain on a leash the rest of the time there.

We hung out, ate food, talked, and played horseshoes. Julia enjoyed the time but didn't take a nap. By the time the game of horseshoes started she was fading, and I had to make throws with my right hand while holding Julia in my left arm. I actually made a ringer that ignited our victorious comeback after Julia had left, but that's about all I can take credit for. My partner got most of our team's points.

The other half of the day was spent riding the trail around Rampart Reservoir. I can't believe I had never been there before. That's pretty sad considering I grew up here. The loop was 15 miles long and followed the contours of the lake. It was a fun ride, especially because it was so beautiful. I took a picture with the non-zoom, damaged lens on my phone. It never does it justice, but I think you get the idea. Yes, that's Pikes Peak in the background. We'll be going up there again to picnic and/or hang out again this summer. I bet the fall colors will be nice too.

World Fussball Update

Today is June 11, 2009. That means World Cup 2010 in South Africa is exactly one year away! I am already excited. I can't believe that it's been 3 years since the World Cup in Germany. We were living in Hawaii at the time, so the games were on early in the day. I had to tape the first game and then woke up at 5 every day to watch that game before I had to leave for work. Of course, I figured out a way to watch the second game each day while at work too.

As far as the U.S. National Team goes, they should qualify for next year's World Cup with relative ease. They are already about halfway through qualifying and still are on track. Unfortunately, they don't have to play very good teams to qualify, so it's not a measure of how good they are. In fact, the few qualifying games I have watched have confirmed just how "not good" we really are right now. Starting next week the U.S. team will play in a tournament in South Africa in preparation for WC 2010. Unfortunately, they have to play Italy in the first game and Brazil in the second game. The third game against Egypt might be meaningless, unless the U.S. can steal a point or two from two of the world's best teams. You never know what can happen, but it's going to be difficult. Hopefully the U.S. will have a good showing and at least play well. If not, from what I have seen so far, I expect the U.S. to struggle next year at the World Cup. Depending on how difficult their World Cup group is, it could be another 3 and out for the U.S.

England are my second team. I'm glad to see them dominating their World Cup qualifying group. So far they are 7-0-0 and are winning by an average of 3 goals a game. It sounds impressive, but their group is really weak. I know you can only play the teams in front of you, so I give them kudos for tearing up the likes of the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Andorra. They've taken care of business. As with the U.S., I'm not sure I know how good England are right now considering their weak opposition. However, their qualifying results give me a reason to be cautiously optimistic that they will be a force to reckon with next summer. Typically England go out in the quarterfinal round, so anything less would be a poor showing and anything better (like the semi-finals - i.e. final four) would be fantastic.

In the domestic leagues, the transfer window was pretty quiet until the last week or two. If you haven't heard, Real Madrid just bought arguably the world's best player from Manchester United (Ronaldo) for about $130 million. Early reports show that he could earn as much as $750,000 A WEEK in wages. I'm sure it will be more around a paltry $400,000 - $500,000 (rolls eyes). That's in addition to Kaka, another one of the world's best players, that Real Madrid just dropped about $70 million to buy. Nothing like a cool $200 million for two players heading to the same team. I guess that's what happens in Madrid when your rivals Barcelona just beat you in the league and won the European Championship. In case you had forgotten, Real Madrid's manager, Juande Ramos, was the manager at Tottenham only 8 months ago. Talk about a major shift in fortunes.

Spurs have been quiet so far. Most people don't expect us to make more then 2 or 3 buys this summer. We will probably sell more players then we will buy. This time around we're going with stability and consistency in the dressing room versus the wholesale changes made the last few summers.

Having said all that, it's been nice to take a break from the sport. Although it essentially runs year round, at least the leagues take a three month break. It's summertime!

Rocky Mountain Blizzard

We’ve been getting some really uncharacteristic weather around here and there is a new Dairy Queen going in on Stetson Hills, but that has nothing to do with this post. This post is all about a mountain bike.

A bunch of guys from church regularly mountain bike during the summer, and I’ve decided to join them. The problem is, I don’t have a bike or any gear… Technically, I still have (and use) my old road helmet and sunglasses but they are both falling apart. Regardless, the gear is the easy and cheap problem to fix – the bike is another story.

I’ve been using Lanny’s Blizzard when I’ve joined them for rides, and it actually fits me pretty well. Last year he upgraded and bought another Rocky Mountain bike and has been trying to sell his Blizzard since last fall. Here’s the catch – apparently it seems most mountain bikers don’t like buy used bikes. That’s the only reason why I think he hasn’t been able to sell it and it comes up in conversation with others too. The conversation goes something like this: “it’s a great deal as long as you don’t mind buying a used bike. A lot of people want a brand new mountain bike for their first one.” I guess I don’t care that much…or maybe the sticker-shock of a new bike makes me cringe more.

Really, I think cost is the main factor. However, I know Lanny pretty well and he’s quite anal when it comes to his things (he’s an CPA, for example). He’s the type of guy that would trade in a 6 month “old” car for a brand new car just because it got a scratch on it. So, I know it’s been well taken care of. I’ve also been able to ride it a few times on some real terrain and it does really well. It feels solid, things seem to work right, etc. The other advantage of buying his bike is that I can get a complete one-on-one training session on how to care for, setup, and adjust every inch of the bike since he’s already figured it out.

So here’s the scoop. Lanny believes that if you were to buy a comparable bike to his right now, you’re looking at spending about $2000-$2200 new. He has seriously upgraded a lot things on his Blizzard. We stopped in at Criterium and I rode a $1200 Cannondale over lunch. It felt cheap compared to his bike, which makes sense since, well, it isn’t as nice. We looked around (and I’ve looked online) and the lowest of low-end mountain bikes start around $650 when you factor in tax. Lanny is selling his bike for $800. $800 is a little bit more in my price range.

Additionally, he just upgraded a lot of his parts last summer right before he bought his other bike. The tires, front suspension fork, hydraulic disc brakes, wheels, and headset are all about 1 year old. The shifters, gears, frame, and all that stuff are from 2003 but really only have 3 years of use on them. Those I could easily replace. The frame is Reynolds 853 Steel (cro-moly) but only like 4 pounds in weight and has a lifetime warranty. Bottom line, the bike frame isn’t going to bend or crack or wear out (like aluminum) and so it could be the base of a bike I have for years if I just keep replacing parts.

I also think the bike looks sweet. Some of the newer bikes have a cheesy paint job. I just can’t see any downside to purchasing it, especially given the fact that I’ll be riding with Lanny (the seller) most times anyway. $800 seems like a sweet deal…and I think for my first bike this would be a better purchase. I’m not going to run out and drop a lot of money, yet I’m also not willing to drop $650 if in a year it falls apart or I end up wanting to upgrade from my “ghetto Huffy”. Really, I think this is just a case of a motivated seller and people’s unwillingness to buy a used bike they haven’t rode from a stranger. So it’s used? Guess what Paco, as soon as you leave the bike shop with your new bike, it’s “used” too!

Despair.com T-Shirt

This was sent to me at work today. Personally, I find it pretty funny. The shirt is made by the same guys that produce the demotivators series. Although they are extremely sarcastic they are usually pretty funny. I wonder where Blogger fits?

Mt Democrat

On Sunday morning I climbed another 14er, Mount Democrat, with Josh Friesema. I set my alarm for 3 a.m., picked up Josh in Woodland Park at 4, and we were at the trail head and hiking by 6. It only took a few steps for my body to remind me that I had just finished hiking another 14er only about 18 hours ago. After eating and drinking something, I got a second wind and felt great the rest of the trip.

Thankfully, Josh navigated and broke trail on the way up. We stayed below the ridge to keep out of the wind and picked our way up the mountain through as shallow of snow as possible. It had snowed a few inches the night before, and in some places we were post-holing up to our waist. Most of the trip up was fairly solid footing though. Since the conditions were not as good as we had expected, we had to abandon the original plan of making all 4 summits of the 14er chain known as Decalibron (Democrat, Lincolon, Bross, and Cameron).

We met a few people on the mountain. Jason Cook followed us to the summit and provided some of the pictures you'll see below (the majority are from Josh though). Another group of 3 had spent the night in a tent a little ways up the mountain. All I can conclude was that they were practicing for something much bigger since they had gear and packs that looked like they were heading up Mt Everest. However, that theory has holes as does every other theory I can come up with.

Even though it was windy and the summit view was completely non-existent, I still had a great time. My truck once again glided over the snow drifts that stopped other vehicles. We were able to essentially drive to the summer trail head...and for that reason choosing the music to go with this slide show was a breeze.

Music by War (Low Rider)

Torreys - Tuning Fork Couloir

This morning I got up at 3 a.m. and met Mark at the Grays-Torreys parking lot off of I-70. We both had already climbed both Grays and Torreys, but only by the standard route. This time we took a different route; the northwest face also know as the tuning fork couloir. Little did we know that we were in for such an adventure.

Mark hopped in my truck at the parking lot and we headed up the road to the trail head. Since this peak (and Grays) are probably the most climbed 14ers in the state (they are right off of I-70 a little outside of Denver), the road has become impassible for passenger cars (washout, wear, etc). Since I drive the perfect truck for 4-wheeling, we made it over the standard problem spots with no problem.

A mile or two later we came upon a snow drift. At this point we were only in Jeep territory. Feeling confident from the recent large stream crossings, I gunned it and made it about halfway through the drift. Another reason for my confidence was that we had packed a snow shovel, obviously our ice axes, and a towing strap. We were stuck, and the dig out process began. Eventually a very similar Jeep (older, white, bigger tires) came up behind us and pulled us out. I backed up to build up speed and hit the snow drift again. We made good progress so we pulled my truck out again with the Jeep and tried a third time. The third time I made it through the drift. The Jeep tried to follow, but also got stuck, so I turned around and pulled him out.

Having my new buddy now behind me, I felt very confident on the road. We crossed two mud pits/pools of water that we probably shouldn't have. I guess water in the intake is a bad thing? Well, we had no problems but the water was probably up to the bottom of the door at the really bad spot. Luckily, on the way back we found another option, but because the snow had melted more since, the puddles/mud bogs were really sketchy. It was bad enough and we were close enough to getting stuck to make it a completely awesome 4WD trip since we didn't get stuck.

...and that was just the drive. The hike was great too. This couloir provides 3,000 vertical feet of continuous snow. I guy we met along the way said his understanding was 3,000 vertical but about a mile of distance on the face. Think a 3-4-5 triangle and pythagorean theorem. Because this is one of the biggest snow fields, it attracts a lot of skiers. Mark and I choose a conservative glissade as our way to get down the mountain. After the steep part near the summit, the glissade was awesome. There's nothing like sliding down a mile-long section of a mountain on your bum. I don't know if the skiers were taking their time or not (it actually was pretty technical/steep for skis in my opinion), but we definitely smoked them on the way down. The only problem with a glissade that long is your bum gets numb.

In the end it was a great adventure. This route up Torreys was much better then the standard summer route, and it's a lot more fun on the way down. Of course, my truck was star of the show otherwise (Mark gave my truck a lot of compliments) and I have the mud all over the body to prove it.

Music by CCR (Bad Moon Rising)

Why We're Not Driving To Spokane

One More Time

Cue Daft Punk...

Well, here she is...all finished. I pruned the hedges of many small villages and rode off on the women. Carmen opened up her flower...shop...because I threatened to KILL HER. El Guapo would be proud.

Coincidentally enough, when importing in the new photos I ran across the below photo taken exactly a year ago to the day. Although it's from a slightly different angle I still think it helps illustrate the improved curb appeal. Of course, the fact that the picture is a little blurry and it's cloudy outside helps my point.

I'll be open with the cost of the entire project, to include the row of dwarf alberta spruce trees that line the driveway (that can be seen in other posts below). I did it all for about $950. Yup, $950 for all the materials and trees/bushes/shrubs. I'm convinced that I've added to the price of our home and I'd be able to get the $950 back (if not more) when selling the house because of this little project. Of course, we don't plan on selling the house for a long, long time...so not only did we do something we will enjoy while living here it ain't exactly like I "spent" the money.

I Know The Score

Last August Matt invited me to play I Know The Score, the English Premier League's official score predictor game. Essentially, it's just like any other "pick 'em" game, where the object is to predict the final score of each of the week's football games. You get the most points for exactly picking the correct score, lesser points for only picking the winner of the game, and negative points if the team you picked didn't draw or win as predicted. The game also gives you one banker token per week to double or triple your score (positively or negatively) and one insurance token (if you are incorrect you don't lose any points). Obviously, the object of the game is to amass as many points as possible throughout the 9-10 months of the season.

I've been tracking my global ranking throughout the year, since I won all 3 of the mini-groups I was in and 2 of them by blowouts. Back in April Matt posted a blog about my ranking, since he was also watching how well I was doing and predicted that the time was right to announce it on his blog. I'm glad he mentioned it because since his post I pretty much have been on fire. 8 of the last 9 weeks of the season I climbed in the rankings, and the 1 week where I didn't I only dropped 5 spots. In the end, I finished the highest I had ever been the entire season.

What makes this significant is that this game is played by people all over the world. This year, to be exact, it was played by 182,108 people all over the world. My final ranking was 220th place in the world and 8th in the United States. 220 out of 182,108 is the top 0.12 percentile. Or to put it another way, the top one-tenth of one percent in the world. Amazing, really.

I really had fun with the game and it took a lot of patience (and some superstition) not to make a post about it earlier. Although a lot of people played, I'm not sure all 182,108 players actively participated each week. So, doing well in this game requires knowledge, skill, luck, and probably most importantly, dedication. I know that sounds cheesy for a game, but making 10 picks every week for 9-10 months does require some level of "stick-to-it-tive-ness".

Although the game is a partly chance, I feel it's necessary to point out it's not entirely luck. In the past I've won my office NFL pick 'em game and NCAA bracket buster games. So, I think I probably have the type of personality suited to analyzing data and information. At some point the score you choose for each game comes down to a judgment call. However, I will be the first to admit that most of the scores (and thus success) that I settled on had nothing to do with what I thought or what I felt. That is, I didn't go through the list each week and arbitrarily fill in the sheet as best I could. I used a similar method, as had proved successful in the other games I've won, for this game too. In the end though, the method is only as good as the source of information. I'm not going to tell you my source - it's a secret. However, it's free to anyone and readily available information. Anyway, my point is that I used a quick amount of research and a method because I'm smart enough to know that I'm not smart enough to successfully pick correct scores week in and week out. I can't take 100% credit for my score...or can I? I guess that's for you to decide.

This was the first time I played this game, and now that I've figured out how to use my banker appropriately and confirmed my selection method, I think I can do even better next year.

Ouray

The family headed down to Ouray for the weekend. We met up with Josh and his family at the KOA campground just a few miles outside the town. We had originally planned to spend 2 nights at the KOA, but we decided to leave early yesterday due to the weather. In short, it rained the entire time. There are plenty of things to do outside in Ouray, but a limited amount of things for an 18-month old to do in a small cabin.

On a good day it takes about 5 hours to drive there from southwestern Colorado Springs. However, on the way out there it took us about 7 hours due to an accident at the base of Monarch pass and stopping for lunch. Heading back we made it door to door in 5.5 hours.

The area was very pretty, even if we did see most of it from inside the car. For those of you who are interested, I recommend taking 5 minutes and reading about the town, its history, and the outdoor activities on wikipedia.

Even though we didn't do much it was still nice to get away. Julia loved running around outside at the camp when it wasn't raining. We also got some great pictures of her playing around too.

Music by Enya (Oriel Window)