Castle Peak

Today Josh and I woke up early and headed over to Castle Peak, near a little town called “Aspen”. Josh’s family was out of town, so I left my house Friday night and spent the night up at his place in Woodland Park so that we could get an early start. We left his house at 3:30 a.m. and started hiking about four hours later. 

The drive to the normal trail head didn’t really take that long…we just kept driving up the old Montezuma Mine road until it stopped at a little over 12,000 feet. This hike is about 13 miles round trip for most people, but because I have a vehicle that can handle a stream crossing and a 4WD road, we cut the trip down from 13 miles to three. 

This trip was part 4WD adventure, part hike. There aren’t very many 14ers that you can drive this far up the trail, so it was a nice change. We passed everyone else on the mountain today, while driving and while hiking. Starting fresh that high is a big advantage. It only took us 50 minutes to hike to the summit from where we parked and 40 minutes to get back down. We cut off a little bit of time on the way down with a glissade down a snowfield. Neither of us touched our water on the hike, highlighting how hydrated we already were, the short trip length, the cloud cover, and the humidity. 

The area around Aspen is very pretty. It’s one of the greenest areas in Colorado. The drive over Independence Pass and through the town Aspen was beautiful. The low hanging clouds and fog were a nice change from the recent hot and dry weather we’ve been dealing with back in town. I’ll definitely be going back to this area for a little sightseeing and camping in the future. 

Waterfalls, stream crossing in my truck


Beginning of road, top of the road at 12,000 feet


Other hikers headed up the ridge, Castle Peak, Jeep and campsite at parking lot


Valley near Independence Pass, fog near the summit, glissade down


Where's Toyota?, fog near and at the summit

Valley views, Aspen gas

Best Friends Forever

In case you're want an example of what the kids do during the day when it's too hot to go outside, meet "Rosalinda, Julia's best friend from soccer". She really needs to start school...

Look Who's Talking

Jonathan is getting really close to talking. He's been putting together words a lot lately, saying things like "me all done" and "hi Dad" and "bye Dad", for example. One of his favorite things to do is pop his head around a corner and say "hi Dad"!  It's pretty cute. I don't think that will ever get old.

He's also imitating Julia a lot. He wants to do everything she does, including telling us secrets. Every once in awhile he'll come up to me, get real close to my ear, and whisper gibberish. I assume he's actually trying to tell me something even though he's not using words.

Here's a good example of him talking and copying what Julia does...

2 Waldo 2:16 - 17

This ash landed in someone's yard. The verse at the bottom is the beginning of 2 Thessalonians 2:16, which along with verse 17 reads:

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work".

Waldo Canyon Fire Update

My parents, along with most of the areas south of Rockrimmon and east of 30th were allowed back into their homes tonight. The threat of the fire spreading to more houses seems to be over.

Local authorities were able to take an inventory today as the smoke cleared. The reported count of homes burned is currently at 346, making it the most destructive fire in the history of the state of Colorado.

Waldo Canyon Fire

On Tuesday, June 26, the Waldo Canyon Fire that had been burning on the other side of the mountain arrived in Colorado Springs. Before today, the fire had only been a nuisance. Most people weren't concerned that the fire would make its way across the valleys and down a mountain face because fires just don't normally do that. However, when multiple factors come together and create the perfect storm, normal doesn't happen.

We've been experiencing drought-like conditions for a few years, but today the major causes of the fire spreading were wind and temperature. We reached an all-time high of 101 degrees, the hottest day ever recorded. At the same time a nearby thunderstorm blew in, and the 60+ mph winds blew the fire east, across valleys, and eventually down the mountainside into the neighborhoods in Colorado Springs in a matter of hours. The yellow area on the map shows how much the fire spread in one day, tripling its size.

I was coming home from a training in Denver and was actually on the phone with my mom when the flames crested the ridge and started heading into town. A few hours later my parents and 32,000 other people made up the total number of people that had been evacuated from their homes and businesses. People had time to get out, but not much time to plan what to take and what to leave behind. My parents decided to stay at their business overnight to tend to the 50 animals that were still in their care.

Ash and smoke filled the entire city while we all watched the "hundreds" (reportedly) houses burn to the ground on the news. Ash as small as a pinhead and as large as someone's hand ended up all over town in people's yards, in their houses, and in their cars. Not many people slept that night, to include the now over 1,000 firefighters and other personnel battling the blaze. With that many people evacuated, most people knew and even housed friends and family that had been affected.

The good news is that despite hundreds of homes being burned to the ground, many more were saved. No injuries or deaths have been reported, and the crews seemed to now have the fire under control after a successful Wednesday and Wednesday night (green area on the map). The area burned could have been much worse if it hadn't been for the crews on scene. No one could have planned for a fire like this, evidenced by the fact that many seasoned personnel said they have never seen a fire act like this one did. The crews couldn't completely fight the fire until the terrain allowed them to do so, which in this case began in the neighborhoods themselves.

Although very sad and unprecedented, many people on this side of town live in a fire zone. Although Colorado Springs is the seventh safest city from natural disasters in the country (according to a recent study), a fire in these areas shouldn't be a surprise. I think the magnitude and how fast things happened are what's surprising, but a fire shouldn't be. We all know we live in a giant tinder box right now, and the local authorities were already working with other neighborhoods to reduce risk, clear out areas, etc. I guess a good way to sum it up is that this was probably a wake up call for a town where nothing like this has ever really happened.

I kept copies of some of the more amazing and sad photos to share with everyone. Some of you have probably seen a few of these already. As I write this, the fires in town seem to be almost gone. Things appear to be almost over, at least in town, as today is the first clear day this week. We can see the mountains and all fires that came over on Tuesday are pretty much gone. You never know if another area of the fire can come over the mountains farther north or south, but things seems good now. I hope the worst is over and the community can now move forward and pick up the pieces. I have no doubt we will.

Air Support

A close up video of the helicopters fighting the fire in Estes Park.  In about 20 seconds they sucked up over 2,500 gallons of water that they would drop on the fire a few minutes later. Pretty cool...

Wally World

This weekend the family headed up to Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park. We've been trying to do more things since the kids are getting older and more manageable, but this epic fail of a "family vacation" reminded us why spending hundreds of dollars isn't worth it yet.

We were able to borrow my parent's 4 Runner since we needed a little more space and working air conditioning. The drive up went fine. The minute we arrived in town on Saturday a fire broke out. Traffic was a mess, so we decided to check into our hotel. We planned on doing some sight seeing around town, but because of the kids, the congestion, and the fire, it quickly became a bad idea.

Highlights from the Econo Lodge include:

• Jonathan vomiting all over the bed and himself after being in the room a mere 10 minutes
• Julia crashing off the other side of the bed while playing
• Stacey whacking her shin on the bed frame that was sticking out
• A pillow hitting the ceiling and knocking popcorn texture all over the floor
• Julia talking in her sleep and then falling out of her bed in the middle of the night
• Despite moving the bed back, Jonathan falling into the bed frame, cutting his head, and gushing blood all over Stacey and himself
• Julia and Dad spending time swimming in a questionable pool
• Jonathan vomiting a little in his crib when he woke up in the morning
• Jonathan falling head first between the bed and the nightstand trying to get the phone
• Dad not sleeping between the hours of eleven and one in the morning 
• Grandpa calling to tell us that a new fire had started outside of Colorado Springs 

Although the pictures look nice, this was far from a vacation and not a good use of our time and money. Then again, the kids had fun. After we checked into the hotel we went back into town and were treated to an air show by the helicopters fighting the fire. We hiked down to the waterfront and watched them suck up 2,500 gallons at a time and then leave to dump it on the fire over and over again. Jonathan and I really liked watching them and having them buzz us on the shoreline as they took off.

Twenty houses and/or cabins were burned to the ground, but they got the fire put out. We almost just headed back home but the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park was again open the next morning. The area was pretty, but we only made it to one of the three ponds with the kids...probably a total of a mile. Jonathan vomited his feeding while on the trail, probably from all the effort spent riding on my shoulders or being carried. Julia was no different - most of our progress was made while we carried them up the trail.

A little ice cream and some water in the plastic pool on our back patio might be better for all. At least we tried.

Unconditional Love

Julia: "I love you lots, Mommy, even when you're grumpy."

Boys Will Be Boys

Jonathan is something else. Every day he surprises us with something that Julia never did, let alone would ever do, at his age. We're both really glad that we have one of each so that we get to experience all aspects of this crazy ride.

The other day Jonathan got a hold of Stacey's electric hair trimmer. Since I cut everyone's hair but Stacey's with clippers, he knew just how to use the trimmer. He was only out of sight for a minute, but that was enough time for him to turn on the trimmer and take four chunks out of his hair. There are four very straight lines and hairless spots on the back and right top of his head. The funny part about the situation is that he was very proud of himself for cutting his hair all on his own...

The past three days we've had record high temperatures. Last night we decided to eat dinner on the back patio and spend some time playing together outside before bed. The kids were horsing around and eventually, as it often does, turned into Jonathan chasing Julia. This time he got a hold of her around the waist, and although she tried to turn and run, he kept her wrapped up. You had to be there to see it, but he essentially executed his first football tackle in perfect fashion at age two. He wrapped up and took her down in the grass with ease, ending the play with everybody laughing heartily. What made it even more funny is that he knew exactly what he was doing, gritting his teeth as he chased her and took her out...