Monday, April 17, 2023
I left Danbury on Tuesday, a week ago tomorrow, taking a trip to Colorado and Utah. I was originally going to arrive Friday and stay at my friends’ Sue and Jim’s house, west of the city, somewhat higher up (8,000’) than Boulder itself. Sue texted me there was snow forecast 7-8” for Friday, so I contacted another friend, Liz, about staying at her house in Louisville Friday night. It all worked out. I arrived at Liz’s around 4PM, having driven about 340 miles from Ellis, Kansas. The day started out sunny, with temperature around 60, but by the time I arrived in the Denver area it was down to 34 and there was a combination of light snow and rain, which continued intermittingly through the rest of the day. There was no accumulation of snow, however.
Liz, Sue, and Jim are all wonderful friends. They are all adventurers, as well. Whereas all of my travels through the years have been in the USA, with a few exceptions into Canada, they have done extensive travel to other countries, including trips via backpack, bicycle, and “normal” modes of transportation. We all have the travel bug!
I met Liz while living in Boulder in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We worked together at the Harvest Restaurant and Bakery, which was a fun job in terms of interacting with people, both with other employees and with customers, as Boulder has a very interesting, fun-loving, adventurous mix of individuals! Working there, well, it did not often feel like work, as it as socially and interpersonally very gratifying. Liz and I did some camping trips in Colorado and Utah, which were such fun, and they built a lifelong friendship and bond. A bonus of staying at her house Friday was that her sister, Karlene, was visiting from western Colorado, so I was able to spend some time talking with her, too. I had not seen Karlene in many years, maybe not since 1991!
On Saturday, I did a 30-mile ride from Liz’s house to the Table Mesa area of Boulder, where I lived 1989-1995. I did the climb up to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). Starting from the lower Table Mesa Drive, it is a 3.2 mile ride gaining about 750’ elevation. From there, I rode out to Eldorado Springs, where I had hoped to find Jonathon, another friend from the Harvest Restaurant days. He is an artist, and he has a studio in the Eldorado Springs Arts Center. Unfortunately, he was not at his studio at the time. I’ll catch up with him. I retraced my bike ride back to Table Mesa and took some photos of the house and area where I had lived most of my time in Boulder, on Lafayette Drive, about 100 yards from a trailhead to Boulder Mountain Parks. It was a great place to live!
I first met Sue when I drove to Colorado in September of 1984. On that trip, I ended up staying at her house for almost a month, where she lived with her cousin Denise and her husband Dave. It was a fun time with lots of biking, hiking, and hanging out. Over the years since then, I have stayed with her and her husband Jim numerous times, welcomed on my frequent trips by their gracious friendship, sometimes for weeks at a time. Most recently, they visited with me and my friend Laura, when we were down at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in Arizona, as they were on their way to Baja, Mexico for a couple of months. It was great to see them there, and now I get to see them again.
On Sunday, I did a ride from their house up to CO RT 72, also known as the Peak-to-Peak Highway. It is about 5.5 miles on Sugarloaf Road to get to Peak-to-Peak. I did not ride all that far, 22 miles roundtrip, but it did take me some time, around 2hr 10min. About 7 miles of the ride were on dirt roads, so I was able to use my new gravel bike and test out its use on dirt. It is slower going due to the numerous ruts in the road. Total elevation gain was 2,500’.
I am writing this from their house in the Sugarloaf Mountain area, in the Rocky Mountain foothills west of Boulder. It’s at 8000’, and I have to admit the altitude has affected my oxygen intake, making bicycling and hiking a little more challenging. I’ll become acclimated.
Their house sits to the lower left, behind that old, fallen down cabin. Sugarloaf Mountain is in the background, just around 9000' altitude.
I'll be posting some photos from on top of Sugarloaf soon.
Sunday night, Sue and Jim invited some friends over - for Burritos! Jim loves to cook. He takes it very seriously, and he puts significant time and effort into it. Good people, delicious food, it was a fun time.
Comments