The Perfect Day... well, almost

Hi, my name is Tundra. Brian and Sara are my people - I am the Dog. While they are busy watching TV, I am sneaking over here at the computer and writing about my amazing adventure today. There were ducks, but only a few; water.... yeah, lots of water!; and chicken and salsa (two of my favorite foods! Yum!).

So, my day began with a not-so-fun adventure. I got stuck under the bed. It wouldn't have been so bad, except my MOMMY kept LAUGHING at me and DADDY wasn't helping either 'cuz he was laughing, too. Since I can't talk (er, my people think I can't talk, so I never do...), I wagged my tail so that it would thump on the floor and someone would hear and see that I was stuck under the bed. Sure enough, Mommy saw, but instead of helping me, she sat there and laughed!

Oh, well. My people took long enough, but they finally pulled me out. I was mad because they took so long. But then they fed me breakfast and everything was okay. I love my breakfast. It tastes like duck. Well, I don't really know what ducks taste like since I have never eaten a real one. But I think that's what they would taste like. I like ducks. I like to swim and chase ducks. And I got to swim and chase ducks today, too. That's why today was such a good day. (Well, except for the being stuck under the bed part.)

My people got their Camelbaks ready and loaded the car. Usually, this means something good is about to happen... like we are going to go somewhere FUN! But sometimes, I am still not sure if I'm allowed to go. Then they invited me in the car, and I KNEW it was going to be time for an adventure! I LOVE when I get to go in the car. Car rides are fun. I don't know why my mommy and daddy don't always take me in the car, but when they do, we always have a good time!!!!!!!

So we went to my favorite place EVER! Stanley Canyon!!! I once heard my daddy say it's on the "Care Horse Nacadimy" but I don't know what that means. Anyway, we drove in this big road that led to another road, and some man said hi to my daddy through the car window and my daddy showed the man some little card or something. I don't understand why those people on the road always like to say hi to whoever's driving... but anyway, we made it to the parking lot at my favorite place!

I love to swim. That's why I like this trail so much. There's water the WHOLE WAY! It's the BEST! We hiked and hiked and the leaves were a pretty yellow color on some of the trees. I walked alongside my daddy when we were almost to the top.


We made it to the top... where there's the big pond. I think it's called a "rezevore" or something. I don't know how to spell that. I'm a dog. I swam lots and lots and chased ducks around. I get sort of frustrated because I can't catch them! They are just too fast, and when I get close, they fly away. I wish I could just get one of them! Just one. I haven't decided what I would do with it if I ever caught one, but I would think of something. Maybe they have squeakers. Like my duck at home. I want to find out someday. They sure smell good.

I was very happily tired when we got home. I even got to have some extra treats when we got home because my people seem to know when I'm extra hungry and they give me something to snack on. But tonight, I got shredded chicken, AND chips and salsa! (Pico de Gallo is my favorite. My birthday is March 29 and I would love some for my birthday!)

I hope I don't have too many dreams tonight that make me run in my sleep. If I do, I might push myself under the bed again and then Mommy and Daddy would laugh extra hard if I got stuck again.

Bye!

San Francisco and Camping

Wow, so I am WAAYYY behind on keeping everyone updated here! Sorry for the delay, but here I will attempt to get everyone caught up on our goings-on. :)


So, in November (of 2009) Brian and I got to fly out to San Francisco and be a part of his best friend's (Kurt's) wedding. It was GORGEOUS there! We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge a few times, ate wonderful Sourdough bread, and relaxed on Pier 39. The wedding was simply beautiful, too! It was in a Catholic Church and the reception was at an unbelievably breathtaking winery. Brian got to be the Best Man, which he really enjoyed. (And he was very handsome in his uniform!! ;) ) I will attach a few pictures here, but there's no way to do it justice!

In December, I (Sara) had foot surgery... nothing too major, just a little bunionette that needed to be surgically broken and reshaped. In March, I had the plate and screws removed... and on the same day I went in for that minor surgery, Tundra had a knee replacement! She was a trooper, but I'm sure it was painful. She has recovered quickly and has been hiking a lot this summer with her new knee! No more limping, which makes me and Brian happy. Here is a picture of her right after her surgery with her ice-machine-ice-pack on her knee. This was her comfy recovery position... ice pack, a pillow between her knees, and her toy birdies.

Brian got a new job and is currently working at USAA. The job keeps him busy, but at least it's a somewhat solid job. In today's economy, job security is everything! Here is a picture of Brian on his first day at his new job.

We have had the privilege of doing lots of hiking and some camping this summer. We have hiked Pikes Peak (up the back way - through the Crags) and Stanley Canyon. I have done lots of trips on Section 16 and other local trails. Unfortunately, we usually only have the availability of doing one backpacking trip per summer (logistics of getting time off, etc.) so this year we thought we'd try backpacking up to a place that's situated between 2 fourteeners (Mt. Huron and Mt. Missouri, near Buena Vista).

It was our intent to pitch camp on the day we arrived and then hike up one peak the next day and the other peak the following day and then come home. With the best of intentions, we set out hiking up Mt. Huron after setting up camp the day prior. We got an early start and the weather was beautiful! Oh, and our campsite was absolutely perfect. It was level, soft, had a beautiful view and a nice big fire pit nearby. Anyway, we set out to hike up Mt. Huron. The route we were taking was a "back" way and so the trail wasn't well-used (or well-marked) but we were making good time up the face of the mountain nonetheless. Finally, after scrambling and bouldering and scrambling some more, we came to a high point on the ridge of the mountain. From there, we could see the peak of Mt. Huron - but there was a rocky, spiney, treacherous distance of ridge we would need to hike in order to get to the top. Since there were pretty steep drops on either side of the narrow "trail" - we decided it wasn't worth the risk and we came back down.

On the way down, though, I got a horrible leg cramp that would not release no matter what I did. I stretched, massaged, ate potassium-rich snacks I had brought along... nothing worked. All the way down, it felt like my hamstring was being wound up like a guitar string. Upon reaching camp, I went immediately for the multivitamin I had brought along, thinking that if I hydrated well and gave my body some extra nutrients, it would release the cramp. Turns out that a little chipmunk thought he'd like to try my vitamins first! He literally ate a hole through the bag they were in and opened the pill box off in the trees. It was kind of funny! I found a vitamin in the dirt and blew it off, then gulped it down. :)

So, as I'm hobbling around camp with my stupid leg cramp, Brian is preparing a snack for us that requires boiling water. Usually not a big deal for us... but we were both so exhausted from hiking that he somehow dribbled a little of the boiling water down his hiking boot and so his ankle got a nice burn on it! :( After seeing the skin that was beginning to bubble up on his ankle and me with my cramp that STILL wasn't letting go, we decided to pack it up and go home.

It was too bad it didn't work out. It was really a beautiful place with the lake nearby and the awesome scenery. We had perfect weather, and the deer around camp took our breath away. But it was time to leave, so we did. Maybe we will return someday! The four-wheeling road to get there was fun enough in and of itself to return someday and do it again!














































So, after having a not-so-pleasant camping experience there, we thought we owed it to ourselves to have at least one good camping trip this summer. We decided to go to Stanley Canyon and backpack in with the dog. Tundra had a blast, everything went perfectly, and we had a very pleasant trip. Whew! :)

Tundra even loved swimming all day long in the reservoir, chasing ducks! Haha! I thought she might end up getting bit by one of the protective mama-ducks (since Tundra was chasing her little ducklings all over the water). But, turns out the ducks could swim just fast enough to stay away from the ever-curious Tundra-dog. Here she is, tired from swimming - and ready to go to sleep in her spot which was semi-in our tent. She also got to chase lots of squirrels around camp which also wore her out!!

As we were packing to leave the following day, we had the WEIRDEST coincidence of running into a friend of ours! She happened to be there that day (from Larkspur) and had happened to hike up the trail early enough to meet us, and HAPPENED to be a the off-the-trail-remote-location we had picked to set up camp. Weird. But cool.


Tundra did the incline for the FIRST time EVER today (August 13)! I am so proud of her. She was hot and panting like crazy! With her new knee, I wasn't sure how she would do, but she did great. We took lots of rest breaks along the way (I didn't want her to overdo it) and I kept her hydrated all the way up. Even with stopping so much, her time was 1:02. Way to go Tundra! :) And, another funny coincidence: I ran into a good friend of mine on the way down Barr Trail! What were the chances of that?! And she had even parked her car *literally* right next to me. How funny! :)

Pumpkin Carving

Brian and I have a tradition... now we've done it for 3 years (so I guess that makes it a tradition, right?). Every Halloween, we each pick out a pumpkin and carve a face! It's so fun. I love picking out our faces every hear and then drawing them and carving them. Check out our pumpkins this year!

Ghosthunting

On October 30th, I (Sara) decided to take a trip up to Cripple Creek and go on a ghost hunt! It was so much fun! Brian couldn't come with me, so I had to go on this adventure alone...

I had worked with a substitute teacher who is a member of a paranormal society here in Colorado Springs. He and I were talking about how much we both enjoyed the popular TV show Ghost Hunters when he mentioned that he often goes on ghost hunting trips with other members of his club. I thought it sounded very interesting... then he said that anyone could go and that there were a few ghost hunting trips scheduled throughout October in a Jailhouse Museum in Cripple Creek. So, needless to say, I signed up.

I got there around 8:00pm that night (the ghost hunt was scheduled from 8pm - 6am). They had very high-tech equipment and I was impressed at how they put so much effort into the camera angles and the "protocols" that we all followed. There were about 20 of us altogether on this trip. We split up into groups of 4-5 and wandered into different rooms/jail cells and tried to see if we could catch any disembodied voices/apparitions on any of our equipment.

We were welcome to bring our sleeping bags and crash in any cell of our choice when we got too tired to continue hunting ghosts. I chose a cell and laid out my things - later to find out that the cell I had chosen was apparently haunted. The last person to sleep in that cell claimed she heard a male voice ask, "What are you doing here?" Oddly, I wasn't intimidated. I felt fine and when it was time to go to sleep, I slept very soundly. :)

Personally, I didn't hear/see anything. It was a fun trip, though! I hope Brian can come with me on my next ghostly adventure...

Pikes Peak

There comes a time in every person's life when they are challenged to see what they are made of. Whether that challenge comes as an option is a completely different matter... some people choose to push the envelope a little bit, others need to do it as the road of life takes them over some "bumps." Either way, there are always challenges.

Certain challenges are fun! Take for example, our decision to conquer the mountain we see every day... Pikes Peak. It looms 14,110 feet above sea level, and still rises above our city by about 7,000 feet. It is gorgeous. It is awe-inspiring. And we conquered it!

(sorry, the pictures are a little bit out of order...)
After walking upward for 7.5 hours straight, we arrived at the visitor's station at the top and had to get a picture with a gold miner!

We stopped for a short break alongside a pretty stream. We were about 4 miles from the top!

Pretty view, huh?


I had to stop and "ice" my foot down in the freezing cold water when we stopped at the stream. My foot had gotten so painful at this point! (Wonderful plantar fasciitis makes hiking so much more interesting sometimes!) After doing this, however, the pain completely went away (thank the Lord!) and I could finish the hike pain-free. :)

We stopped at Barr Camp for about 15 minutes to eat our banana-peanut butter sandwiches and trail mix. We didn't stop for long because we didn't want our leg muscles to completely lock up on us! We had hiked 7 miles to Barr Camp and only had another 6 to go. We weren't about to let Pikes Peak get the best of us!

A few chipmunks also got to share our lunch with us... they were adorable!



This is a picture of the awesome beauty of Pikes Peak! As we rounded a corner on Barr Trail, there it was! We saw what we were going to climb.

This was actually the first glimpse we had of the peak as we rounded the corner on Barr Trail. Brian pointed it out to me and sure enough, there it was. (Admittedly, at this point, I was thinking that I would be perfectly content if we just made it to Barr Camp... but we made it the whole way!!)


About 2 miles from the top, Brian completely ran out of water. I wasn't sure how much water I had left since it seemed like I was having to put a little more effort into each sip of my Camelbak (that's what happens when it starts getting low). But, nonetheless, I thought if God could instantly fix my foot like He did at the creek, then He can provide enough water for us to make it to the top! :)

Sure enough, there was just enough water to get us up to the top plus about 3 more big gulps of it, and then it was out. I can't help but think that God was watching out for us... whether or not it was coincidence, I think it was pretty cool!

As soon as we got to the top, we were literally IN a cloud. The top of the cloud had socked us in and we couldn't see much. We heard thunder from the top of the cloud (it sounds really cool from the top!) and it began to rain a little.

We ate a delicious lunch inside the visitor's center and had some random people take our picture next to the Pikes Peak Summit sign. It was a really rewarding feeling to have made it to the top!

We were hoping to find 2 seats on a cog train that was heading back down, but every train that was still to come was completely booked full. Thank goodness for Glenn (Brian's mom's boyfriend!). Glenn saved the day! Fortunately, he lives pretty close to the Peak and came up and got us.

Later that night we sat in Brian's mom's (Mary's) hot tub and relaxed our tired muscles. Surprisingly, neither one of us were very sore the next day! Even after hiking 13 miles over 7.5 hours straight, we were surprised at how not sore we were!

I think I hear the Peak calling my name again sometime soon... ;)

My Muddy Buddy

So... a few days ago, we decided to go mountain biking in one of our favorite places to bike - Ute Valley. There were a few clouds in the sky, but hey - we live in Colorado. That doesn't always mean much. So we packed up the bikes and we were on the trail in no time.

We had been biking for all of 5 minutes when it started to rain! We got off of our bikes and found a tree that somewhat sheltered us from the rain - but we still ended up getting pretty wet!

The rain finally let up and then we hit the trail again... BUT it was MUDDY!!


We tried to keep going for awhile, but our tires got so packed with mud that they had no tread whatsoever and we were just sliding around on the trail like we were on a muddy Slip-and-Slide!



So... we headed back on the paved trail after we finally made it out of the quagmire we were in. As we picked up speed on the paved trail back to the truck, massive amounts of mud came flying off of our tires and our bikes!

Both bikes (and both of us!) got a good bath when we got back home.

Lesson learned: never bike in thick clay-like mud! :)

Marmots, Pink Elephants, and Icebergs - Oh, My!

Since Sara loves wildflowers and Brian loves marmots, we found a place to go backpacking that would have both. We decided to go to Lake Dorothy which is just outside of Boulder, Colorado. We left for our trip on July 20th and headed for the Fourth of July Campground to "car camp" one night and then head up the mountain to Lake Dorothy the next day. On Monday (the 20th) when we got to the campground, it wasn't too busy... but when we left on Wednesday, it was PACKED! WOW! We were so glad we had come up when we did because otherwise we wouldn't have had any place to even park the truck! :)

So we camped the first night there on our cushy air mattress and enjoyed eating our delicious hobo dinners and then crashing in the tent.

The next morning, we packed our things up and got our backpacks ready for the climb up. It was about a 3-mile climb, and it was pretty tame in comparison with our last two backpacking trips. We only gained about two-thousand feet on this one... so, not bad. Oh, and the wildflowers on the trail were breathtaking! We saw everything from Monk's Hood to Columbines and Cow Parsnip and Delphinium. I was THRILLED when I found the flower I had never seen before but had always wanted to see: Pink Elephant. My favorite animal is the elephant and the fact that there is a wildflower (which I love flowers, anyway) that looks like an elephant's head is incredible! (It's the first picture...)
On the hike up, we also had a breathtaking view of a HUGE waterfall... it was incredible! It was really running, too... guess there is still a lot of snow melt to feed the waterfall.
There was so much water we walked through, over, and next to on the way up! It was such a gorgeous hike; we could see why it was such a popular trail. There was one pretty big waterfall we crossed over by jumping from rock to rock. Fun!

As we neared the top of the mountain, it got pretty windy. It had been warm on the way up, but as soon as it started to get windy, it also got chilly. We were almost to Lake Dorothy, though... so we just pushed through the wind. There were times that the wind was so strong that it was pushing me sideways (my backpack acted as a big sail!). Once we arrived at the lake, we dipped into a slight valley, so the wind was a bit better.

We found a really cool windbreak shelter that was right next to the lake and pitched our tent next to it so we could use the structure for cooking. After our tent was set up and we had things somewhat arranged, we hiked around the lake and did some exploring.

There was still a lot of snow in the area and even a few icebergs on the lake! One of the floating icebergs was right on one of the shores that we explored and Brian couldn't resist... he had to try to jump onto it! He made it!

There were some mouse-like creatures that we heard first - and then we began to see them darting around on the rocks... but they were bigger than mice. They were about the size of small rabbits! At first, we thought they were baby marmots. But after seeing several of them, we realized that they were not baby marmots, but something else... but what? We had never seen anything like these little guys! They made a cute little squeaking noise. After getting back home and researching it, we found out that they were little "pikas." Come to find out, the anime character Pikatchu isn't a made up little animal after all! Pikatchu is a Pika!

We saw a marmot, too. During the first day when we were there, we only saw the one same marmot hanging around the lake. We never heard any marmot noises (which is a squeak-like noise, but not quite like the Pika noise). "Hmm," we thought. "Maybe he is the only one around here for some reason?" He did have some scars on his back which indicated that maybe he had been in a marmot-scrap and lost. An outcast marmot, perhaps? Fortunately, the next day we did some more hiking around camp and found some others. Whew! There were more up there and the poor little guy wasn't alone. :) This is a picture of the one marmot that was hanging around camp. Brian has a new favorite animal! Marmots are so cute (and funny to watch!).
The night after we made camp, we cooked ourselves some yummy Mountain House dinners (freeze-dried meals that really are quite tasty... just add boiling water). We had green beans and beef stew and hot chocolate and tea. It was a delicious meal! (Brian can certainly cook a good meal!)Even after we ate all of that, we were still a little hungry. Fortunately, Brian had packed an extra meal - Mexican Rice and Chicken. It smelled so good and tasted great.

After dinner, we brushed our teeth and got ready for bed... even though it was only about 8:00pm - we were exhausted. There was still a bit of daylight left, too, which was amazing. I wanted to badly to stay awake and see the stars, so Brian did his best to keep me awake by talking to me and playing Uno (our favorite game!). After beating him at several games in a row, darkness had finally come and we poked our heads outside our cozy tent and gazed at the night sky. It was so cool to see all the stars that are normally washed out by city lights. We were able to clearly see the milky way!

Sleep came easily to us both after such a fun, long day of hiking and playing outside.

I was unaware of when Brian got up and left the tent in the middle of the night... until I heard him outside on the rocks nearby hurling up his Mexican Rice and Chicken! I was dreaming one minute, and then woke up to realize that he really wasn't next to me and he really was outside getting sick! Oh no! (There is always that moment of denial where you say, "No, this isn't happening!")

I found my poor husband out there getting sick in the middle of the night! There wasn't much I could do besides give him hugs and pray that he would feel better. Poor Brian had a throbbing headache and lost pretty much everything in his stomach. :( Finally, after some "midnight star-gazing" we went back to bed (and took some Rolaids that I so conveniently remembered to pack!).

In the morning, Brian felt all better! Wow, I was relieved.

We wanted to try hiking up to the top of Mount Neva which overlooked Lake Dorothy, so we hiked around the back side of the mount after eating some breakfast. On the trail over, we saw some very interesting looking birds... I believe they were White-Tailed Ptarmigans. The hike up the back side of the mount was a climb, but worth the view! We overlooked Lake Dorothy and could just barely see our little tent amongst the rocks. (Can you see the little black speck in the upper left corner near the lake? That was the shelter we found... our tent was right next to it.) We didn't quite make it to the top of Mount Neva, but we were totally satisfied with where we did make it to. It was a very pretty view! We hiked back down to camp and figured it was time to pack things up and start heading back down the mountain. So after paking up our sleeping bags, our tent, and everything else, we said goodbye to the marmots and the pikas and started back out on the trail leading down.

The wildflowers took my breath away on the way down just as much as they did on the way up! What a pretty trail.

Stinky and sweaty, we piled our stuff into the truck and headed home. It was a great trip! I hope that eventually we can get to a point that we can go more often. I'm just glad that I have such a mountain man to go campin' with! :)