Gathering with Friends in Estes Park

Eleven couples. Two leaders passionate about seeing marriages thrive. One crisp, but sunny, overnight in Estes Park, CO.

Steve and Linda Nuss gathered us together like a rooster and mother hen guarding their chicks last weekend. Some of us were from their current marriage home group (format includes Jimmy and Karen Evans’ DVD, “Building Emotional Intimacy”), which will end in a couple of weeks. (Chet and I participate in that one.) Some of us were from the group they hosted last fall. Others were from GriefShare: Recovering from the Losses in Life that Steve and Linda started  in our church. At one point they oversaw about eight small GriefShare groups within the larger circle. Who knows where the other couples came from???

Between 3 pm and 5 pm Friday afternoon, we gathered on site at the Estes Park YMCA, which has a lot of construction popping up all over the 800-plus acres with new buildings, lodges and cabins mushrooming. We stayed in one of the nicer lodges, Wind River Lodge,  and the atmosphere around the weekend was casual and loose. It included lots of fellowship with family-style dinner together at three tables in the Dining Hall (buffet) Friday night and breakfast on Saturday morning. 

In the dark on Friday night, about eight vehicles caravaned around the property trying to find our fire ring  – backtracking a few times. We finally found the spot and settled on benches and our lawn chairs in front of a roaring fire stoked by three of the guys. Chuck Greenfield plunked beautiful worship songs on his guitar as some cuddled up in blankets. I led the charge on roasting marshmallows for our S’mores. Interestingly, it was the guys who did most of the talking, or led out on songs. I guess the women folk had used up their 50,000 words already with the excitement of meetin’, greetin’ and eatin’!

After breakfast the next morning, we packed up our stuff, checked out and headed for Meeting Room C, around several tables pushed together like a board meeting, where Steve and Linda passed out a handout and Ed Smith delivered a teaching via tape  relevant to developing intimacy in marriage.

The sun beat down on a gorgeous spring day and I did not want to leave Estes Park right away. Chet and I serendipidously met up with some of the gang and met at “Kind” coffee – found the perfect table with a full picture window view of the creek and path out the back. We casually sipped our lattes and smoothies and attempted a few games of Mexican Train Dominoes (though without the Mexican nor the train, because we couldn’t figure that part out).

Our little group (the Greenfields, Ketters, Chet and I) enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing afternoon before heading back down to Denver again.

It was a great way for me to spend my birthday.

Thank you, Steve and Linda, for all your hard work and for organizing an awesome marriage building get-away!!!

Cycling Heaven, Part 2 – Tooling around Frisco, CO!

I remember only about three years ago when Dillon lake was a pitiful sight – half the water was drained leaving ugly brown scrub and mud. The Colorado drought dried up our tourist-loving waterways and lakes. It warmed my heart to see the clear blue water lapping up all the way to the edge of the Marina during my bike ride.

 

 

Of course I have to include this photo of the lighthouse at the Frisco Marina. Don’t laugh, those of you who know me! Since I collect lighthouse replicas, it is only proper that I collect one on my blog!

The women’s mentoring group that I have been participating in for over three years (seven of us on the leadership team at this time – you’ll learn more about this crazy group as time goes on) has acquired quite an affinity for tandem bikes; it is a wonderful metaphor for us. We ride Tandem with Jesus – let Him take the Captain, or front seat, in our lives. We also ride the tandem journey with some awesome younger women.

Sept 6 Open Book Ministries had our very first fall First Saturday gathering and I was given the role of sharing our “illustrated message.” Vicki Bustos and I called all over town trying to find a tandem bike to use as a demonstration. We could not find one anywhere! We came very close to strapping a brand new one on top of Vic’s SUV – but didn’t. You can read the essence of my message, titled “When Riding Tandem, Somebody Has to Be Second!” HERE – in which I faked it in Marsha Dunn’s back yard using my regular mountain bike and a clip art of a tandem bike with its two riders atop taped to the cross bar!

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this bicycle shop in Frisco that was actually selling its rentals from last year. One of the salesguys (he may have been the owner, for all I know) enthusiastically answered every question I had about tandem bikes. They had two different kinds. The one pictured here is  a model that has been on the market for only three years. It is a new concept in tandem riding: it is designed for an adult and a child, and the child sits in the front. That almost blows the concept of having the Captain in front, as I talked about in my presentation at First Saturday – except for the fact that the child has no control over the steering or brakes. It makes a lot of sense to allow the child to be in front so he or she can actually enjoy the view.

So now we know, ladies, where we can rent a tandem bike!

CUTE ALERT!!! As I was leaving the bike shop, a cart of 3-year-olds rolled by! One adult was pushing this darling custom-made wagon while another walked alongside.

“How did you get so many little ones?” I asked.

“These are kids from our day care,” one of the proud adults answered. They agreed to pose for a quick photo before rolling on down the street, probably for lunch and a nappy.   

This is a typical creature carving you’ll find in these mountain town resorts.
Mr. Moose here is perhaps larger than most.

It was getting close to 4 p.m. and I needed to head back to Copper Mountain to turn in my bike rental. But before I did, I saw this hilarious sign posted in one of the retail shops:

Do you notice the fine print? They even have a web site: www.TheEvilPineBeetle.com! My family has had its share of warding off Evil Pine Beetles at our small historic cabin in Allenspark! See the post about Tree Dudes, dear husband Chet and Steve Nuss as they cut over 125 trees one weekend last spring. (Only a few of them were actually beetle-infested. We were working with the local and state forest service to prevent the problems that have occurred on this side of the mountain.)

Finally, it was time to head back to Copper Mountain. I did not realize that my 25-minute journey downhill to Frisco would become an hour-and-a-half huffing and puffing bike trek back! Needless to say, I did not make it in time to turn the bike in before the shop closed at 5 p.m.

 

 

 

Cycling Heaven! Part 1…

Knowing how much I love to ride, Chet rented me a bike on Tuesday while he was working the RMRPPR Trade Show in Copper Mountain. I didn’t get a chance to use it until that afternoon as I needed to work on my books for Good Catch Publishing.

But at 3:00 Mountain Time, I was whizzing across Highway 70 to catch the bike trail from Copper to Frisco. What breathtaking scenery on a perfect fall day! From trailhead to trailhead, it was 7.6 miles of bike path flanked on one side by a rushing creek and on the other still ponds with Canadian geese, yellow-green aspen, evergreens and mountainside rock.

“I LOVE THIS!” I kept saying to noone in particular, thoroughly enjoying to ride. “This IS THE LIFE!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took me only 25 minutes to get to Frisco.  Good thing I enjoyed the cool breeze, colors and natural surroundings on the way down…little did I realize I would be heaving and heaving up the hill for an hour and a half pedalling mostly in gear 1-1 on the way back! Payback time!

As I entered Frisco, I saw a very peculiar sight…rock creatures to my left and right! Either space aliens landed in this pristine mountain area and decided to create self-portrait sculptures…or some bored kids were having a bit of fun! I tend to think the latter…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one even has the ring in its snout.

Riding through Frisco on the path reminded me of my walks with Jan Tennyson, Director of Dare to Dream Children’s Foundation. We holed up for several days in one of the gorgeous mountain homes banging away at Part One of her Dare to Dream book. We worked hard, ate good food and took walks around the lake and on the path. Frisco is a darling little resort town. I fantasized what it would be like to live there year around.

Who would have thought that one would run across a Cart o’ Kids wheeling its way down Main Street? And guess what Open Book Mentors and Mentees – I found two different kinds of Tandem bikes to rent – or buy! Also, took a refreshing walk around the Marina. Many of the boats were moored there, but quite a few the owners had pulled out of the water and parked in winter quarters. AND – most surprising of all – I discovered, in an effort to ward off a very serious problem that has ravaged the landscape, the quirky humor of the small mountain town folks …

All these and more in the next blog entry! (Awwww, shucks!!!)

Chet Works the Trade Show

While I am having a blast traveling the stunning colorful fall bike path and exploring the small mountain town of Frisco, CO, my dear husband Chet is working his heart out at the Rocky Mountain Region Promotional Products (RMRPPR) tradeshow. (I will have to say, I worked my job as book project manager for Good Catch Publishing on my laptop in the condo until late lunch time.)

He bought a box lunch for both of us, so I snuck over around 1 p.m. and sat with him for a while, munching while Chet helped customers.

Chet is a manufacturer sales rep in four states – Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona – for several lines of sporting apparel. The two lines he was showing here were his top-producing line, Holloway (whose corporate office is in Ohio) and the fast up-and-coming fun line, Boxercraft.

Although it is hard to trace product sales to a specific show or road trip, Chet felt really good about this one: he said he got to talk to a number of people interested in the apparel.

It’s a wonder I actually got Chet to pose for a photo – and SMILE!!!

Hiking in Copper Mountain, Part 2

 

On our hike, Chet and I viewed the beautiful town of Copper Mountain, built around a ski resort from the mountain across the highway. Though the tourist center tries to attract people for the summer sports, such as bicycling and golf, Copper Mountain’s mainstay is still the winter ski season.

As we neared a forest area on our path, an interesting homo sapien confronted us. At first, it looked like a soldier wearing fatiues with mud on his face, carrying a weapon. We soon learned this was Bob and here at 10:30 am, he was returning from an unsuccessful day of bow hunting.

It is archery season here. Bob says 15 years ago he decided he wanted to hunt elk, but took up this method for more of a challenge.

“I heard one bugling this morning,” he told us. “But some horse outfitters who travelled the trails recently must ‘ave mostly scared ‘em off.” Bugling, for those of you who may not know, is when the male elk call out for females during mating season. It also happens to be hunting season.

The day was perfect, with a refreshing cool breeze blowing; the sky was chrystaline blue, no clouds. The air smelled a bit musky. At first Chet thought that could be elk scent, then ruled it out. A stereophonic buzzing filled the air all around us, especially up the mountain. Very loud grasshoppers? Chet thought they were dragonflies and my DH even gave a poetic description: “neon lights burning out.”

The rocks were very colorful and had more character than any other mountain rocks I’ve encountered.

Sadly, this resort area has not esaped the brown that has blemished so much of the green Rocky Mountain landscape. Pine Beetle infested trees.  In the next entry, I’ll tell you of a humorous way the mountain community is fighting the epidemic the end of the month…

Hiking in Copper Mountain, Part 1

Chet and I hiked along the beautiful Gore Mountain Range on Monday! It was a perfect, cool day, in the 60s, with the sun warming us at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet.

Why are we here in Copper Mountain? It is Chet’s annual Rocky Mountain Region Promotional Products (RMRPP) show, where he brings his Holloway and Boxercraft wares to show to distributers. (He’s a manufacturer’s rep for several lines of sporting apparel.) And Chet invited me to come with him.

He made reservations for us to stay three nights at the Passage Point condos. Since we are in the off-season – between summer vacations and winter skiing, and just before  the full-fledge colorful burst of the Rocky Mountain fall colors, it is almost deserted here. Only four restaurants are open in the entire village.

The RMRPPR show itself would run only 1 1/2 days – half a day for set-up, Monday afternoon, and all day Tuesday. Because Chet and I had some extra time Monday morning, we decided to go for a hike.

The trail ran along I-70. As we crunched along the gravel path, a cool breeze tickled our long sleeve shirts. To our left were small shallow ponds. The aspen trees nestled among the pines were hinting at changing color; most were green with flashes of gold.

 

 

 

 

 

The photos speak for themselves, wouldn’t you say?

While walking along the path, we encountered an interesting character. In the next post I will TELL ALL!

Kudos to the Faithful Bloggers!

I congratulate those of you who faithfully add to your blogs day after day! It ain’t easy! I have written a thousand blog entries in my head since I started this blog in May! Very few of them have made it into WordPress.

I don’t like to write simple entries. The insatiably curious journalist in me will not leave well enough alone; if I start writing about something – say, the interesting color of the rocks in Copper Mountain, I want to know how they got that way. Was this town founded on mining copper? Do companies still excavate? How many tons of copper were lifted from the place at its peak? And as I observe the rocks seem to be more extraordinarily colorful and striated than other rocks I’ve seen throughout many hikes throughout Colorado, I want to know if that is merely my imagination, or if I have discovered a true gem of information.

See what I mean? I can’t leave it alone! Then I have to go out on the web, searching and searching till I find these answers. And, of course, in the process, I will discover many other nuggets (no pun intended!)

And, of couse I want YOU to know what I know, I so I add links to these websites. I also realize that if I were to actually write out all the information I find, my blog would be way too LONG – one of the cardinal sins of blogging. And besides, I’d like to give you the option of clicking on the link – or not. You may not care like I do!

Do I have the time to do that? It entails not simply downloading photos, but putting them in the computer and logging them in so I know where to find them later.  And  of course, uploading them into the blog; a blog entry without photos is a boring blog! No matter how fantastic  the writing, people like pictures! Since I carry my camera around almost everywhere (got a huge purse for that very reason), taking the photos is not usually the problem. But taking the right photos, the photos that illustrate my blog points, now that takes some thinking! Or I have to write my blog around the photos I took. This takes some storytelling technique. Plus – and this is where I get hung up the most – do I know where my downloading cable is to download the photosrrect spot on my hard drive with the correct labels so I can find them later. (This is a photo I took yesterday while hiking with Chet in Copper Mountain. More about that later – if I can get around to it!)

And even though you may have the latest and greatest computer equipment and internet connection, it may still be painfully slow waiting for even one image to upload! You get tired of finding other things to do while you wait!

Phew! By now, no matter how many times I’ve written that blog entry in my head, the chances of it getting into my blog are very small!

Can you relate AT ALL???

Maybe not.

Which is why give those of you who actually complete a blog entry a CYBER STAR for your faithful blogging!

Conquering Bear Mountain

By Guest Blogger, Luke Lindstrom (14 years old)

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A piercing scream that could shatter windows entered my ears as I lay on the couch in the downstairs apartment of Nana and Grandpa’s house. The sun had just peeked over the mountains that morning. I realized it was one of my baby sisters (twins) making it known to all of us it was time for breakfast. I tried to ignore it to the best of my ability and rolled over, covering my ears. A few minutes later I gave up and came to her rescue…again.

Then I remembered what day this was: this was the day we would Conquer Bear Mountain! Opa (Mama’s father) knocked on the door. We had all our hiking equipment packed – Mama, Nathan, Mark and I.  We had a great guide because Opa has climbed almost all of the 14ers in the Western Hemisphere, not just Colorado. Mark was a last-minute recruit. We all wondered if he would make it because he’s only 10 years old and not used to the altitude.

We only drove a mile to the trailhead, but it seemed like hours because we were so thrilled and extremely anxious to get going. We scrambled out of the Subaru and bolted for the trail. The first thing we saw was a river. We crossed the bridge and wound around through a maze of bushes to get to the path that would take us up Bear Mountain. Because it was the beginning, everyone was full of energy and we were making good speed. We took a turn and faced a new trail that was quite steep. I took special note of this corner, but I wished I had paid even more attention.

On  our way, we met a lady coming down. She was very tired and asked, “Are you guys going up to Bear Mountain?”

“Yes we are.”

“Well good luck!” she said. “I’ve tried four times and I’ve never made it.”

After she left, Opa said, “Don’t worry. We’ll get there.”

I knew I had to make it up there. I had tried to climb to the top of Mount Audubon about five years ago and failed.

We kept hiking until we got to a hiking trail also used for a firefighting road, for putting out forest fires. We eventually stopped to put our noses to the pine tree bark and it smelled like vanilla and butterscotch. All but Mark, who was tired and laid down on the gravel road.

Opa commented to Mama, “I really don’t think he’ll make it.”

Mama, undeterred, decided to pick up Mark and put him on her back. That lasted all of 30 seconds. “This won’t work.”

We kept going and eventually got off the road and onto the mountain path.

Nathan thought he spotted a deer. And I saw it too – but thought it was the tail of a squirrel. Along the way, we spotted a very large rock and Nathan, Mark and I climbed on top of it and found a very large…ant hill! We named this rock “The Big Rock.”

We had been hiking for about four hours now and we were all getting tired so Opa and Mama guessed how many steps it would take to get to the saddle. Mama guessed 700. Opa guessed 1000. It took exactly 1,100 steps! We took a little break, ate our granola bars and rested before heading up on our final trek to the Summit.

Even though it was cloudy and windy, we could see several miles from the mountain. We were on the other side, so we didn’t see Boulder; just a few houses and trees. It was beautiful. We finally got to a stopping point and there were two paths. The sign did not clearly tell us which path to take. While waiting for the others to catch up, I scouted out one of the paths. When I went back to the fork, Opa was there and told us to take the other one, so we did, and that was the shorter way to the Summit.

It was very, very steep. Mark and Opa stayed about 20 feet below the Summit. But Mama, Nathan and I took those few steps to the top of the mountain. It was a little cloudy, but still the view was spectacular. And it was a thrill to me to know I had finally gotten to the top of a mountain. Yes, we conquered Bear Mountain!

Little did I know the most painful part was yet to come. For, three quarters of the way down, Mama asked if I could run to my grandparents’ house and get someone to pick us up. (Opa was going to stay longer on the mountain.) I said, “Sure, I’ll go.”

I was running downhill very fast and heard a noise. So I picked up a stick and kept on running, thinking that might have a cougar, because some have been sighted there. So I ran faster than before and then I heard a commotion around “The Corner.” Not paying attention to where I was running, I hit a rock, spun around. While I was lying there, I thought, oh great, I have a long ways to go. Well, I’d better get up and keep going. When I got up, I realized I had twisted my ankle and ended up limping all the way home. I met Nana and explained the situation and we got in her car and got the others. Mark and the rest of them were truly grateful because they had been on their feet for six hours straight.

Back home, I sat in the chair with and ice pack on my ankle, I realized that part of Conquering Bear Mountain was more than getting to the Summit. You had to get back home again too.

Tree Dudes Attack the Beetle Trees!

Our wonderful friends, Steve and Linda Nuss offered to come to the family cabin in Allenspark, CO to cut down trees marked by a state forest ranger. As most of you know, the pine beetles have ravaged the Grand Lake area, on the west side of the Continental Divide. We are all working hard to try and fend off the devastating effects on our side.

The two Tree Dudes - Chet under the masterful tutalege of Dude Steve – felled over 125 trees Friday afternoon and Saturday, May 30 & 31! Very few of them actually had pine beetles. Part of their mission from the ranger was also to thin the forest. They did not have to cut branches and chop the trees, nor wrap and stack them. The National Forest Firefighters offered to come by and chip them with their huge machines.

I am going to attempt to post a brief video shot of Chet felling one of the larger beetle trees behind the cabin at the end of these photos. It was the first time I’d ever taken video with my new Sony digital still photo camera, and had no idea if it would work, or even if I would be able to get the tree in the shot! But I think you will enjoy the Tree Dude Victory and the Victory shout!

(I have run out of time and can’t get the video posted – will have to do so at a later time – come back and watch the Big Fall!!!)