House Hunting in Sugarloaf

The house we are renting is fine. Odd architecture but a completely fenced acre for the Hud - complete with bunnies (and a coyote one night before we closed the gate) for his amusement



The town of Greenwood Village is south of Denver (Boulder is north) and while nice and safe rather boring. This is Denver - not Greenwood Village



Last Saturday we began looking at houses in Boulder. We got a pretty decent snowfall that day and through the night. This was the beginning (as we headed into Boulder)



Later that night at our house



The next morning



Just one mile up the road from our house is Cherry Creek State Park. Great for running, especially with the Hud. He's a big fan of foxes



Yesterday Maureen and I went to a town called Parker to meet up with some friends and do a 5K. I ran a pretty fast time for me, a 7:48/mile pace. I thought it was my fastest in years but I had done a 7:29/mile pace in Carnation, WA last year. That was at an elevation of 82' whereas Parker, CO is at 5,869'

Today Hudson and I went to Boulder for a run and to check out one of the houses Maureen will be looking at tomorrow. -17 and several snowfalls of significance gave way to sun and 65. Weird weather

Denver was calm but Boulder was really windy in places - you can see the snow blowing off the mountains



We tried to get a run in at Flatirons Vista but I needed something better than a baseball hat. We drove up to Sports Authority where I bought a touque and lost my glasses. We tried Wonderland but after 30 seconds a strong gust spun us around and I was worried that Hudson with his big ears would be blown away. We decided instead to check out the house on Sugarloaf Road

We aren't sure we will buy in the mountains after what we went through. Plus Sugarloaf got hit with a big fire in 1989 - the Black Tiger fire

The drive begins with 5-miles up Boulder Canyon (CO-119). This has pros (major road = plowed in winter) and cons (major road = jackasses)







A tunnel - definitely a pro. Not many of my friends can say "take a right about a mile after you go through the tunnel"





A curvy road with the possibility of a fiery car crash - a negative





High fire danger in February while there is snow on the ground - totally a negative and seems wrong



Sanitation treatment plant - a push



Fire station - a big positive



Living in a National Forest - a positive



Random shots of the 4-miles up Sugarloaf past neighbourhoods with names like "Millionaire", "Lost Angel", "Mountain Meadows" and "Old Post Office"











Nearing the house. This is the road that leads to Sugarloaf Mountain (8,912' and from the house would be a nice 3-mile run with 900' of elevation) and the Switzerland Trail. The Switzerland Trail was actually a narrow-gauge railroad in the mountains that wandered around to places like Gold Hill, Ward and Nederland. Now they are excellent hiking trails (or so I have read)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_Trail
http://switzerlandtrail.blogspot.com/



Views from the road in front of the house - mountains and horses





The driveway - can't see the house from the road



HAHA. More friends for Hudson



Potential neighbours



Neighbours who run over mailboxes and don't care enough to leave the scene - very negative (unless it's his mailbox, then a huge positive as this is a guy to party with)



One last look but can't see the house. The property is on almost 10 acres



View towards Boulder



The rest of this week will be mild and sunny