Green Mountain & Teller Farms

Boulder's outdoor rink downtown



After his fight Thursday, took Hudson up Green Mountain on Friday. The summit was covered in clouds





Pics from a super sunny and very cool & breezy run through Teller Farms









Sunset

Sunrise

A beautiful but cold morning. Hudson and I ran up Mount Sanitas as the sun was rising

Cherry Creek & Dry Creek

Went to Denver Tuesday to catch up with Mike Kirk over lunch and a smoothie. Went to Cherry Creek State Park - my running home in 2011 from February through early June. A few pics - as nice as it was





Chubby Prairie Dog



Pics from Dry Creek this morning

Moon high in the sky at sunrise

Dry Creek & Green Mountain West on a Windy Friday

Today was a tough day at work for a few reasons: I had to write six annual reviews for my team (boredom but important) and I was hung over (not exactly - just groggy with the taste of whiskey lingering)

Started off taking Hudson to Dry Creek - great sunrise to the east and alpenglow on the Indian Peaks to the west





Here is 10 seconds of trying to keep pace with Hud



After the first 3 reviews were done I took a break and we drove up Flagstaff Road to Green Mountain West to summit Green Mountain - Hud's 4th time

Great view of Bear / saddle / South Boulder



Here is 16 seconds of Hud on the trail. This was a good section - many section had pretty deep drifts



On the very windy summit

Six Months

Sunrise yesterday from the summit of Mount Sanitas



I have an office now here at the Boulder rental as the owner moved her stuff out. It's nice - instead of working in the dark basement I can look outside. It definitely helps pass the time on calls. The neighbour's cat is particularly amusing



So - yesterday at 9:55pm MST was 6 months since my last cigarette. Thus I won:

- $500 cash
- $100 bottle of good whiskey
- A night of drinking / talking the Vancouver Canucks with my Chicago pal in Denver
- A smoothie

Could not have done it without Scott Anderson back in Seattle

Today it snowed so Hudson and I got out early before the inevitable auto accidents during the morning commute. He was able to do his first summit of Mount Sanitas (he blends in - especially the second pic)

Hogback & Bear Peak

Views from Hogback Ridge trail on Thursday





Later that night - spooky clouds



Views from Bear Peak on Friday







Thankfully we have microspikes - otherwise the icy trail would be sketchy



Haha! Santa brought us a book on Rocky Mountain scat and tracks. I'll need to check this out. Haha!

Colorado & Manitou Springs

Strange sunrise on the drive down New Year's Day



Pikes Peak (I did just read it is not Pike's Peak - it once was)



After the race we went to Manitou Springs which sounded like an amazingly quaint historic town at the foot of Pikes Peak. It was both quaint but also cheesy - somewhere between Niagara Falls and Breckenrdige





We made it through Denver as the Broncos were playing Kansas City. I say they'll lose 24-9 to Pittsburgh this weekend (I'm feeling confident in predicting as I won $130 in my old Hewlett Packard Finance Department NFL pool this season)