More snow

It snowed around 4" here in town last night and this morning. Jeff made it up to Beaver Creek today during lunch and said there was a good 14" of snow where he did some backcountry skiing and the main mountain had around 8". I may make it out tomorrow for a couple hours.

The X-Games were fun to see, but the crowd was bad by late afternoon. You can actually see better from your living room looking at the TV, but being there was neat. The mens and womens slopestyle finals were going on while we were there but you had to watch it on a huge screen then turn to see them come over the final jump. We also saw the womens finals in snowboarder racing, but it was the same with the big screen.

The one race we were up close to was the elimination round for the snowmobile snowcross. We saw a couple wrecks up close. There was a jump behind us that they were clearing around 120' on and were at least 30' in the air. I've seen it on motorcycles before but a 6 or 700 lb snowmobile is crazy.

We wanted to watch some of the Superpipe elimination round with Shaun White (olympic gold medalist) but they didn't start until 6 and that was too late for us to stay. It would have been the one event we could have seen fairly well. I did get to watch it on ESPN when we came home though.

I've got some pictures that turned out ok. I'll try to post them later. We also saw an elk herd on a golf course in Carbondale on our way home that had anywhere from one to two hundered elk in it.

X Games

Isaac and I are going to the XGames this Saturday with Eric and his son Ashton. The games are ongoing right now in Aspen. Eric offered to take Isaac and I decided to go along also. I have a feeling the crowd will be pretty crazy considering the kind of crowd that follows these games. The events that we'll be watching will be Snowmobile Snowcross racing and several Snowboarding events. I think Isaac is the most interested in seeing the Snowboard Superpipe event.
I think we will drive to Basalt then ride a bus to the smaller ski resort (Buttermilk) outside of Aspen where the event is being held. Isaac is pretty exited. I'm skeptical because of the crowd. The events will be fun to watch but I don't care for big crowds. Never have, never will.

ESPN will be broadcasting throughout the day so you may see us standing alongside the masses.

Sunday Afternoon Skiing

We made it up to Beaver Creek around 2:00 pm today and skied until about 4:00. I got Heather to go all the way to the top this time, so we all rode the Centennial Lift up then skied down to the Rose Bowl lift. The Rose Bowl lift and a couple others take you to the very top. By the time we skied down from there it was around 3:50. We went pretty slow most of the way down.

I wanted Heather to see the view from up there, but light snow and fog/clouds that had moved in to the north blocked the view. I did however get a few pictures of everyone and Heather got one of me also. The picture of me with the kids should have had the Gore Range in the background, and my gosh I look like a hog in that picture. Not to mention the bullet head helmet. I'll eventually make it to the top with a camera with batteries on a clear day to get some pictures. Until then you'll just have to trust me that the view is incredible. I'm sure the pictures will not do it justice.

Ice Fishing with Isaac

Isaac and I went ice fishing this morning in a pond just down the road in Gypsum. The State Wildlife Area we fished in is apropriately named Gypsum Ponds. The pond we fished covers a couple acres or so. We drilled several holes with my new hand auger and fished with our new ice fishing rods. Actually I drilled the holes and Isaac tried to drill a hole or two. He could get started but didn't have the "umph" he needed to get through 13" of ice and he wasn't tall enough to put his weight on the auger. I think the pond has a few warm water fish in it but we only caught trout. They were all little stocked rainbows and I started off just releasing them, but Isaac insisted we needed to keep our limit of 2 apiece. The state limit is 4 but we could only keep two from this SWA, so we brought home two fish each that were just big enough to fillet.

We used small ice fishing jigs called Ratsos that would catch crappie just as well back home or anywhere else for that matter. They are just little painted jig heads with plastic bodies that have a thin pointed tail. I also used a Gentz worm, which is a jig head that instead of one round head it has 3 round heads in a line and painted. We tipped the jigs with pieces of worm or Berkley Power Bait Gulps (looks like a maggot).

Dad's old Eagle depth finder worked good since I rigged the transducer to hang in the holes we drilled. The deepest spot we fished was 14' and the holes where we caught the most was in about 12' of water and they were about 6' down.

I started Isaac with a slip bobber but it kept freezing, which kind of defeats the benefits of a slip bobber. He caught his first with the bobber in place then I took it off and he was still able to catch fish. He did really well having never fished with a spinning rod or without a bobber. He caught around 5 or 6 and I caught around 8 or 9, so it was a pretty good trip. We plan to make some trips to some of the lakes that hold bigger fish next time. Some of the most common possibilities are Lake Trout, Kokanee and Walleye, and of course bigger Rainbows and Browns. One of the lakes we plan to try also has crappie, bluegill, yellow perch, pike, and tiger muskies. Cutthroats and Brook trout are also possible.

The pictures are of Isaac's first and second rainbow. We had a really good time and can't wait to go again. I remember laughing at the little short rods people used for ice fishing. I never thought I would be using one.

Wednesday

Just got into work. Last couple days have been uneventful so there has been nothing to report.
I have gotten back into the habit of going to the Tuesday morning Men's Fellowship Meeting w/some of the guys from church. We meet at a small restaurant at 7am to eat breakfast and the Pastor (Ethan) leads a bible study. I enjoy going. It helps keep me in line through the week.

We will go to the Wednesday night service tonight. We have a meal at 5:30pm and then Ethan leads a study. We have just started "Boundaries" by some author whos name I should remember but can not think of it right now.

Things are starting to pick up here at work for me since all my CIP designs and contracts are going to come in all at one time. I'm about to have a crash course in Municipal Engineering.

I did get some info on where to apply for the Ewe (Sheep) tag I had talked about a while back. I talked with a guy from Lakewood (Denver) last night on the phone. He has killed three different Ewes and two rams in years past. He has been very lucky to draw the two ram tags, but the ewe tags used to be available as a 2nd chance so they used to be easier to draw than now. He provided quite a bit of info and said if I can draw the tag he can show me where to look. He also said if I was into treestand hunting he could show me a water hole they visit quite often.

Most guys who have hunted sheep have no problem sharing info, because they may never draw a tag again. So, if they want to hunt sheep they have to help other guys kill their sheep. The unit I'll apply for as 1st choice has 7 ewe tags during the Sept. 20-Sept.29 season. I will miss the last weekend of Elk/deer season. Well, not really, If an elk is spotted while I'm hunting during the 1st weekend of my sheep season I can still try for it also with my elk tag because I'll be in an unlimited elk unit. I plan to kill an elk and deer this year before the last weekend anyway. I plan to take vacation for 5 days if I draw which will allow me to hunt 9 days. Of course this is all dependent upon me drawing the tag. Last season 66% of 1st chance applicants drew the tag I hope to get. Since I'm making plans already, I probably won't draw.

Snow

It snowed between 8"-10" last night. The roads weren't too bad, but driving was going to be too slow for me to drive to Glenwood and make it back in time to pick up Heather. She was going to ask for a ride from another Heather, but she couldn't get her 2wd SUV out of their parking lot because it hadn't been plowed clean yet. If I had known all of this ahead of time I would have had Heather drop Isaac and myself off at Beaver Creek and we could have went skiing. It may be better we didn't' though because there were cars lined up and down the road because all of the lots were full. Two things came together to bring a huge crowd, fresh powder and a 3 day weekend. I think half of Denver's population drove into the mountains to ski this weekend.

Heather is working tomorrow afternoon, but if the crowd backs off some, we may ski Monday afternoon when she gets off work. Meanwhile, I'm ordering my ice fishing equipment online.

I took several photos of the snow today. The first photo is our church.

The next six photos are pictures from the apartment parking lot. The extra little girl is Abbie from Olivia's class at school and church. She came over to play today. Olivia finally has some of her own friends instead of Isaac's friends.

The Eagle River picture was taken from the road to our apartment building. You can see how low the flow is and how much ice and snow there is now. There is more water than is visible that is flowing under the ice.

The last picture is a photo of a new development in Town that I took from HWY 6 looking south into town. The trees between the camera and the development are on the Eagle River and somewhere behind the development to the left of the taller buildings is the Town Municipal building where I will be working next summer. The development will cut out some of our view to Beaver Creek.

Skiing today!

I went skiing today for about an hour and a half with two friends from work, Eric and Paul. Eric is the head of Community Development and Paul works with the Building Inspectors. If we don't abuse it they allow the occasional break to run up the mountain and "make a few turns", especially on a "powder day" like today (It had snowed about 4" or so on top). To sound like a local you have to learn to use the appropriate skier phrases or learn to speak Spanish.

Eric and Paul are both Snowboarders and have both been doing it for a while, so they took me down a couple runs that were much steeper than anything I have been on before. And one of them was about half Moguls. I have never skied in powder before. I found out a couple things: Fresh powder, especially untracked powder, is fantastic to ski in; Balance feels a little different in powder vs. a groomed run; Powder seemed to be more physically exhausting; making a whole lot of turns on a steep slope is physically exhausting, but better than racing to my death; I don't like moguls; I'm out of shape; I need to make it a point to make it out on "powder days" every chance I get.

Although I did some runs that I wouldn't have done had I been alone, I did not fall. Eric and Paul both insisted that by skiing with skiers/boarders that are above my own level, I will be pushed to improve instead of staying at one level. I wonder if Eric thought that last year when he went out w/ Jeff and cracked a rib by hitting a tree? From what I've been told, Jeff and a couple of the other guys at work are fantastic skiers. Jeff is the other engineer I work with.

It started snowing here again this evening. We went to City Market and WalMart when it first started and I bet it snowed almost 2" in the next 1.5 hrs. It is 11:30 now and I believe it has almost quit. From the window it looks like it snowed about 3" or so, but our forecast shows snow until Sunday.

Heather is going to a ladies ministry meeting in the morning. Heather is helping set up a waffle bar. Olivia and Boyd are going with her because they have child care. After dropping them off, Isaac and I are headed to Glenwood Springs and maybe Rifle to buy the fishing equipment I mentioned before. After the fun today and knowing tomorrow will be lots more powder, it is tempting to head to the lift and go skiing. May give skiing another shot Sunday afternoon since Heather doesn't have to work. I don't' have to work Monday either so we may give it a try that afternoon.

Snow Storm Coming

I'm not sure how much we are supposed to get, but I know it is supposed to start sometime tomorrow evening. After this front goes through it is supposed to be cold, -13 for Sunday night. Monday is a Holiday (MLK) so we have a long weekend. I actually had planned to work and have that 8 hrs for a later date, but I had forgot that the kids are out of school and Heather will be at work. I also considered going fishing but that would be out also. I could use up some of their ski school tickets and go do either one, but I'll probably just stay home with the kids unless I really need to work. If that is the case though, I'll just work Monday evening.

I'm planning for Isaac and myself to drive to Glenwood Springs and buy some ice fishing equipment at a store a friend at work told me about. If they don't have much I'll drive on down to Rifle. If we drive to Rifle we will probably check out the lakes there that I plan to fish. I'm pretty exited about getting to ice fish for the first time. The friend of mine at work (Eric) has done some ice fishing. He actually caught quite a few perch a few weeks ago at the lake I plan to go fish. I think we may try to go fish Stagecoach Reservoir near Steamboat Springs in the next few weeks. It is supposed to have some really big trout in it.

I did find out when I called the DOW to change my address in their system that they go by my drivers license date for residency qualifications so I can not purchase a resident license until March 19th. I'll have to go ahead and buy the NR fishing license. I'll also have to apply for a limited turkey permit as a NR because the deadline is Feb. 2, but I'll get that money back because I don't have any chance of drawing the tag. My unlimited (over the counter) tag won't have to be bought until April so I'm ok as a resident there and my big game applications aren't due until April 2.

Speaking of big game. Bighorn Sheep has been something I've dreamed of hunting for a while now, but a guy can litteraly apply for 20 yrs and never draw a tag. I have built up 3 preference points for Sheep in Wyoming so within 4 yrs I'll start to have a chance there. The good news is I found out that a ewe (female sheep) tag is fairly easy to draw here in CO as a resident even though there aren't that many available. Most people don't want to lose the preference points they have been aquiring to hunt a ram. If you draw your first choice you lose all preference points. Since I have no points in CO, I will only lose the one point I would get when I would have applied this year and not drawn. If I list a ewe as first choice I have a really good chance of drawing (greater than 75%). I had no clue this was possible. Even though killing a ewe is very tough, I"m pretty exited about the chance to hunt sheep. If I am lucky enough to draw, I have figured out that I should be able to take a week of vacation and still have time to come home at Christmas if it works out. If I'm lucky enough to kill one, I don't have to wait 5 yrs to reapply like I would if I killed a ram. I'm hoping to be chasing sheep in the high country next season.

On another note the Tahoe's front end has been making the occasional pop as I round a turn. I checked it out and I can see that the front sway bar's end link on the driver's side is shot. The replacement kit, which is for both sides, costs in the neigborhood of $45 dollars at NAPA. I really have no way to change it myself here so I've set up an appointment monday to have it fixed. I figure it will be a couple hours labor which is liable to be $75/hr. I'm guessing $200 max. I hope I'm wrong and it's less, but I can live w/ 200 much better than 500.

I'll keep you posted on the fish and if I draw a sheep tag in the spring, everyone will know that for sure.

Pictures

The first six pictures are from New Years Day when we went to Beaver Creek. Isaac looks like he is flying through the air but he is laying in the snow and the picture had to be overexposed. You can see that Isaac and Olivia have lost several teeth out here. And no, I didn't do it. They just look like normally kids from back home. The seventh picture is the one picture I got before my batteries went dead last Saturday while I prepared for the kids to ski towards. If you look really hard you can see them about 50 ft from the lift house on the left.

Part of the Town of Avon can be seen on the valley floor in the third picture. You can also see how different the mountains on the other side of the valley look. Since they are south facing slopes they barely have any trees until the higher elevations.

The eighth picture was taken while I was driving. It is the center of the roundabout at the west bound I70 exit. The flags are at half mast because of President Ford's death.

The last two pictures are taken from the road to our office just to the right and above the roundabout picture. If you look you can see I 70. They are both looking across part of the town towards Beaver Creek. You can see all of the homes around Beaver Creek that are worth a minimum of $3,000,000 (yes, that's six zeroes). Several are more than that. One of the homes over there was President Ford's and I believe they had placed it on the market a little bit before his death. They were long time friends of this area, so his death has been a really big deal around here. They started skiing in Vail years ago and were one of the first residents to build as Beaver Creek was being developed. They were instrumental in getting several major winter ski events located in Vail and Beaver Creek.

I hope everyone is having a good new year so far. The design work for my Capital Improvement Projects for the Town are finally starting to come in. I've not had a lot to do over the last month, but that is about to change. We have a huge summer planned for CIP work.

I don't know if I've posted it, but it looks like we will be flying into Nashville April 12, then flying back to Denver on the 22nd. The turkeys better be on their toes. It will have been a long fall and winter w/o much hunting and I plan to take no prisoners. I already know of at least four people who will have tags, and I plan to call in and watch everyone of them drop the hammer on a long beard and I'm carrying out every bird we kill.

Skiing over the weekend

We went skiing Saturday morning for a few hours. Boyd did better on the lift than the time before. Getting there and back is always an ordeal, but I did get a backpack rigged to carry Olivia's and Boyd's skis this time. The time on the slope is always good and the kids are normally all smiles. I tried to take pictures again, but the batteries were dead in my camera after I took one picture. So much for that. After skiing for a couple hours on the lower slope, Isaac and myself went to the very top and skied down before we packed up and left. I think it was around 15 degrees for a high on Saturday.

After skiing we went home and changed clothes and went for another drive to Leadville to look around some more. The drive up was ok, but the drive back was in blowing snow. We took it slow and everything was ok. We took a different route on I70 and Hwy 91. It is a much better highway than 24. The distance is a little longer but the drive is better unless Vail Pass on I70 is snowed in.

I'm trying to get organized and equipment bought to try my hand at ice fishing starting in Feb. I could actually fish now but would have to buy a NR license. In Feb. I can start buying resident licenses. YeeHaw! I think Isaac and myself will try out a lake near Rifle that is supposed to have great pan fishing (crappie, bluegill, yellow perch). Dad is sending me his old fish finders so I can give them a try. If I get it figured out there are a lot of lakes surrounding this area that can be fished for a multitude of different fish. Some of which are trout (browns, rainbows, lake), pike, perch, crappie, bluegill, etc. I'll have to check out the regs because I won't know what some of them are. I can taste them already!

New Years

We went skiing in the afternoon on New Years Day. Heather worked in the morning so we were on the mountain from about 12:30 to 4:00. Boyd hasn't quite got the lift down yet since his last lesson was the first time on the lift for him. We stayed on the little lift with Boyd and Olivia. I rode with Boyd, Heather rode with Olivia and Isaac either rode alone or with whoever was in line.

Sometimes the lift operators aren't good about slowing the lift down when they need to. Boyd isn't quite tall enough even on the little lift to get set down as fast as he needs to, so he fell trying to get on once and they had to stop the lift. I tried to pull him on but had to let him go to keep from hurting him. I bailed off so I could get back too him. He cried because it scared him, but he was ok. They are suited up like football players, so it would take a pretty big spill to hurt them. I think it scared the lift operators more than it did me. We made it on without incident after that episode and they did a better job of helping him after that.

The kids are doing great skiing. The ski school really helps them learn how to ski.

We had rode the bus up with a friend of mine from work and his son who goes to school with Isaac. We hadn't planned on meeting but it just worked out that we were there at the same time. They met us on the lower slope and skied with us some. Actually, they have snowboards so we were skiing and they were boarding. While Heather, Boyd and Olivia took a break, Isaac, Myself, Eric and his son Ashton took the bigger lift to the top and came down some of the bigger slopes. We took them on a blue run that Isaac had never been on, and he did really well. Isaac will be a really good skier if he sticks with the skis instead of switching to a "slowboard".

I did take a few pictures while we were out, but this site is acting crazy when I'm on my computer at home and I'm having trouble logging on to load the pictures. I'll get some up soon though.

We may make it out skiing again Saturday, but I did get a tip on some fantastic ice fishing for bluegill, crappie, and yellow perch about an hour and a half from here. I've never done any icefishing, so that sounds like a lot of fun that all of us could try. Maybe I'll buy some equipment so we can try it and make Uncle Fleetwood proud. Nothing tastes much better than fresh crappie.