February 21st, 2016. Just one of many bluebird days during the winter of 2015-16, and fitting to tag a peak named Audubon on such a day. The quick reference I had for this name is the speedway in Germany, but I think a likelier origin is John James Audubon, a Haitian-born nature lover and bird watcher – I mean, ornithologist – for whom the Audubon Society is named. Keep reading…
Over the past several years we’ve been able to find decent early-season skiing in the high country by Thanksgiving. A slow start this year though had a lot of us waiting into December to head up for that first ski day (myself included). Well over the past ten days a series of storms finally dropped some real snow up high, so we decided to head up to Berthoud Pass and get our ski seasons rolling. Read more…
Anna-Lisa and I spent eleven days in Maui with my Dad and his girlfriend Susan at the beginning of November. It made for a relaxing reprieve and a nice way to mix things up after spending all summer hiking peaks and running trails in Colorado. Truth be told we spent most of our days playing tourist on the beach, kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, and indulging in local fare. But on a couple of days we decided to head inland to explore a few trails, as well as Maui’s prominent mountain volcano, Haleakala. Read more…
This trip kind of came together at the spur of the moment so I had my concerns of diving into the relative unknown. I needed one more round trip on Southwest for A-List next year and when my plans to visit an old friend in Kansas City fell through I needed to find an inexpensive alternative. I intend to take the family down to the Grand Canyon as soon as the little legs are strong enough to get them out of it so I thought a recon trip would be appropriate. Southwest was nearly giving away flights to Phoenix so the balls were in motion. Read more…