Grouse Hollow Journal for August 30, 2012 by Greg Koelker
(I begin this journal at 33,000 feet somewhere over Nebraska in a Delta jet headed east.)
After two days of fever and sweats and feeling like I had the worst flu ever coupled up with the two worst hangovers of my life with a three flip car rollover tossed in, I finally asked Ellen to take me to the walk-in. Lyme's Disease – for the fourth time. Thank goodness for Doxicycline (sic?). Anyway, two days later we were headed west.
We got our first glimpse of the Rockies just before we touched down in Denver on Monday afternoon. The skies are hazy due to all of the forest fires still burning in the west. We rode the airport train and then the rental car shuttle to the huge Hertz rent-a-car plaza, and after Alberto finished trying to sell us insurance and upsell us to a bigger car for “more power in the mountains,” we were headed west on I-70 in our nearly new Chevrolet Malibu.
The drive west out of Denver is fast and furious at times, but the views are spectacular, high peaks with the interstate slicing through deep canyons and passes with lakes and rushing whitewater in evidence down in the canyons. The rocky walls – thus the name maybe? - reflect sunlight differently at different times of the day, making the drive different all the time. We drove passed little towns like Idaho Springs, Silverthorne, Dillon, Copper, and slightly larger touristy places like Frisco (they are all touristy I guess) where Lake Dillon once again has a huge bathtub ring because of less winter snow and excessive hot weather evaporation. We flew up over Berthoud Pass and we rocketed through the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel and soon we were up over Vail Pass headed into the Vail valley and our mountain kids' home.
Instead of getting a hotel or crash on our space poor kids, El rented a condo just off of Highway 6 very near where Ben lives. Interestingly enough our Sunridge condo had the exact same floor plan as Ben's Liftview condo. With a little investigation one can rent a condo for less than a hotel and have a suite-like apartment (we had two bedrooms and baths, complete with thick white robes) with a wood fire place, a nice kitchen and laundry that just adds to the feeling of “home” and home base while staying in another place we think. We were right in the middle of “all the action” in Avon and Beaver Creek anyway.
After seeing all three of our kids that afternoon, Mark and Whitney joined us for dinner that evening at Blue Moose Pizza up in Beaver Creek Village. (Their friend Ben McNair is the manager.) I highly recommend their Winter Pizza! We stopped over at the Dusty Boot where Ben was at work for the evening and had an adult beverage or two with lots of the kids' friends. When we headed down the mountain, it was cold; you could see your breath cold.
On Tuesday morning, after a breakfast of eggs over easy and crunchy hashbrowns with the boys at the Cafe Milano, Ben took us four wheeling up above East Vail. He wanted to show us some places that he hunts in the fall sometimes and where the boys ski and snowboard often. He said that because it had been so dry much of the summer, the wild flowers were less spectacular than in other years; however, the mountainsides were green due to recent rains at least. We bounced and bumped up over some rough stuff, loose shale and boulders and tree roots and puddles and ruts, to get high above the Vail valley. We stopped at a glen like cascade of mountain springwater (the snow melt has been over for a month or more Ben says) surrounded by tall pines and aspen where Ben and Ellen took some photos including a couple time exposures blurring the action falls (You can see them at benkoelkerphoto.com). The altitude (and after effects of Lyme's was doing me in) but the views from the top were outstanding. Ben showed us some cliffs where our boys regularly jump off and/or over from whatever in the deep powder times of winter. It is so comforting to know that when they fly off into that open air, there is “usually” many feet of powder to land in – sarcasm intended. Regardless, the area and views were spectacular with mountains from the Gore Range all around us. On the way back down, Ellen spotted a bear up the hill from us. We scrambled for cameras and Ben got some good shots of what he called a cinnamon black bear. He figured it to be well over 200 pounds. It was a colorful brute that finally wandered off into the alders. We rewarded ourselves with some Moe's Alabama Style BBQ for lunch. “Bama Style” includes pulled pork and sauce on a bun with coleslaw and pickles piled on the top. Anyway, I needed a nap and Ben needed to go shoot his bow as his archery elk season is this weekend. More on our Colorado trip next time.
Until next time – get out: I got my Fall Turkey permit in the mail this week; Eli emailed me some trail cam pictures from Wisconsin this week; I am motivated to get out and shoot my bow this next week now for sure. Enjoy. Grouse Hollow for September 6, 2012 by Greg Koelker
On Wednesday morning we ate breakfast at the Westside with the boys. Mark recommended the Captain Crunch French toast - which is Texas style French toast that is soaked in a concoction that includes orange juice and buttermilk and then rolled in crushed Captain Crunch. I should have had half an order, but it was melt in your mouth delicious.
After breakfast the four of us decided to take a drive up to Piney Lake. Ben predicted we would see something good as he had forgotten to bring his camera. Out in the boondocks, the guys chose to take Muddy Pass Road - I thought the name was ominous; however, it turned out to be a pretty well-maintained logging road, as there are crews up in the mountains removing the beetle-killed pine logs. (The guys told us that the loggers do truck the logs to a huge freezer warehouse space and store them at subzero temps for a few weeks, effectively killing the pine beetles, so the logs can be used for lumber.) We passed piles and piles of logs. We even saw - in action - one of those machines that grabs the tree, cuts it off, tips it over and strips the branches and then piles the log with others. Wow, talk about the fur flying! It was a tad nerve wracking to be so close to so much destructive action.
Ben stopped us at an opening in the trees high up on a shelf that he said he is promoting as the perfect wedding site for a morning wedding. The sun rises up over the mountain range in the distance. We all agreed that the setting would be magical for the right couple for sure. We took some photos and wandered about a bit and then moved on. I believe Mark spotted it first - a huge bull moose. The wide racked critter was feeding on some sort of grass just up the hill from the road, maybe 35 yards away. Did I say it was huge? Our first view was from the rear deck so to speak. I am guessing that the hind quarters were close to 6 feet up. The antlers were wide and thick with maybe ten or eleven points. The bull acted as if we weren't there. Moose hunting permits are rare in Colorado so moose hunters are rare so the moose aren't necessarily fearful. I suppose this one was used to the loggers going by too. We watched and marveled on the size of this trophy-sized bearded deer as its work horse sized head bobbed up and down and side to side, until it gracefully slipped away into some brush. Ben got lots of shots with my smart phone camera - not quite the same as his Canon. As the pass wound round and round and then down, the vistas from the high points were spectacular with occasional lakes and streams and large meadows. We startled some cows and calves that the boys said weren't supposed to be this high; however not long after, we crossed a cattle grate on the road that was open to the upper range. There were plenty of cattle down the mountain as we got closer to Piney Ranch.
That evening we made dinner together at Mark and Whitney's place. Whitney and Ellen chopped and seasoned and we had salads, artichoke hors d'oeuvres, and more, while Mark grilled pork tenderloins.
Thursday was a different sort of day. The USA Pro Cycling challenge was to finish Stage 4 up in Beaver Creek Village. El and I picked up Mark in the morning, and after a breakfast of huge scrambled egg burritos at the Eastside restaurant, we visited with the boys' friend Joel. Joel, a wiry fellow, is a mountain climber. He told us about a feat that he and a couple other guys were going to attempt in September. They were going to try to summit 30 - count 'em - 30 Colorado Fourteeners (that's mountains that are 14,000 feet high) in TWO DAYS. He said their plan was to stash camping gear and supplies in the middle before they started. When I know more, I'll report on their adventure. A few minutes later, El, Mark, and I were off to ride the shuttle up to Beaver Creek.
Up in the village, the kids' friends, Ben and Danielle McNair had set up a Blue Moose Pizza tent on one of the foot-ski bridges that crosses over the road to that the cyclists would pedal under later that day. The McNairs had bean bag ramps for something to do. Someone set up a laptop so we had music and could follow the race on NBC TV Sports, and we had lots of good food. We visited with enthusiasts from England and Japan and even Dallas, Texas. One guy remarked on my Packer shirt that he had been born in Appleton, but lived most of his life in Dallas and was a Cowboy fan, but his grandson, also a Texan, was a Packer fan -he mumbled something about being dropped on his head as a baby. Anyway, grandpa and grandson are coming to the December 2 Packer/Viking game at Lambeau. I told him to watch for us - we're going to celebrate El's sister Lori's birthday with a Burton Packer Bus trip - I said I'd be the guy in the blaze orange coat with the fur hat.
The bikers, many Tour de France participants, left from Aspen at 11:30 in the morning with what was described as a "monster climb" and rode over 97 miles up and down over Independence Pass, (most of this stage is above 9,000 feet, so altitude is a huge factor) through Leadville, the highest incorporated city in the US, over the Continental Divide at Tennessee Pass (10, 424 feet), and past the ghost town of Gilman and then down through Minturn into the Vail Valley (7,430 feet) before they begin their final ascent of the day to a nearly 3-mile climb of over a 1,000 vertical feet into Beaver Creek Village around 3:30. It was made more exciting in that our kids were with us. Whitney walked up from the bottom of the mountain to join us for the race. Ben was with us, but he was taking pictures for a news paper. There was a carnival atmosphere at the base of the chairlifts in Beaver Creek and we walked through the many bike and food venues, visiting with some of the kids' friends and others. We tried some free food and looked over the wares of several shirt and equipment merchants. At one bike shop tent, they had a pile of bike parts under a tarp and were going to hold a bike building contest where the contestants would be allowed to start with the flip of the tarp. The first one done got to keep the bike. It started to rain a bit, so we didn't see this unfortunately. The first rider, Tom Danielson, came through over three minutes ahead of the rest. (Now consider this, he was not the leader. The overall time leader, Christian Van De Velde won the race in Denver on Sunday.)
El and I walked back down the mountain afterwards to our condo. The walk down is beautiful and literally took my breath away - no way I could have walked up. That evening we were meeting the kids at Bob's Place to watch the Packers and Bengals pre-season game; however, the bartender and waitress apologized because they couldn't get this game - the one almost everyone in the place wanted to watch - on any of their many monitors. Ellen and I went back to the condo and Whitney joined us for a light supper and whatever other preseason game was on the cable. (We saw the highlights later when Rogers ran for two TD's.)
On Friday, we moved to our hotel at Leadville to get ready for the Group Summit Challenge on Saturday. More on that next time.
Until next time, get out - El and I had fresh bluegill filets with tomatoes and creamed cucumbers for supper Sunday evening. Nephew Jason and I got a nice mess of bluegills up on Lake Onalaska on Saturday morning, but when the sun got high, the fish disappeared. We had eggs benedict and bloody marys at the Lakeview afterwards. Good morning. Enjoy.
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