Fourth of July and Butt Skiing

First I want to apologize for not being a very consistent blogger...
There has been just too much going on here every day and I
have had very little to no time to myself. I think I will take
today off from activity and explore the area on my own.

The 4th of July here is quite an event. The town fills up
with visitors and locals out of Durango. The day started
with a very cute little 10K run that a few of us non 100
mile runners did. The course wound through town, dirt
roads... there is only 1 paved street in town, and then
out on some brief trail that went up hill of course. I
thought I would bust a lung for the first 5 minutes but
then I settled into a nice pace and did about the same
time that I would do in Austin. So I guess I'm acclimated
to the altitude, Silverton is at around 9,300 ft.

Afterwards was the parade and rhubarb festival. The
highlight of the parade was several firetrucks filled
with cute fireman having a water fight all the way
down the street. Everyone was getting wet which in
105 degree Austin would be great but in 65 degree
Silverton, not so much. The rest of the day was spent
wandering the streets, shopping with Joyce and Marcy,
watching the steam train come in from Durango and
the subsequent gunfight performance. Joyce and I
have become good friends as we both like to drink
wine, gossip and shop for cute clothes. That evening
we cooked a big meal, had lots of people over and
then watched the outrageous fireworks show right
from our patio. It was one of the biggest I've
ever seen and went on for at least 20 to 30
minutes. I remember Jackson Hole, Wy. doing the
same thing one time.

Yesterday was another day of hiking but a short
one. We met up the trail in Ouray where I actually
ran the Imogene Pass race. It was good to see
it again but this time not in such a hurry. We
had a large group because this apparently ia a
favorite section of the course for everyone. Now
that I'm safely off the mountain I guess I can
see why...

We hiked up a nice jeep road and past
the waterfall that is on the Coors can (it's not
in Golden, Co afterall). When the road ends
there is no way to go but straight up and of
course with no trail.. CAUSE NO IDIOT IN THEIR
RIGHT MIND WOULD HIKE UP THIS THING!! It's
a scree slope (loose rock and shale) which is
very hard to climb up cause you keep sliding
down. So everyone was hootin' and hollerin'
cause it was covered in SNOW. Much much easier
they claim to get up. BUT, if you slip you
just slide all the way down at a high rate
of speed, right? So up we went. I followed
Joyce's feet very closely so I wouldn't look
down. The people ahead of us had kicked in
little footsteps in the side of the very very
steep slope and I just told myself not to
think about it, just do it. Finally a guy
came up behind me and gave me some tips, one
of which was to stand up more straight and
not lean so much into the hill. It actually
helped. We reached a basin, crossed up and
proceeded up the next slope. I didn't allow
myself to consider how we were getting down,
Joyce had told me to bring pants along.

The top was a narrow notch in the rock. The
race actually proceeds over the edge and
down the other side, I peered over and can't
imagine proceeding that way. Not much time
was spent on top before Joe and Joyce said
"let's go", some folks were still hiking up
as one by one the rest of us sat on our
butts on the edge and swoosh, down we went
on our Asses, out of control, trying not
to flip over or hit rock outcroppings. I
could not believe in a million years I was
about to do this, I would never ever consider
it had I been with "normal" people. But down
I went and it actually wasn't too bad. You
definetely got a face and pants full of
snow but I made it. But the bad part is
that we had another slope to do. That one
was even harder and one guy did hit the
rocks, he survived though. This one very
nice guy from Maine has a fear of heights,
as I do, and he and I gave each other big
high fives and hugs, very proud of ourselves
for having accomplished what we had just done.
As we headed back to the cars it started to rain
then hail so of course we took off running, we
are trail runners after all... ha! True
to Colorado weather it cleared up once
again, time for the hot springs and dinner.

I have now moved into my own little house and it
is picture perfect and peaceful, no more sleeping
on the couch... but more on that later !!
Wish you were here !