Fall in the Rockies

I just had a pretty Colorado weekend - saw Railroad Earth at Red Rocks Friday night, and then spent Saturday night in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Red rocks was wild! Aside from the folks chain-smoking cigs around us, I dug the festival atmosphere and people-watching. I had seen Railroad Earth over Memorial Day weekend at Revival in southern MN, but this show had a uniquely western flavor...Saturday I had plans to get up at 6AM and go backpacking with some folks, but of course they stayed out all night and bailed the next morning...so I went with my roommate instead! We hiked for about five miles, and then picked a nice grassy camping spot at about 10,000 feet. My tent was surrounded by mini-evergreens that protected me from the wild winds of the alpine night (no animal noises this round). I've become quite fond of these little trees - they might be some kind of spruce? The mountain slopes are speckled with dazzling splashes of yellow from the aspen groves tucked among the Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs. I hate to say it, but autumn in the Midwest is much more impressive with the reds of the maples... 

In other news, I've decided to stop spending my hard-earned money on animal products. Over the past couple months, I've drastically cut down on my animal consumption and discovered that I can get my protein from plant sources. Lots of reading, documentary-watching, and chats with a vegan friend have convinced me that I should give it a shot. Hopefully I'll soon be at a life position where I can care for backyard chickens, but until then I can no longer justify financially supporting industrial beef, pork, and poultry operations - I can't call myself an environmentalist while implicitly contributing to this impending environmental catastrophe. Still, I will not be turning down any animal products that I score during my food-rescuing activities - there's no reason why they should go to waste after all that went into producing them! I'm looking forward to fully embracing my love of black beans, kale, sweet potatoes, coconut cream, walnuts and avocados. 

Labor Day Weekend

Another great weekend in beautiful Colorado: Friday evening I biked up Sunshine Canyon (more like partly cloudy with scattered showers). This road was significantly less steep than Magnolia but I still had a wild ride on the way down! I had a spirit moment with an elk on the side of the road - we locked eyes for a few minutes before a car drove by and severed the connection. I've been contemplating spirit animals as of late - I tend to associate with the bobcat/lynx/cougar family, but also with aspects of mountain goats, beavers, and elk. Saturday morning I drank lots of espresso and cut lots of wood - the city of Boulder has a program by which folks like myself can sign a contract and pay $15 in exchange for access to a lot where the Parks & Open Space department drops off surplus wood from maintenance activities. This round I gathered lots of wrist-size wood for starting fires; next time I'll bring my saw to cut up larger logs (and get an upper-body workout). My roommate and I had brunch with a Couchsurfer who stayed with us last Monday evening. She is a delightful woman from Ann Arbor (originally from Thailand) and shared many stories from her trek through the backcountry. Saturday afternoon my roommate was playing violin at a wedding in Grand Lake on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, so I tagged along. We drove Trail Ridge Road on the way over the divide - wow! That evening we hiked a couple miles from a random trail head into the park and set up camp in a grove of trees next to a wide meadow. After enjoying some pesto and bananagrams, we attempted to sleep, but were kept awake by a terrifying, high-pitched whine very close to the tent. It didn't help that a couple hours earlier on the trail we had run into a gigantic bull moose who snorted at us when we got too close. I managed to get some rest after picturing a peaceful moose family sleeping in the field. After doing some research, I'm fairly positive the shrill noise was the distressed mating call of a lonely bull elk. Sunday afternoon, I had some plans to backpack in the James Peak Wilderness with grad school colleagues (I feel old saying "colleagues"), but those plans quickly unraveled. I was pretty exhausted anyway, and enjoyed the evening with Chipotle and Mountain Men, my most recent Netflix favorite. Today (Labor Day) I worked on a programming assignment, biked to some live bluegrass near the creek, and did some grocery shopping. This evening my roommate and I biked up to Settlers Park, one of my favorite spots for a quick mountain hike fix. Still loving my new life in Boulder one month in!