Date: 2008-01-18
To: Cold!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I've been distracted this week with company and haven¢t been posting. I have, however, been reading the journals of those that are already out there¢¦ Stumpknocker, Sgt. Rock, Bluevist¢¦ I envy them already being on the trail, but at the same time¢¦ they can have the cold weather! Really enjoying their travels tho. Some highlights from this week¢¦.   Lydia has a friend, Kassie, visiting from Maryland. We decided to take her for a hike up Green Mountain. Though it hasn¢t snowed significantly on the mountain for a week or so, there are quite a few white patchy areas and some icy spots. It was a good opportunity to try out the pieces of cold weather gear I¢ve been gathering. Going up I started sweating, shedding layers as I went. Peaking the top, the wind kicked in and all the gear went back on. Heading down I got cold. We were going down the south side with the sun setting, so we were in the shade. Also, not hiking fast due to the icy patches really gave me a chance to cool off. Gear review¢¦ Patagonia Puff Vests are REALLY warm. Heading down, chatting with Kassie, watching my step and thinking about my gear¢¦ and all of the sudden River lets out her most ferocious barking and growling. She was right between Kassie and me at the time and we both jumped out of our skin! I look back up the mountain where she is staring. All I could see was a large dark figure on the hill behind us. With the sun glaring, that¢s all I could see. I raised my arm to block the sun and realized it was just Lydia about twenty feet behind and back up the hill from us. All River could see was the dark shadow and she was letting us know. We calmed River down, had Lydia talk to her and reassure her and we continued on down. This time however along with watching for ice, I was also walking with ¢spaghetti¢ legs due to the sudden adrenaline rush. Also on the cold note¢¦   Yesterday we took Kassie for a day of skiing. Maybe not the best day to do it, but it was the day Greg could get off work. As we drove over Loveland Pass Greg, in an excited voice, suddenly says¢¦ ¢Tammy, look at that!¢ This is NOT what I needed at this moment. We¢re driving on a snow and ice covered, narrow, windy mountain road with tanker trucks flying past us at crazy speeds¢¦ I was already making handprints in the arm rests! Turns out Greg¢s truck thermometer read a ¢ 16 degrees. He had just been telling me the night before how he had never seen it go under 0 and didn¢t know if it would. He and Caleb were hoping to be dropped at the top and do some back country snowboarding down, but they decided that might be just a bit cold for them. By the time we got to Keystone the temps had risen to a heat wave of ¢ 5!   I do not ski or snowboard. I¢ve always been the ¢lodge person¢¢¦ and I¢m pretty good at it! However, I have decided with moving to Colorado I probably should learn. This year I¢m not willing to risk injury before the hike. So I sat in the lodge and worked through plans for mail drops in the second half of our trip. I was reassured of my decision not to learn this year as I sat there and counted the number of arms in slings and crutches I saw walk past. Then when a young man came in and met an older couple who had been sitting nearby watching a toddler, and told them that his wife ¢blew out¢ her knee (heard it pop ¢ ouch!)¢¦ I was certain I made the right choice. This sport can wait!   For this year, I stick with hiking. ¢¦but I¢m fine with waiting for warmer weather.