Travels

I'm currently sitting at the Bean Cycle. I haven't been here in a while so it makes me happy. I've had a kind of fun day. I went to this 'total body strength' class this morning at 6:30. I can't believe I woke up in time because I was up past midnight. Mostly cleaning my room and unpacking from my trip to Georgia 2 months ago. :) I've been moving emails from one server to another a lot of the day. I'm not sure why this is so time-consuming but it is. Especially when you put in the wrong port for your new email account. Apparently that is a bad idea and your emails may temporarily get lost in cyberspace for a little while.

I've also been talking to Amy and Ian about going to Brazil a lot. I'm finally registered for the conference (http://www.lbaconferencia.org/lbaconf_2008/eng/index.htm). Right now it looks like I will leave Friday Nov. 11 with Lixin (another member of my group) and meet up with Ian. Then we'll go into the Amazon (!!!) to check out some flux towers. I can't believe I'm going to be in the rainforest. I can't wait to see the rivers. I can't wait to see big huge trees, strange insects, and just how poofy my hair can get in the tropical forests during the wet season. The conference I'm attending is the next Monday through Thursday. I hope I have some free time to check things out.

So while not transferring emails today, I've been researching immunizations. I went to the CSU health center to find out which vaccines I should get and when. I'm especially excited about dengue fever - which is incurable and has no vaccine. I'm going to have to get vaccinated for yellow fever and typhoid. I need malaria pills. I need hepatitus A and B but I am pretty sure I got these when I went to Honduras when I was 16. I could get rabies vaccine but it is expensive and unavailable, and I don't plan on getting bit by any animals.

Anyway, I love traveling, and especially to other countries, and I haven't done that since 2002, so I am feeling very lucky to have this opportunity and really excited about it.

Speaking of traveling, I'm headed to Georgia tomorrow for the weekend. One of my good friends, Tiffany, is getting married on Sat. We met in the dorms freshman year and both went to the Presbyterian Student Center, so I'm excited to get to see her tie the knot and our other friends from those places. I'll also see some of my friends from high school (or earlier). One of my best friends Tricia is having a baby next month and I can't wait to see her. Her having a baby is stirring up all kinds of emotions in me that I won't get into now. It's exciting to see all this big milestones in my friends' lives, I wish I could make it home for more of them but I feel lucky to get to be a part of these. That's good for now ... thanks for reading!

Trip Report - Arapaho Pass

I need to write about this hike because it was wonderful and I would highly recommend it. It is also very well described in "Hiking Grand County, Colorado" by Deborah Carr and Lou Ladrigan. If you are considering hikes in this area, you should buy this book!

I started around 11:00 at Monarch Lake trail head. There are a ton of great trails starting from here. It is south of Grand Lake. You could even just hike around the lake, which is about 3.5 miles for an easy but scenic day hike.

Me at the Monarch Lake


From the trailhead, I hiked along the south side of the lake to the Arapaho Pass trail. The trail is long but only slightly uphill. It goes up a narrowing valley toward the continental divide. Where the trail crosses Arapaho Creek is a great spot for lunch. I think it took me about 2.5-3 hours to get here. There were tons of wildflowers, just a preview of what was ahead. The trial climbs more steeply (but not too bad) after crossing the creek. Then you get into some wide-open meadows with amazing wildflowers. They were out of this world. (according to the book they are "beyond belief").

Coyote Park - home to big meadows and wildflowers. The clouds were around my whole trip, unfortunately.


I reached my destination for the day after 5-6 hours. It was 8 miles so I was taking my time, but why hurry through such beautiful scenery? I camped at Caribou Lake. There was one guy with a dog, and a family of 4. But the campsites were pretty spaced out. For the most part, I felt like the only one there. You have to get a permit to camp in the Indian Peaks. It is $5, and there were people at the trailhead checking so you might as well get it ahead of time!

The clouds basically descended down to the lake as the day ended. By nightfall I was in the cloud and it was pretty moist and cold. But kind of neat, too.

Views from my campsite Thursday night

And Friday morning


Friday morning I almost didn't hike up Arapaho Pass because of the clouds, but I could see most of the way up the trail to the pass from my campsite so I set out by 8:00. It took a little less than an hour to get to the top. The views up there were amazing. You can also get to this pass from Boulder. I would recommend getting there any way you can! I just love being above treeline and this part of the hike did not disappoint. I spent some time laying on my stomach at an overlook, taking it all in and wishing the moment wouldn't end.

Me being very happy.

Where I came from

The trail from Arapaho to Caribou Pass went along this ledge and was very cool.


Caribou Pass is very close to Arapaho Pass. You have to hike along a ledge to get there. From Caribou, the descent really begins. Again, the wildflowers are incredible.

Columbine and heartleaf arnica

Lots of heartleaf arnica


After what seemed like a very long time, I got to the Junco Lake trailhead. From there, you turn right onto the High Lonesome trail, which is the Continental Divide Trail. I found it interesting that the ranger station there had piles and piles of chopped wood around it. So much so that I couldn't find the trail for a while because it was covered in chopped branches. And yet, just a few minutes into the trail all signs of maintenance disappeared and the trail was covered in fallen in trees. It was rough for a short person like me!

Also, the High Lonesome trail signage is disappointing. At one point it indicated I had only hiked .6 miles in an hour. Then distances to Monarch Lake changed between two signs. Also, I had the 3rd Edition Southern RMNP/Indian Peaks Wilderness Map. It shows the trail going to the left (west) of an unnamed, 10315' mountain. But the trail goes to the right (east), which is how it is in the book I referenced but didn't have with me on the hike. The book is from 2002 and the map is from 2005, so that is confusing. Reason is at this point you are in the Arapaho National Recreation Area, where logging is allowed and there are a lot of timber roads criss-crossing the trail. The CDT is reasonably well marked, though.

It doesn't help that the views on this trail do not compare to the ones from earlier that morning. I am not saying it isn't pretty, it's just not as dramatic. I was getting discouraged so I implemented a break every hour to put my feet up and help enjoy my trip better. That definitely helped, my feet were starting to hurt.

Eventually you get to a junction with an unnamed trail that goes down to Monarch Lake. this trail sucks. It descends 1200' in a little over a mile (depending on which sign you believe) and had probably close to a million switchbacks. I was really glad I had my trekking poles or else my knees would have been toast. But once you get back to the Southside trail it is smooth sailing. If I weren't looking forward to meeting up with Chris in Grand Lake, I would have gone for a dip in the lake, it is beautiful. Next time! Overall the hike for Friday was about 14 miles. According to my book, the total for the trip is 22.5. Do it!

Celebrations

My idea of celebrating getting my master's degree was to go on a 3 day solo adventure near Winter Park, meeting up with Chris the 3rd night and spending the 4th day with him. Overall this was a really really good trip. It was very nice to be alone for a while. And since Chris and I were mountain biking on the last day, I had his ridiculously large mountain bike with me the whole time - so it at least looked like I was traveling with a rather large male. I seriously think I will take his bike with me on future solo trips.

I had lots of time to think about things. First, I met this elderly man at the campground I stayed at the first night near Fraser. He was with his wife, a friend of their's, and their friend's sister. The first three have been traveling together every summer since 1961, along with the friend's wife. I thought this was amazing, and it made me really hope that I am still friends with many of the friends I have now in 47 years. The friend's wife died this past year and this is their first trip without her. Sad, but still an amazing testament to their friendship.

Second, I spent lots of time looking at wildflowers. I have a wildflower book and I tried to commit as many to memory as possible. Usually I will look up a flower, see it's name, and forget it by the time I close the book. Seriously. I really love wildflowers and there were a ton.

Third, I read the Alchemist. It was a really good book and ideal reading material for a solo trip. The idea of it is that we all have a personal legend (or destiny) to fulfill. The main character is seeking out his destiny and is constantly reminded that when we really want something, all the universe will conspire to help us. I thought it was neat and it made me wonder what mine would be? Am I living it out? What about Chris' destiny? Am I enabling him to live his? In the book, the main character is told that your personal legend is most clear when you are young. I've often wondered (I know this will sound strange) if the adult me encountered the child me, would the child me like me? Haha, that sounds really scitzo. But I wonder because when we're kids, we're very idealistic and have huge dreams. Then reality sets in and that inevitably changes us, but hopefully not too much. Anyway, good food for thought.

Speaking of food, I decided that from now on I will always bring Jelly Bellies on camping trips. They are the perfect dessert, other than chocolate (which melts).

Being alone was really nice but being with Chris was lots of fun, too (once I got used to being around another person again). We had a blast mountain biking downhill at Winter Park (I cannot say the same for the uphill part). I am really pleased that I somehow lost much of my fear of riding fast on a mountain bike. I'm not sure when it happened, but I'm glad it did! We went down a difficult trail and I was hitting jumps right behind Chris. I never thought that would happen! And no falls after 2 days (~31 miles) of mountain biking! :)

Sweet singletrack in Fraser


My car has a card table hidden in the back! It made breakfast very pleasant.


Chris and I at the top of Mary Jane, 11,200', the highest I've ever mountain biked.

The End and The Beginning

Yes!!! I am done with my Masters degree! I defended on Monday. Leading up to it I felt really nervous and stressed. I got through the morning with lots of deep breathing and prayer. Of course once I started talking things felt much better, and I feel really good about how the presentation went. I talked for 45 minutes, which is probably the longest I have ever talked in one hour. :) Then I had a closed door session with my three committee members. We talked about a lot of background-type information that was in papers that I read two years ago and couldn't remember the details of. If I hadn't been helping to run/attending workshops and conferences for the past three weeks I probably would have been better prepared so I was a little frustrated but at least I passed!

Last night I celebrated with my friends from the department. It started at the Rustic Oven with several members of my research group including Scott, plus Dave and his wife, Chris, Mark, and Rachel. Scott was very generous and paid for several of us, which I wasn't really expecting but was nice. A little after 8:00 we went to the Rio. I love their margaritas but hardly ever go there because it is expensive. So I was very happy to enjoy one on Rachel :). And Michelle bought me a shot of patron - ikes! It was good though. Several other people met us there and I had a really nice time talking to different people. I feel very blessed by my friendships in my department. I feel like some of them have only really developed in the past year - mostly thanks to softball, suffering through Dave's modeling class, and the coffee club. Also Rachel and I decided we are kindred spirits, and also agreed to hug more often (we agreed on this while we were sober, too). Haha :)

Today I was awake from 5-7 AM. I couldn't sleep, I think maybe the shock of being done was hitting me. Finally I fell back to sleep until 10:00. Nice! I did some laundry, cleaned a little, made scrambled eggs and coffee and watched Family Feud. Seriously, I could get used to this! Around noon I went to the office to do some moving. Erica and I are moving into Nick's office, which has a window so I'm really excited! Also it seems fitting to be moving into a new space as I move into this new phase of my graduate career. I can't believe that Erica and I were in Room 412 for three years!! They flew by!

I ran some errands and at 4:30 I met Kim at the gym and we swam 2100 yds. It was great to swim with her, our pace is very similar, and I got a great workout. Then I went to dinner with Mollie and Beth at Star of India. Oh yes and Kelty came too. She is so cute and I can't believe her first birthday is in just a few weeks! Anyway, dinner was really good and it was so nice to see those two. I have missed hanging out with my friends this summer!!

Now I desperately need to go to sleep! I should probably be really excited about being a Master of Science and having this great degree and being smart, yada yada yada, but what I am most excited about is getting my life back. I am just so ready to go back to Chris and my happy existence. Last night and today were definitely a wonderful start to my renewed freedom and generally happier, less stressful life. :)