My original plans were delayed a day for New Mexico. So I took a snowy walk in the foothills instead for my birthday. Read More ...

Continue reading May Day Snowy Birthday at PMags.com.

Making the best use of time bank funds even when on call. Read More ...

Continue reading Twilight to Moonlight : On-call stroll at PMags.com.

Waiting for some snow to clear out. Don't want to drive far. Time to go hiking locally. Read More ...

Continue reading Just some foothill strolls at PMags.com.

No car means my weekend plans had to be changed

Due to some rodents, my vehicle was out of commission.

Wires chewed, a sensor destroyed and even the car’s computer had to essentially be re-booted. (This sounds too much like various iterations of my day job!)

This would have been the third weekend in a row without any type of hiking, skiing or backpacking.

I was getting grumpy. A bit irritable. Throw in a busy work week, and someone was hinting that I was becoming the “grumpster” again.

I normally do not hike the foothills in Boulder this time of the year, but I needed some sort of hiking fix.

My buddy Markhamm, being a busy family man, hikes the foothills quick and hard early on a weekend morning or at night.  I joined him two weeks ago for a night excursion and he was nice enough to let me join him for a Sunday morning excursion as well.

Continue reading Car-less in Boulder – Let’s go to the foothills at PMags.com.

You can’t always get out as much as you want. But sometimes even a couple of hours is good enough.

As mentioned previously, I work in IT for my day job.

While IT work is not my passion by any means, if I have the right job, I can enjoy it. It pays the bills and allows my someone and I to enjoy the parts of life that are our passion.

Occasionally, due to the nature of the work, I do have to work at nights or weekends.

I won’t bore anyone with the details, but I was on point for a migration project that took place late into Friday evening. I also had to check in a few times over the weekend with other people involved with the project to see if there were any issues.

My weekend was pretty shot. I had to be in easy reach of online access.

Continue reading Fall Foothills Stroll at PMags.com.

A walk through the Boulder open space taking in six peaks, 22+ miles or so and many thousands of feet of vertical gain and loss. Nice way to kick off the season.

The Boulder foothills have their prime hiking this time of the year.

The wildflowers are in full bloom, the weather is not too hot and (hopefully!) the snow is gone from the higher foothills.

In years past, we have done a hike that connects the popular peaks of the Boulder’s open space system: S. Boulder Peak, Bear Peak, Green Mountain, Flagstaff, Anenome and Sanitas.  All told, about ~23 miles of hiking (if done as a loop) and many thousands of feet of elev. gain and loss. (Some GPS units or maps have 10k, some have as “little” as 8k.  Let’s call it 9k 🙂 )

This hike is a challenging and fun one that makes for a mini-adventure mere minutes from my home.

Continue reading Tour de Boulder at PMags.com.

About mid-April to mid-June or so, is an interesting time in Colorado.

The high country is still full of snow and a bit too much for hiking.   The snow can be fun to ski, but turns slushy and concrete like by mid-day.

The foothills beckon and it is invariably what calls to many of us who love to hike.

And every year some friends and I start the hiking season with a hike we dubbed the Boulder Super Slam. A hike that takes in all the high points of the Boulder open space and connects it all with the well-known Mesa Trail (and a little bit of road walking!) for a big loop in our backyard.

This year, the weather (and a trail closure due to a fire from earlier this year) did not cooperate for the full loop.

The cast of characters was smaller this year as well.   But the smaller crew represented a lot of hiking!  It was nice to see Dave H.

Continue reading Flowers and Frost : May in Colorado at PMags.com.