The Slope
and Soak Tour of Colorado continues...
January 29, 2005:
It's been really nice to stay in the same general
area for a long period of time. I've come to feel somewhat at
home in the Denver area - at least I have a general idea of where I'm
at most of the time. We've done alot of skiing, 7 days at 6
different places.
(Eldora, Loveland x 2, A-basin, Breckinridge, Monarch and Crested
Butte) I think my favorites have been Breckenridge and Crested
Butte, but I've pretty much had fun at all of them. My skiing is
improving - I attended a woman's telemark clininc day in
Breckenridge put on by "Babes in the Backcountry" and that helped
alot. We started the day with a Tai Chi/Stretching session
and that gave me some tools to help me stay in body and get out of my
head when I ski. The other thing that's helped alot has been that
our instructor for the day encouraged us to ski "telepine" (Alpine
technique on our Nordic/freeheel skis) when we don't feel comfortable
doing the telemark turn. Her view was that a bad telemark turn is
worse than none since doing the wrong thing puts it into your
muscle-memory and then you get stuck with a bad habit that's hard to
get rid of. So, I've been doing alot of Telepine-ing and
using that to get comfortable on a run, and then going back over the
same terrain and trying Telemark turns when it feels ok.
We saw a pretty cool thing while riding up on the lift at
Loveland the other day. I looked down and saw something moving
and thought that it was just a piece of paper blowing around. A
closer look revealed that it was a white weasel jumping around in the
snow- chasing something. It was very fast and soon dissapeared
into the pine trees.
On the soak side of things, we've went to one
new hot spring so far. We took a short tour down south after
Brekenridge
and visited the city of Salida. They have a hot springs pool
there in town, but it is more of a warm swimming pool with a
separate slightly hotter pool to soak. They do have
some private tubs - but the woman at the front desk did not recommend
them the day we were there because the water wasn't coming in hot
enough to have them heat up sufficiently. (They pipe the water 8
miles from a spring in Poncha Springs - the next town over.)
Anyway, she suggested another hot springs about 30 miles south, called
"Joyful Journey" and it was delightful. It has 3 soaking pools
and a sauna as well as some Yurts for lodging. The pools have a
wonderful view of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.
There is another springs in the same area called Valley View which is
supposed to be wonderful too, but it is usually open to members-only on
the weekends.
After staying in Salida and skiing at a small area called
Monarch the next day, we headed to Gunnison which is the city just down
the hill from Crested Butte. We found that the Walmart there
doesn't allow overnight stays in the parking lot, and there were no
campgrounds that were open. However, we found fairly
inexpensive accomodations ($50/night) which included the opportunity to
buy lift tickets for Crested Butte for $27. It was probably
good that it turned out that way, as the temps dropped to -11 that
night and we were low on propane in the camper having used the
heater the night before...(Note to Mom -
we would have been OK, we have some really warm sleeping bags and Gus
generates alot of heat. :-) ) We really liked Gunnison -
even though the local brewery was out of the "Winter Lust" beer on both
nights we were there (Winter Lust is a Cherry Wheat beer - it sounded
really yummy to me.) They did have the "Telemark IPA", so Bill
was in heaven. And they have a Really Tasty green chile - so stop
for a meal there if you ever go through there. Interestingly
enough, Gunnison is facing an
affordable housing shortage too - Most people who live and work there
can't afford to buy a house there. Sound familar? It's not
just San Diego...(I suspect it's alot more places too)
Back in Denver, some of the more interesting things
I've seen - today while running some errands, there was a guy holding a
sign that said "Why lie, I just want a beer" - there's honestly
for you :-) And we also saw a "Gentleman's hair salon"
called "A Little off the Top" which is a (have you guessed
yet?) topless haircut place.
February 2, 2005:
We're back in town from a little jaunt up north to
the Steamboat Springs area. We did a couple of days
of soaking in a cool hot spring (more on that below) and doing a bit
of "off-piste" (not at a resort) skiing and
snowshoeing. Bill even got some good tele-turns in, before a snow
snake grabbed his ski and he did a tuck and roll manuver... I did get
pictures of the whole thing - See here...
We did find another cool hot spring while we were in
Steamboat Springs. Just outside of town is a place called
Strawberry Park hot springs. You drive up a winding dirt road
(4-wheel drive or chains required) and come to a delightful place that
has some very natural looking pools to soak in. They also have
cabins and camping there - and we were going to camp in the one spot
they had plowed out - but it was only $10 more to stay in a cabin so we
did that. The cabins are rustic - just a futon, that you put your
own sleeping bag and a propane heater and lamp. The bathrooms
(with a shower) are just a bit of a walk away. The cool part
about staying there is that you get to use the pools after they kick
the public out at the end of the night until midnight and then again
from first light until 10 am. Bathing suits are required
during the day (10 am - dark) and then it's clothing
optional. We first soaked in the evening - before dark and
then went back later that night. The pools are in a very natural
state so at night that means it's basically pitch black. So, you
go down the path to the pools with your trusty headlamp - aimed of
course at the ground...then you drop your clothes in one of the stone
huts or a teepee that they have for changing and you make your way to
the pools - sans headlight. Everyone is very polite and knows you
still can't see very well and points out where the stairs are so that
you don't fall into the pools or onto anyone else. One thing you
learn quickly is to not back up without looking first since you don't
know what/who you'll run into. ;-)
The best time was in the morning, when we had these
pools all to ourselves. It was about 10 degrees outside and
102-104 degrees in the pool (depending on which one you were in),
the pines surrounding the area are all covered in frost due to the
steam that comes up from the spring and freezes on
them. It's quiet and we watched the surrounding hills come alive
with color as the sun rose in the sky. Our hair froze and
is was coated with frost. It's quite a different atmosphere
than the evening/nighttime ski crowd that comes up to
soak. We got so relaxed that any thought of getting
to the slopes early to ski escape from our brains and going out to
nearby Rabbit Ear pass and hiking/skiing around became a better
idea.
We went intending to ski a few places
and take in a couple of hot springs, but we ended up coming back
earlier than planned - because Gus seems to have pulled a muscle
or ??? in one of his hind legs. He's resting,
but still not putting any weight on it - so we may have a vet visit in
the near future. I'm concerned it may be a torn ACL in his stifle
(the technical term for a dog's knee) - but hoping that it's
not. We were out snowshoeing/cross-country skiing and
he was running around like a crazed dog -as he likes to do in the
snow. Then he came back to us limping and holding up his right
rear leg. We suspect he punched through the snow and it
caught his leg as his body kept moving. He's never made any
sounds like he's in pain, he just doesn't want to put any weight on
it. :-(
February 4, 2005:
Well, yesterday we took Gus to the vet. After some poking
and stretching she thought it might be a partially torn ACL - which is
quite common in dogs...however she couldn't get the knee to move in a
way that is indicative of a torn ACL and so she took some x-rays and
while we were looking at the x-rays she noticed what appears to be a
fracture. After a couple more x-rays it looks more likely that
it's a fracture than a torn ACL. (that's a good thing) We
have an appointment with an orthopedic type vet later today to make a
determination and figure out what the course of action will
be. Gus seems to be in no pain, except that he doesn't want
to put any weight on the leg - but doesn't flinch or cry out if he
does. More later...
Back from Vet #2. It's a torn ACL.
:-( This vet had no problem moving the knee in the way that
is indicative of a torn ACL- it's actually a CCL (Cranial Cruiciate
Ligament) in a dog, but it's the same as an ACL in a human.
We have to make a choice of what we do now, although since the recovery
period for the surgery is 10-12 weeks, it looks like we won't be going
to Mexico. We figure the best thing to do is to head back to SD and
have the surgery done there. Then , when Gus is OK to travel again,
we'll head back to Colorado and do some more skiing. Does anyone
know anything about either of these vets; Josh Jackson or
Gary Tarvin? Those were the 2 recommended by the vet
here. Thanks for any info! Hope to see you when
we're in SD this time.