The Adventures of Lori and Monty

This weekend we experience a couple of first time adventures. It was the first winter mountain climb for both of us. It was Lori's first time hitch-hiking!

We followed the Crags Trail just outside of Divide Colorado to the top of Pikes Peak. It took up 7 hours to reach the summit. We decided to catch a ride down the first 3 miles. A couple of cowboys in a beat up pickup looked at us like we were crazy, but said "Ok". All in all it was 6.5 miles up and 3.5 down with a total of 9 hours of hiking. Quite a day. Here are the photos.

Katie returned to Colorado for the season opener against CU and a second game against Wyoming. Katie played excellent in both games, but unfortunately the team didn't pull through.

Follow the links to see the photos...
USF vs. CU

USF vs. WYO

At the second annual Pumpkin Toss Challenge we only had 3 entries. STG, Analog Engineering, and ATE. We added a second competition this year. Each team was allowed 3 tosses for distance and 2 at each accuracy target. Analog Engineering took the entire show with a long distance of 126 yds and almost perfect accuracy.
Here are some photos from the event.

Kirk and I decided to take a fall ride over Trail Ridge Road before it closed for the season. There was a bit of snow n the high mountains, but the road was clear. Here are a few photos.

We decided to attempt a late season climb of Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point. Unfortunately we underestimated the hike in so we didn't summit. We ended up doing a fantastic 12 mile hike to the base of Blanca Peak, Ellingwood Point and Little Bear Peak anyway. Here are the photos.

We went to the San Francisco area to participate in the San Pablo Bay Trail Race. While there we visited Katie, Lionel & Jackie, and the Provost family. Here are the photos.

In San Francisco we spent a day checking out the museums. Then we met up with Katie and she gave us a tour of The University of San Francisco. Pretty cool place!

We headed WAY out into the hills to hike Mt. Sneffels. Here are the photos.

Here are some stats for Mt. Sneffels:
Rank: 27 of 53
Elevation: 14,150'
Range: San Juan
Location: In the Uncompahgre National Forest - 7 miles west of the town of Ouray, 4.5 miles north of Telluride.
Nearby Towns: Ridgway, Ouray, Telluride
History: Named for Snaefell, a summit in Iceland, which was referenced in Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" as the entrance to the earth's core.

We both ran excellent races in the LiveSTRONG Challenge race this weekend. Monty placed 2nd in the men's race and Lori placed 5th in the women's race. Here's a snapshot of the results:

5K Run MALES:
Place Name Nettime Pace
====================================
1 Todd Schuster 15:54 5:07
2 Montgomery Groff 22:18 7:11

5K Run FEMALES
Place Name Nettime Pace
====================================
1 Amy Farmer 21:41 6:59
2 Eileen Phillips 23:49 7:40
3 Tera Denning 24:04 7:45

We took our friend Mary to the Collegiate Peaks to hike Mt. Antero (the 10th highest peak in Colorado). Mary is preparing for a trip to Bhutan and is training for the high altitude trekking.

The trip to the trail head was pretty fun. It was an old mining road that was used to get gems (aqua-marine, quartz, and topaz) from the top of the mountain. We drove to 13,000 ft and parked there to hike the rest of the way. Here are the photos.

The gang from Kansas came out for a weekend of motorcycle riding and hiking.
Mom, Trish, Erin and John set out for a big hike to the top of Devil's Head and the fire lookout post. The made it to the top and had a fantastic view of the South Platte valley. Here is a link to their photos