Colorful Colorado...

As part of the season ending activities at Copper Mountain, we participated in the first ever Copper Mountain 5K Color Run on April 19th.  The run started in the Center Village at Copper and made a large winding loop out past the East Village and Golf Course and back, with most of the race taking place on groomed snow.  The primary goal of taking part in this run is to start out wearing white, and to end with as much color as you can.  Therefore, as you run (at nearly 10,000 feet) you pass through 5 color stations where you are blasted by volunteers with a different color and ultimately ending the race in a mosh pit of color in front of a live band.  Nearly 3,000 people participated in this inaugural event.

The event was a great time and a nice way to close out our time at Copper.  If you're interested in participating in a The Color Run event, Google them as they host 100's of runs each year all around the world.

Before the season was over, we enjoyed many more days of skiing in Colorado Sunshine and a few more days of dispersed camping, snow shoeing and hiking.  Proof of Shonah's recovered leg can be seen in the video below:

During one of our dispersed camping trips, we snow shoed and hiked to Baker's Tank near Frisco.  Baker's Tank served the Denver-South Park and Pacific narrow gauge railroad (later the Colorado and Southern).  The railroad had 63 miles of track and 43 "S" curves with the longest stretch of straight track being 1.6 miles.  The line was begun in 1880, completed in 1884 and abandoned in 1937.  This tank was used to restock the water in the steam locomotives that ran the route.  It is located at the top of a mountain pass.

 

Here are some additional shots of the beautiful Rocky Mountains from our treks:

 

We were also able to see several fox while in and around Copper.  Below are a couple pictures of what look to be soft and cuddly animals, until they show their rather large teeth!

Next up, we head for Texas to (we hate to say it) become residents and more enjoyably, visit Shonah's Grandfather and Sister.

Dispersed Camping...

Most of our time thus far in Colorado has been spent "camping" in the Alpine lot of Copper Mountain Ski Resort.  However, now and then we spend a night at a local RV park (Tiger Run) where we have the ability to plug in to fully charge our batteries, fill our water tank, empty our grey water tank, and the cassette toilet.  We've also just started venturing off the beaten path to find areas where we can do "Dispersed Camping" when taking a break from skiing.  As defined by the National Forest Service, dispersed camping is:
 

This term is used for vehicle based camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground. It is generally allowed anywhere except within 100 feet of a lake, trail, or stream, or where posted as closed.  It is especially appealing to people who enjoy the solitude and experience of camping away from developed campgrounds and other campers. No toilet facilities, garbage services, treated water, or fire grates are provided. Typically, dispersed camping is not allowed in the vicinity of campgrounds, picnic areas, or trailheads. However, even here occupying a campsite is limited to 14 days.

Much of our future budget relies upon finding free areas such as dispersed campsites to spend the night.  Our first night of dispersed camping was last week where we found a grated area just off Highway 9 near the Green Mountain Reservoir.  The area wasn't the most remote, but got us away from the crowds and snowplows that sometimes disturb our nights at Copper.

The area is part of the Arapaho National Forest and provides abundant opportunities for hiking and viewing wildlife.  While just spending one night in the area, we didn't hike much, but did see some wildlife.

A couple of Moose under the trees:

 

A family of deer coming down the mountain for a quick drink of water:

Beautiful birds (Steller's Jay) in the trees outside our vehicle:

We've also been able to see Red Fox and Snowshoe Hares in and around Copper, but didn't have the camera handy.

As we ski out the remainder of the season at Copper, we look forward to the travels ahead where we can do more dispersed camping in remote areas and enjoy the wildlife and natural landscape.

The Trees...

Tuesday, March 25th started off beautifully.  Lots of Colorado sunshine and the temperature was expected to get up to 47 so an all around beautiful Colorado day.  Todd and I started the morning with a blue groomer (Intermediate level) to warm up our legs and then decided to move on to the back bowls (more/most advanced).  The day "was" going great and I "was" just beginning to enjoy skiing in the trees.  As Todd says, trees define the trails, provide shelter from the wind, they are wonderful things of beauty and sometimes they are even fun to ski through.  And he "claims" that skiing in the trees forces you to improve your turns.  Uh-huh, sure.  On some occasions though, trees prove their strength as immovable objects, and of course are stronger than the human body (something Todd's brother Don and many others know all too well).

Well, after skiing Spaulding Bowl at Copper Mountain, we were led into Spaulding Glades (a.k.a. trees).  All was going well until we ended up going down a long and steep descent with a drop-off to our right and heavy trees to the left.  I began picking up a lot of speed and started to become nervous so I was looking for an opening for me to turn uphill to burn some speed.  Luckily, I found an opening.  However, I severely underestimated the available space to be able to complete what I had intended.  I turned into the small opening on the left, but there was not enough room and my left ski went to the left of the tree while my right ski went directly into the tree.  My right shin took the bulk of the impact.  While Todd was already down the run, fortunately a few good Samaritans stopped to offer me assistance.   I tried walking down the run a few feet but the pain was too unbearable and I was getting dizzy so skiing down the rest of the run was not going to be an option.  Todd hiked back up to me and Ski Patrol was on their way.

The Ski Patrol did their initial assessment making sure it was safe to transport me and strapped me into the sled.  All I could think about was the mono-wheel stretcher on Mt. Kilimanjaro and how much I did not want to relive that experience:

Due to our location on the mountain, not only did I have to come down the mountain, but I also had the rare experience of being strapped to the back of a chairlift to go back up the mountain so that I could then come down the middle of the mountain to the Center Village:

Once down to Center Village, I was then loaded into the back of a box truck for transport to the on-mountain Medical Center:

Once at the Medical Center, the incredibly nice staff checked out my injury, took x-rays and after some debate, determined that no bones were broken and no ligaments were detached (great news!). The final verdict was that I had some nasty scrapes and some significant pain, but only required Advil and rest to recover.  Although, I have to admit that after all of that work to get me down the mountain and all of the pain that I endured, I was disappointed that the end result was nothing more than a couple of scrapes, bruises, and some pain.

After a day of rest, I was out and about (albeit with a slight limp) and by Friday I was back on the slopes and working out at the athletic club.  Lessons learned though....1. next time I will be sure to pick up that heads up penny that I saw in Center Village before hitting the slopes and 2. trees are more stubborn than I am.