AtomJohnson Blog

Another great weekend in and around Boulder has left me completely exhausted.  On Friday night, an impromptu decision by several of us at the dog park led to a party of 12 people downing sushi, saki and beer at Sushi Zanmai.  Despite too many ounces of Sapporo, I was still expected to get up for an 8am mountain bike ride with Ben, Amy, Bonnie, Chad and Ronnie.  We headed up North to Hall Ranch for an incredible ride.  It was another one of those morning where I just couldn’t believe what I have access to in my backyard.  Ben, Amy and I grabbed a post ride lunch at The Mountain Sun Brewery which left each of us miserably full and cancelled out any positive effect of the long bike ride.  Afterwards I fell asleep on the couch while watching the Manchester United match.

Saturday evening was spent at my across-the-sidewalk neighbor’s house for a BBQ.  I love going over there because I get to hang out with all of the kids.  It is a totally different world.  I’m not sure I’m ready for it full-time, but it is nice to have access to it.

With another vicious hangover, I called Ben at 7:00am this morning to see if we were still on for rock climbing.  After an assured “yes”, I headed over there to find out that he had to be back early for lunch with his mother-in-law, which pretty much cancelled our morning of climbing.

So, instead I hung shelves in my neighbor’s garage.  My wonderful neighbor, Rita, is kind enough to let me hand shelves on her garage walls to store the stuff that somehow won’t fit into my 1.5 closets.  It will be really nice not to have to drive to my storage unit anymore whenever I need something.

This afternoon, Ben, Bonnie, Chad and I went to Mt. Sanitas for some bouldering.  It was a gorgeous fall day….definitely one of the clearest I have seen in a long time.  After a few hours of bouldering, they headed back home and Sadie and I hiked up to the peak for a bit more exercise.  Below are some photos from today’s bouldering expedition….

Ben and I went climbing outside for the first time today. After about two months of gym climbing, we decided to bite the bullet and test our skills on the real rock. Part of my hesitation to get out on the real rock is both lack of knowledge, but also knowing that its going to take time to rig top ropes, which will take away from climbing time. Soon we’ll start leading up the rocks and won’t have to place the top ropes. After today’s climb, we are both incredibly anxious to get to that point. Not yet being there, we had to hike up next to the route with our ropes, rig a top rope, drop the rope down and then climb down the side, just to climb back up the route. We were out there for several hours and only got in two routes. There is so much to climb around here though. We both kept pinching ourselves that the area we were in was only minutes from our houses. For two people who are totally in love with the sport, this is certainly the place to be.

Ben and I decided to host an impromptu dinner/birthday party for Ronnie and Amy last night. So, after the climbing gym, we scrambled around to get people to head over to my house while we made blackbean and quinoa salad, spinach and jicima salad with orange sesame dressing, lime-marinated chicken (thanks Margo!), and buffalo steak. Ronnie was not able to pull off a last minute attendance, so Amy had to blow out the candle (or match, really) by herself. Thanks to everyone who came over and made it a great party!

This past weekend I finally got back up to the mountains. Alan (my new brother-in-law) flew out from Atlanta to join Ben and I on a backpacking trip to The Holy Cross Wilderness. I had read alot about this area last summer and had been anxious to do a trip there. We invited Alan to join us when he was here with Amy in June and he surprised us all by booking a flight, packing his gear, and heading out for the trip. Unfortunately, we did not do our math to calculate that he would be hiking up mountains with 70lbs on his back about 10,000ft higher in elevation than he is used to. On Saturday morning, it was clear that the consequences of such a miscalculation are the worst headache of your entire life. For all of Saturday he looked like he had just been hit it the face with a frying pan.

Other mishaps included Sadie rolling in an unidentified pile o’ feces. Baso eating so much Marmot poop that he vomited up everything in his system throughout the night on Saturday. Only getting four minutes of sleep on Friday night due to altitude, thunderstorms and a tightly packed two man tent of Alan, myself and Sadie.

Trip highlights included: Seeing a small inlet of water packed with literally thousands of Brook Trout, catching my first fish ever on a fly rod, Ben’s homemade bison chili, seeing trout actively spawning, hiking up the Tuhare Lakes on Saturday, sunrise on Lake Constantine, the brightest nightsky you could possibly imagine, red wine both nights, the best night of (Benedryl-induced) sleep ever….and the list goes on.

After recovering at a lower altitude, Alan did admit to having fun despite the pain and agreed to come back next summer when he has more time to acclimate. I’m sure the fish will be waiting…

Here is a video of the easiest place in the world to catch fish…

See the full set of pics here…

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Evenings like this one answer any questions about why I choose to live in Boulder.  I finished work around 5pm, hiked up between the 1st and 2nd Flatirons, and was cooking dinner by 6:35pm.  There are very few places where you can experience this kind of beauty between work and dinner.

This weekend I drove up to Wyoming to visit Nat and collect my final few boxes. Keep in mind that my place has so little storage that I have trouble storing cereal when I buy it. Hearing that I had seventeen boxes waiting for me was a bit worrisome. After seven hours of driving on Friday, I arrived in the bustling town of Lyman, Wyoming on Friday evening. I had been looking forward to seeing Nat’s place. She completely gutted and renovated a small house in Lyman. The results are incredible! She put down bamboo floors, stone tile in the entryway, new cabinets and counters….its gorgeous. She said the biggest compliment she received was when a true-to-form, shit-kickin’ cowboy said it was the nicest place he’d ever been in.

After cooking up some buffalo steaks from Whole Foods and polishing of a bottle of wine, we headed out to an after wedding party of some of her friends. Several hours and too many tequila shots later I found Nat cheek-to-cheek with the bathroom floor. One more hour passed before the delicious buffalo steak was no longer with her. I guess you have to party like that every once in a while.

On Saturday we headed out to her father’s horse ranch. Her Dad is a true cowboy. He has been working the past few years on a setup to provide Cowboy Lessons to tourists. Unfortunately it was getting too late for us to have our own cowboy lessons, so we had to take a rain check.

Sunday was a seven hour drive back to Boulder….

This afternoon I had taken Sadie over to Chautauqua Park to try some hilly trail running. The plan was to do as much running as my lungs and legs would allow on the 1st and 2nd Flatiron trail. This trail winds way up the mountain and ends on top of the northernmost Flatiron. On the way up, I was feeling really good. I stopped behind an older couple who had paused to rest. I stopped and we exchanged a few words before I kept on up the trail.

On my way back down, I saw the most beautiful sight. It was the same couple. There arms were around each other and they were walking slowly down the trail. As I approached, I noticed that she was in fact crippled and despite the fact that he required a cane, he was supporting her every step. The sight nearly brought me to tears and immediately made me appreciate all of my blessings. I passed them, smiled and said hello again. They seemed so happy. She was beaming just to be out there on the trail and it was clear that this gentleman would have done anything to ensure that she did not miss the experience.

It truly is the little things in life that bring us the most joy….

This is a clip from the HBO series, Flight of the Concords. I don’t have Showtime. I have no idea what the show is about. This song cracked me up though. It made me laugh with my belly….