Backyard Sleep Out

This summer has seen a virtually continuous display of spectacular sunrises and sunsets in the Grand Valley. One of the best spots from which to see them is on the south 'rim' of the valley - either the Colorado National Monument, Black Ridge or from points along Little Park Road. All are easy to reach and so one evening after work, Chad and I set out with plans to spend the night and see both sunset and sunrise.

Hiking up provided expansive views of the valley, here looking north towards Fruita and Utah:

Looking south east where the Wingate Sandstone drops off into the Grand Valley:

Having found a cozy alcove in the red sandstone walls we rolled out our sleeping bags, perched ourselves with a great vantage point, cracked open a bottle of wine (or two), laid out some rather delicious cheese and waited.

Chad looking like he's doing yoga but in fact peering down a canyon wall.

Dark clouds moved in shortly before sunset. Above Black Ridge and its radio towers - where most of the Grand Valley pings its communications:

Dusk above the Grand Valley. I believe the streak in the sky is the International Space Station. It moves quickly and is bright. This was a six second exposure.

As the moon rose the clouds rolled in. This picture is rather ominous but is authentic.

Sunrise was again another sultry, cloud filled sky:

Having forgotten fuel for our stove and therefore the lifeblood of early mornings - coffee - was not available to us, we beat a groggy retreat back down to the valley floor. Just in time to avoid the rain which the "dark sky in the morning, shepherds warning" adage correctly predicted. All in all a spectacular sleep out in our backyard.

The Great Mushroom Hunt

The Great Mushroom Hunt did not begin in a forest. Like many excellent plans this one was laid while consuming some form of alcoholic beverage. In this instance the stage was set while wine tasting at the beautiful Leroux Creek Inn near Hotchkiss. The vitner, Yvon, let it slip that he had the previous day collected over 60 pounds of mushrooms in the surrounding mountains which he accessed via helicopter!

The mushrooms were beautiful especially the chanterelles, a pretty golden color, and according to Yvon the most delicious to eat (he's a french chef so I wasn't about to argue). 

Immediately inspired I snapped photos and took mental notes of his descriptions of the chanterelle and cep (or bolete) as he said they were fairly easy to distinguish. I was determined that I too would become a successful shroomer with or without a helicopter. 

And with that the Great Mushroom Hunt was born.

The very next day saw my father and I hiking up a trail through pine forests on a steep, wet north hillside which we had decided would be a good location to start. We were accompanied by Tikka the official truffle hound of the expedition who seemed greatly more interested in chasing down chipmunks than snouting out fungi. In the end she was off the hook for all around us where mushrooms. Big ones, small ones, chunky, willowy, slimey, chalky, orange, yellow, white, brown, red, spotty, with gills and without gills, there were a gazillion different kind of mushrooms and none of them looked much like the chanterelles or cep.

In fact it was rather overwhelming and worried we would poison ourselves by picking the wrong ones, we returned shroomless.

Day Two: We went to the booksellers in Aspen and bought "Mushrooming Without Fear: A Beginner's Guide to Collecting Safe and Delicious Mushrooms". Perfect, a simple checklist that would help us positively identify some good mushrooms.

Day Three: On the hunt again, this time with the book in my pack, we foraged through forests and meadows. With the knowledge that we were now almost pro's we collected several bags of mushrooms that we identified as larch boletes. However upon returning, Chad, the plant expert, explained that no larches grow in Colorado and since the larch boletes 'always' grow under larch trees we decided not to risk it and disappointedly threw them out.

Day Four: Finally the Great Mushroom Hunt meets with success!! Stalking through the forests we turned up numerous King Ceps and Red Cracked Boletes which also passed additional and heavy scrutiny in the kitchen. 

That evening we dined on huge mounds of mushrooms sauted with fresh butter, garlic and herbs from my vegetable garden. Delish!

The Great Mushroom Hunt continues every day I am out hiking in appropriate terrain. Now I always carry with me a supply of bags, a sharp knife and the knowledge that I can at least identify a cep. The chanterelles remain in hiding, the little nuggets of gold slow to reveal themselves despite my stalking. 

This past weekend I harvested another bounty of ceps.

Again sauted in butter, garlic and rosemary I served them over roast chicken breast and paired them with a tasty red cabbage slaw with cilantro and basil dressing, all grown in my vegetable garden. Yummy!

In other news the summer is winding down. The mountains have seen snow above 13,000 feet last week and frost lower down. The skunk cabbage, or california corn lilies, are succumbing to the pull of fall.

Even in the desert I have seen some small signs that fall is on it's way. It wont be long now but until then I'm still on the hunt for mushrooms.

Like Father, Like Daughter

Once in a while I am asked from where I get my adventuresome spirit. It’s an easy question to answer: my father. My childhood is full of memories of his adventures: from being an early adopter of windsurfing , 40 mile non-stop ‘walks’ across the North Yorkshire Moors, 10 day gliding competitions flying around the UK, and also picking him up from hospital having smashed his hang glider (and himself) into the side of a mountain. Many more adventures were had and continue to this day. Remember this from my visit to the UK last year?....

Now into his seventh decade my father has, if anything, picked up the pace wanting to ‘fit as much in before he kicks the bucket’ (his words). Case in point – excerts from a postcard sent from New Zealand earlier this year:

“To celebrate my 70th birthday…I decided to climb Mount Tapi (highest peak outside Southern Alps in NZ). The first day we started at 482m, tramped for 7 ½ hours covering 22kms climbing to 1400m with 80+ river crossings. Overnight in hut, rising at 4:30 a.m., reached summit after 6 ½ hours climbing. Hard work due to much unstable scree…three hours descent…overnight at hut….easy walk out with 80+ river crossings again. Since then 4 days horse trekking….3 days hut to hut tramping in Fjordlands…..flight in DC3….swimming in mountain streams, kayaking, etc”.

Phew!! Even I was almost tired from reading alone!

However it was with much excitement that I was looking forward to my parents visit the past two weeks, a chance to share in some local adventures in the desert, the mountains and various points in between. I was also a little concerned about my ability to sustain the pace. Luckily before landing in Grand Junction Dad had spent a week sailing around the Hebrides and another week camping out at Oshkosh to get in his flying fix. I hoped this was sufficient to sate his appetite just a little. But no. Of course he has an indominatable thirst for anything in the outdoors, just like me. In the end it was the altitude if anything that slowed him down, but not by much. Living at 300 feet above sea level and as a glider pilot he utilizes oxygen over 10,000 feet, so my trick was to get him up high and I could about keep up. I did suggest we might climb a 14er but Dad said “only with oxygen.” Chuckling over such visions I explained that even climbing Everest in such a manner was sometimes frowned upon. 

We embarked on several large hikes (3,000 feet gain, 8 miles+, at altitude) in the San Juans, Elks and Raggeds, as well as some shorter adventures with plenty of wine tasting and mushroom hunting thrown in for good measure. Here are some pics from the last few weeks of adventures with my Dad where we caught the glorious mountains in the final throws of summer.

Hiking up to Ice Lakes Basin, Dad motors, no time to smile, unlike Chad:

Into the upper basin:

Stunning scenery:

Hiking in the Raggeds included a long climb up to a high alpine basin on the north side of the Treasure mountain massif. Snowmass on the left and the Maroon Bells on the right skyline:

Beautiful rock formations at 12,000 feet:

Moon over Treasury:

On other hikes strolling through meadows of wildflowers we stopped occassionally to pick mushrooms and delicious wild raspberries.

Thanks Dad! I had a wonderful time adventuring with you. Come back and visit again soon!

Classic Grand Valley

The past few days I have been a Grand Valley tourist. Visiting family coinciding with cooler valley temperatures means I have been able to enjoy some of the classics in my hometown. Most of the time I'm running around at break neck speed so it has been really nice to go a little slower and soak in this beautiful place I live.

Last night Mother Nature put on a great display of rainbows. At one point there was a double rainbow over the valley but I caught this chunky number over Mt Garfield.

Lots of cloud cover has kept the broiling heat away and it is quite feasible to hike in the valley and not self combust. Of course there are numerous great hikes but the Monument trail in the Colorado National Monument is the classic to take visitors as it goes right by Independence Monument.

Usually I run this trail and miss taking in the sights so I was stoked to find a herd of Desert Big Horn Sheep at the base of Independence Monument.

They were very accomodating models and obviously quite used to people stalking them with a camera. I got in close.

We counted 17 in the herd including a few kids. They played, ate and then laid down for a nap amongst the rocks. However at all times there was at least one who was on guard duty, looking down Wedding Canyon towards Fruita.

Even though it's the middle of summer and the desert, for the most part, is fried to a crisp there is still a suprising amount of green as was evidenced by looking south down Monument Canyon. The Kissing Couple spire is at center:

Looking east, down Monument Canyon, towards Grand Junction and the Colorado River and the Grand Mesa far off in the distance:

Another obliging model:

Of course a visit to the Grand Valley is not complete without a tour of the wineries. Actually I should say some wineries as it would be almost impossible to visit all 21 in a day, although I'm not against trying and would whole heartedly endorse some kind of sporting event that would accomplish that. Perhaps a bike race with no set course but a requirement that each winery must be visited. Fastest one wins a case of wine. Anyway I digress but that's where I'm headed next.

Bottoms up to Grand Valley classics.

Monsoon

After a super dry June and fairly mediocre rainfall for most of July, the monsoon season has finally taken a hold in Colorado. Down in the desert the crazy hot weather has been replaced by much more tolerable temperatures, cloudy skies and some rain. In fact todays high temperature in the Grand Valley was only 78 degrees - now that I can handle. However, as is usually the case at this time of year, I bolted to higher grounds this weekend in the hopes of getting a little relief from the heat.

The monsoon is in full swing up in the mountains also but I managed to squeeze in a nice hike early in the day. The wildflowers are primo right now. It takes me twice as long to go anywhere as I can't stop looking at them.

Even up in the mountains it was quite hot and sultry. I was trying to get Tikka to pull in her rather large tongue - told her it wasn't very ladylike - but she was needing it out to cool off.

But soon enough the sunshine gave way to clouds which gave way to torrential rain, thunder and lightning. Luckily I made it under cover just in time.

It was raining so hard that it roiled up the valley in huge sheets of water. One of the most intense rain storms I have seen in a while and made me thankful I wasn't holed up in a tent.

The monsoonal rains have caused plenty of flooding. This deluge blew out Slate Creek across County Road 3 the only road in and out of the town of Marble. It was almost four hours before the dozer could clear it up and the road was open again. Quite a sight!

Not sure if the truck and trailer on the left just happened to be parked in the wrong spot at the wrong time or if it had tried to go across the mudflow. Either way it sucked to be the driver of that vehicle.

The monsoon moisture has been a boon to the fungi. Mushroom gatherers are sure to be combing the woods the next few weeks.

The rains didn't seem to bother this red fox as he strolled around the meadows.

He didn't seem to be bothered by me either. Usually my photos of wildlife are of its rear end as it disappears into the woods so I was quite pleased to catch these shots.