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Went to a bachelor party out in Tahoe, third ski trip this season, 15 ski days or something ridiculous like that for me this season.  I was impressed by the Tahoe area – apparently they get a ton more snow than Colorado or Utah - though it is generally heavier.  Myself and one other guy got there early on Friday morning and did a hike up Mt Waterhouse and skied down – in a raging blizzard, chains were required to get up the pass.  They don’t require chains for passenger vehicles in Colorado, and I think studs may be illegal – chews up the road too much.  If I’m wrong they don’t enforce it like in California where they pull you over and force you to chain up, have 4wd, or turn around.  The hike up was about an hour and forty-five minutes. And it was worth every minute – one of the greatest runs of my life, if not the greatest. Huge deep untracked powder, giant trees perfectly spaced, big poofy boulder fields, knee to thigh deep bottomless powder.  Spectacular.  Met up with ten-twelve terrific guys at a big home that night, crashed, got up and skied the amazing Kirkwood resort the following day. Steep and sunny and great snow. Best part was the groom in the Tigger suit with a pink cape. That evening we went out on the town… I’m accustomed to western ski towns, pretty chill. But we went to a rockin’ Vegas-style club, huge scaffolding bridges across the dance floor with pro dancers all the time, shows, pumping music… and all inside a casino, slot machines right outside, craps, blackjack etc – we hooked up with a bachelorette party at dinner and another at the club, lots of fun had by all. Next day six of us climbed up Mt Tallac, I believe the tallest around the stunningly gorgeous Lake Tahoe – really something to behold, an enormous lake ringed by beautiful peaks. Gorgeous. We then skied down, not as great as the Friday amazingness though still terrific. Got the groom and his brother off to the airport in time in Reno, a couple hours away. Then Will and I crashed at a casino, ate a ton of cheap sushi, and I wasted some money on video poker. Next day we headed out to Squaw Valley. I had been there as a kid and remember one particularly intimidating run that I was unable to do. We hit it – good times, check that off the life list.   

Lone tree at Squaw

Squaw was pretty amazing – giant cliffs, rocks, a tram, a double-cabled gondola that can run in winds up to 40mph and more I believe. No real names on the runs – you just ski these giant treeless runs. Wore my baseball hat backwards and neglected to put sunscreen on my forehead – nice half-moon bright red burn… It’s peeling now, very good look for me. And then off to Sacramento where I spent the night at my old climbing partner’s place with his four kids – what fun! Then canoed and fished the next day – totally unlucky – zero fish despite spending $20 on these huge live bait fish and live shrimp. He’s never caught a thing out there. Saw a sunken sailboat. Yikes.      

Yeck

And then flew home!  Great time in California – beautiful state.

View down "Plunge" into Telluride

Took off for a ten-day road trip from Colorado with no particular set agenda other than the first four days were to be in Aspen with my fiance and my family and sister’s family-in-law.  We had a great time as we always do skiing Snowmass, staying in my sis’s aunt and uncle-in-laws’ gorgeous home, taking the little kids to ski school and generally enjoying life.  Woody Creek tavern is always a fun outing, and hanging out in a ski town is fantastic.  From there back to Denver, stayed with a fraternity brother and his family, enjoyed their company and skied Tuesday with Paul at Breckenridge where I have a season pass.  Great time and congrats to him on making full partner at his law firm this year.  We skied a bunch of hard stuff as usual.  Wednesday skied Vail with my friend Kristen who’s on my True Adventure team, then headed to Telluride to see a buddy who lives there and another buddy who’s family has a place there and very generously let us crash with him.  Wonderful town, located in a dramatic dead-end or “box” canyon with sheer cliff wall rising on each side, one of them being the ski resort.  The home was one house away from the gondola which was very convenient.  Enjoyed hiking to a couple runs with our excellent host and guide and then managed to hang out at the private bar reserved exclusively for ski patrol members as my other buddy knows them, lots of fun and very nice people there.  Enjoyed a meal at the Chop House one night.  Rode the gondola the following day and met two people who had met the previous day through www.couchsurfing .org and the guy was crashing at the girl’s place for free – very cool setup and they were both into the whole scene.  I tried it once in Breck but it didn’t go so well.  I’m now motivated to try it again.  The dude had hitchhiked from Aspen, a full eight rides it took him to get there in the winter.  Crazy and very cool.  Took off the following day around ten am after breakfast with my bud at Maggie’s.  Tons of snow the previous evening and that day stretched the ride to Denver to about nine hours… and I carried on a few hours out into the plains of Nebraska on white freeways. 

White knuckled Driving and White Highways

As I was driving along neck cranked forward and both hands on the wheel in a raging snowstorm on the great plains, I decided to pass a semi.  Not really knowing where I was on the road except that we were single-file, I bravely pulled up alongside him, half-blinded by blowing and falling snow.  I was gradually easing past him and felt maybe we were getting a bit too far left when “POW!!” something seemed to explode next to my left ear.  In fact it was my side view mirror colliding with a metal reflector post in the grass off the shoulder… this was not good.  With the semi tractor howling and grinding away a few feet to my right and my truck beginning to fishtail, I gingerly kept on the gas relying on four-wheel drive and intense concentration to get me into clear road.  I did manage to creep by him and breathed a huge sigh of relief, heart thumping in my chest, having passed him (accidentally) on the shoulder.

I spent that evening at the “Grey Goose” lodge barely into Nebraska, drove all the next day and made it to western Illinois before pulling over and spending the evening in my truck – a guy can only take so much white freeway driving with blowing snow and semis!  Made it home around 10am the next morning – what a trip.  I love that stuff – got a little long a few times but I had a great time all in all.

Kevin Fired up to Ski Jupiter Bowl, "Jupe"

so it was much more memorable this time.  I love that there are like ten resorts within an hour or two of Park City, and that Park City is only forty minutes or so from the airport.  Also the SLC car rental is small and easy to get to, both advantages over Colorado where the rental cars are off-site requiring a long shuttle ride, and the government slaps a giant tax on vehicle rental, then the 2+ hour drive from DIA into the mountains if there’s no traffic or snow, which there often is that can stretch your drive into 3+ hours, and you face the same drive on the return (however it is a gorgeous drive up and down I-70 and I love it).  Park City also gives you a FREE lift ticket on the day you arrive – we were on the slopes by eleven am counting gear rental, and didn’t pay a penny for our lift tickets.  Very cool setup.  Also this year the snow is superior in Utah, though that isn’t always the case but often is I hear.  Park City I found fun with a bunch of good steeps and short hikes to generally untracked terrain, especially Sunday after an 8-12 inch dumping Saturday nigh 

t.  However the runs were a bit short with a long runout at the bottom to the lift each time.  We did lap     

Some of the crew skiing at Alta

 after lap on Mcconkey’s and then Jupiter bowl, finding new untracked glades on run after run, brilliant.  The view from PC is very pretty but is more hilly out into the distance, it doesn’t compare to most Colorado resorts, which have considerably bigger, more dramatic peaks to be seen from about every resort.  Utah this trip we only skied Park City and Alta – and take away what I said about the Utah peaks not being stunning when we talk about Alta – from Alta the view is pretty sensational, smaller but no less dramatic peaks rise up all around Little Cottonwood canyon, and helicopters buzzed overhead all day long, ferrying the powder-loving faithful to long and steep happiness.  The inbounds resort skiing was stunning, with all manner of steeps and chutes  to hike to and traverse to, excellent snow, inexpensive prices, and a general feeling of hard-core-ness to    

High Rustler run at Alta

the place.  Felt much like A-Basin in Colorado but with many more runs to choose from, though I would bet shorter, don’t quote me on that.  Memorable to me was a girl’s shirt in the on-mountain lunch spot that read “Alta: anywhere else you’d be good”.  That about sums up the experience I had there.  I think I can hold my own on skis but that Alta shirt was exactly right, I felt like a putz and ski-slacker.  We had a blast, doing run after steep powdery ice-less run.  My buds I was with love the glades and steeps with trees - I do too but have always broken it up, a few tree runs here, bump run there, groomer for a break – these guys ran it hard, steep chute, tree run, steep chute, steep chute, tree run, etc all day for four days running minus maybe the third day (where a bit of over-indulgence with the “car-bomb” contraption at Flanagan’s     

Relaxing Apres Ski

 that automatically drops four Baileys shots into four guinesses with the push of a lever made us not so chipper Saturday).  The result of all that fast-paced, steep skiing was I got much better at that kind of skiing and began to really enjoy it.  Which is a good thing.  Stayed at the very generous Brian’s huge four bedroom ski-in/out place one night and equally generous John’s place – beautiful ski-in/out place he bought the day before we got there right in town, steps from the Town Lift, bars, restaurants, etc.  It was also fun as we happened to be there when the     

Park City Film Fest

Sundance Film Festival was there – why I don’t know as we saw zero films though did get to see a bunch of black suburbans rolling through town dropping ostensibly famous people off to their important engagements.  Going out was really fun each night with all the guys turning it on full blast being on vacation away from wives or significant others.  Now I’m back in Chicago… and it ain’t all bad, but what a life, living the dream in a ski town.  One buddy who came has recently moved to Telluride and absolutely loves it.  One of these days I plan to follow their lead and head west.

High point of KY, Black Mountain at night

over to him and must have looked threatening as he flipped on his lights and started his car, but after a long cold chat we were friends and he was very kind and let us through – it was an interesting high point, sitting on top of a coal mine that the company thought could collapse, but we summitted in the dark and snow and cold, good adventure.  

The summit of the great state of SC

South Carolina was fun too – it was open, with only maybe a 100 yard hike to the top.  Cool part on that one was it is on the appalachian trail, so we hiked along following the white ‘blazes’ on the trees, which continues 2000 miles to the north, ending in Maine at Mount Katahdin.   

Fabulous trip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_n7pTOSbG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zbxo_EbYT8

I’m on a Toastmasters distribution list and a lady was looking to interview people who had taken Toastmasters to help with public speaking.  I emailed and told her that was why I had taken Second City classes and she interviewed me a couple times.  I believe she is independent and I didn’t realize it would be in Crain’s.  It was a fun shock when friends emailed me the day that Crain’s came out to tell me I was in the article.  No less than four people I know read it without me telling them, which is pretty impressive in my humble opinion.  So I’m not famous… but I think that’s pretty cool.

 I watched him, turned back to the wheel, turned back to see him, not sure what to do for a split second before I cut the gas, but too late as I watched him, fully clothed in about four layers, slip into Lake Michigan.  I dropped the ladder and in a split second he swam to the boat and seemed to fly up it, next thing he is standing there in the cockpit with me and we both begin laughing, doubled over.  Would have been even better had he not had his I-phone in his pocket which was destroyed.  Suck.  Fortunately he had some foul weather gear on board he was able to change into.

A tradition we have is drinking some Ol’ Grandad Whiskey on the way down.

Ol' Grandad on the Imjatse

Before we left, there was a fairly bad omen – a sunken boat being hauled out of the harbor.  Very sad to see.  Apparently several boats broke loose from their moorings during a fierce storm out of the southeast.  Monroe Harbor is unprotected in the north end of the harbor to swells out of the southeast – huge waves can roll in straight from the lake after miles of building up, unchecked by a seawall.  A few boats’ harnesses couldn’t take it and broke loose and the boats were quickly blown into the north end of the harbor where they were beaten to death against the iron walls and sank.  Very sad and a recurring nightmare of mine.

We made a gorgeous sail about three hours south under jib and main, avoiding the shoals but barely, watching the depth gauge go from 28 feet to eight feet in just a few seconds, that’ll wake you up!

We entered the outer Calumet harbor and radioed the drawbridges, they kindly stopped the car traffic and both opened for us.   We waited maybe five minutes for another sailboat as well as a tugboat to both head up the river with us.  After a smooth landing at the Crowley’s docks, my girlfriend Lisa picked us up, great day!

A weekend or two later we again headed to the boatyard and winterized the boat, and also shrink-wrapped her.  About a four hour job.  Also changed the oil, put in a new oil filter, and ran antifreeze into the engine and through the water system.

On the trail up into Missouri Basin

We hiked up the very steep first section of the trail about two hours, the girls leading the charge to our campsite where we took a break and set up camp near an old dilapidated log cabin around noon.  After a lunch of pb&j’s on pita we all packed up our daypacks and headed further up the valley, quickly getting above treeline and into a stunning valley with a fresh blanket of pristine white snow.  Our group split into smaller groups naturally as those who walked at a similar pace grouped together.  Gradually folks started turning back and my group was six, then four, then finally just two of us high on a mountain ridge,

Almost there!

going for the summit of Mount Missouri with a quickly dropping sun, Katy’s wet feet, and with about an hour to go and a tired me, not sure of the trail as we were going to descend a different route, I called it off and down we went, trying some glissading and having a very pleasant stroll back to camp, arriving just before sundown to a yummy pasta and beef frank dinner and a roaring fire.  One important note – the wind was gusting to forty miles an hour at least – so our raging fire would periodically be blown to bits, only to be enormous when the wind died down, then with each new gust shot embers deep into the snow covered woods.  All night the wind gusted like that, making for quite an exciting evening for most of us, and fitful.  Tents are very noisy from inside in the wind.  Fortunately all held together excepting one that had only our food in it.  The next morning four girls headed down immediately to the cars – availing themselves of wine and cheese and crackers at a cabin they rented for us at the Mount Princeton Hot Springs.  A quote I remember was “This is the Colorado I had in mind!”  All very good-natured.

The remaining nine of us headed through the still-roaring wind up the valley and hung a left to ascend the west flank of Mount Belford.  Through brutal winds so bad we were often forced to stop and turn away from the gusts as snow and dirt pelted us, we continued to ascend, hour after hour, plodding more and more slowly the higher we climbed and the thinner the air became.  We enjoyed a glorious bright blue sky and plenty of sunshine.  After only one small false summit we were there!  Six of us victorious, a successful expedition!

Mt Belford Missouri Basin Trail

Tom and Pete at the summit

Then we headed down, several more hours on our feet to camp.  We filled up our water bottles in the nearby stream as we were parched and straggled back into camp.  Down came the tents and into the packs went the food and gear, and off down the trail we went as a team.  A couple more hours of slow walking and we were down at the cars, glorious to be back to civilization.  We headed off to join the others at the hot springs, where we relaxed in the pools and the river and enjoyed a nice meal together.    One amazing thing happened on the drive – it was in the low sixties in the high country, and as we descended towards Denver, the temperature dropped thirty degrees in forty-five minutes!  We had lunch at the delicious mexican Morrison Inn in Morrsison, then checked out Red Rocks Amphitheater, and then to Boulder and REI and the airport.  Spectacular trip and the feedback everybody had a great time.

True Crew at the Hot Springs

The True Adventures Apostle Islands Crew

We did a True Adventures trip to the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior for a very long weekend last weekend.  I have to say it was one of my favorite trips in recent memory.  The scenery and location were really special, the people were great, trip went smoothly, weather was absolutely ideal (sunny and low 80s), and not a mosquito to be found.  Really spectacular.

We drove about eight hours from Chicago to Bayfield Wisconsin where we rented kayaks from Trek and Trail.  We were required to take a class where we learned to self rescue and to rescue others should our kayaks flip out in the open water, very useful and comforting to know we all knew what to do in case of emergency.  We had decided to go without a guide, and that turned ut to be a great decision, definitely not worth the extra expense nor the pull of a stranger in our midst. 

We had Trek and Trail shuttle the kayaks to Sand Inlet where we loaded up our gear and paddled about 45 minutes across to Sand Island to a beautiful beach and made our way into the campsite.  Some cooked, some hiked, some lounged.

The next day we paddled maybe 5 hours to another island, passing two en route on gorgeous smooth seas, no wind and heavy sun.  I got so tan on the trip – it was terrific.  Another huge beautiful beach. 

The following morning four folks took off and the core leaders stayed, four of us.  We paddled another five or so easy hours to the mainland and made camp actually out on the beach – check the tranquility of this spot in this video:

The following day we paddled to these amazing sea caves where you could paddle in and around – really stunning. 

 

Made our way to a beach where we napped in the sun, as had become our mid afternoon habit.  A hobo meal of meat and veggies chopped up, wrapped in aluminum foil, and into the embers of the fire.  Yum!

The following day made our way back to the car, shuttled the kayaks back, and continued enjoying ourselves all the way back to Chicago. Really terrific and relaxing trip.

And a bonus video of goofing around at camp on the second night: