Can I do the White Rim on a hard tail bike?

Yes you can! I did it, and more importantly, my GUIDE RODE A HARDTAIL and he has 5 other bikes in his garage and buys 2-3 fancy new mountain bikes a year (gets a pro deal). He rides the hard tail because it’s plenty comfy and low maintenance. He’s a former bike shop owner and has done the White Rim dozens if not hundreds of times. (He guides for Rim Tours, a fabulous company – highly recommended if you’re looking for a guided trip, they’re top notch all around.)

I did it on a Specialized Fuse – little fatter tires so a bit more cushion than my guide who was on slightly bigger than regular width tires. My buddies on their full suspension Santa Cruz bikes and I shared our butt soreness rankings and I was 2-3 at the end of the first day, same as my buddies. 2nd day 4 and 3rd day a 5, 4th day down to 3. All very similar numbers/pain levels to the full suspension riders.

The answer is YES you can for sure ride a hard tail mountain bike around the White Rim trail in Utah. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.

Best Hike Near Fort Collins (or shall I say my favorite)

Arthur’s Rock is my favorite hike in and around and near Fort Collins. I’m an avid hiker and have been on many trails in the area the last couple years. Many to go but have done a bunch and this one is my favorite.

1. No horses or bikes allowed, hiking only
2. Nicely steep, though has flat sections too.
3. All ecosystems, pine forest, creek, meadows, rocks (if that’s an ecosystem, giant rocks), cliffs (if that’s also an ecosystem, lots of swallows and raptors living in the cliffs.)
4. Incredible views from the summit over a giant lake and many lakes out onto the prairie as well as mountains to the north west and way south on clear days.
5. Really steep finish section – but not scary
6. 1.8 miles, 1100 feet of elevation gain – somewhat quick but not too quick.
7. Along a creek for much of it – love this
8. Steep dropoffs in a couple spots along the trail
9. Spot to stop maybe 2/3s of the way up, enjoy the view and be satisfied and turn back if time is pressing.
10. Easy parking
11. Somewhat close to town

I did the hike this last weekend in the spring and was overcome by the beauty, below are a bunch of pics. Get out there and do it, you’ll love it. But keep your expectations low, then you’ll be happily surprised 🙂

Pics below are in order, and scroll down to see larger pics with captions. The bird pic was taken on my descent.

Great hike for kids too, tons of places to climb rocks and play in the creek.

To get there: Go to Lory State Park and then follow the single dirt road all the way to the end, maybe 5-6 minutes. The trail is right there to the west heading up into a canyon.

Beginning of the hike

One of several creek crossings. Flow much more in spring than other times of the year.

Meadow section of the trail

Arthur’s Rock from partway up the trail

View from lookout point on Arthur’s Rock trail in Colorado

Wildflowers near the trail

Looking down at switchbacks from maybe halfway up

Through Pine forest and along a cliff band

Final push to summit, steep!

Another view from the summit looking east

View from the summit on a cloudy spring day

American Robin on rock with pine trees and reservoir

Beginning of the hike

One of several creek crossings. Flow much more in spring than other times of the year.

Arthur’s Rock from partway up the trail

Meadow section of the trail

Looking down at switchbacks from maybe halfway up

View from lookout point on Arthur’s Rock trail in Colorado

Wildflowers near the trail

Through Pine forest and along a cliff band

Final push to summit, steep!

Another view from the summit looking east

View from the summit on a cloudy spring day

American Robin on rock with pine trees and reservoir

What to do with a 3 year old in the winter

Had a fun weekend with my 3 year old and thought I’d share for some inspiration when it’s cold out there and you have little kiddos and you want to get out of the house and have some fun.

We headed up to eldora – starting at noon, went and got skis for ev for only $100 at boulder ski deals, owned by vail resorts, and then you get s $50 back when you return them! And can swap out any time for a larger size during th season, really amazing g deal. Plus a free season pass under 5 years old. I keep likening it to crack, get the kiddos hooked! All good in my opinion. Then we stopped at Christy sports to get my winter park – eldora pass, and $30 there for ev’s pass which I didn’t spring for, bitter that the vail pass is free. Kids can ski free til 5 but have to get a ticket each day. I’ll probably get the pass but a silent protest for now against winter park. Then we rolled up to eldora. We left at 230 and we were on the slopes by 3… totally mind blowing, I’m used to being in chicago and having a 2 hour minimum drive to tiny slopes – still fun but not as fun as bigger closer mountains. We skied til ev was done “how bout we take one more run daddy and head home?”

So after one more run we walked the 30 feet to the car – late afternoon. Will get you Rockstar parking – and flipped on the furnace in the westy and sat down and had a ‘picnic’, super fun and I was so chill and relaxed. Pretty cool having kids, relaxes me. I never feel like I’m wasting time when I’m with them.

Then we headed down into nederland, only 10 minutes, probably less and we were at the famous “carousel of happiness”, we pulled into the lot and it was open! $1 only buys you a ride on the most beautiful well maintained carousel you’ve ever been on with gorgeous hand carved animals all done by one man over 26 years. Such friendly staff and ev had such fun picking her animal and riding it we took a second ride. The building was built specifically for the carousel, much with volunteer community help. What a special place and town. And many folks put in much more than $1.

Next we headed next door to a coffee shop in 3 train cars3 train cars coffee shop, amazing. Got some tiny delicious hand made donuts and some hot chocolate and hung out in the this train car which is one that buffalo bill used to ride around the country in doing his show with Annie Oakley.

Then we headed down the canyon and were home in 30 minutes. Good living and a great fun daddy daughter afternoon.

What to see and do between Denver and LA in October

We took a friend’s 35 foot RV from Fort Collins to Orange County last week. Great time, a bit stressful driving the rig at first but we eased into it as the week went on. We burned through Colorado as fast as we could as it’s local to us. We wanted to get further south and west as fast as we could for the weather and the new adventures. We stopped at Bryce and took some pics but didn’t do much there. I’m partial to warm days and streams for the kiddos and it was chilly and windy there. We camped at a windy KOA with a nice playground and were ready to roll.  We debated often whether it was better to have campgrounds lined up in advance or do them each day. This was a case where it worked out better for us to be winging it as I expected we’d want to stay but didn’t. We rolled on through gorgeous country on two lane roads, enjoying having the kids all free to roam around the camper as per state law, no buckles required which is kind of amazing and makes sense to me. Funny they could eat and drink and sleep and play games with each other as we put the miles down, kind of an amazing experience, makes me smile thinking about it. That night we got lucky and got an overflow spot at Petrified Forest State Park in Utah, super cool little campground on a small lake with some neat hikes, we did one the next morning up a canyon to a bunch of petrified trees. The evening before I took Ev and Ginny up a different small canyon where they played sliding down a sandy hill over and over.

Here’s a pic of our route:

One simple way to majorly improve your marriage

I have a good buddy who I go through life with and we share ideas and struggles and improvements we’ve discovered since last time we talked. He’s had some tougher times in his marriage. When I saw him in Florida and we were out kayaking on his lake together, he looked at me and said “my marriage and life are the best they’ve ever been”. Strong statement! I asked him more and he went on to explain what he’s done on his marriage, granted he’s worked very hard on it for years, but said he’s started doing one thing and it’s made all the difference. He texts or emails or face to face tells his wife every day that she is an amazing wife or mother. And that’s it!! He does it different ways and says different things but daily he tells her she is crushing it as a mom or as a wife. That easy. And she lights up and it makes her day and that’s it. The whole tenor of e housrhold rises. He even asked what if he says it and doesn’t mean it and she says she doesn’t care, do it anyways. How fabulous and easy is that?? I love it. I immediately started doing it myself and it works wonders. And it gets in my head too and strengthens my attitude that my wife is an amazing wife and mother. So good. I encourage you to try it with your spouse.

On My Regular Hike

I do a hike fairly near my house 1-2 times a week all year round. It’s a fairly short hike up to the top of the hog’s back near the town of Fort Collins, the first hill from the plains leading up into the Rocky Mountains. It gets me out in nature – which is really important for well being (check this article and this one), reducing depression, cropping cortisol, lowering heartrate, etc: One study found that forests “promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments.” Another found significantly decreased levels of hostility and depression among subjects who spent a regular amount of time in forests. This plus getting exercise, I go pretty fast and work a bit on improving my time to the top vs others on the app Strava, and then meander down and enjoy myself and the surroundings. If I see something on the way up like a snake or deer or something else notable that takes priority over the workout and I’ll stop and enjoy it. I often take my kids and friends and wife on the hike. I do it year round, and I’ve done it in the middle of winter, the first on the trail after 12 inches of snowfall which was really amazing, I saw fox tracks, deer tracks, mouse tracks, and rabbit tracks all on the same day. At the top of the hike it overlooks the Horsetooth Reservoir, and the trail leads down the other side to the water. More than once I’ve stripped down to my underwear and gingerly hopped in, as it’s often murky and who knows what rocks might be lurking just under the surface. I call it my regular hike, and it’s never the same. Sometimes it will be foggy the whole way up, cloud-enshrouded. Sometimes blazing hot sun. Sometimes rainy and muddy, sometimes dry and dusty. It’s become a really special place to me. I used to complain about it it vs my hike in Boulder I did regularly, which I also love, but I’ve come to love it just as much if not more. Rarely do I see people on it, and if so they are usually friendly. It needs a name, a cool, inspiring name. Hasn’t come to me yet.

Six Week Roadtrip Part Two

From upstate New York we rolled to Birmingham to pick up my folks, spent a night there in the beautiful home I grew up in, then we all caravaned to Chicago to pick up my sister and her family. another night there and we were off to the Tetons and Yellowstone. For hours we rolled west, alternating children from various families to various cars including Nana and Pop’s. We went to Mt Rushmore and stayed in a cabin at a super fun KOA Palmer Gulch right nearby, incredibly fun for the family, waterslides, $3 all you can eat pancake breakfast, huge bouncy thing 30 people could jump on at once, 4 person peddle bikes to rent, water spray park, hiking trails. Really impressive and super fun.

We headed on to the Tetons, stayed in Teton Village. We had a fun hike after riding a boat across Jenny Lake to the trailhead, enjoying lunch overlooking the lake from up in the mountains. Tetons are so stunning. I own a giant Thomas Mangelsen framed photograph of a bear crossing the Snake River at Oxbow Bend with Mt Moran in the background, we made a pilgrimage to the exact spot where the pic was taken, super cool to be there with the family. We went rafting down the Snake River another day with the whole family on one big raft, saw lots of eagles including one flying with a fish in its talons. And we saw a TON of moose! They were everywhere, we must have seen at least seven while we were in the Teton area, the highlight being one in our condo parking lot right at dusk.

Next we were off to Yellowstone, and what an adventure we had there, tons of wildlife including many elk (37 according to the kids) and the highlight was the ‘buffalo jams’ with the buffalo walking right across the road near our car to the delight of the kiddos. We saw one solo fellow way up a mountain road scratching his giant head against a poor tree that could barely handle the pressure. We stayed at Yellowstone Under Canvas, pretty incredible experience, canvas tents on wood platforms with bathrooms out in an open meadow, we had a wood stove and had to start and stoke it to stay warm, pretty fun, and the staff were super friendly and helped out any time if we had trouble with the fire or needed anything. Yum breakfast at the main lodge was included. Super fun. The family was spread out to two tents and a teepee. There were s’mores every night around a group campfire.

Then the Chicagoans headed home and we along with the Grandparents trekked it back to Fort Collins, what a summer!! Thank you Lord for the good times and the safety and the laughs and our great country.

Hike across Rocky Mountain National Park – 21 years later and not in the winter this time

Twenty one years ago my buddy and I hiked across RMNP in the wintertime. We broke trail through 5+ feet of snow for much of the 18 mile trek. Granted we had snowshoes so it was certainly better than no snowshoes, but still a good bit of effort. We intended to stay in a snow cave we dug about halfway across to break up the trip, but the snow thinned out on top of a flat mountain (Flattop Mountain – we went from Bear Lake across to Green Mountain) so we retreated and dug the snow cave about 4 miles into the trip, setting us up for a huge second day. The snow cave itself was quite an undertaking.  We took turns with an avalanche shovel, laying on our bellies and digging out first a tunnel and then a room with two spots for our bivy sacks. By the time we finished we were soaked through, both from sweat and from melted snow. An eventful and mostly sleepless night followed, as we had poked a long air hold to the surface that served to run cold air over us all night until Scott somewhat stopped it up in the wee hours of the morning. The next day we emerged and had a pretty unsettling descent down the other side of flattop mountain, a steep drop we gingerly took step by slow step down the slope. Then into trees and more trees and meadows and on and relentlessly on until we made it to a road and hitchhiked into Grand Lake.

21 years later we repeated the journey, this time in the summer and starting on the other side. Much easier than snow but 21 years on us added some difficulty. It was gorgeous. Swam in Granite Falls, saw zero wildlife, enjoyed reminiscing and pointing out various spots and figuring out where we had passed through previously. Weather was perfection, and we got a beautiful campsite called Haynach along a small stream. The second day we were up and over Flattop and down and down into the parking lot where we caught a bus, then hitchhiked a couple rides all the way back around through the park to our car and headed home, success!

Six week roadtrip out East: Chicago, Up North Michigan, Canada Sailing, Adirondacks, Cape Cod

We took a full six weeks this summer and had a fat 6200 mile roadtrip with the family. It was amazingly fun, especially if you know we have 4 kids 6 and under! Many would say that’s nuts – we love it and had a ball. And very little media for the kids we realized when we were about done with the trip. One secret may be to have them all face each other, the second row of the minivan we have facing backwards and all the headrests pulled out so they can see each other and laugh and chitchat and bicker and throw things to/at each other. A veritable non-stop party back there.

First stop was Chicago, made three stops to see family and friends. Great to see all their success and beautiful homes and families and relationships. I do miss my 15+ years of friends and support network in Chicago for certain. After fun times and catching up with our various teams, spending three nights with three different hosts, we headed to northern Michigan to take in the chill vibe and beautiful scenery and lakes.  A few days there and we were off to Canada to meet up with my folks in the North Channel of the Georgian Bay in Lake Huron for a bunch of sailing. My Mom was quite apprehensive about having 4 little ones on the boat at once and we were initially invited for 2 days max.  We rolled onto the boat, food and gear and everything – and five days and a lot of laughs and adventures and new friends later, we rolled off. Super fun, anchoring in various harbors, jumping off the boat, dinghy-ing around at high speed letting Ev steer, kayaking, eating fish, meeting other sailors, grilling out, sailing. Really wonderful time spent.

Then we were off to Cape Cod to see Lisa’s folks, another 12 hours or so, which we broke up by stopping by her family’s “camp” in the Adirondacks on Indian Lake for a night. Great to see her family.  Next day off to the Cape in the rain, highlight/lowlight was smacking a young hawk who veered right into our grill, had to pull him out, what a beautiful bird.  The girls were enthralled as was I with the talons and the beauty.  We pulled out two wing feathers and a tailfeather, one for each girl, sorry Tommy.

We rolled into The grandparents at the Cape and settled into our suite downstairs. Fun beach time and ice cream and a daytrip up to Provincetown. And another daytrip to my childhood summer haunt of Nantucket. So great to be back and what a wonderful place for children. We rode the ferry over and hit jetties beach, lunch at Something Natural, ice cream on main street, the wharf, children’s beach, and back onto the ferry.

Then back to camp for a week, and a giant family reunion with 39 in attendance. Again a wonderful time of laughs and fun. The family actually has 4 homes on two properties, and walking/biking/boating is how you get between them. Boating was the most fun with choice of a paddle boat, canoe, kayak, sailboat, ski boat, rowboat! Or swim. Amazing speech by Poppop on the Saturday with a catered dinner under a couple big tents. Then we headed back to Detroit and Chicago for part 2.

Roadtrip 2016 Colorado Plateau, Utah, Hanksville, Durango, Indian Ruins, Sand Dunes, 3 kids under 4

We had 2 weeks between homes so hit the road, headed west then south then east then north, lots of cool and fun experiences.  Generally I’d work in the mornings while Lisa hung with the kids, then we’d do something fun like a hike or adventure in the afternoon, then drive 2-3 hours while the kids slept to the next destination.  Tons of fun and not as stressful as you might think with three kids under 4, including a 6 week old.

First we rolled west averaging like 85 mph all the way out to Green River Utah to meet my old buddy Scott and his family, who had cruised in his westy (so cool he has one too) all the way from Sacramento California.

We found a canyon, Black Dragon Canyon, right off I70 – no exit, just stop and drive off the freeway onto a dirt road.  Nutty.  Then we rolled as the road got rougher and rougher into a super cool huge canyon, totally unoccupied by anyone but us.  All the kids ran around and had a blast together as we stopped the van and hiked through the canyon, with wall rising steeply and blocking much of the sun on both sides.

Amazing trip 🙂