Well we have a lot to be thankful for but I'll shorten the list here to being able to hang with Matt & Alexa for Thanksgiving. We dined a lot, drank a little, gamed twice (they brought a fun new game gift for us called Splendor!), streamed comics and tunes a smidge, and otherwise solved world problems. We even ventured to Mtn Lion for green chili sauce Friday morning. Very thankful time.
I was fortunate to catch some Thanksgiving eve runs with Dave Sheldon today. We chose Keystone for all the reasons early season. We arrived at 8:30am at the lift and the lines were not bad but we still took singles and got separated. We had a great time grabbing vert, including a massive opening of Spring Dancer, heh heh. It snowed all morning on us a was a bit colder than expected without the sun. Field trial of the Native DropZone goggles was very successful ~ they fit my narrow head; they didn't fog up in likely conditions; the green lighter lens was perfect for a snowy day; and the big edge-to-edge rounded lens yielded a great field of view. I rode with several families from Missouri, Georgia and Florida, all of which bought Epic Pass Local for everyone just for the Thanksgiving trip - Vail sure does their price elasticity of demand testing well. Skiing with Dave was a great time but ultimately became a dodge-ski as the few open runs became pretty crowded. I bailed about noon and headed to the new Steep spot and enjoyed a beer and pizza. As I passed the lift tix office I observed a 1/4 mile long line across the bridge back into the village to retrieve/buy tickets - sheesh! Noted at Steep was that the taps included many alt Summit brews as Steep's smallish brewing site (they just expanded) couldn't keep pace with demand generated in the new spot; good for them. Pizza is acceptable but bready.
Jim and I took an afternoon roll around Ute and the Rise continues to climb as needed. It was a nice afternoon and plenty of folks were out on the trails. We took the extension toward and back from the frontage road so scored plenty of pedal hits; I even scored another bar blast but didn't go down. Ute is cool and we did a nice ~7.5 miler but it's far from flowy in most spots. We capped with some brews at Trinity. Neither of us had been there in years so it was pretty fun, but Jim didn't have his wallet.
Jim, Andy, Greg and I stole south and east to the PT again today. A Greg sighting on the Front Range is rare and awesome. Flows were reduced by half to just 69cfs today - which kindof dampened fishing as the big ones were seeking new lies. On top of that, the river is still stained and the CO Fish & Game were out shocking to take inventory. Nonetheless, much was done with tiny dries catching mostly tiny fish. I stayed the course nymphing (with RS2, Jimi's Ax and Blood Midge) and did manage some larger fish including this nicer 18"er during a modest fall BWO hatch. Weather remains spectacular. The RFT5 with Evo LTX was a blast. Another fun outing with fishing buddies but we did depart early with the modest performance.
Jim, Andy and I hit the Pueblo tailwater of the Ark today on somewhat of a recon effort. We arrived about 9:30am and while it was windy, it was warmish ~60°+. We did the Nature Center in the AM and moved up to the Valco Ponds SP area for afternoon. Morning was decent with many fish caught on all manner of bugs. For me the silver surfer, blax ice and blood midge fooled the most cutbows but the team was tossing the kitchen sink and it all seemed to work. The flows were good at ~125cfs but the water is still stained green and full of fallen leaves which we often snagged. I caught a number of 15"-18" fish and Yoho caught a nice one farming the bank area above the 3rd, and biggest, weir. Andy hooked many but landed fewer. We had a blast and closed with a nice dinner at Cerberus.
One of my Harmony universal remotes (Hub) stopped controlling the Roku effectively. The problem was with the Roku 3. It would not accept any IR commands and it would only accept IP commands with often significant (5-8 second) delays. This has been going on for at least 8 months and I have tried every reset, every delete and re-add, every reboot, etc. possible. I now know how to implement whether a Roku is controlled via IP (often preferred) or IR (sometimes needed if an unexpected delay occurs on WiFi). However, changing madly between those modes did nothing. The only remote that worked was the original WiFi controller that came with the Roku - unacceptable. The final repair was discovered largely by accident and is completely bizarre. In a last ditch effort before buying a new Roku, I removed the 8GB microSD card and rebooted the Roku 3 - the Roku began to be properly remotely controllable! Of course I re-inserted the card and again it again failed to be controllable from non-Roku remotes. I even reformatted the card and still no joy. Unfortunately the card was there for a reason - it obviated the need to reload apps on occasion. I also re-attempted IP control but I think that's a WiFi issue in our hood really so I'm using IR to control the Roku from the Harmony Hub (through an IR repeater into my gear cabinet). So bizarre but so glad to finally have the universal remote fully working again.
We had a great outing to the new Till restaurant location in downtown COS with our dear friends Scott & Peggy and Jim & Mary. Good fun, good wine, good talks. S&P hosted desert at the estate with very tasty chocolate cake and stellar wines.
Back on the Front Range, and with glorious weather holding, I was able to take the maiden ride on the Orbea Rise at Ute. What a blast, quite a few PRs as one might hope. I am still getting used to controlling the beast however and did clip a tree... but did not put it down. I donned my full knee and elbow protection kit today just in case. I was never passed, which was weird. The sand steps of Ute have gotten bigger in late season but the DHFs didn't slip out. Climbing is a bit learned with the "rider synergy" tuned motor. Even in boost mode you have to spin it to win it - so prior actions using out of the saddle power is not right - staying seated and spinning in lower gears got me the uphill aid I was seeking. I cleared stuff clean today on which I have struggled recently. More great weather is in the offing so I will get more fun.
While DD & Y hit the slopes before us this year, we did go pretty early. Storms rolled through with blankets on the peaks (and '21 snowpack well above average), a couple of inches of fresh, and a good environment for Keystone's excellent snowmaking. We had a blast ripping the right side, left side, center of the family fun run, Schoolmarm. It wasn't taxing on the legs but we did score some vert; this even though we had to download on the gondala because the lower part of the mountain is not yet open. Colder than expected but plenty fun. I met Wyatt Johnson (a classmate of Matt's and a former goalie for me) there who is now a liftie supervisor... he looked well.
