Color Hikes In Summit With Kala & Letha ~ Augmented With ORB & AJs, Selling Mon Ami, And Visits With Browns 19Sep25-21Sep25

Kala came to meet me for some hiking among the aspen colors. It's on fire right now out in Summit. We first hiked out of the Nest into the Gore over Frisco. On the out I took a pan of our backyard as well as above Frisco; on the way back I caught a pan of Wildernest where we live. We're always looking for the orange aspens it seems; they are more rare and not displaying a state of their fall foliage but a particular strain of DNA in the aspens.

After hiking we hit Outer Range and Angry James for a beer and to grab some cans for guests. We also caught up with our friends the Browns at their place for a nice evening with them and their friends from Ohio.

On Friday we finalized the sale of Mon Ami and its trailer to Eric. We said 'bye bye' to our Beneteau First 235 for the last time. We were all excited for the transfer.

My sister came for the weekend. We took here out among the aspens and we saw some college football and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ~ crazy qualifying day with many crashes and red flags.

Labor Day Weekend Fun With The Kids & Bro Brown ~ Fish, Sail, Hike, And Concerts 30Aug24-03Sep24

The weather in Summit over Labor Day WE was beautiful and we took advantage of that with a visit from Matt & Eline for several days. The kids arrived Fri for dinner and card games. The drive was a bit brutal from Denver on the busiest car travel day of the year. We kicked off outdoor activities on Sat with brief hike into the Eagles Nest Wilderness on Sat AM. Then we hit the Keystone Oktoberfest for a bit. How is it Eline knew the songs from the oompah band? We also saw CB3 at the side stage; they are a decent local  blues band. Sat night, Eline's sister Valerie joined our group and we has a nice dinner of ribs, corn, and burrata/tomato salad.

On Sunday we each did a little work while the spa repair guys worked to fix a popped line. Our hot tub is in a great spot for soaking and viewing but it's a tight fit to work on it. They repaired the 2.5" line that was popped but I have to wait several days to let the motors dry before really testing the repair. Soon enough they were done and we headed over to Dillon Rez for a sailing outing. After a fun but none too wild sail (wind was pretty light and inconsistent) we stopped at ORB for a beer. We got home in time to change before hitting Bistro North for dinner. We also had a good, but kind of long, game of "Oh Shit" to close the evening... Matt somehow crushed us.

On Monday we saw Bruno & Val off to the Front Range, then had a tasty breakfast at Mtn Lion before heading over to Breck to hike along Spruce Ck up to the Mohawk Lks on Labor Day. Kala did great hiking with an injured knee ~ she rested at lake #4 a smidge while we went up a bit further to get a peak at the top cirques and the Pacific Crest of the 10 Mile Range. We did about 5 miles and 1700 ft of elevation gain. Kaes loved the hike and the water stops. It was a great hike all around and it wasn't as crowded as I'd expected it'd be, but there were folks out with us. Eline was somewhat impressed with the Crusher Too on the 4WD road and saw the need for bit more off-road worthy, 4WD capable SUV: "whoa, I'm doin' Colorado with some Coloradans." On the way home we stopped at Broken Compass for some ColoRADbros and Helter Selzter.

Monday night was a free concert at the Dillon Amp! We picked up bro Brown and saw Shaky Hands String Band first and then Blue River Grass. Both bands were good and the sound was stellar and well-mixed. Kala & I have seen these local bands on other occasions and it was awesome to see them in a bigger venue with great amphitheater sound. Matt & I did enjoy some local Steep IPAs in a can at the show ~ who knew?

Steve & I got out fishing again on Tuesday ~ we went to the Blue River below Green Mtn Rez. Our weather luck continue and we fished all morning in all sunshine. I caught quite a few 14"-18" browns while long line nymphing with Perdigon (mayfly), Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear (drake nymph), and other fall BWO nymphs.

It was a stellar long weekend all around with friends and family... the kids had a nice vacation from work, the boys got to do some fishing, and we got to hang with Eline some more.

Vozs & Brantleys Join For Fun Bluegrass & Beer Fest And More 31Jul24-04Aug24

We had a great day at the very fun Keystone Bluegrass & Beer festival yesterday. We were joined by friends Scott & Peg and Craig & Cyndi for the festival and some evening nosh & nightcaps. The beer were decent all day with most appreciating the effort to bring actual kegs (vs cans) to the event. Though, there was one notable can of Great Pumpkin IIPA from Elysian that we all liked for a change into fall. We do come for the tunes and we were able to move among the stages through the crowds to hear every band who came to play on Saturday. I lost my selfie stick when sitting once so never really got the whole team in a pic after Vozburghs arrived... grrr. And we never connected with Kize. We did build keen pretzel and nosh necklaces to sate us and blunt the beers.

First up on Montezuma was Summit Co local band The Old Fashioned String Band ~ strong opener. Next we caught a fine Denver bluegrass band Magoo on the main stage; all three front men sang strong and harmonized. Kala & I headed to see Windy Pines on the 3rd stage next (again Colorado); I met the leader's parents who'd come from Iowa for the show. Beer didn't start till 1pm... it was hot and we were ready.

Tunes and brews rolled along all afternoon. Next we heard Begley, Mock & Murphy on Montezuma; they offered a decidedly different music, I assume was from Texas or Oklahoma. And then Them Coulee Boys on the Main stage offering a similar sound.

We were again back to bluegrass from a band I knew, Liver Down The River... very good. And we too kept working the liver angle all around the fest. Back on Main right in Keystone River Run Village we closed the afternoon with the excellent Pert Near Sandstone from Minneapolis; they were the best we'd heard all day.

Kala got us home safely as she quit early and despite the buzz from the day we served wine & ribs and salad and more to keep things rolling. We had fun and I got to show off some of my speaker-building handiwork to guests... maybe a little too much showing off. It's of note that before the festival Kala and I drove up and saw the start of the Quarry fire in Ken Caryl on the way. I took Brantleys out for a sail on Dillon Rez on a very tame day ~ we even needed to motor in from the doldrums ultimately. I finally stepped into a new Land Cruiser ~ nice enough but no longer does the model sport a tailgate, a negative.

Sails Set For Dad's Day 16Jun23

Amongst the audio duties @ The Nest, I set the sails on Mon Ami today. Weather was on/off but not windy. The Dillon Rez is full so the Blue is flowing fast in and out @~400cfs, and the lake is gorgeous with snow cap backdrops. We got snow last night in Summit and may again tonight ~ the snow melt season will be a long one. Dillon Rez road is closed so the Dillon Farmers' Mkt has move to downtown again, like the old days.