Hiking The USVI 14Mar17-20Mar17

After sailing the turquoise seas of the BVI we headed to St Thomas and St Johns to hike and do some beach time. We rented a perfect house (Blue Skies @ Meagan's Bay) on the Peterborg spit of STT - really 3 king guest suites with a main living/dining area and great pool with stellar views. We were even able to park our two cars behind the gated access. We saw gigantic (18"-24") iguanas and parrots around the abode. After visiting the VINP building (and the governor's house) and noting the tsunami evacuation route, we hiked into the Natl Pk on Caneel Bay trail (up 800 ft in 80% humidity) our first day and captured a great view of Cruz Bay, though the down I picked didn't lead to the beaches as hoped and we hitched a ride to Hawksnest instead and then taxied back. We celebrated Peg's birthday with the whole VI team at The Old Stone Farmhouse - excellent dinner and wine. Wilks and I hiked multiple times on STT while the ladies beached it... We hiked to Megan's Beach and were conspicuous in our attire - we accessed the beach through Nature Conservancy land through mangrove forests on a mostly undocumented trail we'd learned of from young guides; we skated paying for beach access - such rogues; I did find a beach bar for a beer with Scott and when we returned I continued to perfect Dave's Pain Killers, served by the pool. We hiked to Sandy Beach (which it was not) and saw where we were really headed (behind our selfie) and then on to Maiden's Chair where two opposing seas built a small isthmus of beach we could cross - here we went through an exclusive and expensive "preserve" where most was still undeveloped but a $6M steal was being readied for Yohanans. Beaches in the USVI are public and providing access is mandatory - that's why Botany Bay let nefarious types like us even through the gate. We hiked to the end of the island on Peterborg spit where sketchy rock-hopping met rock-crashing seas. Tom and I were lost on STT on a number of occasions, on really dicey roads - chasing Tom's rainbows or visions of national parks anyway. We visited the University of the Virgin Islands, UVI, where sociology is the only study I think but they had an awesome outdoor theater venue... after more dead ends on trails we hiked Lindbergh Bay Beach below the UVI to Persistence Bay (aptly named). We did hit STJ with the cars and it was a nicer area as to shops, housing, beaches and overall feel. Much of the island is NP and we enjoyed Trunk Bay Beach for snorkeling (I'll spare folks the hilarious movie of some of the team entering the water) and the remote Salt Pond Beach (Tom & I hiked again there while the team beached it). We'd had good burgers and pizza in Red Hook but closed out the USVI with a run to Hull's Hideaway @ Hull Bay for hang with the locals on taco night.

Sailing The British Virgin Islands - The Sequal 06Mar17-13Mar17

Brantley-Dolnich, Coffin-Marietta and Yohanans sailed the BVI aboard Sayang (as Facebook attests) and this is the supplemental documentation. Seven days aboard a 53' sailing yacht was close but awesome. Yohos and we had the smaller front "staterooms," a divided pair of smallish beds and heads usually intended integrated for a single couple - but I'm cheap. NP. Skipper Paul and chef Ratna were very capable, but not "fun" - I chose on size and type of boat and the fact they were owner-operators - somewhat unusual in the BVI. This was a great event and very memorable outing. I sailed one leg as helmsman, helped with raising and lowering the main, and "often" executed sheeting the genoa on a tack - but we didn't need to do that often as we normally only tacked twice on a run and the winches were electric for final trimming - a 50+ foot yacht is a very different set of very similar gear. We flew into 28 knot headwinds over 10 ft seas when no one else had sails up - so cool... Ratna was frowning but Paul was flying. We encountered the Rolex Open around the area on two days - $250M boats built of carbon fiber, including sails! They docked overnight across from where we stayed at The Bitter End on the Aga Kahn's docks. So much wealth was bizarre... but that was just a start as on Norman we anchored next to Richard Branson's literally crappy catamaran and then next to SeaLyon, superyacht rented for the week for $45K. Ratna's Indonesian influenced food was tasty and we consumed copious wines and beers. We snorkled the coolest spots in the BVI and moored in spectacular venues amongst the world's richest folks. The map shows our itinerary; we chose every morning and were inclined to remote spots vs beach bars: 1. Village Cay, Road Town, Tortola, 2. Salt Island - Marina Cay on Great Camanoe 3. The Bitter End on Virgin Gorda 4. Anegada (so remote - we rented one of 5 cars for exploring the island and enjoyed indigenous spiny lobster) 5. The Baths then Mountain Pt on Virgin Gorda, 6. Salt Island diving on the RMS Rhone then Norman Island 7. Green Cay off Jost Van Dyke... then dropped Jim & Mary at West End and returned to Road Town. We saw plenty of stuff along the way. Probably once/twice in a lifetime kindof things as I was not super convincing on "live aboard a yacht" with Kala - though the warmth and seas shined on her brilliantly. BVI has no income tax and no property tax so is a super haven, plus they seem to have kite-surfing, which was very cool.

Teach An Old Dog New Tips 04Mar17

Greg and I shared a day @ Ute, @ Cerberus and @ Angler's Covey. We started on a brisk morning @ Ute and did ~9 miles and 900 feet of vert - I forgot my Strava when I changed coats at the car. We rode a cool new part of Ute - looks like a finger headed east along the creekbed to Tech Center Dr. Its tech enough that it lemon squeezed me off the bike sometimes. Also, it's not done yet and we hiked bikes in spots. Good ride with great views of sun on the peak and I made a decent vid of the whole thing... see it here. We departed for AC to catch the COS fly fiishing show after the ride. We heard the owner of Willowfly Anglers, Dennis Miller, of Almont, tout the Gunny valley, saw Kenny Romero's pitch about the reservoirs on Pikes Pk and the best by far, enjoyed the inimitable Landon Mayer give fly fishing tips on catching the big ones. He signed my book and it sure seems like his new book, 101 Tips, would be valuable. Before Landon we hit Cerberus for the current raft of IPAs and DIPAs and lunch - yummy.

Front Range Frolic With Wilks 02Mar17

We planned a ride in the Boulder Foothills today on our Niners... well, my Foundry and Tom's Niner. It was 40°. Tom's gotten a lot better technically and with 15# pressure he scaled his nemesis hills admirably while I bounced wildly with road pressure in the steedx - grrr. We had a 10 mile blast about the front range and back to Quince before I needed to get back to COS. Good times.