A Day on the Mountain

Remember when I mentioned a while ago that Matt was hoping to snowboard down this really nasty looking mountain? I've learned that this is called the San Joaquin Couloir and the mountain is the San Joaquin Peak which at the top is 13,460 feet.

The guys got snowed out the first time they tried to go, but did manage to go this week. To snowboard this mountain, you can take the lift only so far. Then you get off and spend the next two hours hiking up the mountain to get to the top. Matt said some of the hike up was actually scarier than the snowboarding down. Something about some crazy cliff they had to walk along.

This is Chase, Matt's friend on the hike up the mountain. I thought it was interesting too that a teacher at Matt's school was the first person to ski down the San Joaquin Couloir, back in the late 80's.

Don't ask me how or why people would want to do something like that, because first of all, I am not a skier and second, I am not very adventurous. Here is Chase again....a little closer.

I am assuming that this photo was taken from the top, looking down. I am not a big fan of heights, but you have to be in awe of the mountains when you see them up close and personal.


See the little itsy bitsy speck a little bit below that great big rock? Yep, that is one of them!

Now see the little itsy bitsy spot almost at the bottom of the great big mountain?

I think their tracks look really neat.

Matt on the left and his good friend Chase enjoying a day on the mountain.

Why Moms Never Stop Worrying

I have a couple of neat things that I want to blog about, but right now I have things I have to do for the show. So, today I am going to show you this awesome picture.....


This is a mountain out in Colorado that my youngest son Matt and his friends are hoping to snowboard down this weekend if the weather permits! He insists that the photo makes it look much worse than it really is.

All I can say is......yeah, right!

Search and Rescue

After many months of classes, my 26 year old son, Matt earned his Search and Rescue pager Tuesday night. That means when his pager goes off, if he is available, he will be going on Search and Rescue calls. I am so proud of him.

(For those of you that are new to my blog, Matt is a third grade teacher in Telluride, Colorado.)

Search and Rescue is a volunteer organization that works in conjunction with the county Sheriff's Department. They do exactly what the name says...they search and they rescue.

SAR emergency calls can cover everything from a skier with a broken leg, to a missing hiker, to a person falling off a cliff, to water rescues, to drownings, to a car over the side of the mountain. Sometimes they search, sometimes they rescue and sadly, sometimes they recover....and that is the hard part.

The team might use a snowmobile, an ATV, a truck, a boat, a helicopter....whatever they need to accomplish the task at hand.

SAR bi-weekly training sessions are open to anyone with an interest. A lot of what determines if and when you receive a pager is your level of commitment to the program. People that show up sporadically for training sessions probably won't be given a pager. People that attend session after session for a good part of a year...might.

The training also never ends. There are always new skills to learn and rescues to practice.

I know Matt will be a wonderful asset to the Search and Rescue Team...his level of commitment is unwavering in all that he takes on.

CHEE HOO Matti!

Ophir Colorado

When we were in Telluride visiting Matt, he asked if we wanted to take a ride to Ophir. Not wanting to miss a thing while we were out there, we said, "Sure". He said it's just a little town up in the mountains, but quite unique. He wasn't kidding.

The view in Ophir is amazing in itself. It's "a bit" out of the way, and it's another one of those towns where I just kept asking, "What do these people do for a living?" and "Where do these people work?" Matt wasn't able to answer my question, but it didn't matter. There are no stores or restaurants or anything like that, but the "town" is just the cutest little thing.

You know how most towns have a sign as you enter, telling you the population? Well, Ophir has one too, only it's a little different than most of the ones you see.

Here is the Ophir post office. I'm not sure if there is a postal employee, or how they get their mail, but the post office is just priceless!

I've seen resourceful people, but this guy has taken it one step further and created an awesome work of art! His fence is made of snow skis!

This is their other welcome sign. How sweet is this?

I'm thinking I wouldn't choose Ophir as a place to live, but definitely worth a drive through if you are ever in the area!

Telluride.....Kayaking

When Irv and I kayak here in Illinois on the Fox River....it is calm water. There are no waves, it's pretty straight and there are certainly no rapids. When Irv, Matt and I kayaked on the San Miguel River in Colorado, it wasn't always calm, it was wavy because of the rock walls and there were rapids! We had a blast!! I don't know if I'll ever be able to kayak the Fox River again.

We drove quite a ways to get to the river. The rock walls actually kind of hung over the road in spots with signs that said, "Watch for falling rock!" Yikes!

It was a very, very long dirt road, and poor Adam was so full of dust it was awful.

Once again Matt was a wonderful instructor and made sure to tell us what to do if we tipped over or if we lost our paddle. Matt is learning how to kayak in rough water. He goes and practices tipping over so he can practice flipping back up again.

Irv really enjoyed the day. When we came upon rough water, he always picked the toughest route.A friend of Matt's loaned us these awesome inflatable kayaks. The only thing I didn't like is that anytime you hit a little wave, your butt got wet! Then the water stayed there in the little seat so you were sitting in a puddle the whole day!

I took my hat off for this picture, but I was covered from head to toe with my sun screen pants and jacket and I globbed on the sunscreen many, many times while we were out there. We were actually close to the desert and it was darn hot and very sunny.

I followed Matt along one of these walls and almost got dumped. The water was moving really fast and I tried to use my paddle to keep myself from smashing into the wall. It was actually pretty funny once I realized I wasn't going for a swim!

If you enlarge this photo you will be able to see a couple of cars that flew off the side of the cliff. One is right about in the center, and then if you look at that tree on the left, you can kind of see the one that is wrapped around the tree. The road was way, way up there. There were actually three cars but you can't see the other one in this picture. Matt said that they are able to retrieve the bodies of the people in the cars, but often times they can't get the cars out.....and THAT is why I HATE those creepy mountain roads that don't have any guard rails!!!

This is where we took out. We had already left Matt's SUV there, so we just had to load everything up and then drive back to where we put in to get Adam.

I was perfectly happy on the way back to take some shots of the river from the road, but Matt decided that we needed better pictures. So he climbed out on some ridiculous little ledge...scaring the hell out of me...to get this picture.

and last but not least....this little lizard was so funny. He would NOT let me take his picture. Every time I would get close he would run around to the other side of the rock. I told Matt to try and I stood in front of the lizard watching him. Matt came up from behind him. I think the lizard was entranced with my pink outfit and he never saw Matt behind him. Matt took about six pictures, each time getting closer and closer until he could almost touch the little guy. We were laughing so hard.

It was another great day in Colorado. Next time we visit...we will definitely kayak again!

For The Love of Nature

I couldn't wait to see some wildlife when we got to Telluride, so Matt said, "I'll take you to where we are sure to see some elk." I am one of those people that can sit and watch a deer grazing on the side of the road for hours. I am mesmerized by their beauty.

We headed out and on our way to the spot Matt had in mind we spotted six elk in a field next to someone's house. We stopped and watched them. Matt decided to get a little closer so we could get some pictures by driving down a road that said, "AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY". The road ran right along side the field where the elk were grazing. I said, "Maybe we shouldn't." Matt said, "No one will care," and no one did...not even the guy in the truck coming toward us on the private road.

We stopped the car and rolled down the windows. I pulled out my camera and we sat silently watching a scene like none of us had ever witnessed before. See, we were thrilled with the six elk, but as we watched....out of the ravine they came....more and more and more elk. Big elk, baby elk...magnificent creatures each and every one!

The babies stayed close to their moms except one that pranced around in circle as though he/she was looking for attention. One baby nursed as it's mom grazed. Some of the elk wandered over toward our car. We knew they could hear us when we spoke and we knew they could smell us...but they seemed to know we meant no harm.

They continued to come up from the ravine. We snapped picture after picture because we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

A couple of times, one of them would lift it's head, let out a snort and in unison...all of their heads would come up. Once they knew everything was okay, they went back to their dinner.

We sat for a long time...watching....listening...we could hear them chewing...they were that close.

Dusk was upon us and it was time to leave. Matt did his best to count the herd and said he gave up at eighty! At least twenty of them were babies. It was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen.

We didn't get an opportunity to go back, but next time we visit Telluride...you can be sure we'll heading down that private road again!

Telluride....I ROCK CLIMBED!!!

As we drove by, Matt pointed up and said, "That's where you will be rock climbing this week." I looked up and thought, "Hmmmmm that doesn't look too bad."

When climbing day arrived, we pulled off the main road and went a short way down a "side" road. We pulled up in front of the rock and I felt the excitement. (You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Matt is about 5' 11" tall so you can get some perspective.)

MY ROCK!

Irv decided to stay by the car and not hike to the rock with us. His hip has really been bothering him and the hike was a bit steep and some of it was on loose rock. Irv started getting the camera ready, Matt grabbed his bag, I searched for and found my courage and off we went!

The closer we got to the rock, the more little nervous flutters I started feeling. We zigged and zagged as we hiked up the steep hill to the rock and soon we were there....Matt all happy and me huffing and puffing! I looked up at the rock and in the fashion of "The Little Engine That Could", I heard a little voice in my head saying, "I can do this. I can do this."

In order for me to climb, Matt had to climb up the rock himself first and hook up the pulley/rope system to metal "eyelets" that were already in the top of the rock. He put on his harness and climbing shoes, took all kinds of equipment with him and up he went...not connected to anything...nothing to catch him if he fell. Watching Matt climb and then seeing him up at the top, I realized this was NOT going to be quite as easy as I had hoped.

MATT SETTING THINGS UP

After getting the system all set up, Matt repelled back down. "Okay, let's get you set up." It was a process, one that you could tell he had done many times. I stepped into my elaborate harness and Matt helped me tighten it. Everything he did came with an explanation of how and why. He took his time and made sure I understood how things worked.

He tied the figure 8 knot that would keep me safe, and then he had me untie it and tie it again myself. He checked it and rechecked it.

I put on my fancy little climbing shoes, we checked everything again and it was time to see if I could get my fat butt off the ground. That was my goal and I hoped that Irv could get at least one picture from the road so everyone could see me achieve that goal.

MY BUTT IS OFF THE GROUND! GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!

The idea is to locate places to hold onto with your hands, then find places to put your feet and then pull yourself up...hands, feet, repeat....over and over and over again.

STRETCH.....

UP I GO

It wasn't too bad at first until I looked down. Not only was I seeing where Matt was at the base of the rock, I was seeing the 75 feet further down where Irv was, AND I was seeing another 20 feet down to the main road AND I was seeing the valley on the other side of the main road. I felt like I was high in the sky and now I needed to pee!!!

WHERE'S THE BATHROOM? I NEED TO PEE!

I kept working at it and I could hear the little voice saying, "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"

GETTING NERVOUS, BUT I'M DOING IT!

I paused when I reached this larger slab of rock and asked Matt, "Where do I go?"

He said, "To the right."

"But how do I get over there?"

"Walk along the ledge."

This was the first point where I actually felt scared. The ledge was big enough to walk across, but there was no where to hold on. The rock in front of my face was smooth. You can see me trying to find a spot to hold on under the rock!

VERY SCARED

Take a second and stand facing a wall....get as close as you can. Now imagine that the floor is a ledge about 20 feet in the air and not a floor. Now, with nothing to hold onto with your hands, shuffle your way along the "ledge". You get the idea?

I was happy and relieved when I got across, but still scared. I started groping around for a handhold and couldn't find one to continue my journey. The next rock was smooth. I had to have something to hold onto and I wasn't finding anything.

HMMMMM.....NOW WHAT?

I tried to find somewhere that I might be able to put my foot to lift myself a little higher so I might find something but no such luck.

I had watched Matt when he went up, but he had taken a different route . He had suggested I try this route because the other was a bit harder. I looked down again and shouldn't have. It looked so high and with nothing to hold onto I decided I was done.

SCARED AND STUCK

I was disappointed that I had not made it to the top so I could "slap" the pulley....the sign of a completed climb, but I was proud of myself for stepping WAY out of my comfort zone and trying something new at the age of 57!

I put my emotions aside because I still had to get down! Matt told me to walk across the ledge again and get to where the rope came down......carefully.....I crept.

BACK ACROSS THE DREADED LEDGE

When I got to the rope, Matt said, "Okay mom, now this is where you need to trust me and the rope. Let go and lean back."

"WHAT??? Can't I just climb down?

"You can if you want to."

"Dammit! No, I'll do it the right way. Tell me again!"

So, I put my arms out and leaned back. I could hear Matt saying, "More," and I thought he was nuts, but little by little I leaned until I fell back away from the rock. As I swung back toward the rock, I pushed off with my feet as Matt lowered me down, down, down to the ground.

COMING DOWN

PUSHING OFF

I had very mixed emotions when I "landed". Happy, sad, excited, mad, proud and disappointed.

LANDING

Matt was proud of me though and his smile told me I had done a good job! When I said I was pissed that I didn't finish, he said we could always go again.

Matt had to climb back up to undo the pulley system. This time he took the route I took and I watched his every move. When he got to my stopping point, he looked, felt around, paused and then he took one of his feet and placed it about 3 feet up on an adjacent rock. He pushed himself up with his foot and reached a place where he could hold on and pulled himself up.

MATT BACK UP TOP

After seeing what he did, I didn't feel so bad. Not only would I have never thought to do that, I don't think I could have done it if I wanted to! When Matt came back down, I commented on how he did that and he said it did get a bit "dicey" at that spot.

So.....that is the story of my first and probably my only rock climbing experience and all I can say is "CHEE HOO! I DID IT!!!"