Sara in Colorado: Day 6

I've been home for almost a week, but there are still a few awesome things from Colorado I want to share with you...

Day 6: The Big Hike


My mom and I both signed up for an 11 mile all day hike to Black Lake.  It was a gorgeous morning and we left promptly at 8am to head into the Rocky Mountain National Park to find our trailhead with the rest of our group and our fearless leader, Amy.

The neat thing about this hike was that as you hiked you came across several natural wonders.  First up was Alberta Falls.

 What a cute mother daughter duo!

Once we were past the falls the real hike began.  And after a couple of miles we came to Mills Lake, which was gorgeous as you can see.

One of the more interesting things about this hike is that in November of 2011 a wind burst had come into the valley and at estimated 80mph winds tore up the landscape.  In the next few pictures you can see how wood split, trees were uprooted, and how many trees had to be cut to clear the trail for hikers.

I forgot to take a picture but a mile or so past Mills Lake we came upon Jewel Lake that really was a jewel tone green and very serene. It was after Jewel Lake that the rain started, and at one point hail.  Well, our hike leader called it something else, but it was icy and it stung the tops of my legs as I hiked.  We were told if there was lightening we would have to turn around due to the risk.  About a mile and a half from our destination a huge crack of lightening lit up the sky followed immediately by a boom of thunder.  We were given the signal and turned around in our tracks and back tracked about half a mile.  We sought cover under some trees once we were lower down and ate our lunches in the rain.  This was my least favorite part of the hike.  Finally the rain let up and some sun peeked through so we continued towards Black Lake.  There, just before reaching the lake we came upon....

ELK!  There were two females and two babies, who are harder to see in these pictures.  They were just calmly eating.  As you can see the one is tagged.  There is an overpopulation of Elk in the park and they follow some to check birth rates and other information.  

The closer we got to Black Lake the more beautiful the scenery became.  We were in between many mountains and could see water flowing down and patches of snow.  Simply gorgeous.

Finally we had made it to the lake but we didn't stay long.  Because when we turned around we saw more ominous looking clouds and didn't want to risk a storm.

Dark skies in one direction....

perfect weather in the other...

I was very happy to make it to the top! 

As we hiked back down I stopped to take some pictures of the splintered wood.  I loved the color and the textures it created.

At times on the hike we had to walk on beams of wood to avoid messing up the land.  Here I am with some of our group!

Finally back at Mills lake, our hike leader Amy had us all take our shoes and socks off and soothe our feet in the ice cold water.  Very refreshing.  But it started to rain again so we had to go finish the last few miles.

This is where I got cocky.  I felt the "old folk" were moving too slow so I took off, walking fast, and running down the rest of the trail.  Of course I inadvertently took the wrong trail to the parking lot and ended up adding an extra .6 miles to my journey.  Whoops!  My knees and ankles were NOT happy campers the next day.

That night was the first Family Summit Talent Show and it was AMAZING.  We're truly a multi-talented group.

Sara in Colorado: Day 5

July 10th, was the fifth day of my trip and my first difficult hike.  The West Creek Falls hike, while only 4 miles round trip, had an elevation gain of a full 1,300 feet!  I embarked with a group of about 15 a little after 8am and took a van to the trail head.  I travelled with two spanish speaking ladies, and two interpreters Fernando and Tracy.

Immediately upon starting the hike it was clear there were two groups of hikers.  Those of us who were under 50 and those who were over.  Not to be ageist but, I think the steep incline proved to be more difficult than our older crowd had suspected.  I was with the "fast" group, but was decidedly the slowest of them in the uphill portions.  It was a beautifully sunny day and it felt nice to have the warmth of the sun on our backs as we hiked.  I spent a lot of time speaking with Fernando and his wife Tracy.  They were a very interesting and fun couple.

Eventually we came to a stream.  After crossing the stream we noticed there was a partial elk skeleton in a pile on the bank.  It was missing the lower jaw and ribs from what we could tell, and had definitely been there fore awhile.

Finally we reached our destination, the falls.  The view wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped, but it was a peaceful spot where I sat and talked with the "fast" group a bit.  I also shared my elk salami I had purchased the night before!  Tasty! We then headed back down, and our group headed back to have lunch.  Overall a good hike, but more adrenaline than scenic.

Again this hike wiped me out and I spent the rest of the day relaxing back at the YMCA of the Rockies.  

Sara in Colorado: Day 2-3

Day 2 and we were still in Fort Collins.  We took our time having breakfast, hanging out with my aunt and uncle, and gathering the supplies we were borrowing from them for our week of hiking and other activities up in Estes Park.  Finally we got our stuff together and began the drive up up up several more thousand feet!

I'd forgotten how many twists and turns the road into Estes contained.  Surrounded on either side with walls of rock that shimmered in the sun (I'm thinking from mica) and following a flowing river we continued our journey.  There were several signs that had symbols for mountain goat crossings but no matter how much I looked I couldn't find any.

We arrived at the Y and checked in rather painlessly and I began my favorite part of the Summit, greeting all my friends I hadn't seen in a year!  These people have truly become family to me and it is just as exciting now at 28 as it was at age 12 to see my friends again!  After 17 years I can't imagine not attending one of these events.  

It was chilly and rainy and cloudy up at the Y but I really liked the view.  I don't think this picture truly captures how literally in the clouds we were but it really was beautiful.

Day 3 was the first full day of the Family Nature Summit!  I decided to start my week of easily with a four mile hike to a visitor's center in Rocky Mountain National Park.  We crossed streams, saw wildlife, and beautiful scenery.  It was the perfect hike to start the week with!

There's a deer sitting in there, smack dab in the middle- can you find him?

After my morning hike I was much more exhausted than I'd planned.  I think the altitude had finally caught up with me and I was forced to lay down instead of going to a lecture I had planned on attending.  Upon awaking though I felt much better and was able to spend some quality time with my friends.

Stay tuned for rock climbing, wine tasting, and much much more!

A Little More Green part 2

I think I did a good job of getting off of a lot of snail mail lists in January, but really only time will tell.  I have failed majorly on the using reusable bags when shopping, and I never got around to researching composting.  Maybe I will in the next three days- we'll see.  Obviously as 2011 plugs along I will keep trying to maintain the drive to be more earth conscious. 

Stay tuned for my February goals!

January Goal Fail...

I went grocery shopping and forgot to take any reusable bags.  Green Fail :(

I did encourage more recycling at work this week though!

Getting Rid of Snail Mail

Step 1: Getting rid of credit card offers- for at least 5 years that is.  

If you go to this site: www.optoutprescreen.com you can opt out of getting pre-screened credit card offers.  Since there are plenty of sites online to check out if and when you want a credit card or new credit card this seems like a no brainer.  There was an option to opt out of life but it required printing things out and mailing them in and frankly, maybe in 5 years I will want the offers again!  I'll let you know in a month or so how this worked out for me. Oh, and make sure you read the fine print- it did not require me to put in my SSN or my phone number despite the misleading red text next to the fill in fields. 

Step 2: Getting rid of pretty much everything else:
Start at this website: www.dmachoice.org.  This site provides you the tools needed to rid yourself of unwanted snail mail.  While they have a section for getting rid of credit card offers it just directs you to the site mentioned above.   Here is an excerpt from the site describing what they do.

DMAchoice™ is an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. This site is part of a larger program designed to respond to consumers' concerns over the amount of mail they receive, and it is the evolution of the DMA's Mail Preference Service created in 1971.For the purposes of this site, direct mail is divided into four categories: Credit Offers, Catalogs, Magazine Offers and Other Mail Offers. You can request to start or stop receiving mail from individual companies within each category—or from an entire category at once.

If you go to the catalog page or magazine page you can go to the bottom and click a button to remove you from all lists.  There is a disclaimer about whether you've bought from these places before- but I'm not going to worry about that till I see if this changes my mail intake at all.  It may be helpful to have a list of the catalogs/magazine offers that you receive that you don't want any longer, because you can look them up individually to find out what you have to do to be removed permanently.


The same option listed above is available for "other mail offers" which includes things like charities and more companies.  If you've donated to a charity and receive mailings from them it says you will have to contact them directly to be removed. 


Step 3.  Getting rid of RedPlum coupon mailers

The amount of these that I get is ridiculous, and most of the products that they have coupons for I do not use.  Also you can go to www.redplum.com to get the coupons and that way you can just print what you need.  Here's a direct link to the form you need to fill out to be rid of these unwanted mailers: http://www.valassis.com/1024/Contact/consumersupport.aspx.



Almost all of these solutions say they will take at least a month to take effect.  So I'll collect the rest of my mail for January and then compare it to what I collect in February to see what if any change I see.  I will also continue to look for other places to unsubscribe from!

How do you cope with junk mail?

A Little More Green

Inspired by a good friend of mine I've decided to have few to no year long resolutions and instead focus primarily on short term goals.  Granted these short term things may turn into long term habits, but it takes some of the pressure off to being with looking at things just a month at a time.

Here's my goal for January: Be A Little More Green

If you were to ask me I'd describe myself as a treehugger.  I'm concious of how things affect our planet but I'm still a bit too passive about it.  Now I'm not the type of person who will be obsessed with it either - nothing against those people, I just don't have the willpower, the drive, or frankly the desire.  But I can make small reasonable changes that could potentially have a big impact.

Here are some of the things I'm going to try to do:

1. Get off as many snail-mail lists as possible.  The amount of paper I get in the mail is ridiculous and highly unnecessary.  Bonus benefit: This will decrease the amount of times I have to take my paper recycling to the curb.

2. Use the few reusable bags I have when shopping.  And continue to refuse bags when they aren't necessary.

3. Buy things that come in the most eco-friendly packaging when possible.  This may mean buying in bulk or even buying a different brand.

4.  Research composting- sans worms.  I'm not sure winter is the best time to start composting but if I know a bit about it, I'll be ready to go come spring.

5. Hmmm... drawing a blank... what do you suggest?