And......break.

Seconds into re energizing my training and nutrition program it's the holidays.


Something that has been a staple of our Christmas program for years is a slice of Goode Company pecan pie. As far as I'm concerned this is the best pecan pie in our galaxy and living a short drive away from it for decades is something I guess I took for granted.

Living in Colorado you can't just pop in your car, get in line with 100 other Texans and grab a few pies.

Lucky for us there is fast reliable shipping in this country and people that feel how sad it must be for anybody who knows what they are missing if they can't score a Goode Co pie.

I pledge to work extra hard next week to make up for it but there aint no way in hell I'd pass on eating some of the best pecan pie you could ever get your hands on

Long lost update

I've been off the update train for a while now...

The fickle finger of fate that is life has been flipping me the bird lately and I've been busy trying to grab that finger and bite it.

I'll start off with what has been a bother for a few months and that is revisiting Bierdstadt. In my trip report I mention how lousy I was feeling during that climb and how tough it was for me to gain the summit. Well....a few days later I was in the Dr's office and it turns out I was really sick. I wound up on a round of heavy antibiotics and let's just say if I'd have been exposed to Anthrax that week I'd have been good to go. :o

After getting better I was left with a haunting feeling of that climb. I realized that my lack of training might have very well killed me that day. I sort of downplayed how bad I was feeling and long story short I pressed on further than I should have because I wasn't in top shape. Had I been in good shape I'd have known something was wrong and I should stop, get better, and climb another day. But what happened is that I was doubting myself out there. I was thinking wussing out was not acceptable and wound up pushing myself to potentially bad places. I learned the hard lesson of what a disservice it is to show up less than 100% prepared.

I had time to really think about that because it was the last 14er of our season and ahead was a hiatus....a hiatus from hell because I've learned the second hard lesson of the year. A hiatus that lasts too long is damaging to the cause. Knowing that I was going to have to approach my 2011 season in a lot better shape than 2010 because of what I learned and the goal of twice as many 14ers this year I understood the work ahead of me and I let the time available to put me in postpone mode... aka denial.

A ton of other issues came up but the above is enough to illustrate where I've been until the breaking point came during the last UFC event. Thank you Thiago Alves. thank you. Thiago showed up in peak conditioning and performed flawlessly in the event. He was inspiring and the stand out of the entire event IMO. In post fight interviews he gave credit to his improvements to "lifestyle changes". I started looking into what he was talking about and in doing so the urgency to get training for 2011 came to life for me and I felt inspired to get to it.

Getting sick did deal me some setbacks but it also gave me some great perspectives I think. I've put myself in a little bit of a hole currently but have no doubt I can dig out and using what I've learned I intend to hit the first 14er trail head of 2011 the most prepared I've ever been.

Less serious posts to follow but I had to clear that up.....

Girl Power!

We made it out to the Roller Derby yesterday...

It was a lot of fun and something I've wanted to do for a long time. When you are there you really get a sense of the "girl power" aspect of the sport. The place was packed with tons of young girls that would break out dancing when the music would come on over the PA. We could see a couple of girls around 7-8 years old across the arena that were going absolutely bonkers at times and it was a kick watching the vibe in the room. I was expecting a much different atmosphere than the odd ball collection of things that it actually is. But seeing it first hand I have to say I get it now and think it's a good thing.

The look of "kill" is all over the face of Angela Death in this pic as she gets ready to knock into the much bigger girl.. :)  I think she was the fastest skater out there of all the teams we saw.

There were some fans of specific teams out there as well as some serious fans that were talking details as well as us rookies. It took me a while to figure out how to watch the action because there is a lot of it spread out over an area too big for you to observe all at once. You pretty much have to follow the Jammers until one of them brakes out of the pack and follow her from there. You can glance back at the other Jammer too keep an eye on what's up but after the initial jam up you need to watch the girls with the stars on their helmets and the action will fall into those views.  

I thought Roller Derby was fun as well as a positive/empowering vibe for girls, and it had enough violence for guys to enjoy as a sport.

I will go back to another event for sure next time the opportunity comes up.

http://www.denverrollerdolls.org/

Denver biscuit

Ohhhhh yeahhhhhhh....

Let's talk for a second about Denver Biscuit Co.

Angie got word from a trusted food tipster that Denver Biscuit was a place worth checking out....so naturally we were psyched to check it out.

The first thing you should know about Denver Biscuit is that it isn't easy to find if you don't know what to look for. We passed it twice before I decided that no matter if I had to hold up traffic and drive 2mph I was going to find what was being touted here....

Real Southern, Real Good

Proudly serving gourmet biscuit sandwiches on fresh-baked buttermilk biscuits with all the house-made fixin’s you could want for. From the sausage down to the apple-butter, it’s all made in-house, everyday, from scratch. No kiddin’.

http://www.denbisco.com/


After deciding it was a do or die mission we located the target on the third pass. For those who might venture in this direction the thing to realize is that you are looking for one of the identities located inside a 3 sibling location. The Atomic Cowboy and Fat Sullys Pizza are also in this same room and the signage might confuse you if you don't know that....I didn't and it did.

No matter the difficulty involved in finding it I was immediately pleased at what I saw as we approached the front door. I magnificent sight indeed of a sign saying Novo Coffee hanging in the window.....nice! Novo is by far my favorite coffee find in Denver at this point and the thought of a decent cup of coffee was a very welcomed start to this adventure.

As a quick note I think I should say Atomic Cowboy is a bar. Recently I recommend another place that has a  50/50 bar and restaurant vibe to it and unfortunately one of the members of the party did not like the bar feel of the experience. Well.....this would probably be much worse if a bar feel puts you off because here is the view from our table.

But like Snooze D.B. closes at 2:30 PM and I imagine the longer in the day you get the shift from Fat Sullys Pizza eventually gives way to The Atomic Cowboy and it become a full bar at o' dark 30. For breakfast / brunch the bar should be fairly quiet and even the few people I saw there were not drinking.....yet.

I was intrigued by  Fat Sulley's but we were locked in on the idea of southern buttermilk biscuits and truth be told I've tried several times to get decent cream gravy here in Denver and I've been steadily loosing hope that I would find the flavor I was looking for and missing. I've had a lot of what I'd call 95% flour flavored gravy here and there is no sugar coating it....it's weak.:(

I'm happy to say the search is over because Angie got the biscuits and gravy.....super fantastic!

And I got the chicken biscuit sandwich topped with the in house made sausage cream gravy.

 
 Good flavorful cream gravy with honest to goodness fresh buttermilk biscuits and a decent cup (3 cups for me) of Novo coffee.... well, add it to the list of go to breakfast spots in Denver.

I'm starting to get a real appreciation for the food culture in this town. It's taken a little time to start uncovering things, and we did have some early stumbles but there are some great spots to be found if you look. One thing for sure is that really really good breakfast and brunch places are not hard to find here. Excellent Mexican food is harder to get but breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day.....and Denver has your back on whats important!  ;)

Another place I'll give a highly recommend status.

Snooze

We have been passing by this peculiar place for some time now.

No matter what day it is they always have a line spilling out the door and out onto the street. Today (an average Wednesday) we decided to take a closer look. We arrived at approx 11am and sure enough there was a line out the door and we were given a 20-25 min wait time. Something kind of nice is that they have a coffee station set up right there and you can grab some coffee while you wait. I looked at some of their info and apparently the owner visited Guatemala at some point and fell in love with the coffee. So Snooze serves Guat...for your typical restaurant coffee this is on the side of better than the average. For coffee geeks....it's restaurant coffee ya know, but it's still above average for what is out there.

As we waited a very cool surprise was heading our way. We received a  complimentary pineapple upside down pancake to sample and sample it we did...

This pancake is nothing short of fantastic. The creme sauce along with the slight cinnamon butter and  pineapple chunks....fantastic! This will not be the last time I have one of these bad boys and I suppose that is the intent of the "free taste". ;)

Man oh man, that creme sauce is the bomb!


Anyhow, we demolished the pancake in 47 seconds and after a refresh on the coffee the brunch event was about to hit the main stage.

I should mention this place is a little disorienting in it's ambiance. The decor is straight 50's Americana but the menu has a lot of modern and French infusion concepts so there is a bit of an off balanced presentation but they pull it off fantastically and it's enjoyable from start to finish. That being said I had a very difficult time in deciding what to try for my first visit and in the end it was a pure coin toss selection. Lucky for me this is certainly a heads I win tails I win type of toss because I seriously doubt there is an item on the menu that isn't delicious.

Here is the Snooze signature breakfast pot pie. A puff pastry (a brilliant example by the way) with their homemade rosemary sausage gravy and a sunny side up egg on top and hash browns on the side.

Eh, it was ok...... are you kidding me? Look at it....it was killer!!

By this time it was obvious why there is almost always a line going out the door to this place. They close up shop at 2:30pm so supply is limited... demand is high. The result is you will probably be waiting to get in.


I'm giving this place a highly recommended status.


Snooze

Be seeing you again Snooze, count on it.  ;)

Stone 14th anniversary IPA

I picked this a week or so ago for my post Bierstadt beer.

Stone offers an "e"mperial IPA for their 14th anniversary beer. I don't know what the emperial style is so I just opened er' up and dug straight in.

The first thing I notice is that the nose is not very lively on this beer. It's sort of crisp but subdued  if that makes any sense...on second thought that is what I'm getting if it makes any sense or not. ;)

Anyhow it's got a crisp nose of nondescript nature in my glass. The color is super hazy straw and I'm totally digging it. I'm immediately curious about the malt bill here but setting that aside it's time for a taste...

Taste - all hops. Straight up aggressive and if it wasn't you would wonder if it was a Stone offering right? I'm having trouble figuring out these hops. They are not typical citrus C hops or even the pineys mostly found in big IPA's. This one is a lot more like an English Bitter. Clean and sustained hops bittering is the main focus of this beer to my taste. I starting thinking ESB but to be honest it does not taste that big to me for some reason. I was expecting (and it might be) a big beer over 9% and 90 IBU's but for me this beer comes off smaller than I expected. That very well might be saying something about how well crafted it is if they are pulling off an almost invisible balancing act here. It does have a hot finish so I may be over thinking it. Well, whatever the case this beer strikes me as an ordinary bitter ++ and not an ESB ish beer and neither is it a West Coast IPA either.

It's a bit of a head scratcher but this part is clear.. If you don't like assertive hop bittering this one is not for you.

Mid way into the glass I'm pegging bitter tangerine as  the main hop flavor but not a citrusy tangerine. More like a spiced dirty tangerine....Mmmmmmm doesn't spiced dirty tangerine sound delicious? :)

Well, it's pretty freaking good I tell ya!

I've never had a bad Stone product and that trend continues on... 14th anniversary, viva la Stone!

Bierstadt - trip report

We had pegged this weekend as the time to attempt Bierstadt at least a month ago. Planning an event that far in advance requires leaving some details to develop as they will and deal with them on the spot. In this case Murphy's law came calling on two fronts for this climb.

Health -  About 4-5 days before the climb I got sick. Panic is the best word I have to describe my thoughts on it. After doing what I could to manage the situation I decided ignoring it was the best way to go.

Weather - We made a last min. decision to change the day from Sat to Sun based on a miserable wind condition predicted for Sat. Within hours of making that call and allocating some prep time to Sat afternoon making it difficult to change back the weather changed.....now Sun was calling for the worst of the wind. :(

Not having any way to change things at this point in time we set out for the trail head early Sun am.

We made a very important decision before we left to carry a second pack. We had a small pack that Angie carried.....in a bit this will turn out to be a vital bit of gear.

Here is a shot from the parking lot at what the day has before us.

Something different about Bierdstadt from others we have climbed is that a lot of it is in view to you much of the climb. Even from the parking lot if you look at the highest point in this picture....that is where you are going.


So we headed out with no issues and crossed Scott Gromer creek and got out of the willows with zero incident. Getting into a clearing the sun was amazingly bright coming up behind the Saw Tooth. I sort of like this funky picture and again that highest point on the right is the summit to shoot for.

By this time the wind was becoming a problem. We were having some serious sustained gusts of cold wind. The only good news might be that they were pressing up and not down but the wind was still knocking us around and making things a lot less than ideal. As time goes on this pesky wind was a real PITA. Good for us we had Carmex in the pack to keep from getting ridiculously chapped lips but I think we got some wind burn on our faces. Talking later on we both felt like we were wearing those giant face mask style goggles...that wind was sucking for sure.

Something I really like about this climb is the visibility. Just like you can see the summit from the parking lot, once you get up a little and turn around you get some good views of what is down below.

Well....the wind was beating us and as time went on it was becoming obvious that me not being 100% from getting sick earlier in the week was becoming a problem. I managed to get some more elevation and after some discussions Angie eventually asked "the question". I said I wasn't ready to decide yet and we moved up to a location pretty close to this spot...

I realized that for what we were hiking (relevantly easy terrain) I was in very bad shape. I understood that I was holding her back and said she should go on and I'd see here later. If we did not have that second pack it would have been a VERY bad situation but we did have it and she could take enough gear to move on. It was an easy call and we should have made it a little sooner but its tough and nobody wants things like this to happen. I was just not feeling good enough to keep the pace and as crowded a trail as this was this was the right decision to make.

I can't say anything more about Angie's climb from this point forward other than here are her feet up top.

So there I was....trying to figure out what to do next.

After a bit of feeling sorry for myself I made the natural decision to go on a little further just to see what would happen. I played all the "just to the next rock" games and all of that but eventually I got to a really bad spot. I was looking at the last 1,000' and a feeling came to me that I didn't even want it. I'm not sure if that was a real feeling or a defensive position but I was feeling it and that was my lowest point of this trip. I must have sat there for 5 min. trying to figure out what I was going to do next and for some reason I figured out I didn't have to choose between what I thought I did and I could make a new choice altogether. I decided just to keep making my way towards the summit and I'd meet Angie on her way down.

This new decision soon got me to a place where I'd have other decisions.....

*A note on climbers* I've come to believe that climbers have a way of reading each other and sometimes know when to say certain things and when to say either nothing or just Hi. I guess it was all over my face that I was having trouble and a guy coming up past me said to me "Yep...we only have 560' to go" and slipped on past me. This bit of info was important for me to learn.  A while later a kid climbing with a group asked his Uncle how many more feet of elevation we had left and he said just about 400.

With only 400' of gain to make (but it's a doozy of a 400') I decided I'd go for it. I decided Angie would be coming down and I'd drop my pack with her and scramble up. As things would turn out something else was going to happen but here is a look at the last scramble over a boulder field....yeah, it's steep. Look close and you can see climbers scrambling about.(you might have to click the pic to make it larger).

So, something I didn't know is that Angie decided to have a nap, write a book, and interview folks up top and she never did come down to take my pack. But once I made my way to the boulder field obviously I was going to drag myself up.

I think this is Grays and Torrys as seen from the top of Bierstadt we climbed Grays a couple months ago and Torrys might be on for next year.

I'm not sure what lessons I've learned just yet about this climb but the days ahead will tell me I'm sure.

All I know right now is that we made both of the goals for this year and I've successfully grabbed my 3rd 14er now. With as tough a day as it was for me this picture could be my favorite.

Or maybe this one from laying down on a rock about 5min from being back at the car. And by the way a 14er trail is one of the few places you feel pretty good to lay down on a jaggedy rock and make yourself more comfortable.

Or could it be the beer after?  ;)

Maybe I don't know what my fav pic of the day is but that pretty much sums up the day.

Deer Creek / Plymouth trail

We hit the Deer Creek Park system today. Another nice Jefferson County Open space. I've got to say pretty much every one of these Jeffco spaces has some nice hikes to be had and this one is no exception.

For our fist visit here we decided to grab the Plymouth Creek trail at the parking lot (2.4 miles with 1343' gain), hit the Plymouth Mnt. trail up ahead (2.2 miles 884' gain), and then the Scenic View (0.4 miles 165') to gain the summit for what they billed as "Beautiful 360 degree summit view".

At the trailhead I popped the top on a Hard Nutrition product to give it a test drive. Here is the raw data.

Suppliments in Win

Here is what it looks like under the lid.

Yummy little pills

I was feeling great today...like Tony The Tiger Grrrreat!! before taking this supplement.  So that along with the fact that I operate on a fairly stable platform of caffeine intake and there is nothing very "punchy" in here there were not any obvious effects of taking Win. I've heard a few good things about this company and I think next time I'm going to try .. This one

We took off from the parking lot and hit the Plymouth Creek trail and after about 5 min. it hits a fairly steep and rocky climb. We didn't wind up taking any pics of this section but there wasn't much to see anyway...it was a bit of an old school suffer fest to be honest on this section, the next section where the stairs are (more on that in a bit) and some spots beyond. The route outlined above is a just a fairly quick gain and it's mainly up vs switchbacks so you should be ready to hit it if you choose this path.

One great thing on P.C. is that you have a load of shaded sections like this to cool off in along the way up.

Alright, back to the stairs... I'm not sure why these stairs appear out of nowhere for this 50 yard section of trail. This pic is looking back down where you just came from. The bike is in this shot because the guy coming down this section gut stuck between some rocks and decided to drag his bike back up and try it a second time....he didn't like that attempt either and got off his bike right here and looked at the trail the same way a golfer crouches down to look at the line of a long put.. I told him if we had not been standing right there he would have just blasted down the trail and he agreed that he was over thinking it. Anyhow, I didn't take the stairs up and don't think they are all that much  faster...I've got no idea why they are here.

After an hour or so of chunky elevation gains you get to the short track.

From here it's a quick trip to the top.

We took about 20 min up here today to kick back because there were several places to catch views from. It was a nice hike and on the way down we decided to take an alternate route back to the car. At the last section down you have an option to turn off of Plymouth and take Meadowlark trail. We had crossed paths with a park ranger a few times and she said "if you haven't tried it before you might go that way"...  We decided to try it and it had a nice open view along the path that I liked.

It was about here that I started thinking more about lunch than the hike out so we hit 4th gear and before too long it was time to grab a chair at out favorite sandwich shop.

I saw they had my favorite drink when I was a kid so I had to grab a Rock and Rye to go with this Cuban sandwich. I think the RnR tasted almost exactly the same except the carbonation and citric acid were dialed down to modern levels. Back in the day it was pretty much like taking a punch in the face it had so much bite..I guess over time people have decided they don't like that anymore.

Sat hike done...... NEXT!   ;)

Matthews Winters, coffee, and tea...

Another regular hike for us is Matthews Winters. For pre-hike coffee today I decided to go with an inverted AeroPress latte off poly filter. It was good....of course.

At the trailhead of this hike you are welcomed in by a nifty little bridge crossing over a small stream. There is a couple of picnic tables and BBQ pits off to the side in the shade where you can hear this water running over the small fall just under the bridge... It would be a nice spot for grilling up some burgers sometime but for us the trail awaits.

This hike has about a mile or so lead in across some meadow. As you wind down the valley the climb is on the foothill furthest to the left you see up ahead. This section is super smooth and easy as you hike in.

Once you make it over and start grabbing some elevation there is a turn where you can look back at this same section of trail you just took to get in......dig it.

As far as summits go I'm not sure what (if anything) here is like a true summit as in you standing on the peak elevation of the area but depending on what trail you take there are different clearings you come to that reveal some nice views. Today we took Morrison Slide up to where you join Red Rocks and start heading over to Red Rocks parking lot. Having already done a lot of the lower section of the RR trail we decided to hang out at this clearing for a bit and cruise back from here.

Then it was time for lunch... ;)

After blasting out (and making good time) we went to my favorite tea shop in town. Here is an Assam Doomur Dullung. I prefer a more malt forward Assam but this was certainly a great cup. We will be moving 5 min away from this shop in a few months so I'm sure I'll have plenty of chances to explore more of their offerings.

Some recap of the last few months...

Here is some random pics from over the last few months. I've been neglecting to post anything for a while now and wanted to sort of get caught up and kick off this new blog. My plan is to keep this one fairly active but change the focus a bit from the old blog.

To start off here is an IPA at the Breckenridge Brewery in Breckenridge. It was a Lucky U IPA and was standard fare for brew pubs.

This one around Breckenridge is sort of cool. Angie snapped it while we were driving and it has a cool swooshy look to it. Plus it's a gold mine...I didn't know they still had active gold mines. This place looks like it's up and running.

This has probably been our #1 hike location this year. We've been all over the place but I think the place we wind up the most is Mt Falcon. Right before you get started there is a hitching post...at least I call it that. To me it says enough about the place that you can safely assume how the rest of your hike might turn out scenery wise. We've done long hikes here, shorter hikes, and my favorite hike here (the Parmalee trail) a ton of times. It's a go to spot for sure.

Angie took a pic of a little bird going to town on this plant....I guess he might be a woodpecker but that aint wood. However he sure was pecking the hell out of it

Here is a random picture of Ted Nugent in the late 70's- early 80's for no significant reason at all....

Crested Butte is a really cool area. We went to see the wildflowers but I'd like to go back and spend a couple few days just kicking about the town. The drive up was amazing as well....I like Crested Butte!

Angie took a zillion pictures of  flowers. I like this one because it reminds me of a jesters crown...and that is just hysterical for a flower.

Look at me...I'm a flower and I'm not joking!

I also got in a few nitro pours as well as a real ale via an old school beer engine.....hahaha suckers!  :)

Lancer IPA at Pints

An amazing nitro pour Stout at Dry Dock.

Hanging out on my balcony - random Friday evening.

This year my buddy Shaun was responsible for shining the spotlight on matcha. Me being me you know I had to go a little crazy with it. :) This is probably the most fun I've had with it using 80% whole milk, 20% half and half, steamed together with the matcha, a spoon of big foam, and then dusted on top with 100% cacao. Not a drink for whimps....only those that go there should go here...

Sunshine.. from the cup straight to your brain. ;)

A cool experince at the Novo at the Museum. This is a lever pull that was presenting me with a shot I've had before. It was a super sensory memory at fist taste and had an overwhelming statement to make about itself..it was simply and LOUDLY... "Red".

I saw a car crash..

Managed to somehow get a shot of espresso planets on my cheapo camera...

One day I'll get a real camera.....

Ate a few breakfasts in small mountain towns like this Huevos Rancheros in Buena Vista.

Found a halfway decent cup of coffee in Leadville...

Plug for you Provin' Grounds...I think you owe me a latte and a pastry next time I'm in town. ;)

Chilled out with Angie on dozens of places a lot like this...

 

And probably walked a few thousand  miles of stuff like this...

Wash rinse and repeat the above a few times and that is pretty much what the last few months have been about. Not too shabby really and I figure that brings things up to speed for now.