Tucker and I just got back from his second backpacking trip in Colorado.   I had to make a trip out to Denver for work last Thursday.   Tucker has really wanted to make another trip out to Colorado, so I opted to drive out instead of having my work fly me out.   We drove out on Thursday and I spent that Friday working in our Denver office.    We stayed just outside of downtown Denver in a rather gaudy Bed and Breakfast that allowed kids and dogs.

The rooms, while kind of girly (as most B&Bs are), were nice enough, and the staff was friendly.   They even left some kids movies by the TV for Tucker. However, the neighborhood was kind of seedy.    Just the same, it was only a few minutes to our downtown office from our room, and the parking was free.   We had a scare at 2:00 AM on our last night in the B&B, when a guy walked into our room (he was evidently drunk) and said “Hey!”.   I think I was having a nightmare already at the time, and I woke up and screamed.   He said he was sorry and ran out the room.   Evidently I did not have the door completely latched.   At any rate, I got up and locked the door (considered dragging some furniture in front of it), and laid there awake the rest of the night thinking about how the B&B could have some sadistic owners similar to the plot in many horror movies.

The next morning we got up early, loaded our packs into the Subaru, had breakfast, and took I70 west into the mountains.   Our trailhead was about 100 miles west of Denver just outside of Minturn, Colorado.    Cross Creek Trail in the Holy Cross Wilderness is supposed to be one of the most remote wilderness experiences in Colorado and I was expecting us to have it nearly to ourselves.    Thus I was surprised to see several vehicles at the trailhead.   It is still crowded Colorado, so that is to be expected.    We hit the trail around 10:30 Saturday morning and it was already getting hot (80s, which is hot for the high country).

The trail seemed to be in good condition and easy to follow.   We encountered several people along the first couple of miles, but they were all day hikers spending the weekend in the high country to escape the heat in Denver.    Within a couple of miles of the trailhead we arrived at a creek crossing.   The problem was that the bridge was washed out and the creek was far to swift and deep to safely wade.   Fortunately, we found a tree that had fallen across the creek and were able to cross the creek there.   Its was more difficult than it might look because I was carrying a 50 pound external frame pack.

The washed out bridge seems to have dissuaded most day hikers and backpackers from continuing any further because we only encountered one other party from there on and for the next 3 days had the entire place to ourselves.    The hike up cross creek was quite strenuous with a lot of elevation gain.   The trail was also difficult to follow at times.    The trail usually took us several hundred feet above the creek, and there were very few opportunities to get good water.    It was a very pretty hike though with lots of aspen groves and huge spruce trees.   We finally made it to our camping spot around 3:30 that afternoon.   It was a very picturesque meadow with access to Cross Creek, a large beaver pond, and great views of Mount Holy Cross and Middle Mountain.

We found a good campsite between on a hill above the beaver pond and creek, and we setup camp.    I noticed that trout were rising down in the beaver pond, so we tied a rooster tail on our fishing poles and made our way down to the meadow.    The trout were so thick in the beaver pond that on my first cast I snagged one. Within a couple of hours we had already caught and released several dozen fish.     We kept a few for dinner and dinned on trout and rice that night.

The next morning we made our way down to the creek and spent the day fishing.   We probably caught another 100 fish or so on spoons.

We kept some more for lunch that day.

We noticed bear tracks all over the valley and by the creek.   However, we did not see any bears and in fact the only animals we did encounter other than birds and squirrels was a fox that followed us into camp.   That night my stove failed and we had to cook everything over a fire.   We had planned on spending a week in the backcountry, but the stove failing was a big problem as virtually all of our food other than trail mix required boiling water.    The next day much of our food and all of Carter’s dog food was raided by a bear.   We followed some bear tracks in the mud and found some of the empty food bags a few hundred feet from camp.   Normally I hang a bear bag with all our food in it, but I was lazy that day and didn’t (probably because I had to cook everything including boiling water over a fire because the st0ve was not working).   It was more than a little bit worrisome that the bear was bold enough to raid our food so close to our tent.

At any rate, with much of our food now gone, and all of Carter’s dog food gone we had to end our backpacking trip after 3 days.   We did some more fishing that day, packed up and started the long hike out of the backcountry.   We finally made it back to our car just moments before a thunderstorm hit.   Even though we had to cut the trip short, it still was a great trip due to the fishing alone.   I think Tucker is sick of the high country for a now, and he wants our next big trip to be to the north woods in Minnesota.

This is Zhen Zhen’s first Christmas, and Harper’s 3rd Christmas.    Of course, its Tucker’s 9th one.     They were all excited of course and up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa Claus brought them.

Oddly enough, Zhen Zhen think’s Santa Claus comes to China too, she is just wondering who at the orphanage has been stealing her presents every Christmas all these years.   All the kids got what they wanted, but Tucker could not really try his mountain bike out yet because we got a blizzard the night before.    In fact, Kansas City was still under a blizzard warning for most of Christmas day as well.

Later on we ended up braving the single digit temps to go sledding on Suicide Hill.   It was Zhen Zhen’s first time sledding, but as its typical for her, she had no fear at all.   We did not last very long however because of the cold and the wind.

That night we had steaks for Christmas dinner.  I had to take the propane tank in the house for a few hours before going out to grill so the tank would be warm enough to be usable.

Transformation to Midwesterner is obviously complete now.

We had a great Christmas this year.

Tree in the back of the truck.

I trimmed it up in the driveway so we could get it into the house and we decorated it, then redecorated it after it fell over twice.    For a cedar, it ended up being a decent looking tree, but it was kind of full.

Griswold Family Tree

Zhen Zhen and Tucker at the Trailhead

We went down to Arkansas for Thanksgiving week.   Tucker has been wanting to climb Arkansas’ tallest mountain for a while now so I decided it would be a good opportunity for Zhen Zhen’s first backpacking trip.    Since it was Zhen Zhen’s first backpacking trip, and for that matter her first camping trip, we just did an overnighter (instead of the near expedition level trips Tucker usually wants to take).    We found a camping spot on the trail at the northern foot of the mountain.   Zhen Zhen loved cooking outside and spending the night in the tent.  We had nice sunny weather the afternoon we hit the trail, but a cold front came in that night and brought with it over cast skies and temperatures down into the lower 40s the next morning.

Zhen Zhen has a fear of bears (I guess too much Discovery Channel), and was always worried about one eating us.   Luckily she did not notice the rather large Bear Country sign at the summit trailhead.

At any rate, we had no contact with bears at all, and saw no signs of them.   The trail to the top of Mount Magazine is about 3 miles long and gains about 1800 feet in altitude.   The footing on the trail was very precarious at times, so it took us a little more than two hours to make it to the top.  Zhen Zhen had a hard time keeping her balance in a few places and really could have used a good pair of hiking boots instead of just the running shoes she had on.   She was a trooper just the same – despite the fact that we had no way of really conveying to her where we were going or what we were doing walking out in the middle of the woods.   We encountered lots of cool rock formations on the way up, and a couple of small waterfalls.

Zhen Zhen posing in front of a small trailside waterfall.

Zhen Zhen had a hard time with the last leg of the hike up due of the steepness of it.   Because of the thick woods all the way up its kind of hard to know when you are close to the top, and you are basically there by the time you realize it.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker hiking up the final ascent.

We encountered dense fog and much colder temperatures at the summit (2753 feet), so unfortunately there were no big views to be had.   There is a state park on top of the mountain so we did explore it a little bit and then hiked up to a campground to warm up in shower room.

Tucker and Zhen Zhen on top of Mount Magazine at a campground.

After we warmed up we made the hike back down the mountain, broke down our camp, and drove back up the visiter center so the kids could get a souvenir. The fog lifted by the time we drove back up, so we stopped at one of the overlooks so Tucker and Zhen Zhen could see how high they had climbed earlier.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker at an overlook.

Even with the less than perfect weather we had, it still was a nice trip.   I am not sure if Zhen Zhen liked it that much or not.   She says she did, but that could just be because she thinks it is what Tucker likes doing (which it is).   It ended up being a tougher hike than I thought it would be, and was definitely harder than what I would have liked her first backpacking trip to be.    Just the same, she climbed the tallest mountain in Arkansas for her first backpacking trip, so only 49 more state high points to go.

Tucker holding his new Bull Snake Malfoy.

Today we got Tucker a bull snake at the KC Reptile Show.   Tucker has been wanting a new snake ever since his corn snake escaped a year ago, so he chose to get one in exchange for his good test grades.   We did not know when we purchased a bull snake that they tend to be quite aggressive.    In fact, this snake is just flat out mean.  He hisses and strikes at Tucker every time he picks him up.   We are hoping he becomes more docile as he gets older.   That said, even though a snake is kind of a white trash pet, they are pretty easy to keep.  They are really clean and only eat about once a week or so.    Hopefully Tucker can remember to keep the lid on his cage this time.

Tucker was a fisherman (of course), Harper was a cheerleader, and Zhen Zhen was a princess for Halloween this year.   This was Zhen Zhen’s first Halloween so it took her a little while to get the whole ask for candy and get it thing down.   Just the same, they all came home with several pounds of candy each, and that was even after we gave away all the crap to trick-o-treaters.

The night's taking.

Fall color on Indian Creek.

We have lived here in Kansas City for almost 10 years now and this is the prettiest fall color we have had yet.   We had a wet spring, mild and wet summer (for here), and a cold fall.  This made for New England like color this October.   I took Tucker and Zhen Zhen to their weekly Mandarin tutoring down in Overland Park, and while they were there I took Carter out to the Indian Creek bike trail so he could swim.    The Indian Creek Trail is a paved bike trail that runs along the Indian Creek greenway for over 20 miles.   We are blessed with over 100 miles of bike trails in the metro.

Carter Swimming

The colors are peaking now and in a couple of weeks everything will be brown (sometimes white) until spring.

Color on the bike trail.

About to cross the creek for the second time.

Ran the annual Fall Fell trail race out at Kill Creek Park.    It’s a 7 mile race with lots of hills, rocks, woods, and a water crossing.    Running across the creek was fun in 30 degree weather.    There were enough rocks and gnarly sections on the trails to keep the race from being very fast, but I still managed to finish 7th overall with a time of 56:55.

Tiffani, Zhen Zhen, and Harper heading up the trail.

We took the kids out to the Burr Oak Woods conservation area out in Blue Springs today.  Tucker loves going because there is a large area of huge limestone outcrops and boulders to climb on.   Harper is cool with it because it only involves about a mile and a half of hiking.   Once we reached the outcrops, the kids immediately started climbing and exploring.   In fact, Harper actually engaged in what is for her an extreme sport when she jumped across rock crevices.

Extreme Sports for Harper

Tucker and Zhen Zhen definitely like the whole outdoors thing much better than Harper does, but all the kids had a great time.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker on a boulder.

Posing with my "Bronze" Rat for taking 3rd Place in my division.

Ran the 9.5 Mile (15k) annual Sand Rat race in Lawrence this morning.  It was very chilly out, in the upper 30s at the start of the race.   Nevertheless I ended up with a time of 69 minutes, 46 seconds.  That is a pace of 7:10 a mile in which is pretty good for a 9.5 mile race and flying for a trail race.   Ended up taking 3rd place in my age group.