100 Followers!

 

I have recently hit my 100 followers! Yippie! Thank you all for your continued support and viewership!

I will continue to be bring you all the best in entertaining stories and media!

I could not have done it without all of you!

Thanks again!

Morning Glory

The officer waved us on, once he realized we were sober, sane (depending on your definition) , all set to start our epic journey. Within five minutes we arrived at the parking lot at Long’s Mountain. It was dark, cool, and sleepy even though the parking lot was bustling with life at two o’clock in the morning. Gear packed, brain drowsy, and head lamps on snugly, we set off.

Walking in complete darkness is one wild trip, your mind can’t comprehend what lies beyond the dark trees. Each step is greeted with a eery sound deep within  the forest. Around every corner dark figures creep behind twisted trees, sneaking a peek while we press on.

As we ventured on, we came into a vast opening on the mountain side. In complete darkness, one could only make out a dotted snake of headlamps meandering across the trails below. Simply magical, it felt as if we had entered another world, one of mystery and mystical creatures. The higher we climbed the thiner the air got, and the brighter the sky was. The light revealed the shadow of the looming mountain, beaconing us on! ….

…the adventure continues next time!

I wanna thank you all for your continued readership, this is my passion! I love sharing my journeys and photos with all of you, Hope some day to take extended hikes, as well as share my day to day experiences. Stay classy and keep on keeping on!

Early Birds

…beep…Beep…BEEP…BEEP!

1:00am
-The alarm screamed at us to move our lazy carcass’s from our deep slumber.

FLASH!
-a loud groan escaped my body as a strobe of jarring light blinded my eyes. Not being a morning person, 1:00am is way to early.

The light was then followed by a cacophony of sound coming from my alarm clock.

I fumbled my way through getting dressed and into the car. Soon after we met up with our guide Kaiyote.

In a fog, we continued down the road to the Long’s trail head.

WEE-WOO
Out of nowhere we were greeted by flashing red and blue lights! Busted!…

-Will we ever get to Longs Peak?! Stay tuned!

Long’s Peak an Endless Journey!

After a summer of epic hikes, we have finally arrived to our final destination! Long’s Peak, in all of its glory, was shrouded in gold rays as we drove into Estes Park. The sunset was welcoming, almost letting us know that our journey next day was going to go well.

We arrived at our quaint cabin room for the night, and unloaded all of our gear. As I was cleaning up before hitting the hay I noticed a bottle opener hanging on the bathroom door! Well I guess theirs different strokes for different folks…

-the story continues soon! More epic photos are on their way!

Trouble on Mount Bierstadt!

Mount Bierstadt, what a journey! The scenery was outstanding and breathtaking! Literally breath-taking! I constantly found myself gasping for air, as the oxygen depleted with the increase of elevation. Every step we took to get to the summit seemed to add five to ten pounds of weight to my pack.

The views made up for all of it, the painters palette of greens, oranges, blues, and yellows were stunning. Spring finally sprung in the Colorado Rockies and it smelled wonderful.

The beauty dramatically changed right around 13,000 feet when a ominous black cloud crept towards the crest, all the while grumbling  at the hundreds of hikers on Bierstadts sides. Within five minutes we were caught in a tremendous thunderstorm. Hail the size of marbles were pummiling us as we raced down hill. The screams of women and children were heard when a crash of lighting touched down fifty feet away from us! Luckily no adventurers were harmed.

Once we reached the basin we tore off our wet clothes and pulled out the “ice chest” for some refreshing beverages and a epic picnic lunch! Though we were happy to have the experience of near death, we learned a very important lesson:

Start early and respect the mountain!

-Thanks for your continued support. I have been slammed with wonderful job opportunities (thank you God!) , and have had little time to update the blog. I appreciate your avid viewership and will be posting more often again! Thanks!

Saw these guys on the way down the hill!

Long time no see!

I realize that this post is way overdue. I apologize for the lack of updated content, my plate has been abundantly full lately . I have been slammed with event after event at the ski shop that I  work at (Larson’s Ski & Sport). We have been trying out some new ways to promote our name. Very fun and innovative tasks, which seem to consume my spare time.

I do however have some interesting happenings to share with you all! Summer has been extremely hot in Colorado, the forests are burning again (contained though), however there are plenty of wonderful things happening around the state. Skateboarding, hiking, and grilling make-up for most of my weekends and evenings. Each came with great stories, and awesome memories!

Check back later this week for more new stories, and thank you all for your continued support!

Wild Basin, Where the Wild Things Are!

Early Morning Beauty.

When was the last time you woke up at 5am (or early for that matter) on a weekend. Especially a holiday weekend, Memorial weekend in fact. I don’t know about ya’ll, but I struggle to get out of bed anytime before 9am on the weekends. I’m a stay a bed, I’m one of the many that suffer from dysania. I struggle waking up in mornings, every day I have multiple alarms screaming at me to wake up. As a photographer this is a very bad habit, and in general its a bad habit. We as humans give our job’s more time than we. Think about it, for most of us we give forty hours a week to our employers. And on the weekends we give ourselves only about thirty two hours for free time. These numbers are very rough, and we can actually shorten our free time on weekends when we sleep in.

Sleeping in isn’t always a bad thing, however you get to miss out on a lot of things. As a photographer the best light is early morning and late evens, when the sun rises and sets. I have learned this the hard way by reaching a peak on many of my hikes, only to have missed the perfect light. This is due mostly to poor planning , or oversleeping. Oh well, we all make mistakes. Some mistakes can be beautiful however.

Whats up! oh is it time for my close up?

One such beautiful mistake happened to me this past Memorial weekend. As a family, we decided to spend day hiking around Wild Basin, a section of Rocky Mountain National Park. The forests in this part of the park are majestic. Upon arrival of the park, we were greeted by a friendly fox, peacefully soaking in the warm golden rays of sunlight.

Taking a second to kick back and enjoy the scenery.

Our journey finally began once we parked the car and adjusted all of our gear. With new pack from REI on, and boots tied up snug, we began our 8-mile trek to the majestic Falls and Lakes strewn about. The morning was cool and overcast, and the trails were muddy and laden with snow in spots. Wet and slippery, only the safest of trails for us! While we were hiking, we ran into other adventures, some less prepared than others. We greeted each with warm welcomes and warnings of the slick paths ahead.

Planning our next route, our fearless leader is deep in thought.

The trails were very mystical, shrouded by tall aspens and pines on either sides, we were forced to trudge threw ankle high runoff streams. At times it became hard to find motivation to journey on. Every turn revealed more muddy and poorly maintained trails. We had to dig deep, and push the pain toward the back of our minds.

This beauty was sunny itself next to the raging rapids!

Further, and deeper we went, the road was getting muckier and more technical. Although Beauty surronding us was inspiring, and helped motivate us to press on. With one last turn we had reached our destination! Ouzel Falls, the thunder of the water crushing down on the rocks below was breathtaking. The views were unlike anything ever wrote in a fantasy tale. J.R.R. Tolkien  could’nt touch the beauty we were seeing! God’s hand were present in everything that was surrounding us! It was like Monet’s painting, the colors vibrant, the movement of waving trees, and energy was overwhelming . Words cannot describe the views that we soaked in.

Wonderful scene at the base of Ouzel Falls.

On our journey, we stopped to look at our next big goal. Summiting Long’s Peak, our dream fourteener!

Looking towards next goal! Long’s Peak here we come!

The epic crest of Long’s Peak

Thank you  all for your continued support! I have so much fun sharing life’s journeys with all of you! I plan on making this the summer of the hike! I have a large project going on with Larson’s Ski & Sport, the ski shop that I work at, so that takes up most of my free time. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

If you enjoyed this let me know! Your input is greatly appreciated!

Colorado Outdoor Life!

Colorado’s Favorite locally owned Ski and Sports Shop!

Howdy faithful followers! It has been a crazy few days here in sunny Colorado, I have been slammed with family plans, work obligations, and special projects. So I apologize for the delayed part two of my Memorial day weekend trek. I promise it will be out soon! And the photo’s came out beautifully, I am so excited to see what you guys think!

In other news, I wanted to give a shout out to a local, family, sporting-goods store that has supported me for a very long time. Larson’s Ski & Sport is Colorado locally owned an operated by John Marriot and his expert staff of sports enthusiasts. They have helped gear me up, and given me the opportunity to get my foot into the Ski & Sports Industry over the many years of working their.

I want to thank them and show them the thanks they all deserve, which is hard to do. The staff (coming from working alongside them) are super friendly and extremely knowledgable! They taught me everything that I know about the skiing and snowboarding world, from gear to techniques, and most importantly sincerity.

Small local businesses are what keep sporting, and ski industries, alive. If you are a fan of sports; gear reviews, previews, local events, world wide action sports news, local up and coming atheletes, and many more! Head on over to there new blog page, it has everything an avid outdoorsy individual could ever want. Just hit up the banner below, and give a shout-out to the guys and gals at Larson’s Ski & Sport!

-I am in the works of finalizing the memorial day weekend trek. Thank you for you patience and continued support!

Wild Basin, Wild Wonderland

You know that feeling you get, the one when you feel as you have already been to a place. Deja vu? When I arrived at Wild Basin, part of Rocky National Park, I felt like I had entered into one of Tolkien’s classic fantasy tales (Lord of The Rings). I was surrounded by roar of mighty rushing rapids, and enclosed by gigantic pines and aspen trees.
Ever turn led to a new place if splendor. It makes you wonder how all if this was created, how this place of beauty could just “happen” by chance. As for me, I know that the all powerful, mighty God has his hand in this magnificent place!

-more to come!

Getting Packed Up for Summer !

Warmer and lingers days have arrived in Colorado. With that, summer time hobbies are starting to begin! Hiking, camping, swimming, and tons of other fun activities are in full bloom. Stores are putting all of there gear for sale out here. So thinking to myself, I headed out to good ol REI to check out there wears.
I was tent rode by the thousands of deals they had but resisted till I found something’s that I couldn’t live without.
I came home $165 dollars lighter, and with a brand new hiking pack and a new tripod!
Some new gear to help capture some amazing new memories! Can’t wait to test them out!