Author: Matt (Page 13 of 23)

New Cultural Experience

10/12/2006 / Matt

Pikes Peak Center I had a new cultural experience a few weeks ago. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra had their season opening performance on the weekend that Mom was here so we bought tickets and all went to the “symphony”. I’ve never been to the symphony before. I have attended my fair share of live music performances but that was long ago and we called them rock concerts. Same idea but way different presentation.

The Orchestra was accompanied by four vocalists and the Colorado Springs Chorale. The feature was Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis which is actually a Mass that he created as a tribute to an Archbishop friend. It took him over three years to create this piece of music. I enjoyed the latter part of the presentation the most. It was not precisely my cup of tea but it was still a good experience. I marveled at the number of violinists. I believe there were close to 30 of them.

The performance was held in Pikes Peak Center and it is a very nice facility. Not too big and not too small. The acoustics were excellent and we had a very nice spot in the center about seven rows back from the Orchestra. All in all I enjoyed it and would like to go back sometime when they are playing music I am more familiar with.

Mom’s Mueller Park Hike

10/7/2006 / Matt

My Mom came out in September to help celebrate Kristina’s 21st birthday. While she was here, we had agreed Mom should have a bit of the Colorado ‘Fall flavor’ so our first stop was the REI store to fit her in Merrell brand ‘trail’ shoes. With Mom properly equipped, we headed west to Mueller State Park to do a little hiking and check out the brightly colored aspen trees. Mueller State Park is located on the picturesque west flank of Pikes Peak; a high mountain park with average elevation over 9,000 feet. We headed a half mile down Outlook Ridge Trail, turning south onto the Raven Ridge Trail which ends in scenic overlook.

Although the trail is wide and well tended, Mom quickly grew to appreciate the Merrell’s grip on the loose surface and exposed rock. The trail winds through the forest among the aspens, various pine, and fir trees. The smell of the forest is always present but varies depending on whether you are passing by cedar trees, pine trees, or walking in groves of aspen. Glade air freshener may have tried to bottle the forest fragrance in aerosol form but… trust me… it’s not quite right 😉

Raven Ridge Trail descends a little more steeply for another 1/4 of mile while providing numerous glimpses of the surrounding mountain vistas. Eventually we made it to the overlook, found a few logs to sit on, and admired the view. In the surrounding mountains and valleys there were large patches of gold and orange aspens. In the distance, approximately 60 miles to the Southwest, stood the awe-inspiring snowcapped Sangre de Cristo mountains. We never tire of their breathtaking beauty!

I climbed down amongst some rocks in search of interesting formations to become part of my photo compositions. We belatedly realized we had left our snacks in the car and so decided to head back. On the return trip, the trail was mostly uphill but we maintained a steady pace and took numerous breaks to admire the scenery, before long we were back at the car. Overall it was a mile and half hike and Mom did a super job!

Click on a photo to enlarge

Paint Mines

10/7/2006 / Matt

There is a fascinating little geological wonder located out on the Eastern Plains called the Paint Mines; so named for clays found there, thought by archaeologists to have been used by American Indians to make paint.

The Paint Mines are a collection of eroded gulches of sandstone-capped clay colored by leaching minerals, ghost-white hoodoos and elaborate labyrinths of eroded rock. They cut through the landscape southeast of Calhan, resembling the fantastical gullies and drainages of the Badlands of South Dakota.

Ronda and I attended a function out at the Paint Mines sponsored by the Palmer Land Trust (PLT), which is a public non-profit land trust dedicated to the permanent protection of open space, agricultural, scenic, and natural lands in Southeastern Colorado.

Ronda was considering a job opportunity with PLT and we wanted to know a little more about the organization, the people involved, and what their goals were. More about that later… we enjoyed a nice hike into the valley where you can walk in and around these fascinating structures. The rock formations are made of colorful clays stained by oxidizing iron compounds and capped by white sandstone. The colors are amazingly bright and it’s easy to see how the clays would have made excellent paint pigments with almost no mining effort at all.

Site Goofed Up While Upgrading

9/22/2006 / Matt

The site is going to be messed up for awhile as I struggle through several major upgrades that I have been putting off. This has actually been a real pain. I had a feeling that it would be fraught with gotchas and I was right.

The actual upgrade to WordPress version 2 went exceedingly well. It’s all the extra 3rd party customizations (called plugins) that end up being a problem. Like the little email notification thing that is not supported for this version, and the clever little photo gallery thing that was embedded in quite a few of the posts.

I’m working through these things one at a time. I found a pretty good replacement for the photo scenario. All the relevant pictures for a post will be found at the bottom of that post. If you click on one it will open up a window and allow you to cycle through all the pictures. Unfortunately I have to go back through each post and manually convert it.

The email notification is bit tougher. I have not found a replacement for it yet and will probably send out notifications manually for now.

Please be patient while I work through these issues.

Click on the photos to enlarge them

A Short Outing

9/20/2006 / Matt

Ronda and I finally managed a short backpacking trip out into the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. The wilderness area is located right on the Continental Divide. We drove up through Cottonwood Pass and down the western slope to Taylor Reservoir. Then a little north to the access road that follows Texas Creek. The forest road is in pretty bad shape and even though it’s passable to regular vehicles ther are so many rocks in the road that the going is mighty slow. This went on for about 5 miles and then the road becomes passable only to high clearance vehicles.

Of all the roads I’ve encountered designated as 4WD this one lived up to it. Nearly all 4 miles of it were rough and tumble. Much later than we had planned we arrived at the trailhead. Everyone put on their backpack (including Abby) and off we went down the trail. The trail follows the Texas Creek drainage area and is a pleasant hike that has very gradual elevation gain. We saw quite a few beaver ponds, an old abandoned mining cabin, and made several creek crossings without getting wet.

As the afternoon wore on we scouted out a camping site that was off the trail and near a water source. We set up camp then lounged around, had supper, and enjoyed a nice campfire before retiring for the evening. The temp must have dropped down under the freezing point as there was heavy frost on the tent and bushes the next morning. Poor Abby spent some of the night shivering as she has no sleeping pad/bag. We’ll have to see what we can figure out for her that will stuff into her pack!

We spent the morning being lazy and finally packed everything up and hiked back to the Jeep. It was a nice escape into the woods even if it was short.

Click on the photos to enlarge them

Summer is winding down

8/24/2006 / Matt

Doesn’t seem possible that summer is winding down already. It has been a very busy time for me at work. I have been transferred over to the Systems Engineering department at ITT and have some new and demanding responsibilities. It has required a fair amount of overtime and travel recently.

Several trips to Ft Huachuca, AZ (south of Tuscon) to setup a system for security testing and a trip to Ft Meade, MD to brief NSA.

Have not accomlished any camping trips and only a few hiking trips this summer (bummer).

Back in school again taking a course in Systems Analysis, Design, and Modeling.

Sold our old Jeep and bought another one just like it. We had such good luck with it I decided to try for seconds. This one is green and only has 92K miles but is identical otherwise.

Josh and Kristina relocated across town when their lease ran out on the townhouse. They like their new place a lot better but it’s a longer commute.

Thats’ all for now.

Camping at the Grand Canyon

6/25/2006 / Matt

Our initial goal on this trip was the Grand Canyon. Neither of us had ever been there before and it has a somewhat legendary status as far as things to see in your lifetime. We planned the trip so as to arrive on the North Rim after a fairly hard drive from Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. The drive across Northern Arizona was long and quite desolate although I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the two-lane highway. It seems that no matter where you go these days there are a lot of people. We arrived in Page, AZ around 4 pm or so and drove down into Marble Canyon to cross over the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam. Our goal was to get to the Kaibab Forest visitor’s center before it closed at 5 pm.

Driving along the Vermillion Cliffs just below the Paria Plateau we started gaining elevation and suddenly left behind the barren desert landscape and entered the Kaibab Forest. Arriving at the visitors center with time to spare we secured a map of the forest and inquired about good places to disperse camp along the rim of the Grand Canyon. Dispersed camping, in case you are not familiar with the term, means finding your own campsite somewhere in the forest. It has the advantage of guaranteeing solitude as long as you don’t mind dispensing with modern conveniences like water, showers and toilets. But then again; that’s what camping is all about. Right? 😉

Having received a couple of pointers from the Rangers we headed down the forest roads towards the canyon. Continue reading