Ingrid's Wedding

We went out to Rhoade Island in early September for Ingrid and Geoff's wedding. The weekend event was held by a small lake in the still deep forest of New England, not far from the sea. We stayed with friends and family in large cabins, taking walks and rowboat rides when the sun was out, hanging out in lounges and rooms when rain was falling. Hanging out led to the invention of a variant of Ingrid and Geoff's favorite sport...the variation coming from the use of rolling chairs to play ultimate as in "Ultimate Deskchair Frisbee" We ventured into downtown Providence to their favorite brewpub, drinking beer being a second favorite sport. The ceremonies were laced with informality a la Quaker meeting with lots to drink and eat and dance to afterwards. Fireworks above the lake around 3:00 am (was that the conclusion or just a midway point?) And yet in my mind's eye, a little girl plays in a playground (was it the brief months we spent in Atlanta?) and an older girl carries the dog Llana around the living room on a pillow on her head. Hmmm...who knows where the time goes. I guess it is all just part of the mathematical dimensions of spacetime. But not getting bogged down in theories, Ingrid and Geoff headed off to Banff to the mountains, lakes and open meadows that they love. May they have many more days, years, and lots of spacetime to engage together those environs.

Boston

Rode up to Boston on the train from Providence where preparations were in full swing for Ingrid and Geoff's wedding (I interpreted my job as one of "getting out of the way.") I walked from the South Side station over to the new Institute of Contemporary Art...the last time I had been in Boston it is was not yet finished. The building is cantilevered out over the waterfront of Boston Harbour. Yet more remarkable for me was the exhibit of sculpture by Anish Kapoor. His work with mirrors, voids, reflecting and refracting surfaces creates an interactive environment in which the viewer creates the art by becoming part of it. His best known work is the Bean in Millennium Park in Chicago but the enclosed museum walls provides a more intimate way of exploring his concepts of space. One of his most impressive works "Sky" was installed at Rockefeller Center in New York...again Anish plays with the sense of scale and the mystery of who we are, where we are, where are we going.
After that museum I just wondered the city...visiting the Athenaeum (founded 1807 as a subscription library and art museum). Besides its art works, it has about half the known collection of Washington's personal papers and Bibles which King George sent to the colonies to try to turn them from revolution to religion. Didn't work. So somewhat stunned by history and heat, I continued through the Boston Commons to the Public Library whose courtyard offered a shaded colonnade, sculpture, fountains and that sense of a secular/sacred space which is only found in cities.

Obama

We went down to Denver to hear Obama's acceptance speech with 83,000 of our closest friends. As it was getting dark and as the final lines of attenders filed into the stadium, five citizens (regular folks) talked about their reasons for supporting his candidacy. They were quite powerful as speakers...more impressive than the other more polished performers. The roar of the crowd at their and, later, Obama's remarks was laced with the understanding that enough is enough. In fact, enough for the past eight years has been way too much. But in the meantime, there's Stevie Wonder playing his own personal form of magic. Maybe that's the point "Hey, listen to the music, the beat is changing."

Road To Denver

Traveled down to Denver yesterday to check out preparations for the Democratic Convention. I took my bike along; given all the street closings it was the best way to get around. So what was going on? Well, the street demonstrations, an "energy fair" under the dancing statues at the performing arts center platoons of heavily armed security forces walking around in the hot sun, a street fair in the civic center, roses stuck to the high wire fence around the Pepsi Center, a church baptism ceremony at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte, and, at the end of the afternoon, a Larimer Democratic Party reception at a downtown art gallery.
Charlotte has been working full steam on this election...it was good to have a glass of wine with her amidst friends and art works.

Summer being "over"

There is a morning in mid-August when you realize summer is over. The end comes early in the morning. I go outside to pick up the morning paper or to take Pacha for a walk. Overnight the temperature has dropped. Cold mountain air is still pouring down the foothills onto the Fort Collins plains. And though the temperature that day may get into the 80s or 90s, the pattern of cool, then cold, nights and early mornings will repeat itself. The tipping point has been reached; there is no going back. Summer is over.

Felt the need to spend a night in the mountains so I packed my mountain bike, tent, sleeping bag, a few provisions (wine, crackers) in the Explorer (in spite of gas prices, my favorite mountain vehicle). Went biking and hiking in the St. Vrain drainage. Then drove over to Brainard Lake and watched the canoes as the sun set behind the Indian Peaks. Came home early in the morning...a new person (well, maybe just a bit renewed).

Weddings, births and summertime

So here we are in July (how did that happen?) and all around, new lives and new relations. Charlotte and I drove up to Estes Park for the wedding of our friends Lorin and Morgan. A few weeks before Lisa and Felix had celebrated their marriage here in Fort Collins. Nina and Marcelo had their second child, Sophia, who will do all she can to keep Estevan company. And today we heard that Rachel and Michael had a baby girl, Sonia, on the 4th of July. We are so blessed to be involved in the life of this community.

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Final Road Trip Days

We stood in the back of the Annunciation Church for their eight o'clock mass on Easter Eve (beautiful bright yellow interior space filled with parishioners), did our photo work on Easter morning and spent the rest of the day at the Cottonwood Hot Springs down the road in BV (Buena Vista). Ted met up with some friends from Carleton. We stayed in the dorm at the hot springs and next morning headed east, up out of the Arkansas Valley, across South Park, and back to Fort Collins. Ted linked up with some more friends, did a Fort Collins brewery tour, played cards and next morning it was out to the airport and, well, end of this road trip. Looking forward to the next one.

An Object in Motion Tends to Stay in Motion

Ted's final day of skiing was at A-Basin, testing out some of the new runs and chutes in the newly opened Montezuma area. I was spending the day at the Silverthorne library and rec center. Did I mention the dislocation of my shoulder while on an early morning run at Winter Park a few days before Ted arrived? Anyway I was out of commission.

And,then, on his last run of the day, Ted also proved Newton's First Law of Motion (or at least the second part of it), that is, "...an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

In Ted's case the unbalanced force was the surprising appearance of the opposite wall of a chute that he did not expect when he made a jump on a downhill run. In my case it was an bump of snow and ice on an otherwise well groomed run. So there we were at the Frisco clinic with matching slings, so clearly members of the same family.



The picture was kindly taken by a young woman whose boyfriend had also just arrived from A-Basin with a broken collarbone. We, by comparison, were in relatively good shape.

The Road Trip Continues

So then it was back on the road to Winter Park for more skiing, staying at the hostel in Fraser. Along the way we developed a photography project. Ted would take pictures of what he saw; I would take pictures of Ted taking pictures. We would pair them up in an exhibition (the whys and wherefores to be determined). A few days later, in the Proving Grounds coffee house in Leadville, we put our computers side and side and began to match them up.




These shots were taken in Granby at the motel where we stayed our first couple of nights.

On to Steamboat

Steamboat is such a contrast to Winter Park. Overbuilt condos, hotels, townhouses and shops crowd the base of Steamboat...a virtual city of consumers. But the mountain itself rises above all the traffic and noise...great white runs coursing down its forested sides. This year Steamboat has had some 380 plus inches of snow; the powder in the trees is deep and silent.




We stayed in one of my favorite apartments, right across the street from Howelsen Park, the local ski hill that still, during the week, uses a tow rope to take folks to the top. And it was not all about skiing (well, it never really is). We tripped out to the waters of Strawberry Hot Springs. The pools were a bit crowded, but it was ideal people watching thought the steam rising from the springs. Snow lay heavy on the surrounding hills and the simple, whimsical structures of wood and stone that form the complex.




And besides hot springs, there was the food at Johnny B. Good where we sat under huge Hollywood murals and iconic 50s and 60s signs. It was over plates of hamburgers that we decided to launch our photography project.

Spring Break Road Trip

Ted Wolff flew into town for part of his spring break. We had planned a ski and hot spring road trip for some while. My ski season had, unfortunately, ended the previous week due to dislocated shoulder (ouch…could I have something for the pain?). Luckily the accident occurred while I was doing a run at Winter Park rather than, let’s say, while cleaning out the garage.

Tom was still in town after his Twelve Cents shows in Fort Collins and Denver. So we spent the opening days of the Werge-Wolff reunion road trip at Winter Park. The snow was good. Deep powder on the back country runs. The new Panorama lift and the Eagle Wind lift have opened up whole new stretches of the Parseen bowl to be explored.
Tom’s face mask and helmet made an interesting counterpoint to Teddy’s more freestyle approach to the slopes.

Prom Party

Tom and Twelve Cents threw a prom party at Road 34, a combination bike shop, bar and music venue on March 14. Charlotte got me a $3 tux (with senior discount) at Goodwill while picking up a snazzy red dress for $5. Tom flew in from Miami in the early evening; I wore the tux when I went to pick him up at the airport. I made up a large sign with “Tom” printed on it. When he saw me, he came up and said, “You must be my driver.”
The band was great as always…lots of energy, good vibes…and Charlotte and I finally got to go to the prom together. She made up corsages for all the band members and we danced the night away or at least til we could not stay awake any longer….life has a way of picking up when Tom and Twelve Cents are back in town.

Barneløpet

Barneløpet means “children’s races” in Norwegian. The event is sponsored by the Sons of Norway and held each February near Winter Park. Many happy events of my childhood took place at the Sons of Norway events…at Valhalla Hall, the lodge in Jersey City, running around with my cousins, listening to my Uncle Tom’s band, dancing with my relatives. No one, as I recall, ever mentioned skiing. So here I was back with the Sons of Norway on a day with snow in the morning, sun in the afternoon, setting up and taking down a 7 K orienteering course as part of the event. But the enjoyment of the children in their 1, 2.5, or 5 K race…receiving medals and Norwegian flags and cookies at the finish line…clearly so equal to the fun I had as a child. And my joy in the day, finishing off this ski trip in the Colorado Mountains, was quite as great as that of the children.

Another Day, Another Mountain Pass, Another Valley

Leaving the Land Trust, I turned on the radio. The station was from Taos. Spanish speaking announcer playing rancheros. But then a pause for "noticias locales," local news and the announcer switched to English. And read a series of obituaries. Sometimes it is easy to forget how really local, local is...the names of these community members who have passed on.

After skiing at Monarch, I rode into the Arkansas Valley to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.




This was a first visit to these large pools for swimming and for soaking. Along the creek, the hot springs bubble from under those pools and mix with the water flowing down from the snow fields of the mountain. People have created their own small pools. Snow was falling....a rare sensation to feel snow falling on the head while the hot springs warm the rest of the body.

Orient Land Trust

Left Wolf Creek around 2:00 and drove down the canyon and across the San Luis Valley to the Orient Land Trust where I rented a great cabin (bed in the loft under a large skylight to watch the stars in the evening and dawn in the morning). It’s probably about 200 square feet, just perfect for me and my gear. Spent the evening moving between the hot springs, the sauna, and the pool…its steam rising in the cold night air.

There's a rhythm to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains which tower above the Land Trust. With just snow and dark trees, they create a kind of music...like Twelve Cents?




Today, well, I worked in the morning, using the reception building’s internet. Did some cross country up to the Orient mine. More folks arrived: several families with small kids, a few musicians from Denver, a few isolates like myself…an insurance agent on his way to Hot Sulphur Springs, a retired geologist on his way to the Grand Canyon. Several people play the guitar, others the piano….looks like there will be a jam session in Oak House tonight. But for the moment, I’m glad I have my own cabin.

Hot Springs and Wolf Creek

On Monday morning, I did some work (Aspen hydroelectric consulting) downtown in Durango and then rode over to Pagosa Springs. I found a place to stay across from the springs and, instead of heading out for the snow, spent much of the day walking around town and soaking in the hot springs. Pagosa uses the geothermal energy from the hot springs to heat its whole downtown. But the main visual impression is the steam rising from the springs and people enjoying the pools that have been built along the banks of the San Juan River.

On Tuesday, I drove out early from Pagosa Springs to Wolf Creek Pass and its ski area (on the east side of the pass). Thus far the ski area received 454 inches of snow, though there was not much fresh powder on the runs I did. I hired a ski instructor to give me pointers on doing moguls, but he had more of a mind to reprogram my overall approach to skiing…all of which was good and I have much to learn, but I’d rather have come away with more experience on the moguls. Still I did come away with a lot to practice.

Purgatory Shows

Red Mountain Pass was open on Saturday. The road is sketchy on the north side; big drop offs with no guard rails. But the sun was out and much of the road, the parts out from the morning shadows, was covered with snow melt instead of ice. I got to Purgatory in time for the setting up of Twelve Cents’ first show. Tom had flown in from Miami the night before, had done a show at Keystone, and then driven seven hours over Wolf Creek Pass. The band had arrived a few hours before set up.
Their show was great….they remain “tight” in spite of having no practice time. I’d done a bit of cross country skiing before their show, so it was good to relax with a beer, a burger and listen to the beat.

Mountain Passes

Red Mountain Pass

Drove up to Aspen yesterday for a meeting on their plans for a small hydroelectric plant. Rode I-70 over the highest pass (Vail Pass) on the country's interstate system. The snow was falling; trucks were stopped on the shoulders; the roadway slippery. Driving past Vail and then Buttermilk and then Aspen, you could see the skiers coming down the slopes. Sweet.

After the meeting and lunch in Carbondale, I drove west and over McClure Pass, through Paonia, then Delta, Montrose to Ridgeway where I spent the night. Red Mountain Pass to Silverton and Durango was closed due to snow and avalanche danger, but it looks like it's open this morning. If not, the road over Lizard Head Pass is open. Ridgeway is a small town, but it has a classic hot springs (Orvis).

When we first moved to Colorado, I was struck by the manner in which people described their road trips not in terms of highway numbers but in terms of the passes over which the roads were built. Now I see why....the passes, not the roads, determine whether or not you will get to your destination. They are the gateways, the openings to new lands.

Crossing North Park

Driving toward Cameron Pass, I came across this group of big horned sheep on the road. When they turn their backs, they almost blend into the snowbank.








In crossing the pass, I'm intent on the skiing the other side of the Divide. Cross-country anywhere the snow and informal trails along the road look good. Downhill at the "resorts," Winter Park and Steamboat.

The ride through North Park, though, always introduces a pause, a chance to reflect on the expanse of this high plain: the sweep of its landscape; the loneliness of its vistas; the ring of mountain ranges - the Park Range, the Never Summers, the Medicine Bows - that surround its ranches and public lands.

Coming up from Granby last week, the snow was falling lightly and the sky was grey. Here and there ranch buildings appeared against a sodden sky which brightened toward the town of Walden.


But yesterday, the sky was brilliant, intense blue against the snow laden trees, and the Medicine Bows and their foothills were sharply defined along the edge of the high plain. North Park is a transition zone from life on the Front Range and life on the other side of the Great Divide.