I actually went climbing!
Yes, I live in Colorado so I should be climbing every day. No, I don't actually do that. Yes, I regret it.
Now that we got that out of the way, I will go into a detailed description of my second outdoor, but first top roping experience in Boulder. (Don't worry, it's not going to be detailed...there was some rock, some rope, some people, and some gear. That's about as detailed as I will get)
Up in Boulder Canyon, which is down the street from me, but near the Nederlands (which is located at the top of the Canyon), there is some sweet climbing with grades ranging from 5.6+ to 5.12+, which is set up for sport or top rope, which is AWESOME! The best part about climbing in Boulder is that the majority of climbs have bolts all the way up or two rings at the top of the climb to put two quickdraws and a rope and be done with it. (The Gunks should really learn from them) However, to get to these climbs, there was quite an approach, and that included crossing a raging river. But don't worry, there was a huge log to cross, but did I mention I have HORRIBLE balance? Don't get your hopes up, I didn't fall in but I was shaking more than a chihuahua on a cold day. It took me about 5 minutes to cross this log, and it had branches to hold onto on the way across and I was on my knees crawling like I was going to die (which I didn't seeing that I'm writing this blog entry now) Once we all crossed the log, we took a 15-20 minutes approach up to some beautiful crag. There were so many people there but it was just such a positive group of people; everyone smiling and laughing with their dogs and kids. There was a woman there, who I thought was 28, was celebrating her 40th birthday (Yeah, I'm really bad at age), and everyone in her group was wearing a shirt where on the back it had numbers 1-40 and boxes under each number. When I asked her what she was doing, she explained that for her 40th birthday, she was doing 40 pitches. All of us stood there with our mouths wide open because that is SO hard to do in just one day. But she had her husband, kids, and friends, set up multiple routes and she would just climb them over and over again. She was such a badass, I hope that I am just like her when I'm 40 (And I may be stealing that idea for my 23rd birthday)
So after all of us watched her in envy, we got on our first climb, which I can't remember the name of which is slightly making me depressed. But throughout the day, we got in a 5.7, 5.8, and 5.9, and some people in my group did a 5.10b which i knew I wasn't capable of which made me sad and wanting to become more badass at climbing. At one point in the day, when my friend was letting me down, she wasn't really paying attention and let me down way too fast and I swung out and smacked my back into the rock next to me. I slightly freaked out since my biggest fear is falling but I felt bad because she was horrified so I pretended like it was no big deal (but it was).
Around 2:30, we saw clouds overcasting the mountains and we decided to bail because we didn't want to have to desend the mountain on wet rock. My roommate and I decided instead of crossing the log again, to cross the actual river. There was a rope that went across so you could hold on and walk so I thought, why not? I rolled up my pants, as high as humanly possible and started walking. The water was freezing because the water rushing down is mostly coming from the snow that's melting off the top of the mountain, but after climbing it felt amazing until I got to the middle of the stream and the rapid hit me and threw me back. Even though I was still holding onto the rope, water went halfway up my body, making the whole, rolling my pants up, pointless.
On our way back into town, which took about 10 minutes, we decided to stop for coffee and walk around a little bit. It was that moment I realized how much I love Boulder. The fact that I can go climbing, go into town, and come home all within a few hours is perfection. Everything is in such close proximity, sometimes it's just flabbergasting. Everyone says that you never leave Boulder because everything you could possibly want is here. As stupid as I thought that statement was, it's 100% true. You want to climb, kayak, go tubing, horseback ride, bike, run, shop, eat, bowl, go to a movie, watch an outdoor movie, go to carnivals, or a farmers market? Don't worry, it's all in Boulder. You want good weather? You want sun? Yeah, it's in Boulder.
I don't know. Climbing, good food, really nice people? Seems like Boulder is a pretty amazing place to me. I can't wait to have more days like these.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
It was like being in a Western Movie, but in really really slow motion.
I have a tendency to procrastinate, if you haven't noticed. I think about all of the blog posts I want to write, but then my brain and hands are saying, "Screw that, I don't want to be put to use."
So, today, I'm forcing myself to update every single thing I've done over the last month in three separate posts. And this will get done, no matter how much my brain and fingers throb by the end of it.
About 3 weeks ago, I was sitting in my living room thinking about how I live in Colorado, the outdoor capital (I don't know if that's true), and that I don't take full advantage of what it has to offer. I know, I live here, I have all the time in the world and if I want to sit in my bed all day and do nothing, then lazy I shall be. But after doing some hard research (I Googled), I found a plethora of ranches in Boulder and Estes Park that offer horseback riding. I'm not a huge fan of horseback riding but I have done it once before and I didn't fall off the horse, so I like to call myself a professional. One ranch, by the name of Sombrero Ranch, offered a 4 hour horseback riding in Estes Park with a breakfast halfway through. Food? and horseback riding? I'm sold....mostly because food was involved. My roommate and I decided to go together and do something different. We quickly regretted it when we realized we needed to get up at 5am to drive 45 minutes to Estes to find out it was about 50 degrees or lower. I have never been so cold in Colorado, and yes, I know, wait until the winter. But the winter is supposed to be cold, so I'm prepared for that.
We thought doing this would be a fun way to meet new people from Colorado. There was only one other woman in our group, and where was she from? Manhattan. Seriously? You couldn't even give us a woman from a different region of the country? So the whole meeting new people didn't really work out. But she was fun to listen to because we got a piece of that Northeast attitude and it made us both smile the whole time.
Stephanie, our guide for the trip took us to meet our horses. My horse's name was Cheech (Chong was there but didn't come along). I can confidently say that my horse was by far the best behaved, thank god because if you didn't know, horses don't have seatbelts so the safety issue was quite scary for me. Me, my roommate, and Manhattan lady (my nickname for her), were ready to do some trotting until Stephanie told us that unfortunately we could only have our horses walk, at a Very. Slow. Pace. Honestly, it was kind of painful to go that slow.
About an hour and a half in, we went to these benches and outdoor kitchen where we were given pancakes, sausage, eggs, juice, and coffee. COFFEE!!! It was the most magical part of the day. But this is where the entire trip got exciting. We had to tie up our horses and Stephanie's horse, Mango, had issues and it got caught in the rope and starting bucking and got loose. Yes, a huge horse got loose in the woods. The next thing I know, the horse is running towards our table where we were eating. We all didn't move because we didn't think it was real until Mango ran into another table (luckily it was empty), then we bolted from ours and watched the horse run around the kitchen and all over the place. I swear, that horse was on some sort of drug. As scary as it was, it was definitely the most entertaining part of the ride.
After breakfast, we continued on the trail for another 3 hours, seeing the beautiful view of one of the famous 14ers (14,000' mountain), Longs Peak and other scenic views of Estes Park. Towards the end of the ride, clouds were hovering over us and they weren't the most pleasant looking clouds. They were more like, if you don't get back soon, hell is about to break loose on you and your horse clouds. Luckily, we made it back to the ranch right before the rain started. But let me tell you, as soon as I got off that horse, my legs felt like I was still on it. I couldn't bend them, my butt hurt so much that I could barely sit down for the next three days.
Even though we couldn't trot and the ride was kind of boring, I loved my horse, I loved the people I was with and I loved the fact that I tried something new. I probably wouldn't do it again but it was a learning experience, and what did I learn? Four things:
1. Never ride Mango
2. Horses are sweet animals if you get a good horse.
3. You won't feel your ass for days after you ride a horse
4. I love breakfast
So, today, I'm forcing myself to update every single thing I've done over the last month in three separate posts. And this will get done, no matter how much my brain and fingers throb by the end of it.
About 3 weeks ago, I was sitting in my living room thinking about how I live in Colorado, the outdoor capital (I don't know if that's true), and that I don't take full advantage of what it has to offer. I know, I live here, I have all the time in the world and if I want to sit in my bed all day and do nothing, then lazy I shall be. But after doing some hard research (I Googled), I found a plethora of ranches in Boulder and Estes Park that offer horseback riding. I'm not a huge fan of horseback riding but I have done it once before and I didn't fall off the horse, so I like to call myself a professional. One ranch, by the name of Sombrero Ranch, offered a 4 hour horseback riding in Estes Park with a breakfast halfway through. Food? and horseback riding? I'm sold....mostly because food was involved. My roommate and I decided to go together and do something different. We quickly regretted it when we realized we needed to get up at 5am to drive 45 minutes to Estes to find out it was about 50 degrees or lower. I have never been so cold in Colorado, and yes, I know, wait until the winter. But the winter is supposed to be cold, so I'm prepared for that.
We thought doing this would be a fun way to meet new people from Colorado. There was only one other woman in our group, and where was she from? Manhattan. Seriously? You couldn't even give us a woman from a different region of the country? So the whole meeting new people didn't really work out. But she was fun to listen to because we got a piece of that Northeast attitude and it made us both smile the whole time.
Stephanie, our guide for the trip took us to meet our horses. My horse's name was Cheech (Chong was there but didn't come along). I can confidently say that my horse was by far the best behaved, thank god because if you didn't know, horses don't have seatbelts so the safety issue was quite scary for me. Me, my roommate, and Manhattan lady (my nickname for her), were ready to do some trotting until Stephanie told us that unfortunately we could only have our horses walk, at a Very. Slow. Pace. Honestly, it was kind of painful to go that slow.
About an hour and a half in, we went to these benches and outdoor kitchen where we were given pancakes, sausage, eggs, juice, and coffee. COFFEE!!! It was the most magical part of the day. But this is where the entire trip got exciting. We had to tie up our horses and Stephanie's horse, Mango, had issues and it got caught in the rope and starting bucking and got loose. Yes, a huge horse got loose in the woods. The next thing I know, the horse is running towards our table where we were eating. We all didn't move because we didn't think it was real until Mango ran into another table (luckily it was empty), then we bolted from ours and watched the horse run around the kitchen and all over the place. I swear, that horse was on some sort of drug. As scary as it was, it was definitely the most entertaining part of the ride.
After breakfast, we continued on the trail for another 3 hours, seeing the beautiful view of one of the famous 14ers (14,000' mountain), Longs Peak and other scenic views of Estes Park. Towards the end of the ride, clouds were hovering over us and they weren't the most pleasant looking clouds. They were more like, if you don't get back soon, hell is about to break loose on you and your horse clouds. Luckily, we made it back to the ranch right before the rain started. But let me tell you, as soon as I got off that horse, my legs felt like I was still on it. I couldn't bend them, my butt hurt so much that I could barely sit down for the next three days.
Even though we couldn't trot and the ride was kind of boring, I loved my horse, I loved the people I was with and I loved the fact that I tried something new. I probably wouldn't do it again but it was a learning experience, and what did I learn? Four things:
1. Never ride Mango
2. Horses are sweet animals if you get a good horse.
3. You won't feel your ass for days after you ride a horse
4. I love breakfast
Cheech and I. We became best friends.
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