High Elevation Hiking in Colorado – McCullough Gulch

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Katya Posted in Environment, out and about | Leave a comment

Breckenridge is a cool little town with all the amenities a couple of west-coastified vegantarians could want. Good food, several coffee shops with great coffee, lots of awesome brew pubs and tons of outdoor activities year round.

We may not ski or snowboard, yet, but the area has more to offer than just a world famous 13,000 foot peak – for one, hiking (while it’s still snowless), the things I mentioned above, and about 300 inches of snow to play in all winter.

Our first weekend here we were ready to explore the area. After taking a trip to Denver on Saturday (80 miles each way) to look for a truck – a trip which turned out to be a disaster, we happily found a hiking trail on Sunday to make up for the 60+ hours of sitting at computers and truck seats we do every week.

There were tons of trails to choose from in the area so any was as good as the next as far as we knew- but based on its general description, McCullough Gulch Trail was one of the most interesting and fairly moderate.

On the way to the trail, the aspens, bright yellow and scattered throughout the pines like sunshine in a swamp, lined the scenery like a cartoon gateway to the stony, rocky mountains we pursued. The road itself was riddled with potholes but nothing deadly, and several areas were lined with cars where other trails, hiking and ATV, were located along the way.

Mccollugh Gulch Road

The elevation had already been taking a toll on my lungs over the week so I didn’t know what a climb up to 10k feet would feel like (Breckenridge is already around 9k). The trail is only about 3 miles round trip but full of steep inclines and a more than a couple surprises.

At first I had some trouble breathing. We’ve been hiking all summer so my legs were ready for the job but my lungs have always been weak. It was frustrating not being tired but not being able to breath. Considering I wear pretty much whatever I want when I hike (aka neither of us wear the “hikers uniform”…), I felt like a serious amateur - knowing I could hike the trail without incident if it were about 5000 feet lower, but looking like I’ve never hiked before. After we got about a half a mile in, something changed or kicked in and I didn’t need to stop as often and had no problems the rest of the way up or down.

First part of the trail

At first the trail seems uneventful (aside from the awesome views of course) wide and well worn, but soon enough you come to a great little wood bridge, and a small cabin with a couple of flags outside. When we were there, there was a box truck (like a uhaul) next to the bridge and cabin and a man making repairs to.. some structure with pipes (haha, me construction worker). The trail had been wide but it was hard to imagine the truck making it up there safely, but it had made it – even around one corner on the trail that was nearly hairpin and had trees on the cliff side that a truck would probably hit trying to turn. Slightly confused and curious, we continued on and the natural part of the trail began – also known as “the part with way less people”.

This part of the trail is riddled with rocks, roots and numerous ups and downs – you pass small watering holes and, in our case, dried up creeks, and see random traces of (like… scat) animals. Neon yellow lichen is scattered over the stony hillside and, my favorite, gnarled trees, are scattered about like a small hurricane hit Sleepy Hollow (gallery).

After a while you come to a mini cliff – that we choose to go over rather then through – it’s so mini, you can just go around without incident – after that you come to a small valley of rocks, another place we stood in wonder, trying to imagine how the rocks got there. Behind you is a large mountain but between you and the mountain is a flat area – in front of you is a ravine that leads to the base of the mountain in front of you so the chances of a landslide seemed null – maybe the miners? Anyway – from there we could hear the waterfall and by that time, we were not going back and missing it so we ambled over the stones – about watermelon size and grey, avoiding twisted ankles with more ease than expected. Sometimes I think I’m older and more fragile than I am – but usually it’s just the opposite and I hurt myself trying to scramble up some cliff or jumping down 3 feet farther than my spine can handle.

After the valley of stones the water became louder and we came to a strange wavy hillside/mountain side. The whole area was a grey stripey stone that swirled and waved like nothing I’d seen. Again we wondered how that had happened, it’s obvious I need some geology books..

From here we could finally see the waterfall, which apparently leads to a glacial lake. Had it not been nearly dark already we would have continued on but having no light of any kind and temps below freezing at night, we didn’t need to be the next people in the area on the evening news – missing and presumed dead.

Although the trail is marked easy/moderate we started the hike near several people with kids, and by the time we reached the first lookout, we left them all behind. It’s not a difficult hike per say but your kid will bust their lip if you know what I mean.

The walk down was an ease after the climb up and we ended up the second to last vehicle at the trail head.

: Mccollugh Gulch Road

: First part of the trail

Stray Boots Walking Tours, Save some dough while on the road!

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Katya Posted in help a brother out | Leave a comment

Since launching its first interactive cell phone guided tour with “New York: The Game” in 2009, Stray Boots has been redefining the walking tour. Now available in 10 US cities, “The Game” series of tours continues to transform the way people explore Americans cities. Part scavenger hunt and part walking tour, “The Game” interactive tours turn a city’s streets into a virtual game board, with the player’s cell phone leading the way.

With the recent launch of tours in the 10th U.S. city – Portland, Oregon – Stray Boots continues to lead the way in interactive tours. Portland joins Boston, Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC in a portfolio of nearly 40 fun and fact-filled interactive tours. And that’s just the beginning: Stray Boots is engaged in a major expansion that will bring “The Game” tours to San Diego, New Orleans, Nashville and London, UK, in 2011. 2012 promises even more options with planned expansion to more US cities, Canada, Germany and Australia.

“I started Stray Boots because I love visiting new places but I found most tours just fed me dull facts and led me around on their schedule,” said Avi Millman, the 28-year-old CEO and founder of Stray Boots. “We’ve created a new way to explore a city through mobile technology and ‘gamification’ that immerses the player in a real-world interactive experience that challenges them to learn about the city while having some fun at the same time.”

Stray Boots’ tours are conducted by text message, so people can play using virtually any U.S. mobile phone. Players are guided with text messages that include riddles, puzzles, photo opportunities and trivia questions as they tour the points of interest along the route. Each response earns the participant points, making it possible to compete between groups of friends, family members, or pre-assigned teams. And since each tour is a completely self-guided experience, players can start when they want and set their own pace as they go. Each tour takes about two to three hours to complete.

Stray Boot’s tours are meticulously researched and designed to appeal to locals and tourists alike with intriguing facts and amusing activities. For locals looking for something different to do, they make a great date, family outing, or just a day out on the town with friends.
For more information on Stray Boots or to purchase a tour, visit www.strayboots.com.

About Stray Boots:
Called a “Game Changer” by Fastcompany.com, Stray Boots was created to deliver the cure for the boring tour. Stray Boots’ interactive, cell phone-based tours challenge users as they see the city, learn interesting facts and have some fun along the way. Tourists and locals are giving Stray Boot’s tours rave reviews in Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC. Many more cities are coming soon. Stray Boots is the proud recipient of a TripAdvisor™ Certificate of Excellence. Stray Boots also offers private tours for corporate team-building and special events like birthday and bachelorette parties.

Visit: Stray Boots.com to find out more!

Since we’ve been gone…From Illinois to Dodge City to Breckenridge

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Katya Posted in RV Parks, travel | Leave a comment

We decided randomly, in the last couple months sometime, that we wanted to try the snowy cabin thing again. We decided, or I suggested, Wyoming, since we spent plenty of time in the South/Appalachians/Smokys in the last year already and were itching to get out of the midwest, east and south, and back to places where the air is dry and coffee good.

We left Carbondale, a surprisingly cool little Illinois town, with a somewhat set plan to make several 2 week and 1 week jumps through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado then finally Jackson. I even made a google map and planned the towns and RV parks we would probably stay at but as is our nature, a night or 2 before we left, we decided Kansas City had little to offer in Green areas (google maps state parks and national forests) and what it did have to offer had no water or sewer hookups.

We changed our plans and decided to spend the weekend driving to Dodge City, Kansas, crossing almost 2 states.
It may have been under 700 miles but it’s tough on the truck, animals and us to go that far – and who knows how Susa manages not to pee all over the truck when we make jumps like that. We have a catbox in the back of the truck but she hates the thing and just sleeps next to Chena (usually after a 20 minute meow-fest when we leave a place) and just holds it the entire time, snacking on treats here and there and sleeping in strange positions. Much of our time is lost when We have to stop every 70 miles or so for drinks, gas and to let Chena out to pee.

Somewhere in East Kansas

On the way to Dodge City, while finding out things about the town, I saw that Willie Nelson would be playing at the Dodge City amphitheater. I grew up on his voice and have over the years grown to appreciate his music, as well as many other ‘original’ country artist (like Dolly and Hank Williams), so I bought us some tickets for what would be the first live music we’ve seen in the 2 years on the road, minus the brithday party at Smokey Bear Campground in Gatlinburg for the owner, Chong, where our neighbor, a guy from the Tonuenes, and the guy who wrote the King of the Hill song played a couple sets.

Minus the concert, which was pretty great and opened by Junior Brown, a country rock master of a custom steel guitar, the first week in Dodge City was all work, warm days and cool nights. The park, Gunsmoke RV Park, was a bit of a gravel pit but had some serious southwest/high plains charm that we had missed over the last 18 months or so. Wagon wheels, cowboy cutouts, false front buildings, horses and even cactus were somewhat evenly placed around the scrubby campground. Dodge City itself overall wasn’t quite as cool but definitely was holding onto its historic roots as a town of gunslingers and lawmen like Wyatt Earp. The downtown and Boot Hill made up for the highway full of fast food, motels, and coffee shops that charge way too much for coffee and vegetables on a bagel.

Gunsmoke RV Park

We again changed our plans and decided to leave Saturday rather than spend our usual 2 weeks, partly because of the lack of nearby hiking or outdoor actifities, but also because of our rush to get to a cabin. As far as things to do in town, there is basically the Boot Hill Museum and little more. The museum is basically an entire small western town with cemetery, jail, church, school house – and a working bar and restaurant. There was almost no one else in the Museum and no guides which was great. You were just left to your own devices to wander around, poke at exhibits and artifacts, and even, yes, get a beer (piano player and all). It was 94 degrees on that last day in Dodge City and the last bit of real heat we will see for a long while.

The Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City

Ross locked up in Boothill Jail

Boot Hill

I always try to picture myself living many of the places we stay, thinking I could make the best of even the smallest and least cultureless towns, and although Dodge City wasn’t very modern, it had internet, coffee and an awesome, though short lived, history that they’re proud of (the 1870s made it famous basically), I can imagine making an effort at helping that place into the 21st century, without it turning into some horrible place like Gatlinburg or Virginia Beach – places where any sense of culture and history has been replaced by novelty mugs and “authentic local art” (soullessly manufactured by some poor artist, strictly to appeal to tourists so they can make it through another off season).

Although Iv’e heard Kansas referred to as a “fly over state/drive by state”, I liked it. It disturbs me that nearly all of the state is privately owned by farmers and ranchers and not a single wild bison roams free anywhere where there used to be millions, but it still brought up thoughts of western films and old west history, and somehow kept me from cringing too much. Plus it reminds me of eastern Montana where I lived for a few years and my sister’s family is from. A flat golden place where the skyline goes on for miles and miles (hence the Big Sky State), the sunsets are always inspiring and the terrain will surprise you with canyons, cactus and rattle snakes.

But we left the high plains Sunday morning, and were on our way to Colorado anyway. Again I spent much of the drive looking for RV parks or campgrounds, with all the same issues lately, no running water (what?) and no sewer (not that odd), or places that were booked solid or even closed for the season already (its still 80 in Denver so that was odd). After spending more time staring at my phone screen than I like to during a drive (a time where I’d rather be staring outside and pointing at cragly trees in fields of cows and looking for antelope) I gave up on finding something near Denver and we opted for Tiger Run RV Resort in Breckenridge, a place far up in the mountains west of Denver 80 miles. Inconvenient because we wanted to look for a new truck in Denver, but convenient because of the price and its great distance from the massive amounts of people in Denver. We called ahead and got our spot, knowing it would be late when we arrived, and made our once reasonable day trip into one around 470 miles.

The truck nearly choked and died on the way up the mountains and is now leaking oil. It took a beating while climbing upwards of 10k feet, making 6 degree descents and climbs, one for 6 miles straight – probably working harder than the truck has ever had to work. We arrived around 11pm, having seen none of our mountainous trip, worn out as ever and worried about the truck. We spent a while setting up, the weather significantly colder than Denver already, and went to bed curious about our new 2 week home.

Luckily, we woke up to this and there were no more regrets about finding a place so far from Denver and our Jackson Wyoming route (try to ignore the RV in the picture, this place has a large number of owned spots with stored RV’s and empty Chalet’s).

Tiger Run RV Resort

So here we are, and basically everywhere you look looks like this or closer (in proximity). From downtown you can see the ski runs and Breckenridge offers more to do, and more vegetarian options than any town I can remember since maybe Asheville, NC. Thank you Western U.S.!!! So, since we like it so much.. we’ve been looking for cabins here and should have a code tomorrow to go inside one highest up on the list. We may not make it to Jackson (or probably Victor Idaho area) after all, but who cares. Apparently there is almost no cell reception for Verizon there and we have 2 verizon phones and 2 mifi units, which cost us enough every month that it would be a waste to pay for them and not be able to use them just for cheaper rent. Plus when you can take a bus to town year round, get 11mb internet (and probably higher but that’s what the cafe we go to gets)… great views..less gas costs because everything is close.. why go to East Idaho. Wish us luck that this place is awesome tomorrow.

Little Grand Canyon, Illinois

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Katya Posted in National Forest, out and about, state parks | Leave a comment

We had a late morning, as we often do, on this, the Sunday before Labor Day. We spent some time in the trailer slowly gaining momentum to meander to the truck and venture off to one of the many state parks and geological awesomenessities that southern Illinois has to offer. After exchanging some synthetic leather hiking/winter boots I bought at Jouneys that fell apart the moment I put them on – we decided to try for Larue Pines, an area of the Shawnee National Forest that we had missed the weekend before when we wandered around too long in the back roads and overlooks that the area had to offer. On the way today we were of course again distracted when we saw a sign for “The Little Grand Canyon,” a place neither of us had heard of in our Shawnee research or pamphlet perusal at a welcome center.
7 miles after seeing the sign we were there, and not alone. It was probably one of the busiest trails we’ve seen in a while. There were at least 10 other cars there when we arrived. An older couple in matching rain coats were talking to a ranger, another couple were heading towards a trail head and a couple other people were standing around recovering from their hike. We walked up to a placard with an etching of the trails, which I looked at but in no way absorbed, then just took the unlabeled trail closest to us that we had seen the couple disappear on.

After a while of walking through dense forest, fallen trees and wild flowers and observing steep drop offs on both sides of us, we started to wonder if the “Little Grand Canyon” was actually buried deep underneath the miles of piles of vines and post inland hurricane disaster (2009?) and not actually visible, per say. After a while we caught up with the couple who left before us at the Mississippi overlook, one of the highlights on the map, and has to ask if we were on the right trail. Well informed, unlike us, they told us that the true treasures lie ahead and that we were about 1/3 through the hike that totaled 3.5 miles. We decided to carry on and as we left, the couple parted ways and we were joined by a well prepared man who would prove to be good company as well an an informed nature lover. This was our first hike with another human being and a welcome change. I’m a bit of a know it all when it comes to nature. Even if it’s in a state I’ve never been to before, I try and fill my brain with as many local species as possible but usually just sound like an ass no doubt. We saw one snake – I think a bull snake (used a website for that one), a few small tree frogs and one sloppy giant one, one baby skink, potential coyote prints (although later some hiker brought their boxer on the hike so.. may have just been a dog) and some trapped fish who will hopefully make it through to the next rain, oh, and one giant spider.

Through our last few weeks of hikes in this area we’ve seen several caves and canyons, strange rock formations/anomalies and places where gorgeous waterfalls the likes of raging rocky mountain glacial creeks would be if there were not such a drought. The Little Grand Canyon was one of the best so far and it surprised me we had not been told about it by the retired volunteers we ran into last weekend nearby. Maybe because they were older and possibly had not seen it in person. The hike is a little difficult and not what I expected when we entered the trail. I’m glad we both have good hiking shoes now and that the hikes of the past have started to make the more difficult ones easier, humidity permitting. The full canyon trail is a little demanding but doesn’t require any special skill. At one point you have to step/climb down a small waterfall (dry of course) to continue the trail, and at another point, to get out of the canyon, you have to walk up a 90 foot waterfall (that’s a guess and it was also dry) of smooth rock with conveniently placed and mostly natural stair like qualities up the most of it. Some of the steps were hard for a short legged person like me to get up, though even in jeans I managed. Then the incline continues for another infinity or so, my lungs wanting to jump out of my chest, we polished off most our water but took only short breaks. Luckily it was actually a really mild day due to some rain which made it much easier to breath than on our usual hikes this summer. Yesterday had been almost 100 again and our shorter 0.9 miles or so hike at Giant city had wiped us out for the day.

This hike was probably the coolest weather hike we’ve had in a long while, and maybe the longest hike we’ve had in a while as well. It also went more quickly than our usual hikes, where we spend half our time staring into spider holes, harassing beetles, counting rings in trees and taking tedious hdr pics with my new droid app (PROHRD).

We left Little Grand Canyon at around 6pm, just an hour and some before sun down and continued our search for Larue Pines. When we found it, it was about the same time we had been looking for it last weekend, and it was basically the same place we had already been. We did however come from a different direction this time and saw some great cliffs, oddly situated across from farmland. I stood in the back of the truck and made a video for later editing.

Our drive home from there was through some great Amish/non Amish country. Horses, buggies, and roads with names like Rattlesnake Road and Pitbull Lane. Illinois is a greatly underestimated place.

G’night!

Vegan Pizza Crust (that doesn’t suck)

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Katya Posted in food | 1 Comment

vegan pizza dough

2.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp bake powder
1tsp salt
1 spoon chopped garlic
Good amount of crushed red chili peppers (1/2-1tbs)
1tbs flax seed powder (egg replacer)
1 cup rice/soy milk
2tbs olive oil

Mix dry ingredients, slowly add wet and stir between each addition. I start to hand stir when the ingredients are partially mixed and press with my fist, flip, press and knead for about 2 mins until it seems evenly mixed and the dry powder is mostly gone from bowl. Oil pan with olive oil, press dough into pan (I use fists and thumbs). Baste the dough in a thin layer of olive oil and add sauce, faux cheese, etc!

We have a gas oven and it usually takes 15 mins at 400 degrees. I check it as soon as I smell it or when I get the urge to prevent any burning (no burned ones yet).

For sauce, if you are interested, we use half tomato base (usually a pasta or pizza sauce) and cut it with a spicy BBQ sauce.

The “Cheese” is usually Daiya shredded cheese, cheddar at the moment – thin layer is usually good, strong stuff.

Toppings are usually red peppers, jalapenos, red onion, pineapple chunks, garlic, cooked in olive oil and sometimes a little chili oil. Unmeat is usually Morning Star meal starters chik’n strips, sometimes “sausage”, but you can experiment with any faux meats and veggies you like.

Health, non greasey pizza can be done!