CO, Day 2 & 3

Friday started with some sleeping in finally, then a road ride with Henni (Lorraine & Steve's friend's son). Luckily his forte is skiing, so I kept up on the bike. It was a beautiful ride in rolling terrain, about 2.5hrs. It's crazy hot out here, so we ended with a dip in the Yampa River downtown - there was a great rapid to play in but the water a bit too cold for my taste, so I only went in half way. Then I rushed to get over to the Moots factory for a tour (they make incredible bikes that I could never afford). At night, lots of Lorraine & Steve's friends came into town (big party tomorrow), so there was a pre-party going on, with an emphasis on ribs and premium tequila. These people party harder than I have in a long time!


Saturday, Susan, Jan & I went on a whitewater rafting trip on the Cross Mountain Canyon section of the Yampa River. It took about 1.5hrs to get there, but was totally worth the drive. The water levels were low (see the first picture!) but once you got in the canyon a mile down, the rapids were plenty big enough for me. We picked up a forest ranger that we ran into at the put in (he was new to town and hadn't been on the river before), and also had 2 guys from L.A. The rapids had names like "The Osterator", "The Human Pizza" and "The Death Ferry". (who names this stuff?!) We even got to swim 2 of the rapids (that's me in the red helmet). Fun!! I didn't however indulge in the cliff jumping at the end - a bit much for me. Shortly we'll be headed to the big party that's rockin' the city this weekend (a combined wedding celebration and birthday party). It'll be in a guy's airplane hangar and accompanying field, complete with catered food & a band from Boulder. Should be good times... tomorrow it's off to Leadville to visit with Amanda!