The shortest hike we have on the Y property is named “Bible Point”. It’s short, but it’s entirely uphill and rather steep in places. I’ve accomplished the hike twice now. It’s a good hike to do in the mornings before the storm clouds roll in, and it also gives me a good workout. It will usually take me about 45 minutes to get from my cabin in Fern Odessa to to the top of the lookout. Below is a video of me at Bible Point:
There is a lot of history on this outlook of the National Park and YMCA, and there’s plaque and grave there describing the importance of this place to one young man in particular. The plaque says as follows:
Although Edwin Bradt had traveled around the world with his missionary parents, he said this was his favorite spot in the world. He spent many hours contemplating life from what was then called Buena Vista. After his untimely death in 1918, he was burried here. His family placed a mailbox with a Bible near his grave. The old name gradually disappeared and was replaced with a new name, Bible Point.
Edwin Bradt was born in 1899, which means he was only 19 at the time of his death. The mailbox the plaque spoke of is pictured below. There is also a stick cross that sits next to the mailbox. I realize now that I’m typing this, that I didn’t open the mailbox to look inside and see if the bible is still there. I guess I need to do that the next time I make the hike up there.
On may days off, if I’m feeling overwhelmed by the high amounts of fresh air, pine trees and snow capped mountain views, I take a drive down highway 36 towards my new favorite city… Boulder, Colorado! I’ve been twice now. The first time was about two weeks ago. I went by myself and spent my time shopping at the largest REI I’ve ever stepped foot in. I also picked up a Starbucks and hit up the local Target for a few necessities I had forgotten to pack. Everyone in the this town is physically fit and openly friendly. I had conversations with the barista in Starbucks, and chatted with the cashier in Target. I like visiting a city that has all of the stores we have in San Jose, because it makes me feel like I’m at home.
The second time I went to Boulder, I went with Jamie, one of the cashiers I work with at the Sweet Memorial Building. She said she was interested in going because her parents were thinking about moving to Boulder and she had never been. Our first stop in Boulder was the 29th Street Mall, which is a large outdoor shopping area with many stores like the ones at Valley Fair in San Jose. I was surprised that a city like Boulder would have an outdoor shopping mall, as the city gets quite a bit of snow in the winter. However I found it just as beautiful, if not more so, than Stanford Mall or Santana Row.
After shopping at Macy’s, Jamie called her dad and asked for some suggestions on where we can have dinner. Her dad recommended the Dushanbe Teahouse in the downtown area of Boulder. We had a bit of trouble finding the place, but it was definitely worth the hassle. This teahouse was actually imported in pieces from Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The indoor decor was lovely, but as this was the first warm day Jamie and I had experienced all summer, we decided to eat outside in the garden. We were surrounded by beautiful flowers and were seated near a stream that ran through downtown. I drank a red iced tea, which was very refreshing. For my main course, I had a Mongolian tofu stir fry, which was healthy and satisfying. Below are pictures of my dinner, and Jamie and me.
After dinner, we went window shopping on Pearl Street, which is at the heart of downtown Boulder. There were street performers, quaint restaurants, breweries, and lots of neat stores. The vibe of downtown reminded me of San Francisco, only much cleaner, flatter, and less homeless. It was starting to get late in the evening, so we couldn’t stay too long–we still had a 1 and 1/2 hour drive back to Estes Park. I can’t wait to go back and explore Boulder some more!
Today, Terri, Caroline and I all had the day off, so we went hiking in the National Park. We decided to hike to Gem lake (which is one of Terri’s favorite lakes) and then we would continue on the trail to Balanced Rock. None of us had seen Balanced Rock before, and it wasn’t even on the map, so none of us knew what to expect.
The first part of the trail was hard because there were a lot of stone and log steps, which tend to wear me out faster than just walking up a steep hill. On the way up, I did see my first “scrabbit”, which is a kind of black squirrel that lives in these mountains that has pointy ears like a rabbit. I got a picture below.
Gem lake was more like a pond, and I was much more impressed with Cub Lake (which I have heard from others is one of the ugliest lakes in the park). The trail flattened out on the way to Balanced Rock. We were joking all along the trail, “Oh, I hope that’s not balanced rock”, and pointing and random rocks that were sitting on top of each other. However, when we made it to balanced rock, it was quite obvious. It’s pictured above next to the “scrabbit”.
The hike back was pleasant and mostly downhill. My favorite part of the hike however was bumping into a national park ranger who was leading three llamas up the trail. We talked to the ranger for a bit, and he said that two of these llamas have been a part of the National Park Service for longer than he has. Their job is to hike up to the latrine and help carry out some of the waste. Ew… I’m glad we caught them on the way up!
I got off from work at 9:30 last night and was planning on going back to my cabin and read some more of my novel. However, Lauren and Terri (two of my coworkers at the Sweet Memorial Desk) came in and asked if anyone was interested in playing a game of “bigger or better”. I had never heard of this game before, so I let Lauren explain the rules.
This game is a type of scavenger hunt, in which two teams are each given a single penny and access to a car. The team must drive around and find people who would be willing to trade with them for something “bigger or better” than what they have. This game made headlines a year ago when a man started with a red paper clip, and over a year of playing this game, traded for a house. The 20/20 story of this man is posted below.
Ten of us, mostly from Sweet Memorial, gathered to play this game. We split into two teams of five. On my team was Robbie (the other intern at Sweet), Terri (one of my best friends here), Jamie (a new girl who arrived in Estes Park this week), and Paul (who works in food service). The other team consisted of Crystal, Jason, Lauren, Emily and Ian–all program staff. They took Lauren’s car, and my team piled into my two door honda civic hatchback. We started the game at 10PM and gave ourselves an hour and a half time limit. We had to meet back in front of the Administration building before 11:30.
Game on. We drove down into Estes Park, and even though it was a Saturday night, most businesses were closed. This game would be easy in a college area, but it was tricky in a small mountain town. Robbie was the only person on our team who had played the game before, and he recommended that we stay out of businesses and bars because people don’t carry “big” items on their person. The best place to go are residential areas where people have houses filled with crap they don’t need.
The first place we went was “the shack”, or a small house that a couple of seasonal staff lived in off site of the YMCA. We traded our penny for a mint condition Kenny G record. After this, we drove around wasting time trying to find other things to trade Kenny G for… nothing seemed to top it. After exhausting all of our friend’s homes as options, we decided to knock on random people’s doors. We were a bit nervous because it was 10:30 at night at this point, and we didn’t want to be rude. We found one house with the lights on inside and on the front porch, so we decided to go for it.
Robbie and I knocked on the door while the rest of the crew stood back. A women in her night rope holding a handful of spoons opened the door. Robbie addressed her first, “Hello, we’re lowly YMCA workers and we’re playing this game…”
“Oh wait,” replied the women, taking a good look at Robbie. “Don’t I know you?”
Robbie nodded, “Yeah… you look familiar too.”
“Did you work at the Y two summers ago?”
“Yeah, I’ve worked at the Y for the past three summers.”
“Oh, I’m Pam! I used to work in food service.”
Robbie smiled and shoot us an enthusiastic look. “Pam! Of course! How are you?” I suppose there are benefits to playing in a small town. Pam invited us inside, and we explained the rules of the game to her. First, she offered us an antique tin, but we weren’t set on it being bigger or better than the Kenny G album.
Pam then suggested, “Well… I have a deep freezer.”
“… that’s PERFECT!”
Sure enough, in her garage next to their newly purchased deep freezer was a working 1960’s deep freezer! It was already empty, but just needed to be hosed down and cleaned. Below is the video of us acquiring the freezer, and then showing it off to the other team.
I’m not going to say how we got the freezer back to the YMCA, because the other team hasn’t figured it out yet. When we got back to the Y, the other team told us their story and how they came up with their final products. They came back with a green traffic cone and a brand new Estes Park Brewery jacket. As you saw in the video, Pam also gave us a box filled with old YMCA staff shirts. When we met with the other team, we only brought the box of shirts so that the other team would think they had won. What they didn’t know is that we had put the freezer in the lobby of the main dorm. We told them they had to go to Howard dorm to see what else we got. Their reaction was priceless.
This night was SO fun and I really got to know the people on my team pretty well. I met a kind lady who opened her door to us at 10:30 at night and gave us a freezer. We did her a favor by taking it away for her, and we also donated the freezer to the YMCA staff house for other staff members to use. It was a win win situation, and we all had so much fun doing it.
There’s an upside and a downside to living in the Fern Odessa cabins. For one thing, I get my own room and just share a toilet with a girl named Macie. On the other hand, we live in the oldest standing cabins on the YMCA property. The hallway in my cabin, Chasm, is a small hump, as the floor boards have warped so much over the years to create a noticeable uphill and downhill. My room in particular is on a downhill slant towards my window. In fact, I’ve gotten used to sleeping with my head facing downhill by about 5-10 degrees. Our toilet doesn’t properly refill 1/3 of the times we use it, so I have to take off the top and adjust it every so often. There’s no air conditioning (not that we’ve needed it yet) and the central heating is really touchy. If you set it for 65, it feels like it’s set to 80. The other employee housing options aren’t much better–they all have three people to a room.
Even so, I like Fern Odessa, because it’s quieter than the employee dormitories (all the people in these cabins are women in their 20’s), I have my own personal space, and we have one thing the other dorms do not…. bunnies. Lots and lots of bunnies.
Sometimes, these bunnies catch me off guard as I’ll regularly see them bouncing around out of the corner of my eye. On other days, their cute twitching noses and wide eyed expressions make me smile and remember how lucky I am to be living and working in such a cool place. So, here’s to you bunny rabbits! May you live to be 2, and outwit your destiny at the bottom of the food chain!
P.S.–Hey Mom and Dad, I hope this post didn’t remind you too much of my first letter home from summer camp when I was in 2nd grade. For those of you who don’t know, it went something like this: “Dear Mom and Dad, Camp is great! We found baby mice in our food storage bin. They were cute. Love you a lot, Karin.”
I would like to preface this post by saying… NONE OF THIS WAS MY IDEA. I can’t take credit for any of the planning or plotting behind this prank pulled on our boss, Paul Taylor, by his family program staff. I’ll first let you watch the video our setup of the prank, and then second explain the specifics.
As you can see in the video, our boss has a pretty nice office with with window looking into the hallway, as well as a window view of the Rocky Mountains. The original plan was to fill his entire office with balloons, but we later realized that probably didn’t have the combined lung power or balloon supplies for such a task. As it was, we only had one package of water balloons, one third of a bag of regular balloons we borrowed from the archery range, and two rubber gloves we snagged from a first aid kit. Blowing up the water balloons was extremely challenging because they were so small. After I managed to do three or four, I felt light headed and saw spots in my vision. We later improvised and used an electric ball pump to fill the last of the balloons.
My job for the evening was to run a Family Fun Night (campfire program) with Caroline and Alison, so I wasn’t able to assist with the prank after this point. When the three of us returned from our program, we found Ian and Matt using streamers to weave a basket against the door for the balloons to sit in. Alison and her boyfriend, who works at the livery, joined them inside the room at put the finishing touches on the basket (this is the video you saw). In order for them to get out of the room, they had to crawl out of Paul’s window so as not to wreck the fragile basket of balloons sitting above his door.
Well, the prank didn’t go as well as we hoped. Half the staff showed up early to work (including myself) to see Paul’s reaction. Paul claimed he saw the balloons through the window, so he just opened his door, let the balloons fall, and then walked into his office. Next time Paul… next time…
Matt and I were good employees and bagged up all the balloons and streamers for Paul. Rojean, the Recreation Adminstater in Sweet Memorial, walked by and said to us, “You should have him clean it up! You think THIS is bad Paul? When my boss (Gail) turned 40, we strung up Funyuns all over her office because we knew she hated them.” Rojean is almost 70 and will be retiring this October. She’s a hoot!
My new friend Terri, who works with me in Sweet Memorial, suggested that I hike the Wild Basin trail today which is in the southern part of the National Park. This trail is laced with numerous creeks, streams and waterfalls. Terri knew this would be a good place to hike today because with the recent snowfall, the water was sure to be flowing strong. Also, this is her fifth summer working at YMCA of the Rockies, so she has hiked almost every trail in the national park. I trusted her judgment and set off for Wild Basin early this morning.
The water certainly was vigorously rushing down these streams, which looked more like rivers with white water rapids. I dipped my hand into the water, and it was ice cold After all, a few days or hours prior to rushing down the river, it was snow. No matter where I was on the trail, I could always hear the sound of the water. There were a few small falls near the beginning of the trail, but one of the pretiest ones was Calyposo Cascade, which is featured in the video below:
Calyposo Cascade was about half way to my destination for this hike–Ouzel Falls. The second half of the hike was significantly harder than the first, and a polite reminder that I still have not fully adjusted to the altitude yet. Still, I took my time, took pictures, and chatted with other hikers who were on their way up to the falls for lunch as well. When we reached the falls, the view of it wasn’t particularly good from the trail, so I climbed some rocks to get a better picture. There were at least thirty other people eating their lunches around the falls, so I found a warm rock in the sunshine and ate mine. Near the top of the falls, there was still about two feet of snow on some of the rocks, and young boys were having a ball sliding down the snow. Here’s a picture of the falls:
All and all, a fun moderate hike with plenty of moving water to feast ones eyes upon. The only downfall was the number of people on the trail and congregating around the cascade and falls. I will definitely be recommending this hike to families who come into Sweet Memorial asking what hike they should take their family on.
Woke up this morning around 6:30 and I wasn’t hearing the pitter patter of rain that put me to sleep last night. I look outside my bedroom window, and instead of rain, I see snow falling from the sky. The grass and cars were covered in about a 1/2 inch of wet snow. Here’s a video taken from the administration building.
At breakfast, all of the employees from the northern states were teasing me. I mean, I’ve probably only been in the snow about 10 times in my life. And here it is, on June 5th… snowing. I’m in a state of shock right now… and so is my car! BUUUUUURRRRRRR!!
Today was my second day off, and it was a busy day. I woke up early because I decided to take a class that the YMCA offers for its guests. Because I work in the program department, I got to take it for just the cost of the materials. The class was a beginners plein air painting course. I never had the opportunity to take any fine arts classes in high school or college, so I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to learn something new. In the morning at 8:30 when the class started, it was a bit overcast, and the snowcapped mountains in the distance were obstructed just slightly by the clouds. As the morning wore on, the clouds slowly began to move and soon we had a nice view to inspire us. My instructor showed me a few helpful tips, and answered all of my questions brilliantly. I only finished two thirds of my painting, but she invited me to return next week so I could finish it.
After lunch, I decided to drive to the nearest REI in Boulder so I could spend some of my graduation money and gift cards (thanks Victor and Stanley!) The drive on 36 is a straight 40 mile shot from the YMCA to Boulder and their shopping mall on 28th street. I enjoyed the drive very much and found myself looking at the mountains in a different way after taking my painting class. I was seeing the different layers and colors in the mountains, and noticing details that I never appreciated before. The drive was also pleasant because I was listening to some new music that Kaitlin burned for me (thanks seester!). After shopping for a few hours, I headed back to Estes Park, and by this time a storm was rolling in.
By dinner time, the sky was completely gray and the sun blocked out entirely. The lightning came before the rain, and then the rain turned into hail. The forecast predicted the storm would hit Estes Park tomorrow, but it was a day early. Hopefully we don’t have to cancel too many outdoor family programs tomorrow. This ever changing mountain weather is exciting and keeps me on my toes, but it makes me long for predictable California summer weather. I mean for crying out loud, it is June! Check out the video below for a quick tour of my 8′x10′ cabin and a clip of the storm.
I intended to sleep in on my first day off, but I think I was just too excited, so I ended up waking up around 6:00. While Jason was in Colorado with me, we bought an entrance into Rocky Mountain National Park that was good for up to a week. Since it expired today, I decided to return there for some hiking. I went to the visitor center first and asked the ranger if they could recommend a hike. They recommened Cub Lake, so that’s where I went.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the car at the trail head was the minty sweet smell of pine, very different from the scent of redwoods that I’m used to at home. The hike started out on pretty level ground, and the trail was slightly sandy from the stream bank. As I started to ascend to the lake, the trail became much more rocky. I passed about 30 people coming back from the trail, and about 90% of them said “hello” or talked with me, which pleasantly surprised me and made me not feel so alone on the hike. From the trail head to the lake was 2.3 miles and there was a gain of 540′. I made it to the lake in about an hour and fifteen minutes, making sure to take my time and snap a lot of pictures. Here are some of my favorites:
It was a wonderful hike, one of the best I’ve been on in my life. I saw so much wildlife: 8-10 mule deer in the meadow, 2 elk crossing the stream, butterflies, half a dozen different species of birds, rabbits, snakes, ground squirrels, and ducks. When I got to the lake, a pair of ducks came right up next to me–I suspect they were used to being fed by the hikers because they were so fearless. You can see one of them in the video below.
