3 Lakes, 1 Ellusive Pool, and Too Many Boulders To Count! July 15, 2008

Another day off, another opportunity to go on a hike. After talking with one of the hikemasters, Tony, I decided to try my first level “D” hike with him today. Just so you know, all hikes in the national park are rated from an “A” (hardest) to “H” (easiest) level. Before this, the hardest hike I had done was to Sandbeach Lake, which was rated an “E”.

Today’s hike was to Pool of Jade, which isn’t even on the park map. I decided to do this hike however because it was only 6 miles, and I heard there was some bouldering during the hike, which sparked my interest. Also, this hike pasted by three lakes in the park that I had not seen yet.

We got to the trailhead around 7:45 and started the very easy hike past the three lakes: Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and then Emerald Lake. Nymph lake looked similar to Cub lake because they both have lily pads. In fact, they are the only two lakes in the park to have lily pads. Dream Lake was crystal clear, and we could see green cutthroat trout swimming in the water. I think Dream Lake is now my favorite lake in the park. Both are pictured below.

The third lake was Emerald Lake. This is where the trail ended and the hard part of the hike began. On it’s own, the hike to Emerald Lake should have only been a “G” hike. However, the boulder ridden terrain up to the Pool of Jade was classified as a “C”. These two letters combined made Tony rate the hike a “D”. Below is a picture of Emerald Lake. As you can see, there are many boulders on the lefthand side of the picture. THAT is what we climbed up. We climbed further than you can even see on the picture.

I guess the video I shot while we were bouldering pretty much sums up the rest of the hike. The distance from Emerald Lake to Pool of Jade was only 1 and 3/4 miles, but it was all in boulders. Almost no one in our group (including myself) had experience bouldering, so it went incredibly slow. It was nerve wracking at first, especially since a lot of the boulders were loose or rocked from side to side. I eventually got the hang of it, but bouldering itself is very exhausting. There were also many spiders on the rocks which only added to the peril we were putting ourselves in. In short, our group hiked so slow, that we didn’t actually make it to Pool of Jade. Two people from our group did run ahead, and said it was another 200ft from where we turned around… which irks me still… but we had to turn around because we heard thunder, and we were significantly above treeline. Plus, it was almost 1:00, and we had originally estimated to be back by 2:00. We got back to the YMCA at 5:30. The hike was definately the most challenging I’ve been on, both physically and mentally.

The hidden waterfall July 10, 2008

Terri and I decided last night that we were going to try and find the illusive McGregor Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park this morning.  This waterfall isn’t on the main Rocky Mountain National Park map–in fact, the only way we knew about it was from YMCA records.  Even so, we knew that the trail was no more than 3 miles long one way, so we should try and find it, just for kicks.

We started at the Lumpy Ridge trail head, which is the same place where we started the Gem Lake and Balanced Rock hike.  The first point of interest on the trail was pieces of what appeared to be either an elk or deer skeleton on the side of the trail.  From what I gathered, it looked like the spine, two leg bones and a pelvis.  The bones were picked clean already, and I took a few pictures of them.

As we went further down the black canyon trail, we could start to hear the sound of water.  As the trail continued however, the sound of the creek went away.  Terri trusted her instincts and decided that we should turn around to go back.  It was good she trusted her gut, because she was right on. We had walked too far on the black canyon trail and needed to cross over onto a different road.

We crossed a field where we saw dirt road that seemed to be leading to the water source.  After we walked down the road, we finally found our first sign leading towards McGregor Falls.  We were still skeptical however that we were even going the right way, after already once walking completely in the wrong direction.  As we were hiking, a very strange bird that looked like a chicken jumped out at the bushes at us.  In five seasons of working at the YMCA, Terri had never encountered a bird like this.  It was very close to us, and almost seemed to be defending it’s territory on the trail.  We took some pictures, then slowly and carefully crossed it’s path.  It was very bizarre.

We had talked about turning around for some time now, but we kept saying, “Just 10 more minutes of hiking, then we’ll turn around.”  I’m glad we were persistence because just about 300 feet up the trail from the strange bird was McGregor Falls.  It wasn’t the biggest waterfall I’ve ever seen, or the prettiest, but there was something very special about this hidden falls that not many people have laid their eyes on.  We bumped into zero hikers going to or from this waterfall–do you have any idea how rare that is in a National Park?  Terri and I took turns scaling up the falls and we took pictures of each other on the top, looking rather triumphant.

Beautiful hike overall, with numerous kinds of wildflowers and wildlife.  This hike was an adventure, and not overly strenuous.  It was only about 6 miles (with the getting lost and backtracking).  Lumpy Ridge is turning out to be one of my favorite places in the national park.

Laidback vs. Hardcore Hiking July 8, 2008

So far during my stay here at YMCA of the Rockies, I have been very selective about the hikes I choose to go on. I like to hike alone, set my own pace, take time for pictures, and not worry about slowing down a group. This is what I called “laidback” hiking. The majority of other staffers here at the Y view hiking in a different way. They enjoy waking up before dawn so there’s no one on the trail, taking large fast strides, and conquering most challenging points of interest in the park in lightning speeds. This is what I call “hardcore” hiking.

I had no plans for my day off last Wednesday, so I decided to sign up for a guided hike by one of the YMCA’s hike masters. For those of you who don’t know, the YMCA has a hiking club, where members can track their miles within the national park. Awards or badged of honor are given to members at 100 miles, 500 miles, and 1,000 miles. One of the hike masters, who has been guiding hikes for over 30 years, has more than 10,000 miles to his name.

The hike I signed up for was Loch Vail, a moderate 6 mile round trip hike with about a 900ft elevation gain to a beautiful lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. Our hike master was Katie, who works part time for the YMCA and is an intern at Rocky Mountain National Park full time. I had seen her coming in and out of Sweet Memorial before, but we had never had the chance to talk. We got to exchange stories about being recreation majors and I learned a lot about her job in the national park.  She even offered to teach me about different flowers and plants around the YMCA grounds so that I can become a better teacher. I will definitely take her up on that. Below is a video of the Loch.

While this hike was rather moderate, we had one older lady in the group who had never hiked before. This significantly slowed us down. It took us six hours to do six miles (including our break for lunch at the Loch). I didn’t even feel like I broke a sweat.

Because I did so well on the Loch Vail hike, I decided to accept an invitation from Nathan (last semester’s intern in the program department) to go on my first “hardcore” hike to Sandbeach Lake. I admire the strength it takes to be a hardcore hiker, I just didn’t know if I have it in me. This hike was 9 miles round trip, with about a 2,000ft elevation gain.

My alarm went off at 4:10A.M., I threw my clothes on which I had laid out the night before, grabbed my pack, and headed down to the Administration building where I was meeting the group. One of the reasons we were leaving so early is because two people in the group, including Nathan, had to be back at work by 1:00PM. We took two cars down to the trailhead in Wildbasin–it was so early in the morning that the ranger booth was vacant.

I was hiking with Nathan, Jamie, Emily, and Matt. Jamie started out with the lead, and started swiftly, like I expected. After about a mile, I had to pull out my inhaler and take two puffs. After Jamie, Matt took over the lead. His pace was even faster. I don’t think my medicine had had time to kick in fully yet, because I started wheezing pretty badly. Nathan stopped with me and told me he understood because he had asthma as a kid. I asked if I could lead the group for awhile, and they all agreed that was a good idea. I did feel pressure to keep the pace up because they were all right on my heels, but I finally fell into a rhythm and my mind zoned out. We got an incredible cardio workout and I was drenched in sweat by the time we reached Sandbeach Lake.

Unfortunately, the weather was not as kind to us as we had hoped. It was freezing cold up by the lake with chilly winds. I had brought a windbreaker, and I put it on when we got to Sandbeach Lake, but my shirt and thermal were drenched in sweat, so I had trouble staying warm. Apparently everyone else was cold too, so we decided to head back early. I only snapped three pictures while I was up there. As you can see, it was pretty cloudy.

Overall, we hiked up 4.5 miles with 2,000ft in elevation in 2 hours and 10 minutes.  We walked down 4.5 miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes.  This hike was much different than Loch Vail.  I definitely pushed myself, but I think it was for the better.  I’d like to find a nice balance of laidback and hardcore hiking the next time I go out.  My next hike will be on Wednesday to Timberlake with Terri and maybe a few other girls.  That hike is 10.5 miles round trip with a 2,000ft elevation gain.

Sweet Memorial July 2, 2008

I’ve been working at the YMCA for over a month now, and I just realized that many of you have no idea where I work! While there are over 200 buildings on the YMCA property, I work in the best one: Sweet Memorial. We’re centrally located on the campus and probably have the third most customer traffic, following behind the administration building and the cafeteria.

It’s our job in Sweet Memorial–also known as the program building–to provide customers and guests of the YMCA with activities and suggestions on how to get the most out of their stay. We answer all questions, and if we don’t know the answer, we find out. We offer family sporting events like kickball, soccer, capture the flag, and human stratego. We run family programs out of this building that teach children about local animals, bugs, hiking, survival skills, and national park plants.

Aside from all the programs, we also give out free maps of the national park trails and give suggestions on where guests or families should hike. My favorite suggestion is to send people to the southern tip of the National Park called ‘Wild Basin’. Aside from trail maps, we also provide information about the National Park shuttle, and the Estes Park shopping shuttle. We give out brochures on white water rafting, and send guests down to the livery on a daily basis.

In the basement of Sweet Memorial, we have a game room with two ping pong tables, two pool tables, foosball and a few other obscure tabletop games. Behind the Sweet Desk, we have dozens of board games and puzzles that guests can borrow, take back to their cabin, and play with their family or friends. We also provide sports equipment like basketballs, soccer balls, frisbees, volleyballs and discs for disc golf.

Typically, I work the night shift four days a week and one day shift on Sundays. One perk of working the night shift is that it’s a lot slower in the evenings, and the supervisors have all gone home. It was about half and hour till close the evening I shot this clip, and it gives a brief tour of Sweet and our staff area. The tape does end abruptly unfortunately, because a guest came in that I needed to help (her name was Karen too!)

Bible Point June 26, 2008

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.

I heart Boulder, CO!! June 24, 2008

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!

Hiking with Friends June 19, 2008

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!

An Evening of “Bigger or Better” June 16, 2008

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.

Home Sweet Home… and bunnies too! June 14, 2008

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.”

Friday the 13th June 13, 2008

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!