Blog Posts

Yes, it's true.  New Belgium Brewery is working on canning it's flagship beer- Fat Tire.  The wife and I took a trip to Ft. Collins, CO for our anniversary this weekend.  We wasted no time getting down to business.  First stop when we hit town was the New Belgium Brewery Tour.  More on that later.  What's important here is what we learned at the end. The tour ended with a view into a vast concrete room.  A space soon to be devoted to the new canning line.  Not a bottling line- a canning line.  Your beloved Amber Ale will soon be hitting a cooler near you with a new squat but sportier look. 

Today I did it. I finally got back out there and got some bouldering in. It has been a few years and today was rough, I was blowing off of problems I would send with no problem a few years back. I guess one of the main issues was that I was lazy, however in all reality the past few years have been time consuming. I have had my shoulder rebuilt (it is time for the other one!), having a son and settling into civilian life, as well as finding like minded folks.

A good friend of mine asked me to write about the steps I take when preparing for a trip. He was thinking that there are things I do subconsciously, that I might not ever mention because it has become routine. Great Idea! It might also aid me in remembering things I have long over looked, here is my routine. Really I start about a week prior to the trip by looking at the map and weather report to see where I will end up and what the conditions will be. Then I gather all of my gear and lay it out neatly on the floor, this includes clothing and food. Then I look over each item and determine if it will serve a purpose for the trip. Once I have whittled down my gear I do it all over and usually can ditch more stuff. As I do this I check all of my gear to make sure it is in working order and no repairs/replacement is necessary. All the while making a list of things I need to get.

After much debate and discussion we decided we would stay fairly close to home during this trip so we ended up in a meadow off of Horsethief trail just south of the Crags. The hike started up a gradual incline through the forest on the fairly well traveled trail. After about .5 mile we changed direction from the easterly course we started on to a more northerly course that brought us into a valley along a creek dotted with few frozen beaver ponds. The views were magnificent as we had an unobstructed view of Sentinel in all of its rocky glory. After a short distance we found a great site just off of the main trial in an open area that was slightly blocked from the wind that was slowly creeping up on us.