Kayaks are in

I ordered some new kayaks a few months ago and they are finally here!! A Necky Eliza(blue) and Manitou 14(fire).

Ahhh pretty

Ohhh, sparkly

We ate lunch at Big Daddy's and used their boat launch. We paddled up Fish river and found a little place to practice our paddling skills.

TAG Fall Cave In

Last weekend we went to the TAG fall caving festival. We drove up on Thursday morning and got to camp in that afternoon. We set up the camper and hit vendor's row. John Law was already there and joey and Aimee arrived that evening. We didn't get as much gear as we did at SERA but we tried. Friday John Hickman led a trip to Ellison's cave. There was a 1,000 foot borehole leading the entrance pit. Oh, wait I forgot the mile hike carrying our gear up the mountain. They told us it was a mile but I'm not sure I believe them. That was some hike. So anyway, the fist pit is a 135 foot drop. Joey got some good pics:

Next we went across a natural bridge and up a short climb with a hand line. Then we had to do a 20 foot ascend up a fixed rope. This was the only tricky ledge in the cave and I am glad it was on the short climb. The ledge was undercut so you had to take one foot out of your foot loops and push away from the ledge and at the same time push your ascender over the ledge then go over. Next was a 500 foot pit. It was not rigged and we did not have enough rope to do it. To skirt this pit you had to belly crawl on a 18" wide ledge. Past this pit was a muddy crawl to an 80' pit.Then the whole thing in reverse. Up the 80' pit, through the mud, down the 20' drop, and hand line, and up 135'. And of course the hike back down the mountain with our gear which killed my back. So in other words...Good Times. We went back to camp and had a big cookout with sausage dogs, chips, potato salad...

The next day we didn't want to put on muddy vertical gear so we went to steward's spring. It was a wet cave so Jason and I decided to break in our new caving suits. It was a stream passage up to a room full of great formations. These are my pics so they're not that great.

What's funny is that on the way in we were all skirting the creek to keep our feet dry but then we got so wet and muddy in the cave that we were practically swimming on the way out to clean some of the mud off our gear. So then it was back to the campgrounds for steak, spaghetti, hot dogs, chicken, sweet potatoes, beans, corn and a stomach ache. Then the lighting of the giant bon fire, more shopping and the SCCI raffle. They must have sold hundreds of tickets and one of the first names drawn was Joey and mine was the very next name then Aimee 2 draws later. It was pretty crazy. The next day we packed up and went out for lunch then Jason and I headed south while everyone else decided to bounce a pit on the way home.

Things to Come

Happy Birthday Jason! My gift to Jason is a trip to Washington to summit Mt Rainier. Hopefully I'll be posting summit pics in June.

Pike's Peak

Our last Colorado adventure was The Pike's Peak Railroad. We rode up to the top of Pikes Peak at 14,000 feet. We saw big horn sheep, deer and yellow bellied marmot. There are some more pics on my Flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gillikin

Girls Gone Wild part4

The next day we had a different giude for clombing. We decided not to get our hopes up. The day before was so great and our guides did such a good job we figured there was no way that today could be as good and we didn't want to be disapointed. Let's just say we were not disapointed. We went to Garden of the Gods and did a 145 foot multi-pitch ascent. This was outside the realm of anything we expected to do. It is called Montezuma's Tower. We cliked this picture on the way out to the park. We had no idea that the rock I was standing in front of was the rock we were going to climb.

Here I am following Tod up the first pitch. The very bottom of the climb is the crux so we practiced a short repel and the crux a couple of times then Tod climbed and I came behind and ran Michele's rope. Next Michele climbed and cleaned the rock.Here we are at the top of the first pitch. This pic is to show how narrow the rock is. It was a lot of exposure.

Here i am climbing the second pitch.

Next we dorove around the park. The tall spire in the middle of the picture in Montezuma's Tower.

Girls Gone Wild part 3

Ok, so after climbing all morning we wanted to get out of the heat for a little while. We decided to go to the Cave of the Winds. I know what you are saying... a commercial cave but hey I am not opposed to commercial caves. We had a scenic drive up a mountain and enjoyed sitting outside on the balcony and had a great view. As a matter of fact we enjoyed everything about this place. Well everything except the cave. First we waited an hour to get in, then we had the world's cheesiest tour guide, the worst behaved kids, the lamest cave...It was way bad. The first time I have really wanted to get out of a cave. If I am going to pay $20 to see a cave it had better be worth looking at and this was not.

You know you had a good vacation when a lame tour is the worst part:-)

Next we went back to Red Rock Canyon and did a little hike.

Girls Gone Wild part 2

So after rafting we went up to the Royal Gorge Bridge. Hanging 1,053 feet above Colorado’s wild Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge and a legendary feat of engineering renowned the world over. It was an amazing lesson in perspective. The bridge was small, the gorge was big and the rapids were huge when we were rafting. The gorge was huge, the bridge was big and the rapids were small from the bridge.

The next morning was our first day of climbing. We showed up at Red Rock Canyon we were a few minutes early but not only were our guides there they had already rigged two climbs. The climbing at Red Rock was awesome! We started on a 5.6 and 5.7 then rigged a new spot and did a 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9. After the 5.9 they wanted us to try a 5.10 but we were getting pretty tired and wanted to finish with a win so we did another easy climb.Michele's first climb

My first climb

5.9!

Kurt and Corbin

Girls Gone Wild part 1

Last weekend Michele and I finished the second part of our birthday...Colorado Springs. Friday we got up at 4:00 and flew out there. It was not bad as far as flying goes. We got out there at 2:00 and had the afternoon to get settled in and sight see. We went to seven falls. It was a little touristy but close, easy and very nice. First we climbed the stairs to the observation platform then the 224 steps to the top of the falls. Normally this would not be a big deal but we had come from sea level just hours before so we had to keep stopping and our heart were thumping out of our chests. At the top of the falls was a hiking trail back to another fall. Overall it was a pleasant afternoon. After our hike we were pretty hungry so we went to the Mexican restaurant across the street from our resort. It was very good and pretty fancy(for a Mexican restaurant). The next morning we got up early and headed to our white water rafting adventure. When we got there they told us that we were the only rafters for the morning and the section that we were supposed to do as a warm up was pretty lame at this water lever so we opted to do the harder section(Royal Gorge) twice. What a good decision. We handled the rapids pretty well except Michele tried to fall out of the raft in the narrows. The guide said don't fall out right here because there is no shore to swim to and its a class 4 rapid. We hit a rock and Michele went flying but she managed to keep her foot in the foot strap and I was able to pull her in and save her life. When we got to the Royal Gorge Bridge(the highest suspension bridge in the world) they were having the Go Fast Games. Go Fast is like Red Bull. We stopped under the bridge and they were Bungee jumping and Base jumping off the bridge and landing right next to us. It was pretty cool and the ground crew was hanging out and throwing us Go Fast.

After our morning trip we went back to the shop for lunch and picked up our afternoon rafters. We did the same trip in the afternoon but it was different doing it with 3 other rafters in the boat. One of the guys fell out on the first rapid. We watched some bungee jumpers under the bridge but they weren't base jumping anymore.

Did I mention I decided to go for a swim??