Good Water

Went down to the Verm yesterday expecting it to be a puny 150cfs. Once we got there, though, it didn't take long to see that the level was much closer to 300, and the river was actually at a really good level. The water was pretty cold, but the playspots wre rockin. Nick and I got there early and made a 2-hour morning run. I kept gettting flipped in Railroad, then having to roll back up in the hole and surf my way out with an ice cream headache. For whatever reason, I seemed to be the only person all day that didn't just wash out when they flipped. Nick was rockin' in there with some low-angle cartwheels and good spins, but he had some other commitments and had to leave just before the rest of the crew showed up around 11:30. Having had enough brain freezes for one day, I decided to take some pics, rather than make another run. It turned out to be a great day for it with warm sun and good water.

Have Slush, will kite

Yesterday I was out on White Bear Lake with Nate, Steve, and Ben. The winds were light, but I was able to get some good riding done on my 15, including a few fun 5' (or so) boosts. Nate was teaching Steve on his 11m and it looked like Steve was picking it up quickly. Ben seemed to have some problems keeping his kite in the air, but he was sticking it out and working with it. The best part of the day, though, was that it was in the upper 40's and we were kiting in sweatshirts.

I didn't get any kiting pics, but I did get a couple shots of Nate and Steve hitting a picnic table at the beach.

Spring is definitely coming in, stay tuned for boating season!

Colorado Trip!

Kim and I just got back from 4 days in CO. We stayed in Frisco (in the middle of Summit County on Lake Dillon) and made it out to Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, and Vail. We had pretty crazy weather out there - snow and really strong winds every day. The downside to that is that there aren't many good pictures. The upside is that we had a continuos supply of fresh snow to ski on, ultimately adding up to a powder day at Vail with 17" of fresh powder (according to the news report, anyway). It was just the right amount of snow to feel really cool without being difficult to control. Speaking of Vail, whoever designed their runs was out of their mind. It's the only resort I've ever seen where every run switches difficulty levels at least once. There are several greens that become blacks (or doubles), lots of blues that turn to blacks, etc. This was all good and fun, but if you were a beginner you could get yourself in a bad spot in a big hurry. Arapahoe was very cool. It has an emphasis on advanced terrain, it's not particularly crowded, and the lift ticket costs about 1/3 less than the other resorts. We had a great time there. Copper was still my favorite, though. Long (really long) tree-lined runs, lots of good gladed skiing, fast lifts, short lines, and a huge variety of terrain. I'd go back there any time.

If you want lodging/food advice, we stayed at a nice little hotel called the Alpine Inn. The decor was dated, but the place was immaculate, the service friendly, and the hot tub was awesome. It was also really cheap. Highly recommended. For food, we had great Mexican food at Carlos Miguel's (or something like that). The place had a really cool feel and the service was great. We also ate at the Boat Yard, which has huge portions, so-so service, and our Calzone had a gigantic paper clip baked into it! Not kidding. It was one of the 2.5" ones, too. See the picture. Unfortunately, we didn't discover the paper clip until we were eating the leftovers at home. If you go, you might want to avoid that place.

We also checked out the Kite Park on Lake Dillon, which was pretty much just a coned-off launch area and two small jumps on the South end of the lake. Wouldn't you know, the one morning we try to go kiting was the only morning with abolutely no wind. The picture was taken during the one "gust" we got, which was all of about 5mph.

Despite paper clips in the food and issues with both too much and too little wind, we had a great time. Kim got her first real powder day and I found out that I can still ski after not being out west for 5 years. Great trip.