Expedition 5280: 11/18/07

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Luckylure Christmas Fun!

Since we won't be heading home, I had a surge of holiday nostalgia and craved the Christmas experiences of my youth. Sadly, there's nothing close to the Apple Hill experience, but we did find LuckyLure in Evergreen, CO. The owner of Luckylure cameos as the lepricon at Bronco games to hype the crowd. For Christmas, he turns his home into a tree farm with tons of places to take silly (yes, Matt, cheesy) pictures. The creek that runs in front of his property is gorgeous and boasts a large wooden fishing rod with a lure on the end- hence- luckylure. We had a blast with our friends Brian and Nelisha, who as you can see are fun loving.

Lilly Peak Trek

Planning to hike up Estes Cone, our plans quickly changed as a sign clearly stated "no dogs allowed". My heart sank a bit as I was anticipating this venture all week long. Fortunately, there was a helpful ranger who suggested hiking up Lilly Peak. He and his late dog frequented this peak often. Best of all, he explained WHY dogs are not allowed in national forests. Oddly, it wasn't to protect the squirrels and other critters, rather the predators. Apparently, predators sense of smell is extremely strong and will track the dander left behind by dogs. This makes them feel that the area has too much competition and the predators leave for the land 'o plenty. (Dad, you would have loved talking with this ranger who was like a walking environmental computer.)

On the ridge leading to Lilly Peaks we found a fierce predator! Fortunately, Steve's dream to wrestle a bear materialized.

Buddy poses with his furry friend.

Below are several views from the top of Lilly Peak.

The climb to the top was too technical for Buddy, so Steve and I took turns going to the summit. Steve was able to capture many incredible shots of the scenery.

Sweet California Days

While visiting in CA the last week of October, I was able to snap some shots of the nieces at their harvest festival. Though this is not a Colorado moment, I've decided to share some precious moments.

(Mom, as usual, did an amazing job creating the girls costumes!)

Here's Snow White cleaning the remains of cotton candy off her precious face. (above)

Here Liv is a beautiful prairie girl.

Love how this prairie girl can climb!

Monica gets ready for her big moment only hours away!

A Recent Rare Phenomenon

Last night we were at a local coffee shop with some friends. While sitting by the widow, we noticed that it had unexpectedly begun snowing. A few minutes later we all looked up to notice bright flashes, similar to that from a camera flash reflecting in the window. Since you never see lightning (or hear thunder) during a snow storm we all looked around for the abnoxiously bright flash from someones camera. It was nowhere to be found. Next thing we hear the boom of thunder and immediately car alarms start sounding. At this point we all look outside to see what looks like hail....but its not. It is simply pea sized snowballs that are falling like rocks from the sky. Needless to say, this was the first time any of us had experienced anything like this. The snowballs were not hard but soft...just like snow. The lightning and thunder continued for a while longer, as most everyone who was in the coffee shop either was glued to the windows or went outside for closer inspection. Bethany, who was sitting with our group, said that she had heard something like this happening before and said it was called a "thundersnow storm". Well, it is a true and rare event that is even more rare in a "land locked" state like Colorado. Here is the local newspaper headline from the Rocky Mountain News: "We were enjoying the lights, sights and sounds of a thundersnow that rolled through downtown around 9:30 p.m. And, we didn't make up that word thundersnow, either. It's a real, but rare phenomenon (and very rare in landlocked Colorado), according to a quickie Google search. In the simplest of terms, cold air meets warm air. As those two air masses interact, it causes friction, or a convection (up- and-down movement of air), which if violent enough, can cause lightning and thunder".

If you are still interested, check out the Wikipedia article for it : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow