March 1 - 17, 2002

Friday, March 1, 2002                                                                  Breckenridge, CO

We checked out of our motel in Avon and enjoyed a great half-day of skiing at Beaver Creek.  It had snowed several inches overnight.  The fresh snow had been blown around into deep drifts.  The semi-dry powder was some of the best we’ve skied in this season.  Christine and I both had great experiences skiing today.

We made our way back to Breckenridge and checked in for three nights in our campground there.  We began our efforts to hook up with the Nolls, Cincinnati friends that we’ve skied with in the past.

Saturday, March 2, 2002                                                                Breckenridge, CO

We finally hooked up with the Nolls by telephone this morning.  We arranged to meet them atop the Outpost Mountain at Keystone for lunch.  We were pleased to get a late start this morning.  The temperature at 7:00 AM was 23 degrees below zero!  We hooked up with the Nolls as planned and shared our coldest day of skiing all season. The sun was out, but wind chills endangered any exposed skin.

Other than being so cold, the conditions at Keystone were much improved over what we experienced on our last visit here.  Jimmy and Donna were skiing closely with their kids, Lauren and Robbie.  Their youngest, Michael, was left in daycare.  We all gave in to the cold and retreated to their condo for some warm après ski drinks.  We all went out and enjoyed a fun pub meal in Keystone Village.  It was great to ski with the Noll family.  They all ski quite well.

This is not a great picture but it's the only one we got.  Our faces are all so red because I had to lighten the picture a bunch.  Jimmy, Lauren, Robbie, Donna, Michael, and Christine.

Sunday, March 3, 2002                                                                Breckenridge, CO

Today started out nearly as cold as yesterday, and the wind was still chilling.  We met up with the Nolls again, but today we skied Breckenridge.  The conditions improved after lunch, but it was still a very cold day.  We made the most of it and covered most of the mountain.  It was really a whole lot of fun to ski with Jimmy, Donna, Lauren and Robbie.  We wished them well and said our goodbyes as we went our separate ways at the end of the afternoon.

Monday, March 4, 2002                                                                            Taos, NM

Today was a travel day—something we haven’t had in a while.  We had a beautiful drive south over Hoosier Pass as we found ourselves on familiar roads heading toward New Mexico.  The 5-6 hour drive was great and we checked into a fine campground in Taos for the next several nights.  Taos is a quaint little town that few people forget once they’ve visited it.  It’s considered the solar capital of the country.  There are eco-friendly solar homes all over the Taos area.

It was such a beautiful day for a drive.  Part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Southern CO.

Tuesday, March 5, 2002                                                                            Taos, NM

Christine and I both enjoyed the warmest night in our RV since last year.  It’s a real joy to be in a warmer climate.  We left at 9:00 AM to drive the RV up to the Taos ski area.  The conditions were less than optimal, but we still got in a full day of skiing.  On just my second run I traversed over a rocky steep to reach a bump run that still had good snow on it.  I lost my balance trying to avoid scraping my skis on the rocks.  I tumbled out of both of my skis and pulled a groin (I think) muscle trying to arrest my fall.  I spent the rest of the day favoring my right leg and trying not to flex my abdomen.

Taos Ski Valley would be much more impressive if they had more snow.  They have incredible steeps and chutes, but most of them were closed due to lack of snow.  The groomed runs were pretty icy so Christine and I spent much of the day playing on the bumps.  All in all it was a pretty good day.

Wednesday, March 6, 2002                                                                            Taos, NM

I woke up still sore from my muscle strain yesterday.  Christine and I passed on skiing today and filled it with other activities.  Christine found a laundromat with machines large enough to wash our sleeping bags.  I busied myself in the meantime by giving the RV its first full bath of the season.  The Fun Mover looks so good with all the winter grime removed.  After lunch we drove out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  This little river has gouged an impressive gorge out of the high New Mexico desert.  I took some pictures of Christine driving the RV across the bridge with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the background.

Later we went to the historic Taos Pueblo.  Taos Pueblo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited structures in the world at over a thousand years old.  The historic part of the pueblo has been preserved wonderfully.  There are over a hundred residents in the old structures, all living without electricity or running water.  We enjoyed our guided tour of the pueblo by Aspen Flower (our native guide).  The explanation was intriguing of how the tribe triumphs its native beliefs yet preserves Saint Jerome’s Catholic Chapel.  There are concerted efforts at preserving the tribe’s language, beliefs and rituals.  It was a warm great day to be out and about playing tourists.

I used what was left of the day to get my motorcycle out and go for a ride through the canyon east of Taos.  The bike started right away and felt very comfortable straightening out the curves.  It was a great way to clear my head—and rest my groin.

1) Rio Grande Gorge Bridge; 2) Rio Grande Gorge and river; 3) Taos Pueblo North building; 4) Taos Pueblo Chapel (St. Jerome's Catholic Chapel); and 5) This is also the North building at the Pueblo but from a different angle, you can see the drying racks in front of it they use for drying meats and vegetables.

Thursday, March 7, 2002                                                                            Taos, NM

We got a quick start today and drove over to ski Angel Fire.  This resort has many updated features in its ski area, but the conditions were pretty poor.  The wind was blowing so hard that half the mountain was inaccessible.  We got pretty bored after a half-day of skiing, but we still had a good time.

After a lunch of Christine’s re-heated potato, bacon and cheese chowder, we checked out the National Disabled American Veterans Vietnam Memorial located there in Angel Fire.  Construction of the memorial was begun in 1968 by the surviving parents of a soldier killed in the war.  It ended up being the first U.S. memorial to that war.  There was a moving exhibit in the museum center there.

Christine and I coincidentally finished off our afternoon by seeing the movie: “We Were Soldiers.”  It was a great moving film that got to both of us.  We returned home for Christine to whip up an excellent pesto chicken pasta.

Friday, March 8, 2002                                                                                    Taos, NM

I was awoken by heavy winds that rocked the RV near dawn.  The winds were very severe today and worsened in the afternoon.  The winds blew in some much needed snow, so we got underway to ski Red River, about 40 miles north of Taos.  Red River received about 6” of fresh snow before we even got there, and it continued to snow throughout the day.  Red River is an old mining town that reinvented itself as an all year recreation center, drawing mostly from Oklahoma and Texas tourists that don’t want to have to go very far for a mountain experience. 

The powder was excellent—medium dry in consistency.  The unfortunate fact was that all the lifts were very old and slow.  Most of the more challenging runs were still closed due to exposed rocks and hazards.  Christine and I managed to find several runs of freshies before we stopped for a hot lunch in the RV.  I went back out for a few more runs after lunch, but the increased winds had blown much of the powder off the runs.  It had been a lot of fun to ski in the fresh snow.

When we got back to Taos we stopped at the historic St. Francis of Assisi Church/Mission.  It is recognized as the oldest adobe church still standing.  It was built in 1815 and is exquisitely maintained.

Saturday, March 9, 2002                                                                            Taos, NM

Today was a warm and sunny day, the warmest yet for skiing.  We used our New Mexico Ski Pass at a tiny ski area south of Taos called Sipapu.  It was a very primitive resort that did little to challenge us other than avoiding the ice patches.  It was fun to ski, though, in such warm conditions.  We were bored after a half day there so we took advantage of the fine weather to walk around Taos.

We parked in the center of town and walked around Taos Plaza enjoying the window-shopping.  The southwestern theme in all the stores was a change of pace for us.  We managed to buy very little of anything—not having a house in which to put anything.

We ended the afternoon by catching another movie.  “Amelie” was a light-hearted French film with English subtitles.  It was an easy movie to watch, compared to “We Were Soldiers…” that we saw the other night.

Sunday, March 10, 2002                                                                         Santa Fe, NM

We took our time leaving Taos this morning on our way to Santa Fe.  We stopped at Santa Fe Vineyards and bought a couple bottles of good red wine before checking into our campground.  It had been a lovely drive south along the Rio Grande.

We chose a campground with telephone hookups at the site for a change.  Christine had quite a bit of schoolwork to do, and I had plans to go for a motorcycle ride.  My plans were stymied when I couldn’t get the RV ramp to come down.  It had worked just a few days ago, so I was perplexed.  I wasn’t motivated to disassemble anything, so my trouble-shooting was limited to checking my fuses and some electrical contacts.  I ended up joining Christine inside the RV and spent the rest of the day browsing the web on a fast dial-up connection.

Monday, March 11, 2002                                                                        Santa Fe, NM

Christine and I drove up to the Santa Fe Ski area about 20 miles northeast of town.  The road rises over 3000 feet to the base of the ski area on Mt. Tesuque.  The skiing summit is at 12,053 feet, quite high for any ski area.  The conditions were reasonable considering the lack of recent snow.  Christine and I found enough fun runs to busy ourselves for a few hours.  The mountain was quite busy with Texans visiting on Spring Break.  Most of the skiers are Texans this week. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.  The clouds broke and we enjoyed some sunny skiing.

We drove back into Santa Fe for a late lunch and stopped to visit the New Mexico State Capitol Building.  The four-story building is in the round shape of the Zia sun symbol, a widely recognized design of the Pueblo peoples.  The relatively new Capitol was completed in 1966 and was recently renovated in 1992.  It has a very clean and fresh appearance, inside and out.  The house and senate chambers have a very modernized look, and the art collections are outstanding.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry, getting an oil change and doing some shopping.  We enjoyed another evening of convenient internet access.

The New Mexico State Capital.

Tuesday, March 12, 2002                                                           Pagosa Springs, CO

We left Santa Fe this morning and enjoyed one of the prettiest drives in New Mexico up highway 84 between Espanola and Chama.  The scenery was outstanding, and unmarred by development.  It was a clear beautiful day to take in such a nice route.  We envied the properties we passed as we entered Colorado and approached Pagosa Springs.  Christine and I are always on the lookout for some land on which to settle in the coming years.  We have formed a list of fairly picky requirements for the land we want, and what we saw today came pretty close to meeting those requirements, save one … we must be able to afford the land.

We picked up several real estate guides and pored over the appealing descriptions of available spreads of land.  We had always known that there would be areas in Colorado that would catch our interest, but we had ruled them out for being beyond our budget.  Today served to confirm those beliefs.

We found a muddy campground in Pagosa Springs and decided to stay the night.  We had considered taking a soak in the springs, but passed because of how expensive and developed they were.  We enjoyed a long walk around town in the pleasant afternoon, and looked forward to skiing at Wolf Creek tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 13, 2002                                                                Salida, CO

We had an amazing drive up to Wolf Creek Pass.  We had driven through here in the opposite direction last year, but couldn’t see a thing through the blizzard that day.  The west side of the pass has extraordinary scenery.

We reached the Wolf Creek ski area before 10:00 and were totally surprised to meet John at the ticket booth.  John had been one of the seasonal attendants at the campground we used in Taos.  He is an avid skier and we enjoyed a couple discussions about skiing while we stayed at the campground.  I had suggested that he come up and ski Wolf Creek with us on Tuesday or Wednesday, but he showed little indication that he was likely to meet us.  Yet here he was coincidentally arriving exactly at the same time as us.  It couldn’t have worked out better.

John is 62 years old and has been skiing for 50 years.  He is an excellent skier and makes difficult runs appear simple.  I worked hard to keep up with him and enjoyed the most challenging day of skiing in over a week.  Christine was skiing very hard also, and we were both quite exhausted after a full day of real skiing.  We had clearly had some easy days of skiing in New Mexico.  We were now back in Colorado where the skiing is serious.  Christine and I had truly enjoyed our day of skiing with John, and the warm sunny conditions were a pleasure.

We drove north back through the San Luis River valley and stopped for the night at very clean campground in Salida along the Arkansas River.  It had remained a great day and we were both pretty tired.

Thursday, March 14, 2002                                                                            Salida, CO

We woke to a cold morning and immediately headed up to Monarch Pass.  Monarch ski area had received 4” of fresh snow overnight.  We skied hard for almost three hours with no lift lines.  I was able to get ten runs in during this time.  My legs were really beginning to feel the effort of two straight days of challenging skiing.

We quit early enough to get back to Salida in time to do some fishing.  I picked up two single-day licenses, and Christine and I spent a couple hours fishing the Arkansas River for brown and rainbow trout.  The fish were very aggressive and took some hard swipes at each of our lines, but neither of us landed anything.  After we parked back at the campground I went out for another hour or so of fishing.  The fish were very active as dusk approached, but they weren’t interested in my lures.  We were fishing with spinning gear when the circumstances called for fly fishing gear.

I finally gave up when the ice accumulating on my rod was messing up my casts.  I hadn’t done any fishing since Alaska and I was really enjoying the solitude and the pursuit of fish.  I’ve been introduced to fishing late in life, but I’ve really taken to it.  That doesn’t mean that I’m very good at it or understand it very well, but I thoroughly enjoy it.

Friday, March 15, 2002                                                                    Breckenridge, CO

It was another cold morning, but we had a fun ride back to Breckenridge.  We drove out of our way to visit the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge, the world’s highest suspension bridge at 1053 feet above the Arkansas River.  The weather was pretty nasty, but we were more disappointed by the carnival-like development around the bridge.  The bridge has been privatized and the admission to even get close to the bridge would have cost us $24.  We refused to pay, so we enjoyed the free view from the nearest overlook.  It is an impressive span.

We returned to Breckenridge exclusively on little-traveled route 9.  It was a gorgeous drive that we took rather slowly to better enjoy it.  We were happy to be back in Breckenridge.  We checked into our campground getting the spot next to the one that we held last month.

The Royal Gorge Suspension bridge

Saturday, March 16, 2002                                                                Breckenridge, CO

We passed on skiing today to avoid the busy crowds.  Instead we ran some errands, did some shopping, and took in a movie before going out to dinner at Pug Ryan’s Steakhouse and Brewery.  We had eaten there last month and really enjoyed it.  I even ordered the same Rocky Mountain Trout Almondine that had thrilled me last time.  It was just as good the second time around.  It felt like home to be back in the familiar Breckenridge area.

We settled on different movies today.  Christine thoroughly enjoyed "A Beautiful Mind", which I had already seen and I saw a new release, "Showtime".

Sunday, March 17, 2002                                                                Breckenridge, CO

Christine and I impressed ourselves by getting our earliest start of the season.  We were on the mountain skiing well before 9:00 AM in order to avoid the weekend crowds.  The skiing was excellent and we were able to get seven runs in before the crowds became intolerable.  We went back to the RV for lunch and enjoyed piddling around the campground with various projects.  Christine cooked up a great salmon dinner.