My son had a very intense week with his jazz band--they brought in Ron Carter (world famous jazz musician and teacher) and he had class with him for 4-5 hours a day for the past 3 days. And then the jazz band had a performance last night, this morning and next Tuesday afternoon. Don't worry about him getting too jazzy though--he comes home and plays grunge for hours to get it out of his system.
I continue to be amazed by the economic diversity of the parents who send their kids to Aspen public schools. It is all over the road. Most recent example of that is while hanging out with a guy who works for Snowmass water department I hear about a rule in place for the swim team---parents can't fly their kids on their private jets to swim meets. Apparently that rule is more like a guideline because it has been broken a number of times without the swimmers getting tossed from the team. Back in my day I rode my bike to Shaw Park pool for swim meets and my parents might or might not show up for some of it. Ah those were the days.
Anyhow last Monday I was in a foul mood. What to do? A walk in the woods sounded good. So on Tuesday I packed up my dogs, hiking sticks, food, water, and some clothing and set out from Aspen to hike to Warren Lakes. This is a hike I have attempted a couple of times but never allocated enough time to make it all the way (its not a hard hike but long)-- I set off at 10 am last Tuesday and figured 6 hours should be enough (12.5 miles round trip with about 3k of vert gain topping out at 10,700 feet).
I start off heading up Smuggler which is the Aspen version of running the loop in central park or along the lakefront in Chicago. Its crowded with unbelievably in shape people going up and down 1.2 miles to get their daily quick hit of exercise. Pretty much everyone is faster than me. As I head past the overlook the foot and bike traffic drops dramatically. A half mile above the turn around I am alone. A mile above that I run into a moped parked in the middle of the road. Weird. I plan to take a picture for my readers but my phone is covered with sweat and not working--I figure I will snap a pick on the way down when I am not working as hard. I check the engine to see if it's warm--it isn't. And the path has gotten snowy. Looking at the tracks the mopeder has left behind I am guessing size 13 shoes. I am a little worried about startling someone who doesn't like to be surprised.
Pretty soon the dirt and snow covered path becomes just snow. With the size 13 tracks leading the way. My dogs are roaming all over the place, running through the woods, eating snow, sticks and bear dung. And it starts snowing a bit. Remarkably my mood has improved significantly although I am a worrier and the size 13 shoes have me worried.
As I get closer to the lakes the snow gets deeper. And finally Mr. Moped's tracks just disappear. Weird. Now I am just trying to stay on the trail such as it is.
That is the trail---I am thinking I might get lost---but then again I can always follow my tracks out (unless it starts snowing hard in which case I am not going to have a good day).
The next worry is the dogs playing on the lake and breaking through the ice. I hadn't thought about that (honestly I didn't think it would be this cold and snowy up here). I don't have a rope or ice ax and I am thinking a dog rescue could make for a really unpleasant day. Did I mention my very cold feet??---they have been hiking in snow for about 3 hours at this point.
By now my mood is great, my feet are cold and I am almost back to civilization (ie close to the lollypop trail head). It's all good, although there still is no picture of the moped because on the way down I ran into a guy taking a dump right next to the moped and I thought pulling out my phone to take a picture while he was squatting might not prove endearing. Also it was not his moped---I never discovered Mr. 13 shoes.
Anyhow a quarter mile after the moped my dogs get very alert.
And yea it's a bear (or according to my dogs the biggest best chew toy EVER). I call my dogs. My dogs ignore me. The bear takes off through the woods with my dogs in hot pursuit. They are both using their 4 wheel drive with snow tires (ie claws and 4 paws) and are making excellent time....away from me and away from town and away from everything. I give up and head back to the trail. My dogs gave up 5 minutes later and caught up to me with a shit eating grins on their muzzles.
My mood was great for the rest of the week, dogs slept for two days. I strongly recommend a walk in the woods---now I just hope my wife doesn't read this post because she will kill me. And next time I am bringing snowshoes.
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