my dog got porked

or whatever you want to call it when your dog gets nailed by a porcupine.  Wow, that was a lot of needles. 

I also learned it's good to have as much hair as a golden retriever has cause most of the needles didn't penetrate very far.  Finally all the fur comes in handy.

I have decided to up my hiking a bit---crowds are down and it's nice and cool in the morning, the light is great, weather clear and there are still some wild flowers.

Sunday I hiked to American lake---Tuesday I went a ways down lincoln creek and hiked up to grizzly lake.  Both mornings I hit the trail around 8 am-- on the way up to American lake I saw 1 other person, and shared the lake with 7 women from Basalt.  On the way down I must have passed over 60 people heading up---kinda a pain for my walking mediation. 

During my hike up to grizzly lake I saw no one.  At the lake I saw no one.  Only when I was 2/3rds of the way down did I run into anyone ---and the total on the descent was 3 parties of two people.  Yes getting to the grizzly lake trail head is a pain, but with all the G-wagons in town I figured more people would make that climb (although I am thrilled that they don't).

It's interesting how few people go a little further off the beaten path.  I saw this hughly in the tetons and Yellowstone where heading 1/2 mile to 1 mile off 'the beaten path' left you 1000s of acres to yourself.

I also suspect people like to do the 'hard stuff' to get bragging rights.  American lake is rated strenuous, while Grizz is rated moderate.  And people know about American so it means something to them while Grizzly is less well known.  Interestingly, Grizzly starts out at around 10.6k feet puting the trail head about 600 ft under the peak of Ajax---and the lake is at about 12.6k so you do get a bit of elevation challenge.  And there are the porcupines.  I don't want to sit in judgement so I won't, but just know if you want to explore a little and care a little less about the name of what you climb there is a shit ton of great stuff you can have all to yourself.

Couple of pics and video of neighbors dog chasing a bear cub (very small dog and small bear--where is momma bear?)

yup I might have swum naked and no one would know cause I can see for miles and miles (Yes I was listening to the Who and shedding clothes)

now about that dog and bear

summertime blues

Forgive me for wanting to be my son---but really what guy in their 50s doesn't sometimes look longingly at being a teenager again.  Sure it's not all laughs, and cell phones are super dangerous, but still.......

So the boy (who always is bitching about living in Aspen cause he wants to sail and work on the water) spent the summer in Chatham on Cape Cod.  He flew planes, sailed on a race team, and coached all ages.  Yes he got paid to be on the water sailing or driving a coach boat.  He even got to play the hero 'saving' a young girl who capsized her boat and got her hair tangled in the rigging.

Did I mention that he lucked into housing with an 84 year old woman?  While that might not sound super duper she lived on the ocean and had a power boat which he used to commute back and forth to 'work'.  Yup that is right--wake up, hop in boat and drive it to the club to teach sailing, race with team, and then power boat home.

Coming home on Saturday and heading to school on Monday was a wee bit of shock.  That said we don't have tornadoes here (he got caught in one on the way to work freaking all the local moms out), no sharks (and Cape Cod is super sharky) and no EEE mosquitoes (he had a race end early to avoid bites from the airborne pests.  EEE is fatal 80% of the time, so while I am thrilled he had a great summer and a bit jealous, I am turning a deaf ear to the complaints about how horrible Aspen is.

Did I mention that he is going to spend the next week rafting cataract canyon as part of school.  The only challenge is gonna be him getting home in time to make the Weezer concert.  Yea its sooooooo hard to be a teenage boy.

4th of July Parades---I got dibs

Before I get to the meat of the matter a quick observation re Trump's 4th of July fest.  His speech wasn't a crafted from his campaign material.  Yea.  However, I have done a multivariable analysis and it shows that countries that have more and bigger military parades tend to have declining relative military strength (France being an epic example of this).  Those with strong-relatively increasing military strength tend to shy away from the need to show their strength via military parades.  Bottom line, in my experience the guy who talks a lot in a bar fight isn't the one you have to worry about--its the guy you didn't hear who is the most dangerous.  Hopefully, the Donald's need to have a parade is more a reflection of his weakness, and not our country's.

Back to celebrating the 4th of July in Aspen and Chatham.  Both are small towns with big vacation crowds who relish showing off their patriotism.  There are some noticeable differences. Chatham definitely channels more old school WASP, fife, drum and tri corner hats, and nantucket red, while Aspen displays much heavy equipment and the tighty whities rollerblade team in red, white and blue body paint.  Despite these differences, they have also both been infected by the need to call dibs.

At risk of sounding like a grumpy old man--I remember back in the day when you showed up at a parade a bit before the start and found a place to stand.  In both Aspen and Chatham people started 'reserving' spots with blankets and chairs a day ahead of time.  A similar thing happens with the Chatham band concert, as well as many of the outdoor concerts in Aspen.  This is a kinda insidious problem--once a couple of people call dibs if you don't you could be left with a pretty bad view (really not the end of the world--I hear ya).  However, are the voices of our better angels being drowned out by people shouting DIBS?

At risk of over-analysing reserving space on a parade route, what is up with the need to win the best spot?  Shouldn't it be ok to get what you get and don't get upset?  Do we really need rules to regulate this behavior (the tragedy of the commons).  What happens if you mark your spot two days before the event?  What about 3?  If chairs and blankets are ok what about a bench or bleachers.  And if bleachers are ok, how long until someone decides to make some money selling their prime reserved space?  Is that capitalism at its finest or an individual motinizing a public good?  For sure its a slippery slope.

I am all for competition and capitalism in its proper place.  I am also a big believer in community, where we work together and enjoy things together.  Yes the early bird gets the worm--but should everything be a worm that we compete for.  If so, do you really want the inevitable rules that must follow to regulate that competition?  And yes rules are necessary when we compete otherwise why call dibs?   Just show up with the biggest gun and a willingness to use it, and the best spot is yours.  Is that what makes American great?

Ok.  Maybe I am ranting too much like a grumpy old man, but you get the point.  And while we are celebrating the birth of American, it is a good time to remember how we all got here.  If you aren't an American Indian, be thankful that no one called dibs on American and shut the door on your family's arrival.  Today is a day to celebrate, let's do it as a community and next year leave the chairs and blankets at home.

God Bless America.

going native

sorry about the long absence, but I'm back for better or worse

I think I am starting to be an aspen native.  Really you may ask?  Really.  Why?

1.  I can smell bears on the trail---they smell kinda like like ripe berries mixed with elk crap.  I was walking the dogs up the ute the other day and thought---humm that smells like bear, and around the next switch back the race was on between a bear and my dogs---lucky the bear won

2.  I found myself having a conversation with another local at a bar about how last year the limited rain resulted in a late and limited acorn supply along with low berry yield resulting in hungry bears eating drywall, hot tub covers and anything else that might contain calories.  This year the heavy snow resulted in limited chokeberry fruit which also made for hungry bears.  Yup, I've gone from talking about funding rates, execution algos and credit spreads to crops for bears.  Bottom line Aspen has a bear problem.

3.  I found myself calling a friend to ask if he has harvested his hay yet.  My daughter's bunny prefers locally grown all organic hay and he is a great supplier and $3 bucks cheaper than the Co Op, and 95% cheaper than the crap you big city bunny owners buy at Petco.  Yes, I can have an informed conversation about hay and I do buy it by the bushel.

PS I have seen a bear each of the last 4 days (since my return from Cape Cod).  Today's sighting included a very small mom and 2 cubs who couldn't have weighed more than 30 lbs.  Clemmens scared one of the cubs who scampered up a 3 foot tall Aspen sapling.  Very cute, and I would share a pic but I was too busy keeping the dogs under control so as not to piss off momma bear.