Rocky Mountain Squeeee!

One of my constant struggles is to find the balance between my Type A personality and, well, the side of me that quit my job to do this trip.  I've always hoped that the Boulder-Denver area would be my personal adventure paradise; urban enough for all the culture I want, but a haven for adventuresome folks of all ilk.  As a recovering BigLawyer, I view my time here as a bit of an experiment.

And so I invaded the home of fellow bike touring fanatic and former Washington DC area resident, Kiki.  I credit her bike trip across the U.S. as the genesis for bigger and bad-asser plans of my own.  That, and her gear list was the starting point for my own.

I arrived to 60 degree weather and took some time when I got in to relax, go grocery shopping at my new favorite organic grocery Sprouts (3 for $1 red peppers?  $1.50/lb asparagus?  Yes, please!), and make a leisurely dinner.  I also had the good fortune to have some furry company.

Morning photo shoot with Squeakers and Felix.

Apparently, Kiki is running a psuedo-hostel out of her house as a mutual acquaintance of ours was also visiting from the DC area beginning the next morning.  I spent the morning repacking the car trunk and was contemplating heading into Boulder to do a brewery tour at Boulder Beer Company, Colorado's first microbrewery, when Emil got in touch with me to see if I wanted to do a short afternoon hike.  It's a good day when my hardest decision was deciding whether to do a brewery tour or a hike.  The Flatiron 1/2 trail was a perfect afternoon hike, just challenging enough to make us feel accomplished, just enough rock scrambling to make it fun, and provided beautiful views of Boulder and the Rockies.

View from the trailhead.  The three peaks to the left are Flatirons 1, 2, and 3.

View from 1 to 2.  Or maybe its 2 to 3.  Who knows.

Some great areas to do rock scrambling and there are also climbing access points as well.

We found a friend who wanted to follow us!

Emil admiring the vibrant green moss growing on the rock formations.

Log surfing never had a better view.

Emil snaps a picture of me while I take in the view.

Emil scrambles for a better view.

In other news, my cycling partner Gonzalo arrives in Denver tonight... just in time for Winter Storm Tritan, which is supposed to bury my temporary corner of Colorado tomorrow in snow.  Don't worry, I'm tracking the road conditions so that if the pass is too risky tomorrow, we'll just stay in Boulder another day or so before heading west.