I Would Walk 500(16)Miles: Week 3

Hello and goodbye, week 3! The days keep flying by and it's already end of my 3rd week here. It's been my favorite one yet.

Monday

Normal day in the office. Started a new project for the higher ups examining marketing data from a survey they sent out to guests. I also finished up a few stories and posted them on the blog for the upcoming World Council. No big deal. Afterwards was dinner with friends, sand volleyball, and then my first night hike! We drove into Rocky Mountain National Park to the Beirstadt trailhead and began hiking around 9PM (3.2 miles round trip). It wasn't a super hard hike, especially because the moon was super bright! We made it to the top and just sat by the lake for an hour it was so beautiful. (I'm really upset I don't have a tripod here because night pictures are extremely hard without it) I also played around with light painting. (Still working on that too haha)


Tuesday 

Left around 8:30AM to drive over Trail Ridge Road (straight through RMNP - the most beautiful drive of your life) to go to Snow Mountain Ranch again. But this time it wasn't just for a day trip - this week the other intern and I got to stay there for a few days to help out with a few projects there. I LOVE SNOW MOUNTAIN RANCH. Have I told you that before? It combines all the best things about Texas with all the best things of Colorado and mashes them together and it's just amazing. Big, blue skies with mountains in the distance. It doesn't get any better than that.

Tuesday was awesome because we went white water rafting! I've never done that before, so I was really excited about the trip. After driving for 2 hours to get to SMR, we met up with our bosses and drove another 30 minutes to get to a town called Kremmling where the rafting company was (It's called Mad Adventures if you're curious).

We got suited up (HIMYM anyone? No? Nevermind) in life jackets and drove in their vans to take off at the Pumphouse launching site. We had two boats with our group and two guides named Cass and Jamie and they were phenomenal. The rafting area was Class I-III rafting so it was perfect for a beginner but still exciting. At one point they stop the rafts and left everyone get out and go cliff jumping which I did of course (thank you Heber Springs, Arkansas for preparing me for that) It was a great day, even with a little bit of sprinkling we got. After the trip, we drove back to Granby and ate at an Italian place (thank you YMCA for that treat).



Wednesday

We started at 10AM and had a few projects to do while at SMR. One was to interview the IRT (Innovative Readiness Training) Navy unit that works on projects at the ranch. (I have to write a blog for them) We also had to check out the archery range and do a story on that (unfortunately no one did archery that day) I also took a trip out to the new tubing hill with my boss and a local journalist to hear the interview. That was a great experience.

The best part was in the evening. Snow Mountain Ranch has a fairly new dog sledding program and they want to get more word out about it and show how they care for the dogs in the summer time. We took a trip to the owners house in Granby (city about 10-15 minutes away) and I learned a lot about Husky care:

• In the summer they take them out running on back country trails  a few times a week to let the dogs exercise. Sometimes they will also hook them up as a team to an ATV and let them pull it for a work out.
• Husky's prime running temperature is between 40 and 40: Below 40 and above -40 is the best temperature. Any hotter or colder than that will hurt them.
• During a race, it's great to have a dog that knows how to eat fast. 

We took two Huskys Tip and Ziggy out for a run. Tip is an 8 year old female who is an amazing listener (and therefore she makes a good lead) Ziggy is a wild child, a 4 year old male who will not stop going (like, ever. He'll push himself to keep going until he throws up) They rode in the car with us and gave us slobbery dog kisses. It was great.

Me & Tip & Ziggy livin life

Thursday

More IRT interviews. Then we had a photo shoot with some local kids for the new tubing hill advertisements (this was lots of fun!) We also checked out the petting zoo and the stables and said hey to some cute goats and horses. In the afternoon we went back to the Huskys and took the 4 pups (who are now a year old) to the vet to learn about their treatment and making sure they're safe to run. So cool.

Then it was time to head back to Estes. We left around 2:30 and got back before 5. I ran into some friends as I was coming back to my dorm at 5:20 and they were like, hey we're going hiking at 5:30 wanna come? Um, yes!

We did a hike I've been dying to do since the first week of being here. It's inside RMNP and connects 3 gorgeous lakes called Nymph, Dream, and Emerald (3.6 miles round trip). And there was still snow. EVERYWHERE. We were in shorts and tshirts walking around in snow and feeling great and it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Two of my international friends from Columbia had never seen snow before and were freaking out. Definitely my favorite hike so far and it didn't take too long to do either.

Friday

Fridays here are great for two reasons: it's the weekend (duh) and I always get out early. Because I work so much during the week (and especially this week at SMR) I hit overtime in the early afternoon so Laura & Andrew are like, see ya! This Friday was no exception, and I had a great afternoon going through my pictures and writing this blog (you're welcome)

Friday night I went out to a Mexican restaurant in Estes Park with 15 other friends. It was gooood. Afterward we went to a place called The Rock Inn Mountain Tavern, which features a lot of great local live music and a fun atmosphere for us YMCA workers to hang out at.

[Maybe I should explain that since there's only 2 of us Marketing Interns, pretty much all of my friends here work in the Day Camp side of the YMCA, doing everything I did the past 2 summers at my other camp. They sing and take them on hikes and ride horses with them and it makes me miss my camp and my kids all the time.]

Saturday 

True for any college aged students, Saturdays start out lazy and that's how they're meant to be. We slept in then grabbed lunch at 12. A few of a friends of mine and I wanted to do a hike but weren't sure which one to do. (There are SO MANY here) See a lot of the hikes are inside of Rocky Mountain National Park, which is easy to get into when you buy the pass and have a car. If not, you have to walk a few miles from the YMCA into RMNP, which sometimes makes a long hike an even longer one.

Luckily, another friend of ours let us borrow his truck to drive through town to hike Gem Lake (3.3 miles round trip). It took a little over an hour to hike up to the lake and then we rock climbed up the huge boulders on the lake to overlook the Estes Park valley. It was so amazing.

Sunday

You know what the best way to start your day off is? WAFFLES. The Rustic Cafe here does this awesome waffle bar on Sundays and when my friend asked me to go with her she didn't have to ask twice. Afterward we went to a traveling youth groups production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Hyde Chapel at 10. It was great. (And now I can't stop singing GO GO GO JOSEPH)

I called my dad (it is Father's Day afterall), ate lunch, then we rallied the troops to go on another hike. This time we drove past the Gem Lake Trailhead down to the Cow Creek trails and ventured 3 miles out into the valley to find Bridal Veil Falls. It was a gorgeous day for a hike - the sun was shining, the company was great, and (what I was most excited about) it wasn't a steep hike until the very end. Bridal Veil Falls is a beautiful waterfall tucked in between meadows and woods and mountains (6 miles round trip).

So summed up, I hiked over 16 miles this week, white water rafted, jumped off a cliff, played with a husky sled team, and explored the other parts of Estes Park.

Oh, and I fed a chipmunk.

 

It's been a pretty good (exhausting) week! Week 4 promises even more. Stay tuned.