So I am headed out for my final trip this year. I am headed to Glacier National Park for the next week (plus a few) with First Presbyterian Church of Houston, Texas. I am very excited for the trip in such a beautiful place! I hope that God has many things planned for us on this trip! This past week has been a mixture of work and play. We finished trip preparation early which allowed for us to have the last day and a half off. So yesterday afternoon I headed out with Bob Cruickshank to the South Platte river to do some Kayaking. I had the opportunity to run the most challenging river I have ever faced. I took a few swims but had a total blast and had my first successful run down a class 4 rapid (as well as some unsuccessful ones). I am very thankful to Bob and Lucas who took the newbie with them to the river. Today I spent the earlier part of the day doing some mountain biking in Curt Gowdy State Park with my good buddy Aaron Coleman. It was fantastic riding on some new trails we haven't had the chance to explore yet! Later Angela and I went out on a dinner date. So it's been a fun week and I will be out for a while starting tomorrow. Feel free to pray for me and the students who I will be instructing. After this trip Angela and I will stick in the area long enough to have some fun of our own and then we will be headed home! We miss you all and pray you are doing well! No pictures this time but on the next post maybe a link to some video of my mountain biking and paddling adventures from the last couple days. Love you all! See you soon!
Riley and Angela
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Wow that was fast.
So yeah it's a little quicker than normal but we are eating pie at Shari's diner and there is free Wi-fi. Not a whole lot to add today. This morning Angela began the day with a 4 or 5 mile bike ride followed by a two mile run. I made my ride to Centennial but not all the way back because Angela picked me up while I was on my way back so we could have time to go climbing. In total I did a fifty mile ride. The hills up here kill me. Something I am not used to. Angela and I did two climbs this evening one we have already done and then another that neither of us have tried. The second one was the most difficult climb Angela has ever attempted and she totally rocked and then cleaned the anchors and rappeled herself down. It was super impressive. After climbing, we joined some friends for dinner and are now having a piece of pie. So a well spent Saturday. I know your life has been changed by hearing about it. Well anyway. Love you all and hope you are doing well! See you in about 3 weeks!
Riley and Angela
P.S. No pictures from today
Riley and Angela
P.S. No pictures from today
Friday, July 13, 2012
Catching up
So it's been about a week since our last post, so we thought we should catch you (our faithful readers) up on our lives.
Angela: Lots of work. One of the other Program Support Coordinators is out of town so it has been pleasantly more busy lately. I have been taught how to use the magical box we call a computer and have therefore been tasked with printing off lots of forms and fielding phone calls from parents who swear they have filled this stuff out three times already! Today I was one of 4 people at work, the rest are in the field or on vacation. By the end of the day that number changed to one of 2 because we sent two guys into the Wind Rivers to pick up a kid from the field who had an old knee injury acting up. Other than work, I try to get in some exercise so my little sister doesn't whip my chili when I get back, and so I can do this tiny little triathlon next weekend.
Riley: So after getting back from my Pine Ridge trip I have had a comfortable bit of time off. Other than getting sick yesterday I have been filling in my alone time (while Angela is at work) by: Day 1- Riding Mtn Bikes with my good friend Aaron Coleman in Curt Gowdy State Park. Day 2- Getting the stereo fixed, which required driving to Fort Collins because Laramie doesn't know the words "car audio". On the same trip I ventured west to meet my buddy Evan Scrutchins from back home, in Estes Park, CO for lunch and then headed back to Laramie to pick Angela up from work. Day 3- Sick. Day 4- (today) I went up to the Snowy Range to do some fly fishing and was successful catching a good number of fish in an hours time. Tomorrow I plan to ride to Centennial, WY and back on my road bike. The ride is about 33 miles one way and then I have to ride back. This ride is hopefully in preparation for a ride all the way to Lake Marie in the Snowy Range which is about 47 miles one way with a large elevation increase on the way out. We'll see how things go.
Angela again: I will not be riding that far. Maybe to the coffee shop and back.
Riley again: Forgot to mention I went to do a nice multi-pitch climb with my good buddy David Laws. The climb was just 3 pitches (lengths of the rope) but offered every type of climbing from multiple types of crack climbing to friction and a gnarly chimney. It was a fun crack and we even got to see a moose on the hike back to the car.
Riley + Angela: We were blessed with the company of our friends Aaron and Cookie (aka Sarah) Coleman this last weekend. They drove up Sunday and we stayed up way too late catching up. Monday Sarah and I (Angela obviously) started our day with some yoga (much to Cookie's dismay, thanks for being a trooper) at the rec center. We then met up with the boys, checked some gear out from SROM, and went climbing at Vedauwoo. It was Aaron's first climbing experience, and maybe Cookie's first one she actually enjoyed... a little. They both did great. Riley conquered an extremely difficult route that none of the rest of us tried (mostly because if Riley set up an anchor for us and none of us made it to the top, which was likely, then he would have to climb it again to take the anchor down, which was too much trouble). And I asked Riley to teach me how to take the anchor down from the top of a climb and rappel myself down (in other words, I would be controlling my own rope instead of someone on the ground lowering me while I fussed at them rudely due to my barely-concealed terror). It worked well. I did it all without tears, with less rudeness to my loved ones, and it turns out I like lowering myself better than someone else lowering me. Something about being a control freak... From our climb we rushed back to Laramie for a bite to eat and then to Washington park for some ultimate frisbee. It's so easy to put together a game here. You just walk into SROM, say, "Hey, want to play ultimate tonight?" and 14 people show up. Fantastic. So we played for about an hour and a half until it was too dark to see the frisbee. Since we apparently had not done enough that day we decided to go see the new Spiderman. Good movie. I stayed awake through the whole thing. Tuesday I went back to work so we really have not been doing a whole lot together except eat and sleep. Hopefully tomorrow we can climb after I work. If Riley doesn't die on his bike. Or come back so tired he can't set up climbs for me. In which case I will mercilessly apply the guilt trip and make him come anyway.
Sum up: Lots of work. Riley leaves on his last course Wednesday. Angela's race is next Saturday. We love you all!
Angela: Lots of work. One of the other Program Support Coordinators is out of town so it has been pleasantly more busy lately. I have been taught how to use the magical box we call a computer and have therefore been tasked with printing off lots of forms and fielding phone calls from parents who swear they have filled this stuff out three times already! Today I was one of 4 people at work, the rest are in the field or on vacation. By the end of the day that number changed to one of 2 because we sent two guys into the Wind Rivers to pick up a kid from the field who had an old knee injury acting up. Other than work, I try to get in some exercise so my little sister doesn't whip my chili when I get back, and so I can do this tiny little triathlon next weekend.
Riley: So after getting back from my Pine Ridge trip I have had a comfortable bit of time off. Other than getting sick yesterday I have been filling in my alone time (while Angela is at work) by: Day 1- Riding Mtn Bikes with my good friend Aaron Coleman in Curt Gowdy State Park. Day 2- Getting the stereo fixed, which required driving to Fort Collins because Laramie doesn't know the words "car audio". On the same trip I ventured west to meet my buddy Evan Scrutchins from back home, in Estes Park, CO for lunch and then headed back to Laramie to pick Angela up from work. Day 3- Sick. Day 4- (today) I went up to the Snowy Range to do some fly fishing and was successful catching a good number of fish in an hours time. Tomorrow I plan to ride to Centennial, WY and back on my road bike. The ride is about 33 miles one way and then I have to ride back. This ride is hopefully in preparation for a ride all the way to Lake Marie in the Snowy Range which is about 47 miles one way with a large elevation increase on the way out. We'll see how things go.
Angela again: I will not be riding that far. Maybe to the coffee shop and back.
Riley again: Forgot to mention I went to do a nice multi-pitch climb with my good buddy David Laws. The climb was just 3 pitches (lengths of the rope) but offered every type of climbing from multiple types of crack climbing to friction and a gnarly chimney. It was a fun crack and we even got to see a moose on the hike back to the car.
Riley + Angela: We were blessed with the company of our friends Aaron and Cookie (aka Sarah) Coleman this last weekend. They drove up Sunday and we stayed up way too late catching up. Monday Sarah and I (Angela obviously) started our day with some yoga (much to Cookie's dismay, thanks for being a trooper) at the rec center. We then met up with the boys, checked some gear out from SROM, and went climbing at Vedauwoo. It was Aaron's first climbing experience, and maybe Cookie's first one she actually enjoyed... a little. They both did great. Riley conquered an extremely difficult route that none of the rest of us tried (mostly because if Riley set up an anchor for us and none of us made it to the top, which was likely, then he would have to climb it again to take the anchor down, which was too much trouble). And I asked Riley to teach me how to take the anchor down from the top of a climb and rappel myself down (in other words, I would be controlling my own rope instead of someone on the ground lowering me while I fussed at them rudely due to my barely-concealed terror). It worked well. I did it all without tears, with less rudeness to my loved ones, and it turns out I like lowering myself better than someone else lowering me. Something about being a control freak... From our climb we rushed back to Laramie for a bite to eat and then to Washington park for some ultimate frisbee. It's so easy to put together a game here. You just walk into SROM, say, "Hey, want to play ultimate tonight?" and 14 people show up. Fantastic. So we played for about an hour and a half until it was too dark to see the frisbee. Since we apparently had not done enough that day we decided to go see the new Spiderman. Good movie. I stayed awake through the whole thing. Tuesday I went back to work so we really have not been doing a whole lot together except eat and sleep. Hopefully tomorrow we can climb after I work. If Riley doesn't die on his bike. Or come back so tired he can't set up climbs for me. In which case I will mercilessly apply the guilt trip and make him come anyway.
Brookie caught in North Gap Lake in the Snowy Range
Another one
Coming down from setting the anchors
This is me rappelling myself down. Apparently I am building up my supply of pictures of my butt. I think this is a nice one.
Alces alces seen on the way back to the car
Sum up: Lots of work. Riley leaves on his last course Wednesday. Angela's race is next Saturday. We love you all!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Pine Ridge
So I am back from my first trip as an instructor this summer! It was an awesome time and I had a blast! The trip was with students from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. We had six students in all if you include the group's leader. Our trip started with a climbing section in Vedauwoo. The student's struggled a bit the first day in a friction climbing area called the clamshell. On day two however every single student topped out a climb in brown's landing, another area in vedauwoo. I was so proud of our students! Considering none of them had previous climbing experience and one had a severe fear of heights. It was awesome to see them push beyond what they thought they could do. After day two we moved to the Snowy Range. The Snowies sadly lack snow this year but it made travel easier for our young group who had a hard time with 5 days worth of gear and food in their bags as it was. Day one and two in the snowies were travel days. Each day had beautiful weather and impressive views. Day three brought the real fun however. We took our students up Medicine Bow peak which is the highest peak in the snowy range. There was some struggling on the way up but the reward was worth it to them. The view on top of Med-Bow is beautiful and the students were super proud of their accomplishments. After our peak ascent we made our way back down camp by 1:30 and spent the afternoon chilin' a bit. Some students used their time for taking naps. I took a nice swim in one of the many lakes near our camp and then spent the rest of the afternoon fishing. I caught 4 brookies in the unnamed lake we were camped near! Two of them I landed at the same time ( I was using a dry fly as a strike indicator along with a sinking fly called a nimph, my dry got hit first and then my nimph as I was fighting the first fish! Made for a really good fight)! After fishing we made dinner for the last night and the next day packed up and hiked back out to the van. After a total of six days out, the students seemed pretty fried, but all in all they all seemed to love the experience! I know I enjoyed! Since then I have been hangin with Angela. On the fourth we hit a barbeque with some friends and friends of friends. It's been super fun! Headed out to do some multi-pitch climbing in Vedauwoo in the morning! Take a look at the pics below! Love you all!
-Riley
Chilin' by North Twin Lakes
Getting ready to set up the Clamshell
Camp #1 in the Snowy Range
Brown's Landing face in Vedauwoo
Marmot
View from Medicine Bow Peak
On Medicine Bow Peak
The Brookies I caught at the same time! Not very formidable individually but when they teamed up it was a fun fight. I think I have found larger fish in a sardine can though.
Campsite #2 in the snowies
FYI: would have loved to post some pictures of my group but as they are minors and this is my personal blog and not a SROM sanctioned site, I am pretty sure I can't do that so...sorry.
-Riley
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