Baby, it's COLD outside.

I'm REALLY trying hard to make friends with winter.

I think I may have been meant to live near the ocean. I love to swim, feel the warm sun on my exposed skin and hunt for shade if it gets too warm. I lived on Newport beach for 6 months or so and really enjoyed it. I sure didn't enjoy the crowds and insanity that seemed to come along with it. But, on Newport Beach, I never once had to scrape sun off of my car windshield or shovel sun off of my sidewalk.

Be that as it may, here I am. Smack Dab in the middle of cold country, in the dead of winter.

I have been trying to land on an activity that puts me outside in the snow with a smile on my face. That's no small feat, I dislike skiing, snowmobiling and ice climbing. They all take too much gear and are more than I want to invest in. I was thinking about the gentle art of snowshoeing. I spoke to my friend Jimbo and asked if he had some shoes that I could buy, he said, "Steve, I have just the thing. I bought some snowshoes about ten years ago, used them once, and will NEVER go again. It was torture".

So . . . there you have it.

I had the snowshoes and actually looked at them with intention last year but didn't have the gumption to try them. So I stored them away safely where they wouldn't hurt anyone.

This year I have actually been snowshoeing a few times and let me tell you . . . it's not much fun at all. It's like taking a very strenuous trudge through ridiculously deep snow in freezing cold temperatures for no good reason at all. AND, even with the snowshoes on I still sink nearly up to my knees in the snow.

There's no real payoff in snowshoeing, it's just a long walk in a circle in adverse conditions.

Maybe I'm missing something?

Mating Rituals of Large Primates in the San Juan Mountains.

You guys want to hear a funny story? First off let me introduce my dad and set the stage a bit. The man you see in the pictures is my dad, I took these a couple summers ago when he and I hiked to Hope Lake. Those of you familiar with the San Juan National Forest will recognize Lizard Head Peak in the background of the top pic.


When we hiked it the first time we were caught in a lightning storm and subsequent hail storm that would seriously put the fear of God in anyone. The lightning was hitting the rocks everywhere around us, and when the lightning stopped, the hail started. We crawled into a bush in the middle of a pile of rocks, being above timberline that was the only "shelter" we could find and waited for the hail to quit, when it had finally stopped, we walked down the trail soaking wet sloshing through 8 inches of marble sized hail.



I was pretty worried being up that high, A few feet over 13,ooo, especially with my dad who's in his 70's, and being so far from the car, about 5 miles and 3000 vertical feet. But he had a big smile on his face and when we got to the car he was no worse for the wear. Suffice it to say we didn't get any pictures taken or have any time to enjoy the scenery. We decided to give it a try another day.


Well, the day these pictures were taken "perfect" fails to describe the day we had. The temperature was great, the sun was shining, it was like being in a postcard all day.

We had a great hike up to the lake, but the last 400 yards is a killer, it's up and over a steep granite peak, and being right at the end of a strenuous hike it was a real killer. We got to the lake and spent a couple hours hanging around, fishing, talking and exploring when we decided it was probably time to head down. During our stay I had scouted a route that was far easier than the up and over the granite peak trail.

We headed off on my new found route which was really quite a breeze. It meandered around the base of the peak and met up with the trail where it entered the timber. Along the way my trail lead us to the top of a little cliff, probably about 200 feet high or so. I looked over the edge waiting for my dad to catch up when I saw a young couple enjoying nature, and when I say enjoying nature I mean REALLY enjoying nature. It was a scene straight out of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom meets Cirque de Solei.

When I realized what I was seeing, I took a few steps back up the hill to give them some privacy and maybe prevent my dad from taking in the NC17 floor show. It was too late, dad had already been mooned. He stood on the edge of the cliff for a second squinting hard at the action below, then he turned to me and said, "What in the hell is that guy doing down there, it looks like he's naked and jumping up and down on something?" I said, "I don't know dad, people do some crazy things these days". With that, my dad seemed content and began following me to the trail again.

We get a couple hundred yards down the trail when I hear my dad bust out laughing, I turn around to see what was up and he says, "OH, That's what they were doing." We sat down on the trail and had a real belly laugh. When we finally got back to the car that evening we saw the young couple getting ready to get in their car and leave. Of cousre dad had to say something . . . he said, "So, did you two have a good time". They smiled at one another and said, "We had a great time".

With that we called it a day, and what a day it turned out to be.