We kicked off our first full winter season in Colorado today with an early morning snowshoe trip up to Montgomery Pass off Highway 14. Christian and Becky met us at the house around 6am, and we carpooled up along the Cache la Poudre. We were a little worried along the way that there might not be good snow, but we had good reports from a friend that the snow would be great. Not far from Cameron Pass the snow came on quick, and we found about 3′ of powder at the trail head.

We met up with Charity and Clint at the trail head, along with Deuce and Louie. Our total route was around 4 miles round trip.

It was cold and windy above treeline, but very pleasant in the forest. We had a great time!

See more photos from this trip at: Photos.mainelife.net

Thanks to Pops for giving up his childhood train so the Bibeau’s can continue to Christmas Tree Train tradition!

Today we made a trek up to Rist Vue Ranch along Rist Canyon Road for our Christmas Tree. A co-worker had recommended this place for cutting our own tree. It was fun to drive around on logging roads and cut our own; almost as much fun as cutting it off our own land (next year!).

Erin helped in the selection process

Oscar and Anna took advantage of their free reign of the forest

Our Element had no problem navigating the forest roads with ease

And so we got the tree home and here it is!

Earlier this year, I woke up one morning wondering what fun trip we could do that our dogs could participate in. We’ve done lots of road trips, and they get old and tiring. I wanted something relaxing that everyone could enjoy. For some reason, canoeing came immediately to mind. I started searching the web for a week long trip within easy driving of Colorado. The Upper Missouri River was one of my first finds, and I immediately decided we would do it! When Erin woke up, I relayed my excitement and the details of our trip, and she came on board.
First obstacle? A canoe! At first, we thought about renting one from a guide company in Fort Benton. After looking on Craigslist and eBay, it became apparent that we could probably own a canoe for the same price as renting. An ebay win brought me to Grand Junction, where I picked up our new (to us) Wenonah Sundowner 18, tuffweave canoe.
Months of planning, accumulating maps, drybags, dinner recipes, …. We finally left Fort Collins for our trip on August 20th, 2010. The drive to Fort Benton took us 13 hours, half of Friday and most of Saturday. We hit the river late Saturday afternoon and made camp at river mile 4.5R on private land :(. But oh, the fun we were already having! Canoeing is for the Bibeau family!
For 7 days and 6 nights, we paddled the first 89 miles of the Upper Missouri River, stopping along the way to view scenic Lewis & Clark sites, abandoned homesteads, hikes, and relaxation. Our campsites were:
Night 1: River Mile 4.5R Private land, about 1 mile short of our goal of Evan’s Bend
Night 2: Wood Bottom
Night 3: Coal Banks Landing
Night 4: Eagle Creek
Night 5: Hole in the Wall
Night 6: Slaughter River
Our canoe performed better than we could have expected, especially for two novice canoe-ers with 2 novice canoe dogs. No tips, nothing got too wet, we’re ready to do the Green River next year! And, we met lots of really nice folks along the way.

Today, at a local market where we get our groceries, I noticed a large garbage can next to the corn display. People can shuck their corn on the spot and toss the husks into the can. I found a produce employee and asked what they did with all the husks, thinking I might take a bag home for the compost bin. She told me that they compost it via the local garbage company. I’m not sure how the garbage company does the composting, or what they do with the finished product. Before I got to ask her for some to take home, she offered a box of lettuce that was bound for the compost bin. I graciously took it. When I got it out to the car and started looking at it, I realized there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the lettuce. Most of it looks like it had fallen off the bunch and some didn’t look beautiful and presentable, but it was all good. I picked through and took out what I thought we could eat, then gave a huge bag to our neighbor. The rest, I’m afraid, eventually made it to the composter. What a waste! Imagine if the poor people of Larimer County had access to that food (actually, they apparently do, they just don’t know to ask). Such amazing produce goes to waste, and that was just one box of food from one store in one city in……

Well, it’s been 18 days so far since we left California, and so far the road trip has been great fun! We’ve been through 14 states in those 18 days. Some of them have been dead sprints, while others we’ve meandered through. Colorado and Utah were awesome, and we could spend much more time there. We have mostly been staying in cheap hotels, since camping in November kinda sucks. It’s dark by 5pm, and it’s cold! We did camp in a couple of really great places, and we plan to camp in the Keys. We had a chance to stop in Santa Fe, NM to see Jess, Franklin, N.C. to see Charlie and Linda, Raleigh, N.C. to see Ani, Pedro, Courtney, Greg, Addison, Braden and Peyton. We’ll spend the next week in Florida before heading to Beaufort, S.C. to have Turkey with the in-laws.

More photos can be seen at: my Facebook page!

Yesterday we finished up with everything in Fort Collins and headed for the Denver Airport to drop off mom-in-law. From there, we stopped in downtown Denver, where Erin had lunch with some environmental folks. After lunch, we headed for Veil and Minturn, where a friend from Alaska is living. We had a great pizza dinner in “downtown” Minturn, and then the real adventure began. We pulled out of Minturn after dark and decided to head over Cottonwood Pass as a “shortcut” to Aspen so that we might find some good camping. Without a real map, we did not find the road we were looking for, but instead wandered 22 miles down muddy, snowy roads into the middle of nowhere. The Element handled everything pretty good, but was definitely struggling with the mud. At some point we realized the road was getting smaller and covered with more snow, and decided to turn around. It was about 10pm by the time we rolled into Glenwood Springs and decided to splurge on a dive hotel for the night.