Mud Season

The month of May was quiet around the streets of Breckenridge, so our staff took the opportunity to get away to Moab for a week.

It was warm, sunny and only slightly windy.

We biked. A lot.

The first trail was Amasa Back, where we met a friend.

He was a downhiller from California on his first cross country ride.

Then we hit the Slickrock trail. Some of us hit it more literally than others.

Andy going down the Slickrock trail

Brett on the Slickrock trail with the La Sals in the background

Brett and Greg lookin' tough

We camped next to the river with some beautiful  trees.

Which, unfortunately, held mass amounts of caterpillars:

We picked them out of tents, luggage, and Greg even had one crawl up his shorts.

We also kept camp with some ferocious dogs

Jasper and Lulu playing

A sunset hike in Arches National Park to Delicate Arch was a must.

Brett, me, and Andy in a hole with the sunset laden La Sals

And, of course, there was just general goofiness, because what is a day around The North Face Breckenridge without goofiness?

Love. Just plain love.

After Greg, Jacque, and Brett left, Andy and I did some more biking.

Takin a break at the top of the Sovereign trail

After a week, it was time to head home. We all had another week off.

Andy and I headed to Maine.

We got to spend most of our time here:

Andy's parent's camp

On this lake

I ate lobster for the first time

Eric, Andy's brother, me, Andy, and the lobsters in between us

Andy said, "You're going to put one in and I'm going to take a picture of it!"

It was a wonderful vacation. Thanks, Steve, Susan, and Pete for giving us some vacation time!

Snow, Parties, and Jackets

Main Street traffic has greatly decreased and the weather, well, the weather does what it always does. Sun, snow, rain, sun, rain...

We've been enjoying our couple of days of 50 degree heat- bringing out our shorts and sandals for the two hours a day it is warm enough and trying to ignore the snowy days, knowing they will eventually pass.

We had our annual end of the year party at Carter Park.

It was goregous and the food was wonderful, as were Steve's famous margaritas. They warned me ahead of time not to drink too many.

Japser and Margo photo op.

True to the North Face Breckenridge tradition, Greg, Brett, Margo, and I were matching in our Meru Paclites.

Really, Greg is just irresistable, even Brett thinks so.

Greg and I tested the jackets out about a month ago on a hut trip up on Vail Pass.

Before we left, a group of us decided to brave the 50+ mph winds and skin to the ridgeline.

Although it was windy, it was a gorgeous sunny day to be out.

Andy's comment was the best: beautiful conditions...no wind and the snow was so soft.

Vail Pass is behind me and off to the right are the mountains of Vail Ski Area

We enjoyed the view for about thirty seconds, then took off our skins, I wallowed in the snow for a couple of minutes, sunk to my hips in snow that I couldn't get out of to put my skis back on, and then skiied down a decent pitch to get a couple of turns in.

We ended up having to traverse some tight trees to get back to the hut. Although we snagged about fifty branches between the six of us and a couple of us almost lost our balance into some tree wells, the jacket looks like I've kept it in the packaging.

It is now in the "take" pile for our Moab trip.

Beautiful Miss Bucca

Much has gone on in the last week and I need to tell you about the bad news. Beautiful miss Bucca passed away last thursday, my best friend for the last 10 years. I adopted Sambucca when she was about 4 yerars old from a nice family in Belchertown Massachusets. Over the last 10 years she has been by my side keeping me company in a way only Bucca could do.

Bucca was starting to show her age and I do feel that it was her time to go. Instead of messing around with doctors and needles, Bucca found a nice little spot in the woods following a great hike to Lily Pad Lakes in Frisco, Colorado. I don't really blame her.

To make things a little better for me, Tony and I still took our trip to Fruita, Colorado and Moab Utah. Three days of mt. biking and one day on the road bike can do wonders for one's state-of-mind. Lets just say that the riding in Moab is much more technical than here in Summit County. Being rockstars, though, we tried everything we could and I only went over my handlebars once. Not bad.

To the top of Loveland Pass.....Fun in Moab

I have been pretty busy lately between work and a week long trip to the east coast. If you live in the right place and work for the right people, life can be pretty amazing. On Tuesday, Kelly and I decided to hurt ourselves and ride our road bikes from his house here in Breck to the top of Loveland Pass. It was a grueling 50 mile ride with plenty of elevation gain....I haven't done the math, but it was quite the climb. I do recommend it to anyone who loves to road bike, but since I hadn't been cycling in a couple weeks, maybe a couple 20 mile rides prior to this would have been a good idea!! Anywho, here's a picture of me at the top. Proof.

Our office manager, Tammy Chambers (who is amazing by the way) also got to have some fun lately. Tammy and her husband Dean and daughter Talon took their beautiful German Shepard to Moab for a nice little family camping trip. She said it was pretty hot and Gitmo couldn't get enough of the swimming.

As always, stop by The North Face Breckenridge in beautiful Summit County. We are located at 322 S. Main Street in Breckenridge. Also check out BreckGear.com and view all of our sale items as well as our NEW WINTER JACKETS!!!