#EXPLOREMORE | Crested Butte, Colorado

 

A few weeks ago we celebrated Connor’s birthday by taking a weekend trip to the mountains. We packed the Jeep with camping gear, mountain bikes, and s’more provisions, fueled up with Starbucks iced lattes, and set out for our first destination: Hartman’s Rocks. This Gunnison trail system is one of our favorite places to mountain bike because of its flowy, fast trails with easy climbs and long descents.

We spent a few hours at Hartman’s and then made our way to Crested Butte. Upon arrival we ate orange dark chocolate ice cream at our favorite shop and then went in search of our campsite just outside of town. After settling in our spot right next to the river, we roasted brats over the fire (which took for.ev.errrr. because someone bought raw meat lol).

In the morning we hopped back on our bikes for a ride that took us deep into the changing Aspens, finishing in town. If you ever visit Crested Butte, you must fuel up with caffeine at Camp 4 Coffee as well as pizza at The Secret Stash. That’s exactly what we did. We partied extra hard and got a pizza with french fries on it…PRAISE THE LORD! After our bellies were chock full of coffee and pizza, we biked some more, this time climbing back into the mountains and finishing at our campsite. Our legs were jelly by this point, so we cracked open some ice-cold Coconut La Croix (we don’t really drink so this is our version of a “cold one” haha) and soaked our tired muscles in the freezing river.

When we visit Crested Butte we feel like we’re on a movie set or something. It’s a perfect little town with some of the BEST trails and views in Colorado. Each time we go, I make a little video about it using my iPhone (because it’s convenient and easy to carry while I’m biking). This year’s video was all shot on an iPhone SE without any external lenses. It obviously isn’t DSLR level, but I was pretty surprised with the quality. And I’m a firm believer that if you can’t make an entertaining video with an iPhone, you won’t be able to make one with a $6,000 DSLR or drone either. Story is king and gear is probably the last thing you should worry about. Anyway, for this video every frame was so beautiful and colorful that I decided to make it a kind of fluid Instagram feed, using popular adventure hashtags to inspire people to get outside. Hope you enjoy!

 

{great sand dunes}

Scenes from our backpacking trip in Great Sand Dunes National Park this summer.

(Canon Rebel T3i)
(Final Cut Pro)
(“Walking Lightly” by Junip)

life lately

{Listening} The Head and the Heart – Let’s Be Still

{Watching} The new season of Parks and Recreation. We think that this is one of the greatest TV shows of all time.

{Reading} A lot of healthy living blogs. My favorites are Wellness Mama and Mind Body Green.

{Dreaming} Vacationing to NC and SC in May

{Learning} How to cure my body’s numerous allergies naturally

{Planning} Becoming foster parents to rescued doggies! We’re doing this through Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue.

{Creating} A vitamin c face spray, homemade chapstick, and a new coffee mug that reminds me of my purpose on this earth.

{Working} Paying off all of our student loans by the end of 2014

{Drinking} Strong coffee blended with grass-fed butter and coconut oil (we use this recipe)

{Wearing} Trucker hats (I’ve never been girly and I’m not about to start now – sorry Mom!) 😉

{Exploring} Cheyenne Mountain State Park – where we came upon a bear while mountain biking and almost sheeeeet our pants

{Cooking} Homemade Magic Shell (one of our dear friends now thinks this is the greatest dessert recipe of all time – score!), Paleo chocolate chip cookies and sweet potato brownies, and microwave rosemary parmesan popcorn made in a brown paper bag (with olive oil or coconut oil)

{Stoked About} Summer and everything that comes with it. Sunshine, iced coffee, mountain biking, camping, exploring, shorts, Birkenstocks, outdoor soccer….

our favorites from 2013

Happy New Year! 2013 was our favorite year so far and we can’t wait to see what’s waiting for us in 2014! Below are a few highlights from our year.

Most Memorable Events:

1. Getting hitched on June 6, 2013!

2. Graduating from Colorado State University in May.

3. Honeymoon-ing in the Pacific Northwest.

4. Renting our first house as a married couple.

5. Learning how to mountain bike and getting a new bike.

5. Seeing The Oh Hello’s live in concert.

6. Eating donuts from this place.

7. Spending a weekend mountain biking and camping in Crested Butte, CO.

8. Summiting 14’er nos. 17 and 18: Quandary Peak and La Plata Peak.

9. Exploring Salida and Buena Vista and soaking in the Mount Princeton Hot Springs.

10. Watching Connor compete in his first Barr Trail Mountain Race and the Georgetown Half Marathon.

11. Getting a brand new baby nephew!

12. Making “batter” videos with our best friend.

Favorite Movies:

1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

3. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

4. Despicable Me 2

5. Oblivion

6. World War Z

7. Blackfish

8. The Butler

Favorite Songs:

1. Trees – The Oh Hello’s

2. The Lament of Eustace Scrubb – The Oh Hello’s

3. Lake Michigan – Rogue Wave

4. Far Away – Junip

5. Step Out – Jose Gonzales

6. Man on Fire – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

7. Lightning Bolt – Jake Bugg

8. Tesselate – alt J

9. The Burren – Ben Howard

10. Hold You In My Arms – Ray Lamontagne (our wedding song)

11. Gold – Wake Owl

12. Wild Country – Wake Owl

What We’re Most Looking Forward to in 2014:

1. Our trip to Asheville, NC, Charleston, SC, and the Great Smokies in May.

2. Our best friend’s wedding in June.

3. Mountain biking trips in the summer and fall.

4. Climbing more 14’ers.

5. Making our own kombucha.

6. Planning and saving for our future (tiny house? mountain town?…).

7. Possibly paying off the remainder of our student loans.

8. Fostering or adopting a dog.

9. Going on more backpacking and camping trips.

10. Learning to live more simply. Because the less we need, the better we feel.

{a farewell to summer}

A video from our trip to Crested Butte this weekend.

Insert future place of residence right here.

(All footage was taken on my iPhone 4S. I edited it in Final Cut.)

buena vista & salida

Last weekend Connor and I took a trip to Buena Vista and Salida. We packed up after work and drove 2 hours to our campsite just outside of Buena Vista on the shore of Twin Lakes. We woke up at 5:00 AM (well, Connor did – I woke up at 5:30 AM – STILL an accomplishment for this deep sleeper), ate brekky, and set out to climb a 14’er called La Plata. It ended up being one of the steepest and toughest 14’er’s yet. Six hours after starting our climb, we finished, and then immediately went to K’s Dairy Delite in B.V. to stuff our faces with our favorite burgers and fries.

After engorging ourselves, we soaked for hours in the creek at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, where Connor fell asleep with his head on a rock. We then headed to our next campsite, and were so pooped from our hike that we feel asleep after reading just a few pages of this awesome book.

As we were trying to pack up our stuff the next morning, a huge heard of cows came wandering into our campsite, which made us a a little nervous. We drove to Salida, drank some of the best/strongest coffee of our lives, and went mountain biking on Little Rainbow trail just outside of town. It was the shizzzz (even if I dropped a dozen or so F-bombs between miles 0 and 2). After our ride, we met my mom for lunch at Amica’s and filled our tummies to the brim with pizza and root beer. AWESOME. The rest of the day was spent shopping, exploring the town, hanging at the river walk, and of course EATING some more.

Overall, I’d say this was one of the coolest trips we’ve ever taken. A good reminder that there’s a whole heck of a lot to see and experience just outside of your back door.