Dad's Work Visit

My dad has been planning to come to the cabin for a work visit since the whole family came in March. He came in Thursday the 12th, on my real last day of work at Loveland. As always, it was great to see my dad, but we worked pretty steadily until he left on Sunday. We got a lot done in three days.

We shampooed all the carpets, replaced all the corner tiles in the bathtub, as well as many of the broken wall tiles (the shower looks the best it's looked in years), removed the desk and crappy chair from my parents' room (which opened up the room a lot), replaced the fake window in their room with a full size mirror (that makes the room seem a lot larger, too), and repaired the fence in the areas it had been damaged by building the addition and the moron that ran into it. The fence looks great, now.


We also had a bit of an adventure in the Jeep... Saturday afternoon, after we had finished all the work, we decided to go check out a Jeep trail that I've been wanting to explore. It turns out there was way more snow on the trail than we expected for the middle of May. I aired the tires down to attempt a particularly sketchy section. Without snow, it would have been an unimpressive section of the trail. But, there were one foot deep, packed, frozen snow drifts on the uphill side of the trail that made it quite treacherous. I drove the jeep into a drift on a steeper section of the trail and the tires on the right side dug into the snow and started spinning. I don't have lockers or a limited slip diff in the rear, so I was essentially in two wheel drive. During my first attempt through that drift, the rear end of the Jeep slid about two feet to the left (towards the edge of the trail and down the mountain). My dad and I spent two hours digging out the snow bank to try and get the wheels some traction, but each time I tried to move it, the back end of the Jeep slid a little closer to the edge of the trail. We used the ax I keep on top of my Jeep to chop a dead tree and placed it on the downhill side of the trail where the back of the Jeep was sliding towards. We piled a few small logs, then lots of rocks inside the tree to widen the trail about two feet and raise it about two feet. Turns out that was a good move because by the time we figured out we weren't going to be able to dig the Jeep out, the rear end had slid to within about a foot of the tree we chopped to build up the trail.

I forgot to mention that about the time we got stuck, it started dumping snow. It was a heavy, wet snow that made everything extremely slick. We had thoughts about about leaving the Jeep on the trail and walking out, then coming back to get it after the snow had melted. The forecast for the rest of the week was calling for more snow, so I knew we had to get it out then.

Another unfortunate twist of fate was that I had taken the hand winch out of my Jeep that afternoon to lubricate it. It was soaked in PB Blaster, so I left it in the shed, not expecting to be doing any real 4-wheeling that day. Turns out that was a mistake. I called my friends that live in Silver Plume and asked them to come help us, making sure to pick up my hand winch on their way here. There was no way they'd find us on the trail and my buddy drives a stock 4wd Pathfinder so I wasn't even sure he'd be able to get up the trail. After I called him, I started walking down the mountain to meet them at the beginning of the trail. My dad stayed with the Jeep to keep digging out the snowbank. He also started a fire (using the emergency kit I keep in the Jeep - good call) which was great because we were soaking wet and cold. It helped keep moral up and probably kept me from getting frostbite in my fingers.

The trail had almost four inches of fresh snow on it as I walked down to meet my friends (with the exception of the snow drifts, the trail was dry when we first started). After about two miles of walking, I found them, they picked me up, and we headed back toward my Jeep. It was snowing so hard that as we drove back up the mountain, my foot prints from a half hour earlier had been completely covered and weren't even visible. We made it to within about a mile of my Jeep in his Pathy, grabbed the hand winch and an extra shovel, then started hiking up to it.

The recovery of the Jeep was a tedious mission. It took every bit of recovery equipment I had and then some to get her back straight on the trail. We attached two 20' straps to trees up the mountain (perpendicular to the Jeep). We hooked the hand winch to the rear of the Jeep to pull it back onto the trail. To keep the front of the Jeep from sliding off the trail as we pulled the rear end, we had to attach straps to the front of the Jeep, too. But, I didn't have enough recovery straps. So, we had to double up my cargo straps and use them to tie off the front end. First we winched the rear of the Jeep back onto the trail, then tied off the rear end and used the hand winch to pull the front of the Jeep back onto the trail. It took a while, but after some very careful hand winching we were able to roll the Jeep (while still attached to the winch and front recovery straps) down the trail and off of the snow drift.

I felt better once we got the Jeep straightened up and back on the trail, but it wasn't over, yet. It had snowed over five inches since we'd gotten stuck and there were no turn arounds for half a mile down the trail. We loaded the Jeep up, put out the fire, then set off down the trail. My dad and two friends walked down the trail spotting for me as I backed the Jeep down, very slowly, the wheels sliding as much as they were spinning. I was pretty nervous backing the Jeep down, but it went pretty smoothly. Until another snow drift sent the front end of the Jeep sliding off the trail, down the mountain. I braced for impact, but the Jeep stopped inches from a tree and the drop off in the trail. Another round of hand winching and the Jeep was once again straight on the trail and we continued backing down. The drive down the rest of the trail was uneventful, though we had to move very slowly and the frequent slipping reminded me how little control I had in the snow.

From the time we got stuck to the time we hit pavement again, about four hours had elapsed and six inches of snow had fallen. I didn't take the time to take any pictures because darkness was coming and we were racing against the snow to get the Jeep out as quickly as possible. A warm shower, hot pizza, and cold beer were never more appreciated.

All told, the only damage to the Jeep is a slightly bent front tow hook support. Considering all that could have gone wrong, it was a very successful recovery mission.

EDIT: Here are pictures I took when I went back to the site after all the snow had melted. This picture shows where we filled in the side of the trail with rocks and the ashes from the fire my Dad made.


Here's a better look at the tree we chopped and rocks we used to fill in the side of the trail.

Loveland Closing

I'm a little behind on the blog, but things were kind of hectic here for the first few weeks of May. Loveland closed May eighth and the last couple weeks of work there were pretty crazy. It snowed almost every day, so we were constantly shoveling snow. I was pretty worn out after every day of work. We had accumulated 568 inches of snow by closing day, just four inches shy of the record of 572 inches. Needless to say, it was a great season for Loveland.

After Loveland closed, I was officially out of a job. I did manage to pick up some part time work there, though. Loveland is replacing chair lift 4 this summer and work on that began two days after Loveland closed. I was hired to work three ten hour days to help remove the chairs from lift 4. The first day of work went well. The weather was great and we removed chairs at about twice the rate that we were expected to. The next two days were a different story. It snowed twenty inches over the next two days. Work was miserable. We were constantly walking through deep snow and being snowed on. I come home cold, wet, and tired at the end of each day. We did manage to get all the chairs off of the haul rope and finish several other projects with the extra time we had.

The heavy snowfall did create some hassles for us, though. We were supposed to take the chairs from the lift down to the parking lot to lock them up using a Chevy 2500 HD with a gooseneck flatbed trailer. The snowcats and a large front loader had plowed a road for us but it was sketchy, to say the least. They dug through the snow down to the ground, leaving six to ten foot high walls of snow on either side of the road (that's just how deep the snowpack was. Where they piled the snow, it went up 20-30 feet). The first day, the road was fine and we managed to get one trailer load of chairs down the mountain. We left the truck up the mountain that night, ready to be loaded with chairs first thing in the morning. Because it had been so warm that day, a lot of snow melted and the water ran across the road. That night it froze on our makeshift road and snowed nine inches. The front loader scraped the snow off the road, but it was still extremely slick. Even the front loader was sliding around while working (its tires are about five feet tall). We made one attempt to take a load of chairs down the mountain but didn't make it very far. We slid backwards down the first incline we tried. Luckily, the trailer ran into a snowbank, stopping the whole rig and keeping us from jackknifing. They had to use a snowcat to push the truck and trailer up the hill. Then the whole rig slid down a banked turn and put some nice dents in the truck while the snowcat pushed it along a snowbank. We got that load down the mountain, but didn't attempt to take any more chairs down the rest of the week.

Loveland keeps recording snowfall until May 15th (I'm not sure exactly why). With that big snow storm, they broke their snowfall record handily, finishing the season with 593 inches of snow (over 49 feet). So I worked a record season.

After those three long days of tough work in the snow, I was ready for a break. But my week didn't end there.

Spring in the Mountains

Spring has pretty much been non existent up here so far. Since the end of March, it's basically snowed every day. We've had a few nice days, but not many. Loveland is up to 568 inches of snow for the season (keep in mind that my primary job is to shovel snow). That's over 47 feet of snow. We're on our way to a snowfall record. The previous record is 572 inches in the '95-'96 season. I'm pretty confident we'll beat that.

I am ready for spring, though. Today is one of the first nice days we've had in a long time. It's sunny and in the 50s and feels great out. I'm definitely ready to get outside and do some hiking and camping.

Easter

I went back to Kentucky for easter to visit my family and friends. I got into Louisville Saturday evening and went straight to Los Aztecas to eat with everyone. It had been a long time since I'd been to Los and it had changed quite a bit. The service wasn't as good and the menu had changed. There's no longer an a la carte menu, which is what I normally order off of. We also went home and shot my brother's homemade AR-15. It's a lot of fun to shoot.


Saturday night, I hung out with my friends. It was great to see my good friends from Louisville again, but it reminded me that I hadn't been home in eight months, which is much too long. I'm looking forward to my trip back to Louisville this summer, when I'll have more time to hang out with everyone.

Sunday consisted of the usual easter traditions: church, egg hunt, lamb dinner with the family. We added one, though. My older brother and my Dad both recently bought 9mm pistols. My Dad got a Glock and my brother got a Beretta. So, Sunday we went out in the rain (we went under a lean-to in one of our pastures) and shot both hand guns and the AR-15. It was a lot of fun, and now I have an itch for a gun.

Monday I went flying with my dad to get some instrument practice in. It had been over eight months since I'd flown, so It was good to log some hours. We flew several approaches at Clark County and Bowman Field, then landed just before a wave of thunderstorms rolled in.

I came back to Colorado Tuesday afternoon. It was a short trip, but it was great to see my family and friends again. It rained the entire time I was there, which was pretty lame. Hopefully when I go back in the summer, the weather will be decent.