Long's Peak - 14,259 ft.

This is the trail that never ends,

and it goes on and on my friends,

some people started hiking it not knowing what it was,

and then they kept on hiking it forever just because,

this is the trail that never ends...

No joke, this was the song going through my head as we hiked Long's Peak about a month ago.  A group of us decided to take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to take on one of the more intense 14er hikes (or climbs as the website states that this is NOT a hike).  Since it is such a LONG journey and you want to get up and down before the threat of afternoon storms, it requires a very early start.  We decided to start the journey at midnight so that we could summit at sunrise.  That meant half of the hike would be in the dark, an added element.  How it is that 11 of us decided that this would be a good idea still baffles me, but we did.  I'm quite certain that I only agreed to this because of complete ignorance about what I was about to get myself into.  So after a full day of work and no sleep we layered up, packed our gear, and headed for the trail head.

Adrenaline was flowing and Gabe was pumped! 

Starting elevation - only 4,854 ft to go

 Like I said, the ascent was in the dark, so I don't have many pictures to show on the way up.  We were blessed with not only a full moon, but a blue moon.  We just barely squeezed in the second full moon of the month.  The view was surprisingly beautiful in the light of the moon, but my camera would not capture it.

Every picture just turned out like this.  Imagine the peaks
are right in front of me.

We took the Keyhole Route.  It consists of a series of named segments, which I found to accurately describe the terrain.  The first major segment is called the Boulder Field.  I really enjoyed this segment because it is just a field full of Boulders and you just do the best you can to make your way from kairn to kairn.

Loved the privy sign and loved that there actually was a
privy above treeline.   It's always so tricky to find a good
place.

That's one giant kairn!

The privy!  Don't get down wind of that :)

Across the Boulder Field, you make your way to the Keyhole.

Up to this point it was all great.  The trail had been long, but bouldering is a lot of fun.  Little did I know that the real adventure and challenge lay ahead.  After you go through the Keyhole you begin the Ledges.  You must locate the first of a series of red and yellow ‘bull’s eyes’ markings indicating the best route to and from the summit. We then traveled across a series of very narrow ledges along a cliff edge.

In the dark we didn't even realize what a ledge we were on.

Not much room for error.

 When you make it across the Ledge you come to the Trough.  It is a broad gully full of loose rocks.  If anyone accidentally causes a rock fall you can here them yelling "Rocks!"  That means protect your head.  Again, climbing it in the dark made it even more fun to figure out where the next bull's eye was.  At the top of the Trough I encountered my first tricky climb.  Then we were on to The Narrows.  The Narrows crosses a sheer rock face on a narrow ledge.  This is the section everyone talks about wanting to make it across before other people start to come down from the summit.  That ledge just ain't big enough for two.  This is also the section when I began to fear for my life.  The temperature had dropped significantly, so I was already shaking due to the cold.  Then the sun began to lighten up the sky so I could actually see what danger I was in.

Following The Narrows, I came to The Homestretch.  The Homestretch is a polished granite slab that requires you to scramble up on hands and feet. 

The Homestretch

 Let me tell you, I was hugging that mountain.  My whole body was trembling and I thought I might slide down the polished slab at any time.  The snow was melting and running down so I was also getting wet, adding to the coldness.  You're probably thinking that a smart person would just turn around, and you're probably right.  But I could see the summit and out of stubbornness I was determined to make it there.  Also, other people were scrambling up past me like it was not big deal, so I felt like maybe I was just overreacting and being a chicken.  

I eventually got on a good path and made it to the top.  Whew!  But I did not feel very relieved knowing that I still had to make it back down.  I was only half way through the journey.  I did enjoy the summit as much as possible though.  It was a wide boulder-filled summit and beautifully sunny.

Almost there...

Hooray!!!  I'm on top of the world!

Each mountain peak offers a different breath-taking view

Smoke from all the wild fires was still hanging in the air

Yes, mango made it to the top!  This time I tried
mango coconut water.  Delicious!

The Summit group

We didn't hang out up there for long.  The wind made it pretty frigid and we wanted to get down as fast as possible.  We would soon find out that fast as possible was still too long.  We started dreaming up ways that we could construct an easier method of descent.  We were dreaming up slides, ziplines, and carts on tracks. Unfortunately those things are not yet options.  My only option was to slide my way down The Homestretch, shimmy across The Narrows, crab walk down the Trough and slide across the Ledge to the Keyhole.  I could no longer trust my legs to hold me up, so I used my arms to lower myself down from every rock.  That's what you call a total body workout.

I made it down!

Now on to the Keyhole

With the sun up we could then take in the views and see what we had traversed on the way up.

Gorgeous landscape!

This mountain had a different look from many of the others
I've hiked.

That means the worst is behind us.  Hallelujah! 

When you come back through the Keyhole, you get a
great view of the Boulder Field.

This is where people can camp if they want to break up the
climb into 2 days.

This little marmot was certainly aware of that.  He was way
too comfortable with humans and tried to snatch our food.

From there it was just a long, long, long descent on a trail that I thought would never end.  I think we were all hallucinating towards the end.  We all kept thinking we saw the parking lot below us.  At one point we calculated that we should be finished in about 30 minutes.  An hour later, we were still dragging on.  One thing that helped me was remembering that I heard a waterfall at the beginning of the hike.  I was looking forward to seeing that in the daylight.  

I think we look pretty good for being sleep deprived and
far beyond any exhaustion I've ever known.

There's that waterfall I heard 13 hours ago

14 hours after we started, we were finally back at the cars.  The trail actually did end despite how it seemed at times.  I was seriously just thankful to still be alive.  That was one of the best and worst hikes I've ever done.  And I will never do it again.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime adventure.

We all survived!

Just a few days ago I came across an article that made me feel totally justified in feeling terrified for my life.  I am not just a chicken.  Haha!  Here it is if you want to check it out:

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/outdoor-skills/survival/Hike-Keyhole-Route-Longs-Peak-Colorado.html

Lesson learned:  Do your research before you climb a mountain.  But then again, I think we would miss out on a lot things if we always knew how hard it was going to be.  I guess there should be a balance as is the case with so many things in life.

STRIVE Prep

I'm already 3 weeks in to teaching 8th grade.  Hard to believe!  We had training for the 3 weeks prior to the first day with students too.  I must say it has been a long 6 weeks.  So much has happened in that amount of time that it feels like it must have been longer than that.
The good news is that I'm really enjoying my new job and new grade level.  It turns out I like working with middle schoolers.  Who would have thought?!?!  I may be bias, but I think I have a pretty incredible group of 8th graders.  I wish you could all meet them and hear the way they talk.  They have big dreams and goals that I love to hear them talk about.  They're motivated, working hard, and getting ready for college!  Sure they're still 13 and 14 year olds with a lot of attitude, but it keeps the job entertaining and interesting every day.
The school itself is such a nice change from previous teaching experience.  My administration is supportive.  That's hard to find!  I look forward to having them in my classroom.  I already feel like they've helped me become a better teacher.  My fellow teachers are also so much fun to work with.  They too help me become a better teacher because they are all great teachers themselves.  Everyone is there because they want to be there and they care about our students.  What a great environment to work in every day.  Sure we still work way too much, but at least we are having fun together.

A new sign for our new name.  We were formerly
West Denver Prep.

We share the campus with North High School

My desk with a good amount of space and a window that lets
me wave at everyone as they arrive :)

The rest of the office from my desk.  We each have our own
cart to carry all of our materials to our classrooms.
It's pretty funny to see us all strolling through the hallways.

The first day of school was August 13th.  Our dress code is professional.  Guys wear dress shirts and ties.  Women are suppose to wear the equivalent.  I decided it would be important to set a serious tone in the beginning, so I went with my most professional look.  I did not want them to take me lightly.

1st Day of School 2012

Ms. Eastup - 8th Grade Algebra Teacher

I love that I only teach math every day.  Algebra is so useful for life and I'm excited to get to show that to my students.  Each teacher also gets to teach an Enrichment class in the afternoon.  Students get to choose what they want to do and it is like their PE elective.  This 6 weeks I'm teaching ZUMBA!  It's a great break in the day where we get to just dance away.  My girls were a little shy at first being a little self-conscious that other people are seeing them dance.  But they're starting to get into it, and we're having a blast!  On Thursday they actually asked me if they could perform a dance in front of the rest of the school.  We'll see where that goes.
I have also decided to bring a little happiness and fun to the office by celebrating as many random holidays as I can.  So far we've had S'more Day, Just Because Day, Toasted Marshmallow Day, and Trail Mix Day.  They're all actual holidays on the calendar.  It's amazing to me how little things can make such a big difference in someone's day.

Homemade marshmallows

I'll work on getting some more stories to share because I daily have stories to tell.  Look forward to more from 8th grade soon!

Boulder Fun

When you make the drive to Boulder, the first thing you will probably notice is the Flatirons.  They are quite an amazing view as you top the hill to come into town.  I get to see them out my window every day, but a few weekends ago I got the chance to hike the Flatirons with some new teacher friends.  We decided to make it a whole Boulder day!  I was told it would just be about a 30 minute hike, really casual, so I didn't really prepare for a hike.  It turned into a couple of hours or more and some pretty good blisters on my feet. It was worth it though.  The trail was nice, the views were magnificent, and I was not going to complain about some good outdoor time after being trapped inside for training for 3 weeks.

A little bouldering - my favorite type of climbing

Kyrsten & Doug

A cool side view of one of the flatirons

Checking out the view from one of the outlooks

While sitting here at this outlook, a couple of guys came rock climbing up the side.  The man then proceeded to do a photo shoot of us.  Apparently we made some nice silhouettes.  Haha!

We also had a little furry friend join us.  He had obviously been around quite a few humans.

We continued on up the the 1st flatiron for some more views.

Standing on the 1st flatiron, with the 2nd in the
background

Aren't rock formations amazing?

Everyone told us that the 2nd flatiron was just a little further up the trail.  Of course if we had already made it that far, we figured we should finish and make it to the top of the 2nd.  On we went!

Mike & Doug at the top

Me & Kyrsten enjoying the top

We decided next time we should bring food
and have a picnic up there

Beautiful!

By the time we made it back down we had worked up quite an appetite.  Since it was Saturday, the Boulder Farmers' Market was going on.  It's quite an impressive setup every weekend with a lot of local and organic farmers.  Plus local restaurants set up in the middle and serve some great food.  It was just what we needed! Delicious food outdoors with live music.  There's certainly plenty of fun things to do in Boulder.  We have already decided there will be many more Boulder days.

Then a couple of weekends ago I had a friend come up from Colorado Springs to run the Heart & Sole Half Marathon.  It's a really cool race that raises money for a cause I care about, so I decided to sign up for the 10k and join him.  It's way more fun to have a friend around, plus it gave me an excuse to run a race :)
The afternoon before we did packet pickup and experience a Boulder favorite - Dushanbe Tea House.  I had heard about it from so many people, so I was excited to finally go.  Boulder is known for its chai, and I would definitely say it was tasty.  And the tea house just has a fun atmosphere.

 The pre-race meal is quite important.  What's better than some homemade pizza?!

My work of pizza art

Aaron's pizza creation

Tie-dye and race number on - ready to run!

A perfectly brisk morning at the Boulder Reservoir

The half marathoners are off!

We had a great race and finished strong

The reason we run - the post race meal!  Yes Texans, that's
Blue Bell being served :)

They were also giving out COCONUT water!
Makes me happy! :)

Thinking of coconuts and island life...I got to see Mike from Pohnpei!  He was traveling through Colorado visiting friends.  We went to my favorite restaurant in town.

Sherpa's Nepalese food

It's crazy for Pohnpei life and state-side life to come together.  But it was a lot of fun to catch up on life post-Pohnpei.
Boulder is a fun place to share with people.  I'm slowly discovering all the fun myself.  So come out and visit so we can find even more fun Boulder things to do!