Colorado

Boulder and Summit County, November 2006

DAY 1 – Getting to Boulder

I’m currently on a US Air flight an hour out of Manchester. I just had a nice cheese ravioli lunch and now I’m listening to NOFX while the crew tries to fix the entertainment system. I’ve not had much time to plan this trip, but I have the basics sorted: First I head to Boulder for Sensys’06 where I’ll be presenting our new and improved GridStix flood-prediction demonstration, *if* it survives customs. Following the conference I head into the mountains of Summit County, where I’ll be staying at the Alpen Hutte Lodge and visiting a different ski resort each day. I’m planning on hitting Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and maybe Keystone if all goes well. It’s a shame that I couldn’t find anything fun to do for Halloween tomorrow, but I guess there’s still time. I’m going to save my laptop batteries now and try and get some rest before Philadelphia.

I’m in Philadelphia airport now, using free WiFi in the food court, which given the price of food isn’t really ‘free’ at all. I must have looked very odd having a Skype conversation with my parents into a stick-mic in the middle of the food court, but its lot cheaper than my mobile. Anyhow, I’m going to save my last 10 minutes of batteries for emergencies. Only a four hour flight and ninety minute transfer to go… come on Mountain Dew!

The rest of the journey went pretty well… I arrived in Denver about 6:30 and caught the next shuttle bus to Boulder. By 8:00 I was safely ensconced in my hotel room and after ordering room service and a couple of bottles of Colorado’s own, excellent ‘Fat Tire’ beer I hit the hay.

DAY 2 – Downtown Boulder, Cycling and Halloween

After my early night I was up bright and early. Before seeing the sites I was on a bit of a mission to find glue and paint to repair the demo installation which was damaged a little by U.S. customs (again). I wandered out the back of the hotel past the pool, empty at this time of year save for leaves, through the deserted gardens and west along the Boulder Creek Trail towards down-town Boulder. The creek is very picturesque and even from down-town the views are great with the Flat-Iron Mountains soaring above the low-rise buildings, as you can see in the photos below:

Downtown Boulder

The Creek

Arapahoe Indian

I found what I needed pretty quick on the pedestrian mall along Pearl street and stopped at the Boarders book shop for a hot chocolate and biscotti, while I read Al Franken’s introduction to ‘Air America the Playbook’. It was so good I bought the book before walking back east along Arapahoe to the hotel. It’s interesting that as you head east away from the mountain views, the shops get more down-scale. Makes sense I suppose. I could get used to Boulder. The views are beautiful, the people are friendly and there’s something inexplicably relaxing about the atmosphere. There’s even snowboarding 20 minutes away when winter really kicks off.

After lunch back at the hotel I decided to see a bit more of the countryside and so I hired a bike from the hotel for a couple of hours and struck out along the cycle path towards the flat-irons. The bike was one of those weird cruiser things you sometimes see in the states with big fat tires and only three gears. I quickly came to think of the bike as the ‘blue pig’ and soon, the blue pig and I were rattling west towards the hills along the creek path:

The Blue Pig

Sunset Pond

Boulder Creek

Within the hour the blue pig and I were climbing along Canyon Trail into the Flat Iron mountains. The views were spectacular, so I’ll let them speak for themselves:

Flat Iron Mountains

The Creek Path

Toward the Canyon

After another mile or so, the path was closed off, but no matter as it was getting late in the afternoon. I decided the blue pig had done so well I’d take a snap of us together:

Rocky Outcrop

Me n’ the Blue Pig

The End of the Line

After all this healthy fun, I felt the urge to re-assert my Englishness by sampling some more of Colorado’s beer. I’m now making my way through a pack of Boulder’s own ‘Single Track’ -- it had a bike on the label! After this I’m going to go out and see how they do Halloween in Boulder. Ta ta…

Halloween was fun. I started with a couple of fat tire beers in the hotel bar and spent the rest of the night bar hopping through downtown Boulder. I started at the Walrus where I was served by a barmaid in a Marge Simpson costume. After that I hit the Foundry and the Lazy Dog, where I tried another nice Colorado beer - Twisted Pine. When I got back to the hotel there was a big costume party in the bar, so I hung out there for another couple of hours drinking cheap long island ice teas. One more reason to like Boulder: It’s a great drinking town.

DAY 3 – Sensys, Walnut Brewery and Al Franken.

I woke up at 6:30AM today. My head was a little fuzzy from Boulder’s excellent microbrew beers but my pre-ordered room service breakfast soon brought me around. I walked over the creek onto the CU campus and Folsom field, where SenSys was being held. The opening talk about the ‘06/’07 International Polar Year and associated challenges for sensor networks was excellent. My favourite part was learning about the sensor-augmented seals which are helping us record polar water temperatures. These seals have a 2ft antenna attached to their head for satellite communication, which apparently doesn’t affect their health, though one has to wonder whether it pisses them off! I also set up and tested the demonstration installation for the first time; thankfully its all seems to be working for the big demo day tomorrow. After the conference it was time for the banquet, which was held at the Walnut Brewery. The food was great and so was the beer, all of which is brewed right there in the restaurant as you can see in the photo below.

The Demo Installation

View from CU Boulder

Walnut Brewery

After the conference banquet I headed on over to the Boulder’s little independent movie theatre to watch the Al Franken documentary ‘God Spoke’. The movie was great, especially as I’ve been reading ‘Air America’ the playbook. Franken’s currently thinking of running for senate in his native Minnesota… I suppose if Arnie can pull it off, Franken should sail through.

If you’re in Boulder, you really should visit this little theatre. There’s a bar right in the cinema itself which serves great local beers including the excellent ‘Hoppy Boy’. The inside of the theatre is also decorated with beautiful murals, which are almost worth a look by themselves. It was a bit dark to take a photo of the theatre, so I pinched the one opposite from Google.

The Boulder Theatre

DAY 4 – Demo Day

Demo day started pretty early for me – around 7AM. I don’t know what it is about Boulder but I can’t sleep in here. I guess that can only be a good thing. After a shower I started assembling and testing the various components. All of the components for the main flooding installation (seen in the photo above) worked perfectly; all that was needed were a few spare odds and ends from the hardware store to attach everything. By about 10AM, with the complex demonstration all set up and ready to go I was feeling pretty confident. Then I tested the new solar-powered mini installation. The demonstrates switching between a low-power ATMega core and a higher-power XScale core based on available power. It’s a really simple demo which has always worked first time… until now. Unfortunately it wasn’t fixable before I was due to set up my demo and so the new mini demo was left out… It looks like the solar panel bit the dust at some point during transit :-(

The demo session ran from 4PM to 8PM and was pretty grueling. Most of the other demos had three or four people to run them, but unfortunately I was on my own, which meant I couldn’t escape to shoot any snaps of the other demos or get myself a drink.

Despite this, aside from a few technical issues the demo went pretty well. People seem to like the dangerous combination of state-of-the-art hardware and running water. I managed to take a single snap of our demo stall with the demo up and running, which you can see opposite.

Demo Stall

After the demo session I hooked up with Mike and Hanoc, fellow Lancastrians who were demonstrating their location-aware relate brick motes. Feeling pretty tired, we wandered back to the hotel and arranged to meet for dinner. When I nipped up to change and check my email, I got a nice surprise. The chapter proposal that James and I submitted to the handbook on computer mediated communication was accepted. I’ve never written a book chapter before and it’s been high on my wish-list, so I was pretty chuffed. For dinner we had Mexican food and I had what will probably be my last two Boulder beers. Tomorrow I’ll be headed up to the mountains of Summit County and the snow.

DAY 5 – Journey to Summit County

I’m currently sitting in Denver airport charging by laptop’s batteries with stolen power from a wall outlet and my own batteries with Mountain Dew. Today was another early start. After watching the last conference session I boarded the Super Shuttle to Denver Airport, where I switch to the Mountain Express shuttle to Silverthorne. The journey isn’t too long and with a bit of luck I should be at my hotel before six. The weather was really warm today in Boulder and I’m hoping this wont have adversely affected my snow!

Aside from a little rush-hour traffic, the journey to Summit County went pretty well. It took an hour and a half to escape the nondescript Denver plains, with the Rocky Mountains slowly growing to fill the windshield. From the foothills, the highway quickly climbs to over 2000M. About 20 minutes out of Silverthorne we passed the Loveland ski area and the snow looked fantastic! The sun had set by the time I arrived at the Alpen Hutte, but an almost full moon had risen which nicely illuminated the snowcapped mountains that surround Silverthorne. The Hutte is a nice youth hostel that does private rooms for $45 per night. You can see my room on the right (note the double gulp and cheese in a can). The place has a good vibe and the management will help you arrange transport to the slopes and equipment hire, which means I can relax and get an early night so I’ll be fresh for the slopes. Night.

Room in the Alpen Hutte

DAY 6 – Keystone (Cheney Skis in Jeans)

After hiring my board and boots, I walked around Silverthorne and snapped a few photos (below). I found the people of Silverthorne as nice as the scenery and I soon learned to depend on this when finding my way around Summit County.

Snowcapped Peaks

Fly Fishing

A Tree I Liked

By half eight I was on the Summit Stage to Keystone. These buses are an excellent way to reach Summit County’s ski resorts from Silverthorne, Dillon or Frisco and best of all they’re free! Keystone had 4 lifts open, not bad for the first week of November. There was a good variety of easy to medium terrain and the snow conditions were surprisingly good. Unfortunately though, the queue for the main lift was running at close to half an hour. As you can see in the middle photo below, we entertained ourselves with a snowball war between the front and back of the queue.

Board n Boots at the Bus Stop

Snowball Fight in the Queue

First Lifts of the Season

It took me a couple of runs to adjust my flow bindings so that I felt comfortable and another couple before I really got my snow legs back… That was when I made a cool discovery: Because of the big queue at the middle lift, ski patrol was letting people walk down a closed blue trail to the base. Naturally, I assumed that as soon as the skiers and boarders rounded the corner they would get their gear on and ride down, but it turns out that Americans follow instructions better than we British. Figuring that I would lead the revolution I donned my board and rode to the bottom down a trail nicer than any that Keystone had open. Unfortunately, no one followed my lead, but that was OK as for the rest of the day I simply rode all the way down the ‘closed’ run to the deserted Gondola, avoiding the massive mid-mountains queues.

On the Slopes

View from the Mountain

Powder on the ‘dangerous’ Closed Trail

I had a good, slightly boozy lunch of pizza and Colorado beer (‘Never Summer’ and ‘Dazed and Infused’). I also saw what has to be the best political sticker ever – “Cheney Skis in Jeans”. I think that it could swing the election on Tuesday! By the end of the day I’d done every run on the mountain, but the best powder to be found was on the closed trail. Perhaps it was all the sweeter as everyone else was walking?

DAY 7 – Copper Mountain

I’ve decided that I like Coloradans. They seem a outdoorsy, independent, yet friendly bunch and I overheard a guy on the bus to Copper today who personified this. He was describing to a friend how he was concerned that the tent he was building in the woods to live in over winter was getting too house-like because he’d had to add ropes and tarpaulins to shore it up! Copper had more lifts and trails open than Keystone and top-to-bottom riding, which was pretty cool, though I don’t think the snow conditions were *quite* as good.

Down the Slopes

Slow!

Live Country Music

My funds were starting to run low, so there was no pub lunch for me today. Instead I had a little off-piste picnic with sandwiches and a bottle of ‘Backcountry Amber’ in some trees near the summit. There were a few events on at Copper Village including some bands (above left). All too soon though, it was time to head back to Silverthorne and pack. I wish I had more time left in Colorado.

DAY 8 – Homeward Bound

I’m writing this last entry as I begin my descent into Manchester. The sun has risen and it looks to be a beautiful day (above Manchester’s thick clouds that is). After returning from Copper last night I caught the Colorado Mountain Express to DIA and from there the Super Shuttle back to Boulder. I picked up my cases from the Millennium before crashing at the Best Western Boulder Inn and the trip back went pretty smoothly. This will be my last entry. I’m going to miss Colorado, my favorite part of the states so far. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to return some time.