Up the Mesa

The peaks that dominate the sky over Boulder (a sky that's incredibly clear at night, by the way -- this urban refugee is enjoying the stars immensely) are the Flatirons.  As seen here, even during a time of day that doesn't allow for crystal-clear contrasts, one can't escape their looming presence.  Such a backdrop had to be a major draw for new residents when this place went from gold rush boomtown to a sleepy & forgotten burg to a growing college town...and eventually to boomtown again.

 

My buddy and I and his energetic puppy Bodie hiked briefly around NCAR Mesa a couple of weeks ago, shortly after the upward-stabbing peaks received another coating of snow.  It was a pretty unforgettable scene for me...as much as I think they allowed the spread of development to creep too far up the sides of the range, I can completely understand why people desperately want to live there.  Maybe I'll let the pictures tell the story of seeing this place for the first time, more effectively than I can...

By the way, I love that the main road to this area is 'Table Mesa'.  Or, you know, Table Table.  Which makes sense.  It certainly would be one of my naming ideas, right after Boutros Boutros Ghali.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking back East toward Greater Denver...one of my favorite aspects of any hiking on the Front Range is the way I'm reminded every time of how geographically crazy this place is.  In one direction stretch endless plains, with an oceanic horizon blend-off into eternity; in the other, confrontation by imposing jagged walls.

 

 

 

 

 

No bearded bums were actually harmed in the making of this photo.  In fact, the cactus wasn't even aware it was being taken.

 

 

 

 

It was one of those days when I couldn't help but eloquently say, "Life doesn't suck out here, does it?"

 

 

North Boulder

 What is a wannabe storyteller to do when there is a backlog of a thousand photos -- and tales or at least little anecdotes to go along with most of them -- that I wish to post?  More pressingly, how in my bizarrely logically structured mind can I feature some recent episode when I left the trip out West completely hanging, and the rest of the trail across Europe hanging before that?  And how can I do it when I need to get up in 5 hours?  I suppose the short answer is that I adequately can't...but here are some snippets of my current surroundings anyway.

Pictured below is my street in far north Boulder.  My good friend Randy is putting me up here for now, and I can't think of a change of scenery for which I've ever been more grateful.

This here is "Broadway"...not quite the same Broadway I've been traversing -- or more likely, avoiding -- for the past eight years!  But there it sits, just a few steps away, and provides a route down into the main part of town...which I imagine looked a lot more like this Foothills area a couple of decades ago, minus the high-end cafes whose business seems to rely primarily on silver-haired moneyed residents.

And this would be a puzzled Mustang, wondering how a lifetime of NC-PA-NJ-NY could possibly have prepared her for a series of snowfalls followed by an Arctic deep freeze.  Although I'm searching for my mountain wheels, there is something awfully fun & nostalgic about having taken this car out here for one last environment before we part...until the local roads remind me that it's time to cut the cord, now.

Boulder Creek Park, just one of the many fine spots around town in which you can access a trailhead and get on your way...or take your dogs and yap on your cell phone the whole time, whichever you prefer.

 

Speaking of parks, this one sits just a door down from my temporary dwelling, and provides a nice scenic scape over the foothills and the Flatirons beyond.  Let's call it "Reference C" in the ongoing list of reasons why I just had to move.

Speaking of the happy wanderer in his new home state, this is me immediately after dropping off the U-Haul last month...so it's technically not Boulder, but Longmont, off to the Northeast.  But it's happiness at being "here" all the same.

 

And this is to say a long-overdue goodnight...taken from the 3rd-floor deck at the tail end of a crystal clear dusk one evening.  I love that glow of the last bit of fading blue on the horizon, and there's something about the way jagged mountains frame it that just makes it pop even more starkly.  G'night, all...