May 24, 2007 Boulder, CO Chautauqua Park

I had the best time in Boulder, CO! My friend took me out to The Chautauqua Trails/Park in Boulder on 5/24/07. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Beautiful!!! This is the foothills area of Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO. This is one of the many trails leading up to all of great hiking, rock climbing and mountain climbing areas. This is where my hike began and where it ended.

The altitude there is so different than in NC mountains. There was a dramatic change in the climate. It was hard to breathe. I know I'm "out of shape" but I knew I wasn't that out of shape! Jeez! My friend, Sean, said it was the altitude. Later that evening, i had a dry sore throat and dry stuffy head. My contact lenses killed me most of the time I was there.

As we made our way up the approach, this was one of the views back down at the city of Boulder below.

You can see the trail from where we started from down there at the bottom part of the photo.

I haven't really been hiking since my Freshman year of college when I went camping in the Pisgah National Forest up in Brevard, NC. This trip indeed was exciting for me! I had so much fun, and I did not want to leave Boulder, CO.

The approach was hard! It wasn't anything like what I had hiked before.

A ton of scrambling over huge boulders, etc. It was fun but hard. And on the side of part of the approach were these huge drop offs! lol Scary!

I would like to rock climb one day, but I can't imagine having to hike these kinds of trails! Much less, carry all of the shit they carry up! haha

Scrambling is so much fun!

It was so beautiful there!

It was really amazing being up that high. I loved it!

It looked like that boulder was gonna fall onto my head or something! lol

I felt like such a big kid climbing around on all these rocks that day. I loved it! I was in wonderland or something. It was actually very stress relieving. I had nothing in my mind except for scrambling around. It was a great release. When we got to the top, I was feeling high. It was so amazing! The view was fabulous! I even got to see a baby chipmunk come out of one the rocks! lol It was too cute! (and fast)

I could not believe the view! I also could not believe that climbers were climbing the other side of this thing! I was stoked. Needless to say, I will be getting back into Stronghold to do some indoor climbing to get some good practice skills in. Maybe I can also meet some people there who do some of this outdoor climbing stuff. They have rock climbing clubs at Stronghold I can join.

Talk about throwing your stresses into something! I am reading this book right now about a rock climber, Aron Ralston, who gets his arm stuck in between a huge boulder and a rock wall out in Utah. He has to cut his own arm off to survive. (I know, people think he is stupid and make fun of his book but...still it is an inspirational story) Anyways, in his story, he says that when he climbs, he is one with the mountain...he thinks of nothing else when he is climbing. He prefers to be alone as well. But he talks about how good it is to be one with your thoughts and to "get away" and throw yourself into a passion. It's like some sort of spiritual cleansing or something. Now, I can truly see why! Look at these photos:

I can only imagine what it would be feel like to climb one of these suckers! I so want to do it now though...

As we were driving through Boulder, you would pass by all kinds of rock faces and cliffs just like these everywhere. There would be rock climbers climbing everywhere. It was so cool to watch. :) It was inspirational as much as motivational. I'm surprised there were not signs on the roads that read "Watch out for falling climbers". haha Just kidding, of course! But they were everywhere.

Another thing that amazed me was the lifestyle in Boulder. It was so progressive. Everyone was so laid back. It really felt stress free there. I loved it. There is just something different about people who enjoy the outdoors. Their sense of humor about life is so different from the majority. No one's rushing about...it's all Godspeed. It doesn't matter to these people if they are poor, 'cause to them, they are living the life! I've never seen so many smiling faces. The guys were sooo freakin' hot as hell too!!! lol

Being out in CO made me realize how glad I am to be single. There is so much out there I have yet to explore and to discover. There are so many things I still want to get to know about myself...so much more I want/need to do still before I ever think of settling down. There is so much out there that I didn't even know was there!

Even though I experienced a very light taste of rock climbing (just scrambling) in Boulder, I fell in love. You have all these fears in your life...heights, etc., but as soon as you start enjoying yourself and having fun, you forget every fear that was once there. The fear just goes away and turns into "Oohs" and "Aahs" and "Wow! I want to do that someday!"

There's just so much out there in this life we live...just go live it!

Too many times as I was being brought up, I was taught the art of fear. But what if this or that? What if you die? I could die on my couch or in a car crash just as easily!

What if you die? So what! I'd rather die in action having fun on a mountain, than on my couch not living anyways. You know? The thing is not being afraid to die folks. You just have to be ready when the time comes to die. If you live life in fear, you'll never see anything, feel anything, have fun, etc. Don't be afraid to die, be ready to die and ready to live all at once. For me, that means I want to go out and do everything I can right now!

Someday, I want to stuff like this:

"Mountains are the means, the man is the end. The goal is not to reach the tops of the mountains, but to improve the man." - Walter Bonatti, Italian climber

Later that afternoon, as we were driving through Boulder, we stopped off at Boulder Falls.

And I can't forget this pic either! I found this on the trail we hiked. A piece of beauty in all those weeds and rocks, etc.