Stephanie Visits!

Darren and I have plenty of people and friends we know around Colorado, but not really anyone right in our town.  What I miss most being away from an Adventist ghetto are all the big group adventures (even if that were like four people) so it's really exciting when a friend comes to visit.  We humans need relationships.  

Anyhoo, we were happy to show Stephanie some of our favorite places: 

Shelf Road--arguably Colorado's best sport climbing crag area.

Stephanie and I both led this 5.9 route.  Yay!  Good ole Darren was our rope gun for the rest.

On our drive home through Cripple Creek, I spotted my first wild tarantula.

And more mountain goats (we've seen them on Shelf Road before).

In the evening we took Stephanie to our favorite restaurant, Adam's Mountain Cafe.  We love it because there are a lot of vegetarian options, and everything seems very fresh and local.

On Sunday we hiked up the Manitou Incline.  It is one plus miles up something like 2,000 feet.  The most fun part to me, however, is running down the 3-4 miles down the Barr Trail.  It is at a perfect angle  for a floating, fast descent.