Liberals with guns?

OK, so KC and I went to a four-day intensive defensive hand gun class. Ha, it was really fun! We learned how to shoot and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic, just kidding. Not the typical way, for us anyway, to spend our vacation time. 

The class was sort of paramilitary, and took focus for 10 hours of each day. Most of the enjoyment came from taking a single objective and learning it extremely well before moving onto the next objective. There is something to be said about submersing ourselves in an environment where our focus leads us away from ourselves.

Hanging with Rob and KC in Pahrump.
Rob, and his wife Alice, are our good friends who introduced us to Front Sight!
Thanks Rob and Alice for the great time!

We learned how to shoot pretty damn well and got to meet interesting folks along the way. 

Soldier

The class was taught by Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. I have to admit the whole website and weirdness of it was a put-off, however they were great teachers and good people. They could teach anyone anything I bet. Very professional and very good at what they do. 

At the end of the day we had a great time and learned to do something very different than we normally do. Maybe we will go and do more weird things that we would not normally think of doing to get us out of our comfort zone and teach us about the rest of the world.

Me in competition, Didn't make if very far, but it was about the journey.

KC, Hal, Rob and Alice at our favorite Mexican joint in Pahrump.

On the way home we did some jumping around the rocks at Red Rock outside of Vegas.

Had to get out after four days of nothing but shooting. 

Hanging out at Calico Tanks Trail

Test day...good enough?

KC is a heck of a shot.

This is our reward. Check out this dude's mustache...yup, bad to the bone. 

KC clearing rooms with the red gun-yes, I know it's colored orange...

Drove this Audi R8 on the track on the way home. HA!

See you on the next adventure!

Highs...and Lows...

It's funny how you can be feeling fit and fantastic, on top of the world, one minute, and then have your head in a toilet the next...
That's what happened to me this past week, as Hal and I were visiting Mom and Dad in Frisco, CO.

Hal got off work last Monday, and I drove up to meet him, ready to summit Mt. Sherman, outside of Fairplay. We had a relaxing start, 10am, and were back in the car by 1pm. I picked Monday and Tuesday to do our ascents because the weather, though cold and windy, was bright and clear, no impending storms. Mt. Sherman sits 14,036 ft. above sea level and was, in our opinion, one of the easiest 14ers. The entire hike was barely five miles long, with only 2,000 ft. of elevation gain. You park up by old abandoned mines, and basically walk up the road to the summit. There is one headwall you have to gain, which, with microspikes (Kahtoola microspikes )was super fun! Other than the 35+ mph winds on top, it was a pleasant hike.

Steep headwall leading to the ridgeline-thank goodness for microspikes!

It's blurry because it's so windy it's blowing the hardpacked snow around!

Summit of Mt. Sherman-took my hand the entire descent to warm back up (I need new gloves!)

We met Mom and Dad at the VRBO condo that Mom rented in Frisco, and enjoyed a nice dinner (thanks Mom!) and an early bedtime. We were up early (7am is early for me!) to head out to summit Mt. Bross, our 30th 14er. Mt. Bross is outside of Alma, sitting on the edge of a ring of three other 14ers. It's a VERY popular destination in the summer and fall, and I'm happy to say that we saw ZERO people out when we summited on Tuesday.
We parked below the Kite Lake trailhead, because the road is in such bad shape for the final 500 meters. We struck out straight from the truck and plodded uphill for two hours to reach the summit. I was getting cranky because there wasn't enough snow to make it easy, so we had to hike on the loose scree. One step forward, two steps back...
Until Hal had the brilliant idea of putting on our snow spikes and using them in the dirt-genius! It made the traction so much better, and at the end of the hike, our spikes still looked brand new and sharp!
We gained the summit, snapped another cold, windy pic, and headed down. Now the way down was the most fun I've had descending a 14er! We found a snowpacked gully, and ran/slid down the entire way back to the truck! Such a blast! Because my videography skills are horrible, both videos we took ended up sideways when I downloaded them, so you will just have to imagine how much fun we had ;)  Also, I wouldn't recommend this route back down in a few more weeks, because as more snow settles, it will turn into an avalanche chute...
Three hours later, we were back at the truck.
Some people do all four 14ers in this area in one push-if you're just doing Bross, it was 3.5 miles, roundtrip, and 2,289 ft. of elevation gain, if you go straight up from the road.

So pretty in the winter...!

Phew, finally some flat ground!

Mt. Bross summit (14,172 ft.) and our 30th 14er!

Back to Breck for lunch with Mom and Dad, and the only picture we have of anyone other than ourselves the entire trip...

Yes, Hal is squinting...

Then another great homecooked meal, good company, and hot tub time!

So what happened between dinner, hot tub, shower, and 5am????!!
All I know is that a very urgent need to empty my stomach woke me at 5am, Wednesday morning, and that was the end of it. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday sleeping, waking up only to sip on diet Sprite and munch on Saltine crackers. Some fun I was! Hal and Mom and Dad had to soldier on without me, hitting up the shooting range in freezing temperatures and enjoying more meals and coffee together. I finally rose from my stupor on Friday morning, and was able to drive myself home and am now finally recovering.

Although being sick is certainly no fun, I was lucky enough to have Mom and Dad and Hal there to take of me-such a treat!

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out to visit and getting the condo-let's do it again soon, when I'm not violently ill! And I'm pretty sure that now I like doing the 14ers more in the winter than I do in the summer, as long as the avalanche danger is low...!

Thanks for reading!

Live big by living SMALLER...our new truck setup!!!

We sold our truck camper. I know, I know, "But you just bought it!!" "But didn't you spend all summer in it?!"  "I thought you guys loved it!" "You Clarks are crazy!'

Yes, we've heard all of the above, and then there's my personal favorite: "You could only have shocked me more if you had said you were pregnant!"

It is nice to know that all our friends and family listen and follow what we do, and are rightfully shocked when we up and sell our home-away-from-home. 

Here's how it happened...

Step 1: Finally bring the truck camper home and unload it for the winter.

Step 2: Take pictures of it, just in case, because it's emptied and clean.

Step 3: Drop camper off at storage.

Step 4: Breathe a collective sigh of relief! It's done, put away for the winter, and all of our belongings are in one place again! Yay!

Step 5: List truck camper on Craigslist (for more than we paid for it) to "see what happens"...

Step 6: Get a legitimate offer in less than one week.

Step 7: Show camper to buyer, start waxing nostalgic.

Step 8: Buyer pays for camper, we make money, and camper gets loaded onto someone else's truck and drives away.

Step 9: Feel equal measures of freedom, joy, and sadness.

Step 10: Take extra cash and pay off car.

Step 11: Start feeling really good about having no car payment, no camper to maintain, and some extra money in the bank!

Step 12: Kasey starts planning an all-out dream vacation to Tahiti in 2016...

Step 13: Hal waits about 48 hours and then starts revamping the back of the truck for our 'new' camper setup...

Over the past weekend, while I was working, Hal managed to outfit our truck bed with a SWEET setup that will let us sleep in the back of the truck in style. He did it all by himself and for less than $75! Can't beat that...

Custom benches for each side of the truck, complete with cubbies

The finished product, which has three separate pieces for the bed, so that you can move them around and even have a headboard, as shown here!

Delta approves!

Bed on top, storage on the bottom! Perfect!

So, that's what we've got going right now. And though I still have some lingering sadness over the truck camper, I'm starting to remember why we wanted to "Live Big by Living Small" in the first place! So much less stress, less commitment, less work in general. 

Now, this isn't to say that we didn't LOVE our time in the truck camper. We did, and spent 70 fantastic nights in it this year. And we were able to sell it for a little more money than we bought it for. That means we lived for over two months in it for FREE! I'll take it!

Thanks for following all our 'Crazy Clark' lifestyle changes! 

On top of the world again, a photo essay...

One of the best things about being a 'retired' bike racer is that you can do things like hike five 14ers in 8 days, and your coach won't be mad at you! And you can do this any time of the year, as well as ride your mountain bike, camp, lift weights, run, etc...

Here are a bunch of photos, complete with captions, from our most recent foray into the wilderness. We started out near Twin Lakes, which is outside of Leadville, CO. We hit three 14ers in three days, including the highest one of them all, Mt. Elbert. Then we came home to work and went out again, this time to Crestone, CO, to hit Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. I'll admit I was nervous for these two peaks, as they are rated "very difficult" in our 14er guidebook. Turns out I don't much like loose, steep scree (which was most of Challenger Point), and much prefer the more technical, but more solid, rock of Kit Carson Peak.

One of the reasons we are ticking off the 14ers is because it gives us a good goal, as well as it brings us to new and different places in Colorado that we might not otherwise see, like Crestone. We are currently half-way through: we've completed 28 summits, and have 28 to go.  Differing sources list the total number of 14ers in Colorado between 54 and 58. So we're getting there! Hoping to finish the rest next year, we'll see how it goes...

Heading up to Mt. Massive, the first 14er of our trip.

Mt. Massive summit-unbelievably good weather!

View coming down Mt. Massive...

Mt. Massive took us seven hours to hike. It was 15 miles long, from our Elbert Creek campground, with 4,500 ft. elevation gain. Had the good fortune to see a long tailed weasel at the summit!

Next up was Mt. Elbert, the tallest 14er. We did this the day after Mt. Massive, and I felt less than stellar. Even after Labor Day, mid-week, there was still a small crowd of people making their way to the top, and not all of them looked athletic. This is why we've started carrying extra food in our packs, in case someone looks like they've bonked and need a snack... Mt. Elbert took us 5 and 1/2 hours, because we spent more time resting and enjoying the view. It was 10 miles long, roundtrip, and we did 4,475 ft. elevation gain. Our mini-guidebook says it's a 'walk-up' but to us, it was more difficult than Mt. Massive.

Hal multi-tasked: hiking, talking on cell phone, and feeding wild gray jays!

Apparently gray jays are very curious and will often land on your hand, seeking food...

Official height of Elbert is 14,433 ft...we found this sign at the top and someone obviously rounded up!

After Mt. Elbert, we broke camp and drove around Twin Lakes to get to the La Plata Peak Trailhead. Because it was late and we were out of camping options, we spent the night at the trailhead. I do not recommend this unless you have to-very noisy, right on the main road, and lots of people pulling up early to get a 3am start.

La Plata Peak was one of our favorites because it was so different than all of the other 14ers. Not that it didn't go straight up, because it did! But because the scenery was so unique; it kept the hike interesting the entire way. We also passed a 70+ year old lady on our way down, who was heading up, and who had hiked all the 14ers. So that made me feel like less of a bad-ass, but also gave me hope for the future! Who knows what we will be doing in 40 years?!

La Plata Peak was a 5 and 1/2 hour, 10 mile roundtrip hike for us, with 4,246 ft. elevation gain. My Uncle Ed just completed this summit a few weeks before us, and it gave me newfound respect for him, as this wasn't an easy one! Lots of steep, off-camber terrain. But again, we loved it! Saw another long tailed weasel, and as we rarely see big game animals, I'm beginning to think our spirit animals are very small, rodent-like creatures, and birds!!!

Twin Lakes... 

Cool little slot canyon at the start of the hike to La Plata Peak!

Views from the trail...

More great weather makes us smile :) 

Summit of La Plata Peak

From La Plata Peak, we headed home to work. Hal says he goes to work for 48 hours to get a 'break' from our regular life! Only he would say that firefighting is a break...!

On to Crestone, to camp and hit Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak in one push. It was one hell of a push, taking us 10 hours and totaling 16 miles. The biggest challenge was the elevation gain for the day, which was over 6,500 ft! Whew! Thank god for hiking poles! If you want an epic day, do both in the same push. Otherwise, there is a beautiful lake, Willow Lake, about 5 miles in. You can set up camp there, and then make for the summits the following morning. This hike was also very different, which is another great thing about the 14ers...They all have their unique beauty, and that keeps it refreshing and new for us each time.

Heading up, with Challenger Point up to the right

Pretty waterfalls

Above Willow Lake

Summit of Challenger Point-yes, we wore helmets for this one!

Looking out from Challenger...

Summit of Kit Carson Peak (probably our Christmas card picture!)

"The Avenue" leading to Kit Carson Peak (it's much wider than it looks!)

More of our 'spirit animals'! Marmot family!

Thanks for reading, please let us know if you want more information on any of these peaks-we'd be more than happy to share :)

Our home-away-from-home, in photos...

Hal and I are spending a lovely rainy Labor Day all cozy and relaxed in our truck camper and wanted to show everyone just how nice it is inside!

Here are some quick photos of our "Home is where you park it"...!

This is my spacious kitchen sink, complete with 3-burner stove top, oven, and microwave - I even have a large fridge and freezer!

And this is our quaint bathroom, complete with a separate shower (this was a must-have upgrade for me!)

And here's Hal, relaxing at our slide-out dinette...and miss Delta Rose!

There's even enough floor space for one of us to do yoga!

Oh yeah, and how about our queen bed?!

So really, we haven't been "camping" all summer, we've just been living in a mobile house! All the comforts of home, plus the ability to up and go...

We've been loving our Lance 1050S truck camper, thanks for reading!