Storm of the Year

Okay, maybe not the storm of the year for everyone in Colorado, but for me, it certainly was.

I fully expected to have the night end tragically Saturday night. My husband and I went to the CAIC benefit where there was food, brews, and music up in Breck. On the way there, the snow was really coming down. We noticed a jack-knifed semi going the opposite direction and holding up traffic for miles upon miles. That's I70 for you. He kept telling me that by the time we would be headed home, things would get cleared up. But in truth, it was a sign of things just beginning...

The benefit went well. I tend to tire of these things within 15 minutes, but with the raffle, the beer and all of the cake (pun intended), there was plenty of diversion. I was pleased to see that the print I had donated had two bids on it, the highest at $40, before we left, which was early. And thank God we left early.

My husband made sure I had some alcohol in me prior to leaving. I believe that was the best idea of the evening (besides leaving the CAIC benefit early). If I thought the trip to Breck was scary, I was in for a surprise (albeit a somewhat inebriated one). The trip back home was 3X worse.

CDOT had not really considered plowing yet. I guess they just like to plow roads that don't already have snow on them. Making our way up to the tunnel at a max of 30-40mph was a real treat.

The eastern side of the tunnel was even better. Total white-out driving conditions more than half of the time. I am so happy that there was next to zero traffic. It was impossible to identify where the lanes were, and I was seriously questioning where the interstate was at times. I was NOT a happy camper.

It was grueling. After 3 hours of driving (it is only supposed to take 1.5hrs), we were getting so close, only to over-hear the truckers say that it was confirmed; the flashing signs were not lying - I70 was closed at exit 244, Genesee.

Great.

I had thought 20 miles an hour on the Interstate was slow, but everything came to a (not so) screeching halt around Idaho Springs. "They" were diverting traffic off of I70 to 6th avenue. And when we finally got there, we learned that another rumor was indeed true - that there were a series of semis on I70 going all the way up Floyd Hill waiting to be towed up this icy stretch of road.

At first I believed that "they" were diverting us in our best interests and that surely, this I70 nightmare was worthy of such a precaution. However, I would soon discover that diverting traffic can lead to other nightmares. By the end of this, I would wish that we had stepped on the gas and flew up Floyd Hill instead of taking this detour.

We were only on 6th avenue for a short time (relatively speaking, of course), before we got on highway 40. We had heard that this was part of the detour, and we knew that people were getting a bit stuck on the first segment of it as there is a slight incline (hello ice!). We heard this from listening to the truckers. But we had 4 wheel drive, which is pretty much sacred around here for what should be by now fairly obvious reasons to anybody reading this posting.

We turned right nearly hitting a guy walking right in the middle of the road. With the white-out and the Toyota truck half-way on the right side of the intersection, the visibility was not great. I'm sure the man was having a difficult time seeing too. Let's call it even.

This is the scene: There is a semi parked on the left side of the road, so we go around it to the right. Okay, good. Then before us, there is a semi parked with its hazard lights on in the middle of the road, and there is a white sedan trying to get around it to the left, then the right, then I don't know which direction. It is sliding EVERYWHERE. Two Hispanic men are in the car. There is another sedan a bit further down the incline from the spinning white sedan, and a little truck with a little trailer. These are the obstacles of our lives...

The Hispanic white sedan slips around the semi and resumes its series of 180s further up the hill. Next, the grayish sedan takes its turn by trying to go up the hill around the semi. It tries going up between the semi and the hill where there is less ice and more snow. It promptly gets stuck.

The little truck with the little trailer has no choice but to attempt the pure icy path between the railing and the semi. It comes flush with the cab. And then it gets stuck.

So now there are three vehicles on 40, all facing the same uphill direction on a two-way highway in a blizzard. No one seems to be coming from the other direction, except that occasionally, you catch a glimpse of the headlights from the white sedan further up the hill as it does its disco dance. We cannot tell who will get unstuck first, so we position ourselves behind the little truck.

The gray sedan gets going first, and we are sitting ducks as cars start going around the semi on the other side from where we are. At least, for a short while until a blue SUV with some really awful tires flounders too close to the ditch and gets stuck. With his window open, you can hear the driver cursing as if someone lopped off his toe - with such agony!

This driver is so clueless that he nearly runs into us, so we tuck the truck behind the semi completely. At this point, the trailer-truck driver just needs to figure out how to put his chains on so that we could get moving. (It was taking forever).

There was a break in the stream of traffic going around the other side of the semi, so I basically crabbed at my husband to get moving. My nerves were wrought. I couldn't take it anymore. He backed up from where we were protected from the blue SUV behind the one side of the semi and gunned it around the snowier side. We did not get stuck.

A short distance up the hill, we passed a tow-truck positioning itself to hook up to the white sedan. I would imagine its passengers were getting rather ill by that time.

The rest of way was such smooth sailing...4 hours of gut-wrenching suspense left me haggard. This storm had its way with me.

Migraines, Brain Lesions: New Links Seen

Migraines, Brain Lesions: New Links Seen

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4 Day Off-Road Camping Trip to Moab

From Thursday to Sunday in mid-April 2009, we camped in the Utah desert near Moab and escaped an epic snowstorm in Colorado. The places we drove encompassed the area surrounding the beautiful La Sal mountains. The places we camped were remote and have given me memories for a lifetime: a campfire in a large cave near Picture Frame Arch, tents under ancient Pueblo ruins in Lavender Canyon, and lastly, being surrounded by massive, orange, rock cathedrals and sagebrush under a starry sky just off of Onion Creek trail.


Moab, Lone Rock, and Crypto-Soil
Thursday morning, we met up with the crew at the top of Floyd Hill, just as the Spring storm was rolling in. There were 3 X-Terras at that point driving through the rain which then turned to freezing rain around the Eisenhower Tunnel. Then snow started sticking to the road, and the driving became a bit slick until just past Vail where the roads were completely dry. At some point shortly after that, the sun came out and we passed Grand Junction, entered Utah and were officially somewhere in the desert.

We took a short-cut to Moab off the Inter-state by going through some rancher's land. There was an established off-road road for this. That experience was bumpy, fun, and dusty to the point where if you travelled too closely behind someone, your visibility was next to nothing. It was my first taste of what was to come in the days ahead.

Once we arrived in Moab, we fueled up, bought some firewood, and headed out to find our camp-site. We drove toward Lone Rock, a very beautiful drive in itself. Once there, we drove around the back of the rock to see Picture Frame Arch and to check out any possible camping sites. We stopped to let the dogs stretch their legs as well.

One of the crew told me to avoid stepping on the cryptobiotic soil, a soil that is very helpful for erosion control and plant life, but when damaged, can take over 50 years to recover; it is extremely fragile. He showed me an example of this soil while we were stopped below the arch. It appears as a black, clumped-looking dirt, very unlike the reddish-orange sand that abounds.


Cave-Dwellers
While stretching our legs and taking in the view, we decided it was too windy on that side of the rock and that there were no sites large enough to accommodate us. We decided to drive in-between the two large rocks and ended up at a site with a cave. It was perfect.

The cave was elevated starting at about two feet off the ground, but rocks had been stacked up like steps for easy access. It was a very large cave - more like a mini amphitheater. It had the great acoustics to prove it. This side of the rock was much better against the wind, provided that the wind stayed coming from the same direction, and the fire was protected since the pit was inside the cave itself - we stayed much warmer than we would have.






Dinner consisted of hot dogs, beer, pork, wild rice, and loud music. A table was set up that hooked onto the front bumper on one end and the other end had a leg. Whiskey shots were had, friendship oaths were sworn. A 22' rifle was shot for practice several times. Frisbee games were played.


Windy, Sandy, and Cold
During the night, the wind really picked up. It was freezing cold. I stayed warm in my sleeping bag, but dreaded the thought of having to go outside for any reason. I heard rain or freezing rain on the tent when I woke up on two occasions. The tent was jolting like sails on windy, schizophrenic seas. This was my first real camping trip (not like that fake one in Wisconsin). The entire night-time experience seemed surreal, and then at times, I thought I heard someone walking around for some odd reason.

I awoke to the sounds of chirping birds, soft sunlight glowing through the tent and a much calmer wind. It was still cold, but not freezing. There was, however, something strange in my mouth; I moved my lips and there was something gritty. I sat up and saw that sand had gotten into the front of my tent. It had been that windy.

But not so windy that we had to sleep in our car. Another couple in our group had had so much sand blown into their tent by the middle of the night, that they ended up relocating; those were the footsteps I'd heard during the night. They wound up staying plenty warm, but only got about 2 hours of sleep. In the morning before we left, they turned their tent upside-down to get rid of all the sand, and it was like a waterfall.


Don't Tangle with Tumbleweeds!
We were going to take the journey into Moab to have a hot breakfast, but I wouldn't make it without first emptying my bladder; unfortunately, the time had come to contend with the cold. I had discovered a pretty good latrine for myself the day before, so I chose that spot again. It had a slope to it next to the rock where some wash-out had occurred. Next to the rock were some trapped tumbleweeds. When I was done and tried to get up, I found that I was so weak from being cold, tired and hungry, that I lost my balance and fell a bit down the slope into the tumbleweeds. I pricked my ass with a thistle!


That woke me up. Luckily, my sweat-pants were already up. When I walked to camp, I still felt like something was sticking my butt through my pants. As we were about to get into the car, I was more than eager to get it out. My husband saw me frantically doing a dance of sorts, and he said, "What are you doing??" I declared, "I have a goddamn bramble in my ass!"


Breakfast in Jail
I think I managed to get the thorn out because it didn't bother me on the way to town. I absorbed the views all the way to the Jailhouse Cafe. We were seated under the heated canopy outside as it was chilly. I had already heard about their legendary array of Eggs Benedict, so I decided to try their "Southwest Benie". It had a kick. These were by far the best Eggs Benedict I have ever had. They also had other interesting things on their menu like Swedish Pancakes. Chris ordered the Chorizo Scramble.

All good, all very good. Even the coffee was excellent -I heard a group from the next table asking for to-go cups for their coffee. If everyone in the group could have had their way, we would have eaten here for breakfast every morning; but where we ended up during the next two days would take us away from modern civilization.


A Quick Adventure to the Colorado River
There are vast amounts of BLM land in this area that have established trails for 4-wheeling. We thought we would take an off-road trip through some magnificent land to the Colorado River. Originally, the plan had been to journey to the site of a plane crash, but the hours left in the day did not allow for a hike up to that spot. We still needed to get to our camp-site in Lavender Canyon after back-tracking to the main highway.

We just stopped at the river and had some lunch before turning around. I went along a path near the river to stretch my legs a bit and saw several tiny lizards dart under the brush just before I got too close. We ate our lunch, gave the dogs some water and moved on.

Chris and I became increasingly curious about the geology of this area as we drove back to the main road. We drove through a river bed that at one point was shallow and at another point was bone dry. Colored rocks were strewn everywhere from maroon to sea-foam green. I was attracted to the green rocks, so Chris grabbed one for me. Ochre seemed to be a popular color in that area as well. There was a strange, white sediment that cris-crossed the maroon rock. We kept trying to understand how these different colors came to be, what they were made of, and how they became layered in such a way.






Lavender Canyon
The sun was clearly on its way out, so setting up camp was becoming our greatest concern. The days were comfortable, but we already knew how the nights could be. Getting a fire started would fast be our main priority.

Another off-road adventure! From the main road, we went onto a vast ranch among layered, enormously tall canyons. The dirt road took us past many cattle, some with their calves. Occasionally, a cow would be driven off the dirt road. The brush was about as tall as the cattle in some places. Most times, you could see miles and miles of orange rock walls as well as the north and south Six Shooter peaks.



The area was so vast, for 30 minutes or more, it hardly seemed like we were moving. That was impossible, because we were bouncing up and down, kicking up loads of dust and displacing cows. Yet everywhere I looked, more canyon walls, more cattle, more sagebrush. Endless.

Even the terrain we were driving on had changed; we had gone from a dirt trail, to a riverbed that looked as though it hadn't seen water in decades in some places. The sand was deep, and the only way to steer the vehicle was as if we were on a giant jet-ski -by keeping the peddle to the mettle. It was great fun, and as the shadows grew longer, the canyon we eventually found ourselves in folded itself around us tighter and tighter until we arrived at our site.

Somehow, the rocks and foliage had changed. The rocks were no longer red, squarish and harsh looking, but rather round and pale with Swiss-cheese like holes in them. There were more small trees in this area instead of only sagebrush and the dreaded tumbleweeds. There were still plenty of prickly pears for me to worry about.

Our camp-site was directly under a large cave containing some Anasazi ruins. Near the front of the cave, two intact food storehouses could be seen on the right, and part of one toward the back on the left. Under the ruins, there was a slight overhang, and underneath that was our campfire. We started it just in time because the chilly air comes quickly in the desert.



One of our labs was a little too energetic after the long day of driving, so I took her for a walk. I followed the trail further into the canyon. I didn't walk far before realizing that I needed my camera.

I grabbed my camera to take photos of the incredible colors and lacy rock formations within caves. The colors were not lavender at all, but pale yellows, peaches, pinks, and sometimes greens. Or, all of these colors appeared at once as the dripping effect started to create the lacy rock layers inside the caves.






Below this was what appeared to be a carefully landscaped garden with junipers, pinon pines, cacti, small flowers, yuccas, sages, the occasional thistle and many other types of plants. The plants looked as if they all came from the nursery just days ago (plant in sandy soil, 12"- 15" apart...). I felt as though I were in a magical place, just me and my dog.

I was on my way back when I met up with my husband who was with my other dog. Apparently, I had become so lost in my painted fairy sunset garden that people were beginning to worry about me. I showed him my special new world, and he thought it was really cool.

Back at the camp, we ate burgers, fajitas, and Doritos. We drank beer and did whiskey shots. More oaths of friendship. All under the Anasazi ruins and occasional stars.

In the morning, my husband did some hiking. I slept in until the sun made it too hot to remain inside the tent. Once outside and walking around we discovered that the cattle had made it into our area, within several feet of our tent, in fact.

Fins 'N Things

We ate breakfast and back-tracked toward Moab in order to access the Sandflats Recreation Area's Trails. Fins 'N Things is a slick rock trail, which strangely means that it has grip to it. It was named slick rock by the cowboys who found that their horses had difficulty climbing or descending it safely. However, it does become slick when it is wet.

Fins 'N Things is about as fun as 4-wheeling gets, in my opinion. Many areas drop off on either side of the vehicle. There is a roller coaster effect to the trail with some places having a 40 degree tilt. It's true that there were occasions where I only saw either sand or sky!

After the excitement of a slick rock trail, we were in search of another camp-site. On our way, we stopped at Newspaper Rock to see what was going on in ancient times. As I pondered these petroglyphs, I considered that this was their way of blogging. How funny that so little about us has really changed.

Except that we have 5 toes on each foot now instead of 6.

Onion Creek Trail

We made our way along the Colorado River and eventually came to a dirt road called Onion Creek Trail. We saw several great camp sites, only they were already taken. This was beginning to look like it was going to take some time.

The trail took us through the creek several times until the trail gained in elevation. The creek stayed with us, but eventually took the form of a deep cut and we could no longer see water. The red canyon hugged us closely, the incline became steeper until we came out into some open space, and found ourselves on top of the world with no camp site.

The view was incredible! It was almost hard to believe. Whitecaps, sandstone, sage greens, dark greens from the pine trees, the intense oranges. We could probably see 50 miles or more. It was like several different worlds met at the same place and had no interest in mixing. It was amazing to see something that most people in the world will never see -will never even think to imagine that such a place can exist on this planet. We took it in for a couple of minutes.

Then the cold wind reminded us that we are fragile and we set off again.

Starry Night

We descended into a lush, green valley, so out of place in the desert among the red rocks. At a crossroads on this farm, there was a sign for campgrounds and we eagerly followed it. A couple of miles later, we located our camp-site which was near a restroom -pretty fancy! There was plenty of space for all of us, and it was clear that unlike the several camp-sites we had passed previously that this surpassed them all in privacy and beauty.

We were now about 30-40 miles away from the nearest road and about 10 miles away from the nearest human. There were red canyon walls in front and behind our site. This site was larger and had what seemed like "rooms" for individual tents. If it became windy, there was a lot of sagebrush to kill it.

We really had a good time this night, our last night together with the crew. My husband had way too many whiskey shots. I had a bit more than usual. Catholic whiskey is better than Protestant whiskey, in case anyone is wondering.

I walked away from the fire with a friend to view the stars. We saw satellites. I actually saw the Little Dipper, which I haven't seen in several years! And we saw a shooting star that lasted a decent amount of time. We were out long enough to notice that the longer we were out, the more that the stars became visible. I didn't want it to end. I remember a time when you didn't have to go camping in Utah to see the stars.

This was one of the most restorative vacations I have ever had. The landscape itself is such a departure from the every-day that you may as well be on another planet; for most of the time, we couldn't have reached another soul by phone if we had wanted to anyway. We had what we needed and left civilization behind.

It's good to remember that you come from nature and not from electronic devices. You are dependent upon natural forces, ultimately, not the nearest Starbucks. It's such an elemental thing, yet we call the end of vacation 'getting back to reality'.

I beg to differ.

Green Mountain / Golden Fault Area

Saturday, went to the west side of Green Mountain to take some photos of some strange looking rocks near the base as well as some rocks on the other side of C470 closer to the Dakota Hogback.

The rocks at the base of Green Mountain are whitish-pink rocks which are made of sandstone. One of them has a little cave which makes the rock resemble a pueblo. The rock on the other side of a ditch is shaped like a crescent moon on its thickest end.

I later learned by reading about the Golden Fault that this sandstone is the result of the Cretaceous Interior Seaway leaving sediment as it approached and then receded, or rather, as the Rockies were being pushed upward.

I found the painted sandstone so amazing and beautiful that I would be lucky to ever reproduce a similar effect on paper or canvas in my lifetime. Yet, the processes that created the dripping rock look would have taken centuries to say the least. I think I spent the most time photographing this rock.

OIL SKETCH and FINAL

Future Project?

I don't really know if this will happen or not, but I might be able to continue working on this painting as part of a class project. I dusted it off (well, somewhat) and took another look. Clearly, the grisaille is not as complete as I thought it was.

Or is it more of a green-saille?

In the charcoal drawing, I scumbled my sister's hair thinking it would be interesting to see her briefly as an African-American. Now, I just think it will mess me up as I try to finish the grisaille.

I started this one about two years ago.

I don't know if this will mesh with what is going on in class, so it could be another two years before I finish this one.

Collage - Homework

I'm working on homework this weekend, and it isn't work related. This is really my first assigned art homework since probably high school. Even then, I don't think I had any.

The purpose of this exercise is to (as I understand it) learn to see values better so that when you are doing a grisaille under-painting, or maybe even studies of some sort, you will be better able to see the value and value relationships between various shapes.

And what-not.

So with that, the class was given a choice of three images to work on. Since everyone else chose the landscape with a tree, I chose, "Portrait of a Young Man". You do a charcoal drawing, a value study, and tear up pieces of black and white construction paper, newspaper in order to get 5 different shades from black to white. Then you lay it on. Hopefully, Elmers glue sticks well enough to cardboard.

I don't know what posessed me to used cardboard. I saw it laying around the basement, it looked like a good 12x16, so I used it.