SQL Server Saturday

Ah, the weekend!  I was hoping to get out on the trail tomorrow but I am headed to the SQL Server Saturday meeting up at Mr. Biggs.  A team member that I work with Mr. Mark Halstead is presenting and several others are attending.  

 

Mark is presenting on PowerShell and VBScript for the DBA:  http://www.sqlsaturday.com/viewsession.aspx?sat=104&sessionid=6106

 

XTIVIA is proud to be Bronze sponsor and congratulations to Mark for being selected to present.  Maybe I’ll se you there!

Walking to work and back

I got of my ass and walked to and from work today.  Took the longer route both ways and managed to get six miles in.   I left the house at 6:30am and got home tonight at 6:30pm.  Got to walk in the dark for most of the trip home.

Colorado Birds

Over the last couple of years I have been taking pictures of birds when I come across them on the trail or around the house, mostly in the back yard.    I took some of the pictures and made an attempt of making a video montage.   Some of the pictures are better than others.  I hope you enjoy!

Party's Over

Holidays are over and tomorrow it is back to work. Going to be a busy year and looking forward to it. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and wish you the best for the New Year!

Let’s see I was planning on doing the Mt. Rosa loop on Sunday but my hiking partner slept in. Then I thought I would do it today but I didn’t want to spend my last day off gone for 6 hours.

It was a great day to be outside so I headed over the shop to see what work I could get done.

I got a new blast cabinet a week of so back and today seemed like the day to get it all put together and ready for operation. It went together pretty easy doing it by myself. I need to get some sand and then I can look forward to blasting something. This one is larger than my old one so I should be able to blast bigger pieces.

Once the blaster was all setup I spent a little time working on the west wall. I have most of the insulation up and am just about ready for sheetrock but that will have to wait until spring/summer, just too darn cold in the shop without any heat. Heat is on the list but it is going to be a while.

I loaded up a new back pack and will be trying it out this week for when I walk to work. I am planning to try to walk everyday this week. I started a new spreadsheet for 2012 to start tracking my mileage and diet. I have a lot of travel planned for the month of January so I am going to have to get used to the treadmill when on the road.

Happy Hiking

Making it count

I didn’t make it out on the trails yesterday but I did end up doing just a little over 4/miles on the treadmill. This week hasn’t been too bad for getting miles in, I am now just over 20 for this week. It doesn’t look like I am going to make it out today. The wind is really blowing and we have wind advisory warnings. I'll try to get on the treadmill later today.

Happy Hiking

Seven Bridges Loop

This morning I drove up to the GCR parking lot.  I expected to see a few more cars in the parking lot at 10AM, there were only three other cars.  I headed up GCR and figured I would either do Seven Bridges or go up to St. Mary’s Falls.  Well Seven Bridges won as it was the first trail that I came across.

On my way up GCR I came across two guys who were just coming back from doing St. Mary’s and said that the trail was decent, it had seen a lot of action since the snow.   So I caught trail 622 which is also known as Seven Bridges.   Hiked up to the Jones Park area and there is still plenty of snow and once again I could have used my snow shoes but didn’t have them with me.

I managed to find trail 668 and then over to 666 for about mile before catching trail 667 aka Captain Jacks.   I then worked my way down the Mt. Buckhorn trail back to GCR.   I moved a little quicker today.  Hiking time today was 3 hours and 44 minutes with a total distance of 6.83 Miles.  Once again another great work out with an elevation gain of 2155 ft.

I managed to get a few pictures today and have included or you can view all the pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111229?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWi18LHj-3vlQE

Not sure where I am headed tomorrow but you can rest assured I will let you know.

Happy Hiking

Paint Mines Interpretive Park

Today I headed out to do one of my favorite hikes, the Paint Mines.   I drove out highway 24 to Calhan, CO.  It’s about 35/Miles from Colorado Springs.   This isn’t a long hike, today I managed to get 3/miles in.   What makes this hike so much fun is that the scenery is so different that what you find in the mountain areas.

You will find it hard to believe that such great rock formations exist just outside in the Colorado plains.   The mines have evidence of human life as far back as 9,000 years ago. The colorful clays were used by American Indians. The park features fantastic geological formations including spires and hoodoos that were formed through erosive action that created incised gullies and exposed layers of seienite clay and jasper.

All of today’s pictures can be found here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111228?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvwlJuEzNOYBg

I had to trek through some deep snow in the canyon areas.   It was pretty slick climbing on some of the rocks.  I actually fell a couple times today and need to clean up my camera.  It was cold in the shade and the wind was blowing.  In the sun wasn’t to bad.

If you like hiking and are looking for something different I would recommend this hike.   You better get to it soon as I am sure that at some point they will begin limiting the trails and you may not have access any longer. 

Happy Hiking

Trail 666

This morning I headed out to get some miles in.  Drove up to GCR and parked in the parking lot at the bottom of High Drive.   Threw on my gear and headed up the road.   I got a chance to use just about everything today.   I had my stableicers on and wore them for the entire hike.   Had my nano on and my tunes going and was trying my new GPS for the first time on the trail. 

I hiked up High Drive to the trail head for trail 666.  This isn’t one of my favorite hikes but it has a decent incline and it is a great work out.   I wish I had taken my snow shoes as I could have used them today.  I figured the trail would have seen a lot more activity than it had.  For about the first 2 miles up I was hiking up in someone else’s snowshoe tracks.  But then they stopped and I was now walking through a good 8 to 12 inches of snow.  I did about another mile up to the junction of trails 666 and 667.   That deep snow was a real work out trying to get through.

All pictures can be found here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111227?authkey=Gv1sRgCNCt9IbOjIjahQE

I was on the look out for any bird photo opportunities.   I was only able to get two pictures and neither of them was all that decent.   I have several different bird whistles on my phone.  I would stop and play them along the trail to see if I could get any birds to come fly my way.   I need to get a Finch song as that is what I saw today.

All together I was able to get 6.44/miles in.   I hiked 3.22/miles up with an elevation gain of 2221/ft.  The average slope was 12% incline on the way up and -12% on the way down.  I moved pretty slow today as up and back it took me just over 4 hours.   I contribute the slowness to the deep snow.

I have to admit it was beautiful up there today.   Snow everywhere and in the sunlit area’s the snow just glistened like diamonds.    I had some great views of the stream in between the snow.  It was just great to be out.

Didn’t come across anyone on the trail today and until I was just about back to the truck.  A guy and girl came past me on cross country skis.

I am going to try to get out again tomorrow, not sure where yet.

Happy Hiking

IPod Nano

I was lucky enough to receive a IPod Nano recently at a holiday party that I attended.  Thank you Xtivia!   At first I didn’t get that thrilled about it as I have an older classic IPod that I have carried with me for the last couple of years.   But after getting it home and adding my favorite playlist it was all setup and ready to go.   Being so small I was concerned that I would loose it or leave it in my pant pocket and run it through the washer.

Well guess what they make really cool watch band that will turn you nano into a really nice wrist watch, with your favorite music and photo’s  all there on you wrist.  I asked Santa for one and she gave me one for Christmas.   It’s great! I have been wearing this for the last couple of days.  Today I used it for a hike up trail 666.  It worked great and with it on your wrist you can run your earphones inside your sleeve and up your back.  So you don’t have a wire hanging in the front that gets tangled with you back pack strap or camera strap.  Being on your wrist it is easy to get to so you can check the time or change up your playlist.

Garmin Foretrex 401

For Christmas Candy got me a new GPS.  It is a Garmin Foretrex 401 and it fits nicely on the wrist.  Much smaller than my Map 60 that I carry.   I plan on getting out and testing it to see how it works.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=30026&ra=true