7/22-7/24 Denver to Golden to Winter Park

A weekend with all the best this city has to offer: Basic Kneads Pizza at Summer Brewfest, some time with a whole bunch of Rockin Bakkens, and a quick escape to somewhere not quite as hot as here.

7/22

It was a smoking hot night on the pizza truck Friday night at Mile High Station for Summer Brewfest.  We sweated it out in front of the fire with a crew of 5 and a packed parking lot.  No pictures this week from us but see if you can find the fan-filmed you-tube video of the truck in full dance mode throwing out a pie a minute.  It must be out there somewhere...

7/23

A quick afternoon dip in the Golden Play Park on the way to the Mom and Dad Bakken's house helped us cool off.  For anybody who cares, I am totally sold on the Jackson Happy Feet - actually fitting in my playboat made a difference overnight, and greatly minimized the amount of time otherwise spent with my head akwardly shoved into the front of that plastic torture device.  After the play park we continued over to wish Eric, Johanna, Naomi, Leah and Kieran Bakken (that's 5 Bakken's!) well on their last night in the US before heading around the world to live in Saudi Arabia for 2 years.  Eric is teaching kindergarten and Johanna is a social worker/therapist at a secondary school for English speaking students in a University community.  The BKP truck arrived in Golden with a fresh paint job courtesy of Reid Bakken, BKP Graphic Designer.  Pizza Saturday happened for the first time on the driveway, which was recently repaved just for this event.

 Christen, Craig, and Sadie by the Truck

Reverse Bakken Sibling Pileup 

left to right:

Reid Bakken, Diego (Bakken) Romero, Leah Bakken, Kieran Bakken,

Craig Bakken, Rachel (Bakken) Romero, Eric Bakken, Jan Bakken,

Sadie Bakken, Christen Bakken, Waldo Bakken, Naomi Bakken,

Joel Bakken, Ziggy Bakken, and Johanna Bakken

 (that's 15 Bakken's!)

7/24

Early morning motivation for downhill mountian biking turned into an epic brake tune up as I had apparently worn last years brake pads down to nothing at all in about 10 days of riding.  We escaped the daytime heat just in time to make it up to Winter Park for an afternoon of rowdy DH riding.  The Trestle Bike Park is by far the best in the state and continues to see constant improvement - several new trails this year and a large new wooden feature on the Trestle DH trail make for even more sweet airtime.  I'm not really sure I'm up for base jumping, so I think downhilling might be the closest I can get to that amazing feeling of flying.  There's something about leaving the earth for a moment and feeling it pulling you back (in a relatively controlled manner) that is insatiable.  And there's a lot of that at Winter Park.  My favorite feature is definitely the wooden doubler on Free Speech - a 10 foot wooden gap jump walled in by tight trees with a fast twisting entrance.  Many thanks to Justin for talking me into that one for the first time.  

Christen headed out into the Fraser Valley wilderness for an afternoon of hiking with Ziggy and Waldo and says "oh my gosh it is so beautiful!"  A bright blue sky over the moist forest floor felt more like a tropical rainforest than an alpine environment.  The whole time she was hiking she was thinking she should have taken her bike since the trails were wide and smooth, as well as poorly marked, so they had the potential to be ridden for hours on end.

We met up after the sick lines at the Lime Cantina at the WP base area, and had a chance encounter with kayaker pals Ben West and Hunter who were also up biking.  Had one of the top 100 recommended dishes in the Denver area (from 5280 magazine) - the Scorpions - shrimp with jalapeno and chipolte sauce, wrapped up and deep-fried to perfection.

No pics from the trail (will work on that), but several from the way up and back.

 A bike almost as big as Christen's new "egg" car.  Picture perfect clouds over Berthoud Pass.

Berthoud Pass roadside scenic waterfall.  If we were tourists we could have just done this. 

Ziggy and Waldo sniffing out the place for us. 

Ziggy and Waldo in their absolute favorite environment - tall grass.  This is a little slow but totally worth watching.

Thanks for reading - Joel (obviously)

A Whirlwind Weekend- a little of everything- July 15-18th, 2011

Where did we go?
        Better question- where didn't we go?

       Our weekend began on the Boulder Res.  From there we hit up Erie (which we affectionately refer to as Wyoming it is so far north of the city), back to Denver, through Winter Park to Granby.  From Granby, we headed north through Kremling, to Rabbit Ears Pass and onto Steamboat Springs!  And that is just in 3 short days and just over one full tank of gas.

Double Rainbow in Granby

Ziggy and Waldo in the Columbine field

What did we do?
          Boulder Res- Wakeboarding with Justin Meyer, Peter Matranga, and Tim
           Erie- Dinner with good, good friends!
           Granby- Basic Kneads Wedding at the YMCA of the Rockies- Congrats to Elly and Chris!
           Rabbit Ears Pass-  Camped
           Steamboat Springs- Biked, Soaked, Picniced, Camped, Ate, Celebrated!

Strawberry Park Hotsprings

Playlist/Song of the trip: Good Life- One Republic
                                     Beautiful People- Chris Brown featuring Benny Bennassi

Pose of the trip- Savasana-  this trip provided a well earned and needed respite to a very busy week.  Mostly, we (I, Christen) tried to let go and surrender.

Mountain Biking Reviews:
Day 1: Spring Creek- begins just outside the town of Steamboat.  Mostly super wide, smooth singletrack.  About 5 miles to the top and same 5 miles back down.
This is Christen's favorite ride!  It can be a challenging climb for beginning bikers, but elements such as lots of rocks and roots, are not a factor.  There are a couple of unavoidable stream crossings, most are bridged over though.  Although quite "easy" for technical biker, Joel, this trail offers a few tough sections and jumpable rollers- so Joel is usually pretty well entertained.  Be sure to stop and enjoy this one.  It can be a scorcher in the summer heat, so take breaks, dip your toes in the water, and watch the clouds at the top of the climb- afternoon storms seem to be quite common.  The best feature of this ride are the bike tall flowers and ferns as you race through aspen groves.  5 STARS!!!
Day 2: What we will refer to Upper Spring Creek- right out of the Dry Lake Campground-  This is narrow, but smooth singletrack.  We rode for only about 2 miles, but in drier years, this trail probably goes on for quite a while.
This ride can be described in 3 sections-  first .75 miles- smooth, flat, beautiful, narrow ride. second .5 miles- mosquito breeding grounds- mud pit.  third .5 miles- incredible simple climb beside river.  At mile 2 the river was raging and was impassable.  Definitely a good trail for couples during drier seasons/years!  3.5 STARS- a bit of potential...

What did we eat?
             When we camp, we usually save money compared to our weekends at home.  We eat many meals at the campsite, on the tailgate of the Tacoma, and on the trail.  Our favorite repeat meals include- Egg in a Hole, Breakfast and Dinner Burritos, Grilled Cheese off the fire, Lots of Strawberries (even the dogs eat them), and old reliable, PB&J.
              On this trip we also journeyed into town for one outstanding meal at Winona's Restaurant.  They have cute (usually full) tables outside and an outstanding lunch menu for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.  The service was great and the food was event better.

Highs and Lows:
         Highs- celebrating two incredible years together doing some of our simple favorite things
         Lows- a small toss up- either arriving at Rabbit Ears pass at 2am or the "skeeters"- mosquitoes everywhere!

2 Years and Counting Our "new years" resolution- Start Blogging!

Hello Everyone!  Thank you for taking the time to read our blog!  This will be our best method of memory keeping, but also a key component in our connection to you.
                               

About Your Bloggers:
Joel and Christen Bakken-  Rockin Bakkens  (yes our last name rhymes with Rockin' and it is not Bacon- we don't even eat the stuff)
2 years ago Christen and Joel got married at the top of Keystone Mountain.  Best friends first, we were excited about what our future would hold.  Over the years, we are always asked questions about our lifestyle- whether the question is "How do you find the time to...?"  "How did you get so adventurous?"  "Can Joel keep up with you? or Can you keep up with Joel?"  or "What do you eat?"- either because we are vegetarian or because we are athletic.  THIS BLOG WILL ANSWER ALL THOSE QUESTIONS AND MORE!

Neither Joel or Christen is a Colorado native, but consider themselves as people who know how to take advantage of what Colorado has to offer.  They love mountain towns, adventure sports, and one another.  Each day in their relationship is an adventure whether 5 blocks from home or on the other side of the state.

What you can expect:
1. Description of what we've been up to
2. Exact descriptions of what we did and the girl and boy perspective on the level of fun and difficulty.
3. Best meals, moments, pictures
4. Potential Yoga Poses and Playlist of the trip
5. Highs and Lows

 

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