Sprinter Build Out Day One

Last Friday we drove home our brand-new (to us) 2011 170" wheelbase Mercedes (Freightliner) Sprinter van! That's right, after years of discussions, internet searches and endless sketching, we are van owners!! Now, our poor baby has been treated roughly in the past. Her 118,000 miles has given her a number of dings, scratches and, well, wear that needs to be attended to. Apparently her previous owners have never been ship dwellers. I had the mandate that our living quarters be spotless from my days living at sea. So, first order of business: Cleaning!

Exterior Cleaning Treatment: 
Thourough spray down and initial rinse
Meguiliars Cleaner and Wax applied with shammy and sponge (don't neglect the roof and don't wax anything you would like to see out of/shine your headlights through later!)
Rinse spray
Armor-all Detail spray for the black trim.

I must say, a vast improvement already! We will come back with some sap remover to work on the stubborn sticker residue left from when this was a moving van.

Prepping the Interior For Cleaning and Build Out: 
Remove bulkhead
Remove side panels (save these to use as templates later)
Remove subfloor (this triggered my first van ride to the home store. Turns out you need Torx 30 and Torx 45 bits to get the bolts holding the subfloor down out. Save the subfloor panels to be used as templates later.)
Rip out the nasty felt product that's been under the subfloor for the past 6 years

We now have a (mostly) empty cargo area with a ton of gross dirt, dust and other unidentifiable debris that's been hiding under the subfloor. (as well as five or six quarters. Score!) Next up will be sessions with the shop vac and a major interior dusting.

Nothing to see here.
Until we get the new site up and running. This is going to be a repository for links we have collected on building out our new (to us) 170" Sprinter Van!

Interested in Sprinter Buildouts? You might find something you like in here....

http://mojagear.com/journal/2016/06/28/convert-cargo-van-ultimate-climbers-camper/

http://www.buildagreenrv.com/our-conversion/

http://thevanual.com/

http://stephdavis.co/blog/to-van-or-not-to-van-van-living-1/

mosquitocurtains.com

aluminess.com

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/05/building-out-a-bitchin-sprinter-van/

http://www.dirtbagdarling.com/adventuremobiles-a-look-inside-our-converted-sprinter-van/

http://www.dirtbagdarling.com/adventuremobiles-heres-what-to-know-about-your-camper-van-build-out/

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T-h8ruMKBog

http://sprintervanusa.com/how-to-convert-a-van/

http://www.thefitrv.com/rv-reviews/winnebagos-4x4-concept-adventure-vehicle/

Rock and Brews Tour 2014 Stop Three

Stop 3: Turtle Lake bouldering and Durango breweries.

            I suck at bouldering. I don’t know if it’s the lack of fitness, the ADD, the whole hitting the ground every time you fall or what but I have never had the drive to be a boulderer. However, it is an excellent way to involve the whole family while climbing and let one parent get a good pump on while the other plays with Yvie. So I asked my friend Jay to be my bouldering mentor and feed me areas and routes to try out. As we drove south, Jay fired off that we should check out Turtle Lake as we passed through Durango (Also a big craft beer town!). So of course we must go!

            The Rock: After spending the night in the National Forest, I drove the On The Loose-mobile over to Turtle Lake. We were greeted by the Roadside Boulder which had a wonderful straight up V1 to warm up on. The rock here seems to be a close relative to the volcanic tuff we found around Penitente with rounded holds interspersed with crisp edges and interesting cracks. We spent a splendid morning trying out the problems on the boulders close to the road and exploring the area. We even encountered a mystery. Written on a small rock at the base of one of the boulders was an invitation to find a treasure map written somewhere on top of the rock formation! We scrambled to the top and spent some time looking but did not find the map. Maybe you will have better luck unlocking the mystery of Turtle Lake!

            The Brews: Jay was not wrong in calling Durango a craft beer town. We discovered four breweries in town and managed to visit two: Brew Pub and Kitchen and Ska Brewing! We had an excellent dinner at Brew Pub and Kitchen the first night. Friendly staff and an excellent porter! After refueling and restocking our supplies we hit the Ska Brewery on our way out of town. I’ve long been a fanboy of this excellent brewery and it was exciting to be on site and taste some of their beers.

From Durango, we now point south. We will be heading into the desert to visit the ancients at Chaco Canyon NP! See you out there!

The Road trip Mindset:

The Road trip Mindset:

“When are we going to California?” This question has been coming at an almost constant stream from my daughter Yvie. The response each time is “We are going to California right now sweetie.” This answer is true; it’s just that we are getting there via the Sand Dunes, Penitente, Durango and now Chaco Canyon. We are constantly going to California, just not via a very direct route much to the chagrin of our four year old that can’t wait to see her cousins and play on the beach.

            In our everyday life we are constantly deluged by deadlines.

Rock And Brews Tour 2014 Stop Two

Stop 2: Penitente Canyon and Three Barrel

Awesome history to this climbing area.

            Somehow we’ve managed to live and climb in Colorado for eight years now and had yet to visit Penitente Canyon down in the San Luis Valley. Maybe the rumors about the laziness of Front Range Climbers is true. (We do have Eldorado Canyon in our back yard as well as a half dozen other world-class destinations within an hour or two.) At any rate, we finally got down to this amazing place; and they have a local craft brewery too! Three Barrel Brewing Company in Del Norte, CO. Bonus!

            The Rock: Penitente Canyon is an excellent cragging destination for beginners and experts alike. The volcanic tuff that makes up the rock here provides great friction and the weathering (or possibly other geologic processes, maybe gas bubbles?) has created interesting pockets both of which make for excellent climbing.  Although rattlesnake warnings abound both in guidebooks and at the trail heads, we did not have any rattler sightings and found the canyon to be very family friendly with short approaches, short climbs

Rock And Brews Tour 2014 Stop One

Stop 1: Vedauwoo and New Belgium Brewing

            Okay, so maybe it’s a stretch calling New Belgium Vedauwoo’s local brewery as it is over an hour’s drive to the south and in another state. But, we did go there after cragging up in the ‘Voo so we will count it as the inaugural stop on the 2014 Rock and Brews Tour.

Road trip begin

Road Trip Commences with a Yo-yo to Vedauwoo!

The On The Loose Mobile at it's first stop!

After a solid week of midnight and 2AM preparation nights, we finally launched off on this year's tour! Driving the rig up to Vedauwoo for the weekend, we met up with friends for an afternoon of fairy house making, bouldering and an awesome night around the campfire surrounded by the pre-cambrian granite domes of this Wyoming masterpiece. 

Getting Lost in Boulder County Open Space

This is Boulder!?

With Brenda returning from her class trip (Major props to Bren for chaperoning 7-8th graders in the Grand Canyon for over a week while coping with pneumonia!) it was time for me to shed the slow moving solo daddy in favor of something a little more up-tempo.

I've been itching to do something badass. Something to push myself and shake off the cobwebs of a winter spent recuperating from surgery. I recently read about the Boulder Grand Slam on Paul Magnanti's website and thought this would be a good stretch goal for a big day hike close to home.

Alpinists send new route near RMNP

The team poses for their summit shot
on top of Unnamed Suburban Hill (9,260 ft)

Breaking News: Two young alpinists from Lafayette, CO made a possible first ascent of the Northwest Face of Unnamed Suburban Hill in Estes Park just outside Rocky Mountain National Park over President's Day weekend, 2014.
       Yvie Parker and Sam Bryan sent the route, now named Can We Have Hot Chocolate Now? in a single push from their backyard snow fort, summiting just before nap time on Saturday. Temps were in the high 40s and there was wind blowing from the West reported their support team.
       The team made the ascent in alpine style

Sir, you are full of holes

The Percoset Grins

In December I went through surgery to replace my ICD. ICD stands for Internal Cardio Defibrillator. You know the paddles in hospital shows?" Clear!" Imagine those, but implanted inside the body. It's pretty amazing tech but still not something that is often put into otherwise healthy 30 year olds. As one of my physicians once quipped: "It used to be that the patients would expire before the device did." Kinda grim but that's the reality of being on the cutting edge of medical technology. 

So it was a huge bummer but no big surprise to find out that the wire connecting my device to my heart was recalled. It's like when they recall your car because they find the brakes on your model don't work like they are supposed to. Except in this case, the brakes are inside your veins and attached to your heart. Awesome. 

A new day. A new year.

           There’s a certain energy to the New Year.  The beginning of 2014 seems full of possibilities; a chance for rebirth, to shape yourself into the person that you want to be. Maybe it’s a vow to lose a few pounds, read more books, learn a new skill, travel somewhere you've been dreaming about, ask that girl out who you have been secretly admiring, spend more time in the outdoors or with your family, finally send that route you've been projecting.

Whatever your goal is, for at least a brief time as the calendar flips over from December 31 to January 1, you know that they are within your grasp. That this will be the year you achieve, accomplish and overcome whatever fear or disability has been holding you back. 

This is the year.

What if you could hold that certainty all year long? What if you could hold that certainty of limitless possibility and potential throughout 2014? Imagine what you could achieve if every day you woke up and thought.

Today is the day.

More after the break

Some Days You Can Do It All

           

   

           “Let’s play with my new toys Mommy!” These are the last words I hear as the door shuts behind me. In the driveway, the truck looms in the blackness, leaking vapor like the engine from the Hogwarts train in the Harry Potter movies. My skis are packed in the camper cap, I’ve just finished an early Christmas morning opening presents with my family and I’m racing to catch my friends to carpool up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day of backcountry skiing. It is 6:52 AM.

             Raising children, working a full time teaching job and trying to live an outdoor-oriented lifestyle is hard; mainly because of scheduling. When you try to juggle cooking breakfast, preparing lunch, teaching all day, food shopping, cleaning up the toys from underfoot, cooking dinner, doing dishes, putting your child to bed, grading papers, planning lessons and finding time to play imaginary zoo on the living room floor, you end up being limited either by your own endurance, or the pesky fact that there is only 24 hours in a day.

I had many conversations with my friends over Thanksgiving that focused on solving the problem of creating the time to both be a good father and carve out time for climbing, hiking and skiing.  Don’t forget not getting fired, which comes a close third on that priority list. We talked about carving out scheduled chunks of time to squeeze in a workout or a few laps on the project. Ultimately, it seemed like none of us were totally satisfied with how often we got out, but that we could feel good about getting after it sometimes and focusing on being a good father; at least most days.

Last weekend though, with an impending surgery rapidly approaching, I was given the equivalent of a weekend pass. Two days to play. 48 hours to fill with whatever fills my proverbial bucket. During those two days I managed to:

Take my daughter to the toy store for the first time.

Shop for my wife’s Christmas present.

Get totally worked at the Boulder Rock Club climbing with two beautiful women.

Spend an evening drinking homebrew with friends and family.

Open presents with my daughter and wife after a surprise early visit from Santa.

Go backcountry skiing, spending time and swapping tales with two of my best friends.

Go bowling and hang out with my family at a staff Christmas party.

Get eight good and well-deserved hours of rest.

Some days, it seems, you really can do it all. 

CT Hike Day 1 - Copper to above Camp Hale

Dinky pack day 1: Gotta love that ultralight style!

Rob picked me up nice and early-ish and we were down in Denver picking up Adam by around 9AM. A quick coffee stop and we were on our way! 
We parked at one of the lots in the Copper Ski area proper. Looking at the guidebook, we could have added a mile or two by parking right off of I-70, but the addition of two miles hiking across a ski area didn't seem like it would be a valuable addition to the trip. Final preparations were made and we were on our way!

Trying to make this more than annual.....

Yvie chillin' with Hayduke the dog at Rifle

So nobody likes to read a blog that only posts once a year right? In an attempt to make this a little more interesting...I'm combining all of my online writing into this blog (except the homebrew logs which will stay at On The Loose Brewery). In the next week or so I'll be posting up journals from my CT Hike and an update on how Yvie and Brenda are doing with this summer's adventures. Stay Tuned!!

Summer Update

Evie at 14,333 ft atop Mt Elbert

Well, it's been a long, fun full summer of getting after it.

Now it's September, we are back in school, and I figure it's high time to catch people up on what we've been doing:

One of the great things about teaching is the fact that, during the summer, you have the time to do whatever you want. Some folks work to make more money, some people travel. We go to the mountains.

Big highlights of this summer:
Spending a month back east visiting family.
Evie's first night in a tent (she was afraid of the dark, poor thing!).
Taking Evie up Mt Elbert (highest point in Colorado).
Taking Evie on her first backpacking trip (3 days, 2 nights) in the Indian Peaks.
Finding new climbing opportunities at places like Lily Lake.
Hiking with my brother, Charles up onto Long's Peak.
Starting to trad climb again in Eldo and other places like Potash Rd in Moab.

It's been a great learning summer...our goal was to figure out how to backpack with Evie (success!). I will write another post on the ins-and outs of carrying the usual backpacking load, plus another human being and all of her cloth diaper stuff! We also learned that it's great to have a huge family backpacking tent, but that it kinda sucks to put up and take down every day, that babies do just fine in the backcountry, and that poopie diapers are gross, whether you are at home with running water, or in the backcountry.

Until next time, I hope you have an adventurous week.

Neversummer Yurts Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Chris reserved the Clark Peak Yurt, one of the Neversummer Nordic Yurts for Memorial Day Weekend (and Chris' birthday). We went up for a fantastic weekend of spring corn skiing (and slogging), snowshoeing and enjoying the beauty of the mountains.

It's funny that, right when all of the resorts are shutting down, the Colorado snowpack is becoming safer and more fun! The spring backcounty snow is AWESOME! I'll focus on the baby stories here and let the ski video speak for itself.

Sylvan Lake March 5-7 2010

Playing a little catchup here on a rare rainy day in Colorado.

In early March we took a trip up to Sylvan Lake State Park near Eagle, CO for a weekend of XC skiing, attempted BC skiing, snowshoeing, and enjoying winter with friends. It was Evie's first big trip into the "backcountry" (the cabin was all of ten steps away from the car, but we were miles out of town) and she took it in stride.

First Snowshoe!!

This weekend was Brenda's birthday. She has been wanting to get out into the mountains since before Evie was born. With the difficulties involved with being pregnant and then having a frail newborn...we haven't ventured out onto the snow at all this winter.

With Evie getting bigger and stronger every day, we decided it was time to take her on her first snowshoe!

Our friend, Chris, found a great local trailhead right outside town and we went! The day was cold, with wind driving the falling snow into our faces. But Evie stayed warm in the Ergo on my chest.

More after the break

Evie Videos up on the Picasa Page

We've uploaded some videos of Evie's first month.
Check them out here!

Cutest baby Evar!

And now we present week 5 pictures!