Weekend Camping and RMNP Photos

Well, as you may remember from yesterday's Weekend Camping and Kayaking Photos, we went camping over Father's Day Weekend.

Day 1 was kayaking ... and I showed you those photos already. (Weekend Camping and Kayaking Photos)

Day 2 was spent in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here are Day 2 and 3 pictures....

The first part of the day Saturday was spent hiking along the Colorado River ...

Weekend Camping and Kayaking Photos

This past weekend was Fathers' Day Weekend and my kids decided to go camping for the weekend.

With the help of their mother, they reserved us a campsite on Granby Lake. It was an awesome weekend. Perfect weather. Lots of fun activities. Great fun.

Here is the view from our campsite ...

Here is our tent and canopy in the photo to provide context.

Great Cycle Challenge: Halfway Through

Well ... the month of June is half-way done.

Yesterday, the Ides of June, was "Kick Cancer's Butt Day". Every donation made (up to 250,000) to the Great Cycle Challenge was matched by various anonymous donors and sponsors.

Pretty cool, but I wish this would have been announced / implemented sooner. I didn't feel it right to ask people who have already donated to donate again for the double credit. If I would have known it was coming, I could have mentioned it and let people know to hold off donating.

Oh well. I did post to my facebook page that the matching was happening. My total dollar amount did increase a little because of it.

Feel free to go out and look at my Great Cycle Challenge Page to make a donation or just to see how I'm doing.

2016 Hail Storm Summer Saison

I brewed my Hail Storm Summer Saison on Sunday. Technically it isn't Summer, yet, so it is a little early to be brewing it, but it will be Summer by the time I'll be drinking it. It will be nice to have it available early in the season.

This is the third time I brewed this beer.

The recipe this year is the same as it was last year other than hop boil times moving a bit to take into account differences in alpha acids.

Hail Storm, is the summer version of my Seasonal Saisons series of beers. It is fairly hoppy, and its ABV is a bit on the low end of saisons stylistically. It is pretty light in color. Other than the fact that I brew this recipe to be cosummed in Summer, there is nothing really special about it making it a "Summer" saison rather than Winter, Spring, or Autumn.

Week 1: Great Cycle Challenge

Well, I've been doing this "Great Cycle Challenge" thing for a little more than a week, and I've gone a little more than 210 miles for the cause.

Feel free to go out and look at my Great Cycle Challenge Page.

In order to accomplish the 645 miles that I've committed to, I need to average 21.5 miles per day.

After 8 days, I'm averaging a little over 26.5 mile per day, so I am easily on track to complete the goal.

I do need to work a little bit on increasing my cushion between what I've ridden and what I need to do, because I think there will be whole days toward the end of the month where I won't be able to ride at all.

But, that shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish.

I've done some Mountain Bike riding. I've done lots on my "road" bike. I've even done some on the stationary bike at 24 Hour Fitness.

#WeAreGroot Sweet Potato #HomeBrew

At some point in my life, I thought that it would be fun to brew a beer using potatoes as an ingredient.

Not sure why. I just thought it would be an interesting thing to try.

Recently, I got it into my head that really sweet potatoes would be an even better idea.

Not sure why. I just thought it would be an interesting thing to try.

In principle, brewing with potatoes or sweet potatoes isn't much different than brewing with corn, rice, or pumpkins. Starch gets converted into sugar by enzymes on your grain. Sugar gets eaten by yeast. Alcohol is formed.

Day 1: Great Cycle Challenge

Just a couple days ago I mentioned on this blog that I was participating in the Great Cycle Challenge. (see 19 Miles a Day)

The Great Cycle Challenge raises money for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

At the time, I had committed to riding 560 miles ... almost 19 miles a day.

Since then, I got another pledge, which forced me to increase my goal to 595 miles. I have committed myself to ride 20 miles a day in June.

If you want to make me do even more (or if you just want to check up on to how I'm doing) ... feel free to visit

Eric Shepard's Great Cycle Challenge Page

So, yesterday being June 1, I officially began my challenge month riding by riding my bike to work.