Father's Day Weekend 2019 Part 3

Remember from Father's Day Weekend 2019 Part 1, and Father's Day Weekend 2019 Part 2 that we went camping on Fathers' Day Weekend.

We were by Twin Lakes, Colorado at White Star Campground.

Part 1 was mostly about a day on the lake in Kayaks and Canoes.

Part 2 was a hike up the Colorado Trail from our campground to the South Mount Elbert Trail.

We are now up to Sunday ... which was mostly packing up and heading home. However, we stopped by a mountain lake on the way home.

Of course, my pictures don't do it justice ... but here are some anyway ...

Father's Day Weekend 2019 Part 2

Remember from Father's Day Weekend 2019 Part 1, that we went camping on Fathers' Day Weekend.

We were by Twin Lakes, Colorado at White Star Campground, and you've seen pictures from the first day.

Part 1 was mostly about a day on the lake in Kayaks and Canoes.

Day 2 was a hike up the Colorado Trail from our campground to the South Mount Elbert Trail.

It was a great hike with awesome views.

Of course, my pictures don't do it justice ... but here are some anyway ...

Father's Day Weekend 2019 Part 1

Quite often, we go camping on Fathers' Day weekend.

I think that is because the father in the household really likes camping and gets sad that we don't do it as much as he would like.

This past weekend was Fathers' Day. And, we went camping.

This year, we went to Twin Lakes, Colorado to a campground very close to the "upper" of the Twin Lakes that the village is named after.

White Star Campground.

It was very nice.

I took a couple days off work so we could make it a 4-day weekend and camp three nights.

Smoked Chicken on Infusion Roaster

You might remember that I smoked my Thanksgiving Turkey last year.

I purchased a "Turkey Cannon Infusion roaster" from Amazon to help out.

If you've been following this blog for awhile, you likely know that I have been experimenting for some time with slightly different ways to prepare grilled / smoked chicken.

See Sheppy's Blog: Chicken if you'd like to review various methods that I've experimented with.

I was making chicken a couple of weekends ago.

I thought ... maybe I'll try the "Turkey Cannon Infusion roaster" on a chicken.

So I did.

#GCCUSA 10 Day Update

As I've mentioned a few times recently on this blog (and on facebook and on instagram and on twitter), I am riding again in the Great Cycle Challenge.

I've done this every year since 2016. The Great Cycle Challenge is one of those ride-to-raise-money-for-charity events that pop up from time to time.

The charity I'm riding to raise money for is the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

The difference between this "event" and others (sort of) like it is that this one lasts the entire month of June. The riders pledge a number of miles to ride over the month. Other people donate money in support.
This year, I decided to make my goal 1000 miles. 1000 miles is more than I've ever ridden in a month, and I considered it a very aggressive goal. In fact, I have had my doubts that I could even do it.

It isn't so much that 33 miles a day is a huge physical effort. I was fairly certain that my legs would be very tired by the end of the month (through out the month actually), but that I could physically do it.

Being able to commit a couple hours a day to the effort was the question.

1000 Mile Mild

As I shared in #GCCUSA 2019 Great Cycle Challenge, I'm doing the Great Cycle Challenge again this year.

Since the blog post, I raised my riding goal to 1000 miles.

I wanted to brew this weekend, and I thought it would be fun to make a beer commemorating this challenge.

I thought it should be low alcohol, and came up with a recipe for a English Mild.

1000 Mile Mild

1000 miles is a lot of bike riding for me to accomplish in a month, and in order to have a chance to complete the goal, I'm going to have to be pretty aggressive.

Of course, I wanted to get started out strong. The month started off on this past weekend, and I made it my goal to hit 100 miles by Sunday night.

Memorial Weekend in Estes Park Part 3

If you follow this blog, you realize that I was in Estes Park over Memorial Day Weekend.

See

Memorial Weekend in Estes Park Part 1

And

Memorial Weekend in Estes Park Part 2

It was awesome to get away to the wilderness for a few days.

On Monday, before anyone else was up, I went for a quick morning hike.

Here are some pictures:

Memorial Weekend in Estes Park Part 2

Rocky Mountain National Park is always fun.

We decided to stay in Estes Park over Memorial Day Weekend, and obviously ... when in Estes Park, we had to spend some time in RMNP.

May has been particularly snowy in Colorado, and Trail Ridge Road was closed, but we could spend time on the East side of the park.

On Sunday, we found a RMNP trail accessable from Estes Park (as opposed to going through any of the drive-through entrances).

Gem Lake was the name of the trail. We started late morning, had lunch by the lake, and then hiked back down.

Here are some pictures from this hike (Part 2) ...