the new camp chaos

Life at the new campchaos isn't all that different... unless of course you factor in the 9,000 feet less altitude which has resulted in more oxygen and changed the game of gluten free baking. We now also "do wood" which as most Mainer's know as a super fun game that results in having a warm house all winter despite how low the thermometer drops.
The dogs wear blaze orange not just for Halloween but during the whole month of deer season as their bushy white tails may be confused with a deer a bit too easily. We enter camp on the first floor with all the bedrooms (yes- that's more then just one!) and head upstairs to the main room that gets great sunlight even with the shortest day of the year approaching.  A trip outside yields a dirt road and a great walk for the dogs each morning. So it's a bit different from condo life but we're all adapting well.

let two sleeping dogs...

really can these two get any cuter? Chaos was enjoying a nap on a chilly afternoon when Mayhem thought that he needed to curl up with his brother for some afternoon beauty sleep.

campchaos returns to Maine

One 16' Penske Truck loaded with furniture, gear and other toys plus the 4Runner containing the 4 legged members of the crew traveled over 2,600 miles to relocate campchaos to Maine. It's been a long couple of weeks with a flurry of packing, driving, unpacking and settling back into Valley life.

 so far these two seem pretty happy to me....

Photos from the Frisco 5

Highlights include a 9th birthday, camping on the deck, pom poms, gondolas and more...I'm not sure about them but I know that campchaos was exhausted after a weekend of fun.

the frisco five hits Telluride

Last night the Frisco 5 hit Telluride and campchaos in force.. (you can relieve their first visit here...).  They settled into life at campchaos quickly and were soon covered with dog fur and engrossed in fiberarts. I've picked up a few pop-pop makers during my forays to Needlerock and the girls had fun learning to make poms. Today the girls helped with the morning dog walk and after some bacon and pancakes we loaded into the 4Runner and hit Bridal Veil Falls. The road to the falls is uphill and touchy in spots. Dave and I tend to view it as a nice leisurely drive compared to Imogene Pass that we did with Kendra and other roads but we clearly made some nervous and other excited by the trek.

Today was H2's 9th birthday and she enjoyed her day of waterfalls, shopping downtown and laughing with H1 & H3. She also rocked a sweet winter hat that I knitted and she had made the pom pom for. H1 also received his birthday hat and H3 had gotten hers via mail in July.

Rock of Ages Trail to Wilson Peak

Last Monday, Dave, Dave and Charlie headed up over 4,000 feet to Wilson Peak at 14,017. The newly opened trail is a mere 4.5 miles each way but it's still not to be taken lightly. The top is crazy loose rocks and the boys were sure to pack helmets for the trek as the local newspaper has revealed a number of accidents on this iconic Telluride Peak. They also had purchased their search and rescue cards in case of emergency as there's been a few very expensive helicopter evacuations this year.

biking with Mayhem...

Falls Wall

This morning we loaded up the 4Runner and dropped Dave off to meet friends for a climb at Falls Wall. The dogs and I hiked partway in with him but quit at the stream crossing. We had a busy day of porch time and gluten free baking to get on with.
Dave crossed the steam and hiked steeply uphill to where Conrad and Aaron were already climbing. The wall is at the end of Telluride's Box Canyon and features views of Bridal Veil and Ingram Falls in addition to Ajax Peak. 

They had a big day of climbing and enjoyed the sunny weather. We're hoping Telluride's monsoon season is coming to a close but there's no guarantee of that.

East Coast Travels with the Turtle

We hit New England just in time for the biggest heat wave of the summer. Of course with us travel is always entertaining and since we had booked tickets a month out and not 24 hours out it was destined to change at least once.

From July 11 East Coast

Two days before our trip our 6am flight was canceled which shifted our wonderful 3pm arrival time into Boston back to 6pm. A bummer and it put us into rush hour traffic but we could deal with that... but then our new flight was delayed... then canceled. We were sent back out through security of the small Montrose Airport to the desk. I left Dave with our bags and hobbeled back towards the desk.  I was gimpy from an ankle injury I ended up towards the end of the line. Like my fellow passengers, I jumped on the phone with United Airlines customer service in India...and was given new flights that had us leaving Montrose at 8pm and getting to Boston 3 flights later at 8am on Friday morning. I called Dave back out through security and when we got to the desk agent (40 minutes later) she managed to get us on the noontime flight and into Boston at midnight.
We killed some time in Denver and the turtle enjoyed a Fat Tire before getting started on Moyer's Red Sweater.

From July 11 East Coast

Turns out the turtle is quite the knitter and started the project while in DIA.

From July 11 East Coast

And while on the plane he made good progress...

From July 11 East Coast

But took a break when it was time to get the bag after the late arrival into Boston.

From July 11 East Coast

Hope Lake with a touch of camping in the rain

Saturday morning we were up early and packing for a day hike to Hope Lake then camping that night. We stopped on the way to the trail head to claim our favorite spot. We had last camped here in 2008 and had a couple of great nights with friends. We were dismayed to find a few large trees had fallen but hit the spot anyhow.
I had hiked Hope Lake last year with the pups but it was a first for Dave. The day began with sunshine but clouded in as we ascended to the high alpine lake. The pups didn't care and were in the water before Dave and I crested the top.  The sun broke for a bit as we were leaving the lake and descended the 2.5 miles back to the 4Runner.

Big Dave skipped out on the hike due to a leg injury but came up for the camping... sans tent. He's got a Tacoma now and is discovering the joy of truck camping in the back bed under the camper shell.
We finished setting up camp and the sunshade rainshade just in time before the first drops hit. Eventually the rain let up a bit and fueled by a bit of beer and a chill we couldn't shake, we got to work on the campsite. (Click here for photos...) We had two Gerber hatchets and a fold-able saw and hacked the smaller of the two trees. The boys made benches for the firepit and while I debranched the larger tree that won't be moved without a chainsaw.  Yup, that's what happens when you give a bunch of Mainer's some hand tools, time and beer in the woods.

Mill Creek Hike

This spring while searching for non-muddy places to walk the pups we ended up on the Mill Creek Road just outside of Telluride. We returned last weekend to hike on the trail and had a great walk in the woods (despite my tweaky ankle from a climbing mishap the week before) with the dogs. Photos are here...

Sweater #3

weekends are for playing

We finally hit a weekend where the only plan was to roll with it. The weather's turned from full on summer to July Monsoon season where rain and or thunderstorms roll in most afternoons. Our rain jackets are constantly with us and usually on by 2pm. On Saturday we cruised to town to let the dogs swim in the raging San Miguel and surf a few rapids then Dave hit the golf course with a few friends while I had a quiet afternoon with the tired pups.  I managed to hem a few pairs of pants and make this snazzy holder for my knitting needle stash, a side for my double pointed needles (dpn's) and a side for my circular needles. 

From Knitting

From Knitting

 

From Knitting

Today we grabbed the dogs, rain jackets and climbing gear and met Dave and Sally by Society Turn for a bit of climbing while avoiding the storms. You can see all photo's from this weekend here...

summer and the 4th of July

It's officially summer here, meaning we haven't had snow in over two weeks and have been sporting the flip flops consistently. Last week I took the dogs swimming on a rainy afternoon and today we hit the 4th of July Parade in Telluride. It's not a small affair as our town of 2,000 grows with folks coming from all over to enjoy the iconic Main Street Parade. Our friends had grabbed a spot early and when we came in to town 90 minutes before the parade all the prime spots had been snagged. Elaine and Emory just had their first baby and even little Rocco came out (after the loud fire trucks had passed). After we got the text last Tuesday about Rocco joining the Telluride pose I dug through my yarn stash and picked out the colors for his first homemade sweater to go with his collection of k8 knit caps.

From Priest Lake and Happy Birthday USA Day

Then I whipped up this hat for Emory so they could match...

From Priest Lake and Happy Birthday USA Day

Thankfully it was much to hot for Rocco to try on his sweater today. We're hoping it fits by the time some classic late summer festivals hit town along with the cool nights.
Wanna see more? Watch the slideshow or click here.

beyond hats

Somehow last week I mustered up the courage to start looking at knitting patterns for things beyond hats. I decided to start small and knock off a baby shower gift at the same time. I found a simple sweater pattern and whipped up a sweater (size 6 months) in under a week.

From Knitting

It came out much better then expected and I've got to go through my yarn stash to see how big my next sweater will be...

Dzia Dzia comes to Telluride

Billy flew out to Colorado in May then he and Jon drove down to Telluride to see the Colorado version of campchaos for the first time. As luck would have it we were having fine spring weather...the kind that drops over a foot of snow and takes almost a full day to melt off the sidewalks. We had a good visit and made it up to the Telluride Historical Museum which was a highlight for all of us.

 Thankfully the clouds went away and we were able to get a few shots of them on Colorado Avenue in front of Ajax Mountain.

freegrass'n in Telluride

Telluride has a full summer calendar- not just this year but every year. It's an expensive town to begin with so sometimes we skip these events- plus Bluegrass sold out months ago so it was an easy choice to skip out. Meghan and Sam got tickets for Yonder Mountain String Band on Wednesday and Friday passes at town park so they pulled into town on Wednesday with Kaya and Echo in tow.
We did hit some free Bluegrass events and also enjoyed the acoustics of the box canyon from above. 

a three hour tour...

Friday night we pulled outta town and camped in the mountains above Telluride. Our neighbor always jokes with us that we're packing for a three hour tour as we load up dog food, sleeping bags, the tent, tripods and other gear.
We camped above Telluride off the Last Dollar Road... which is the same road that once killed the midpipe of the Subaru's muffler back in April of 2006. The moon made a good showing as it peeked through the aspen trees and the puppies toys created streaks across the dark sky. You can see those here...


Sunday we loaded up the dogs and headed up towards Alta Lakes so the dogs could get some much needed time in the sunshine. We headed up the road and found it mostly melted.... mostly. The 4Runner cleared most of the hard packed snowbanks easily... until it didn't. Dave backed up and did a second take....and the undercarriage came to rest on the glacial mound of snow and ice while the tires spun deeper in the softer snow. Somehow the avalanche shovel we keep in the truck wiggled it's way into summer storage and we found ourselves working at the ice mound with our axe and Mayhem's chuck it stick. One was very effective while the other was just good for throwing tennis balls. You can view all the good times here...

The phones worked fine and Dave called Emory who came to the rescue with his 4Runner and two young labs. Emory had two shovels and the boys were able to dig the truck out quickly. Cheers to friends with four wheel drive, shovels and time on a Sunday afternoon.

Trout Lake and Balloon Festival

The dogs had their first serious swim day this weekend and enjoyed the frigid waters of Trout Lake. Both boys swam until they shook. It jumped from winter to summer in the span of a week and we're now enjoying daytime temps in the high 60's to low 70's and went from snowy days to sunshine.

This year marked the first that we witnessed the Balloon glo on Colorado Avenue in Telluride. We each grabbed a camera and captured the shots. Dave used the D100 and the tripod while I used the Nikon S6000 and just clicked away.

mountainfilm in telluride

this is the first mountainfilm that we've been able to share with a visitor and Sara dived into it head first. The festival still has another day to go but so far we've seen 26 flicks (anywhere from 4 to 80 minutes long each) on topics ranging from the climbing photography of Jimmy Chin to truck farms (seriously, only a guy from MA would think of a farm in the back of his dodge ram in Brooklyn)

We enjoyed some time down by the river between movies on the first nice weekend we've had all year.

And headed to town park for some movies under the stars with friends after the sun set with a few light sprinkles.

Chaos Cookies- sans gluten

Today I took a break from baking for humans and made some cookies for Chaos and Mayhem. It's not the first time I've made them but it's been a while and it was my first time making them gluten free. We've banned gluten flour from the house as it gives me a migraine to bake with it and Dave isn't much of a baker.
I'd love to give credit but the recipe has been in my book since at least 2006 and I have no idea where it came from. We've dubbed them Chaos Cookies and they were very well received by a tough panel of judges, Chaos, Mayhem and their friend Stella.

Chaos's Gluten Free Dog Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup flour (I used my old batch of Gluten Free Featherlight)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix Flour and baking powder then add peanut butter and milk. Combine then roll out on floured surface to 1/4" thickness. Cut out your pups favorite shapes or keep it simple. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Cool before serving to your pup! Keeps best in fridge or freezer.

I've found that a simple shape makes for the best cookie cutter. We had a skinnier dog bone cookie cutter but found that the bones broke easily. I also made some triangles for smaller treats for toy stuffing.

 The judges all agreed- they loved the peanut butter flavor and the smells that came out of the kitchen. They couldn't even tell that the cookies were gluten free.

Rock on....

Saturday we loaded up into the 4Runner with both two and four legged friends and headed back out to Clay Creek for some more time climbing. The weather was immensely warmer and I'd guess that it was in the 70's plus radiant heat from the sun.


 I managed to start a hat during our drive and adventures on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It's fun to be back in knitting mode again especially since we've had a foot of snow fall just today...

lazy Saturdays....

We're finally able to have a lazy Saturday at campchaos. Even the pups knew and let us sleep in before we all had quality couch time. We did muster up some motivation and channeled our inner Fred as we make donuts that reminded us of dunkin donut munchkins... you can see that post here.

Hoppy Easter Ski Day

This weekend we made the trek to Summit County and had a few ski days on Copper Mountain's final weekend of the season. It also happened to be Easter weekend and we managed to keep the dogs away from the candy and Easter Bunny long enough to let the kids catch a sugar high.

Camping at the Grand Canyon

It's been a long winter without as much snow as we'd like to see so by the time the last chair fell silent we were ready to get out of town. Dave took a week and hit the east coast to spend some time with his dad while I stayed home to work and pack for the next adventure. I happen to be a very OCD packer and made a very comprehensive list to ensure our comfort for our adventure. We also packed a ton of food as my research didn't yield much for gluten free friendly dining at the park.

We loaded the 4Runner full of dogs, gear, flip flops and food and headed southwest towards Grand Canyon National Park. We had four nights booked at Mather Campground at site #308 in the Pine Loop. I'd been keeping an eye on the weather and the forecast said we were headed into warm weather.... but the first few nights were below 30. This would have been fine but our sleeping pads deflated and offered no cushion and more importantly insulation from the cool ground. We had three sleeping bags for the humans so we bundled up and dealt while the dogs had a shared bed and a few blankets. They have doggie softshells and wore those each night as the sun and temperatures dipped. Mayhem did crawl into a sleeping bag with me one night while Chaos's thicker coat served him well.

Grand Canyon is one of the more dog friendly of the National Parks and the dogs were allowed on the paved Rim trail for some great walks each day. They joined us for a sunset at Mather Point and enjoyed attention tourists across the world. Mayhem had played rough and cut a paw so he wore his Ruffwear shoes to prevent further injury to his pads. He had a lot of folks laughing at him but overall enjoyed the attention. After sunset the parking lot cleared out and we took the opportunity to play ball with the pups. We found a new light up ball which rocked Mayhem's world and allowed him to get some serious energy out at night. It made some great photos in the dark parking lot with the dog's glowing collars and the disco light ball.

We had a ton of photos from the little s6000 and from the D100 and each worked our skills a bit. We narrowed it down to the highlights from sunrise to sunset and a bit of Chaos and Mayhem.

Turtle takes a walk

How about now...any guesses on where the turtle is now?

Where is turtle going?

Go turtle!

The turtle says goodbye to the Wilson Range and Telluride for a few days as he meanders towards the big ditch...

Snug as a bug

These two are recovering from bath time on a chilly spring night... at least they smell beautiful.

HEY HOT DOG!

It's the final weekend of lift serviced skiing here in Telluride for the season and we took advantage of the good weather to get out on the mountain today. Dave pulled out his prized hot dog for the occasion. 

He posed for photos with both big and small children.... the little ones like to beat him up. He enjoyed the attention of the day in true Hot Dog style. 

 These two Daves and Emory are definitely "Winning" today...

 Posers or future expert yoga instructors?

Hot Doggin' in the Misty Park, he's out there grooming it tonight.

Marching on through it all

This winter I've been slacking- partly due to my blogging over at Think Outside the Breadbox, partly due to two dogs and knitting nights and in large part due to a lot of stress. I've been going over past blog posts and remembering  good times with good people, adventures of the travel dog, cross country drives, festivals, turtles and Tomas, and lots of laughter, it's been good to have these memories in one spot and I've been appreciating the online journal of campchaos.

This year we've had a tough winter with not nearly enough powder and sadness that could fill the box canyon. We've had some good bright spots but this March will be remembered as a very sad time here at campchaos.

A year ago we drove through a snowstorm and found a bit of Mayhem waiting for us. This year we flew to Boston in near perfect weather to the biggest storm we've ever had to face as we said our goodbye's to Dave's mother.

It was hell and there's nothing to say fix this- although the cards, emails, text messages and good vibes have helped. Crashing trucks, slicing tendons and sick dogs can't prepare a person with how to deal or cope through times like these. It's not just a tough day but a long process that has no cure, no remedy, no guidebook to help steer us through what we're suppose to do or how we should deal with life. The world didn't stop and we returned to Telluride and went back to the routines of everyday life but with the knowledge that life will never be the same. 

The whole experience was hard on everyone... we all cope in very different ways and hit the stages of grief at our own pace. Comfort can be found in many forms and I really wished the dogs could have been with us.

Chaos knew something was wrong. He behaved well at his friends house while we were back east but on the day his Granny passed, he got sick. Chaos is a very in touch monster and knew life at campchaos was not right. When Jess and Jared told us about it over dinner after our return, Chaos laid quietly with his sad face melting into the floor. He knows. Mayhem- maybe not so much. He's still begging for attention and ball time but then again these things have proven to be good for us too. Long walks on the bike path on a sunny day, fresh air and mountain views- these are good things for sad people. Maybe the little guy has his own way of helping too.

We just wake up each day after to happy dogs with wagging tails and find a way to laugh again, to find pleasure in the simple things and raise a glass of red wine and toast good memories.

hitting the (rock) wall....

We took advantage of the warmer weather and hit the wall this past weekend with friends. It was a gray day but relatively warm in the high 40's and some gusty but manageable winds. We haven't been out there in a long time... we scouted another place in the area last year but hadn't roped up there since late April, 2008. I have no idea why we waited so long to go back (oh wait the photos reminded me... it's too hot in the summers). It's less then 40 minutes from our house and just a short, steep hike to a bolted wall that has a number of routes rated 5.8 and up. We've only been to the gym once this season back in October so my paws were very tender and I only did two routes as I eased myself back into the game.
 
We had an equal number of four legged monsters as two legged people with Sam & Kaya, Conrad and Kiera and us with our two monsters. Sam hasn't climbed much before but took to the rock like spider pig- even in  his LL Bean hiking boots. Conrad's worn out more then one pair of climbing shoes in his career and lead the climbs for the day. 
The dogs were very well behaved and Mayhem had the only bit of trouble as he managed to get 4 small cactus plants stuck in his paws during the day...which meant that I got stuck a few times while removing them. He's very stoic and doesn't flinch in pain which is unlike Chaos who would have whined if he had been that unlucky.Back at the car we enjoyed a late lunch before heading back to Telluride and the winter weather.

An Ipswich ale

Turtle is trying to enjoy the trip and taking a break for a brew.

My little travel buddy...

Go turtle! The first of 3 flights today, good times in the land of stale air and grumpy travelers as we wait.

whirlwind trips

Last week we booked a flight on Sunday and boarded a plane on Monday bound for Boston. In less then 24 hours we had cleaned the house, packed our bags and figured out a plan for the dogs and the grumpy kitty to be well cared for. I had made time to stop for some gluten free snacks before we dropped the car off to get new brakes (much needed) and caught a courtesy ride to the airport and was grateful for these all day- especially at the ATL airport... scary.... so scary...
 Thankfully I had packed a good supply of yarn, all of our chargers for phones and ipods and a clean shirt for each of us as our checked bag arrived on Thursday afternoon, a mere 4 days after us. Thanks Delta! It was an exciting moment to be able to have wardrobe options again plus a more pragmatic pair of shoes then the Danskos I wore traveling and the flip flops I had tucked in my carry on as area was getting pounded with snow and the snowbanks stood 5 feet high.  I had lots of time to work on my knitting and finished a few projects during our visit.

From Droid think outside

On Saturday we packed up and jumped on a bus down to Boston- the roads were getting slick and our early flight on Sunday didn't leave much of a margin for error. We packed our bags with my gluten free snack festival and headed into a hotel near the airport. We checked in and asked about area dining and if the in house restaurant had a gluten free menu- the uncertain look had Dave convinced that my idea of heading to PF Chang's wasn't so crazy after all.

From Droid think outside

 I had used my droid navigation while on the bus to figure out that we could easily take the hotel shuttle to a T stop on the blue line and swap to the green line and end up a block away from PF Chang's. It was a Saturday night and the place had a 50 minute wait so we opted to eat at the bar so we could make it to bed at a decent hour. We even walked through the city a bit after dinner, grabbed Dave breakfast donuts at Dunkin's and made it back to to hotel within 3 hours. There wasn't much time for sleep as we were up at 3:30am and on a shuttle soon after.

From Droid think outside

The best part about our 6am flight on Sunday from BOS to ATL to MTJ was that all worked out we arrived by noon in the mountain time zone, hit a quick food shop were reunited with our monster puppies back in Telluride before the lifts closed at 4pm. Now comes the fun part of readjusting to work, altitude and life after a week away.