through the eyes of Chaos...

I've often wondered what Chaos and Mayhem see and how they think about it. Today, I got a glimpse of Chaos's point of view. I wish I could say it was enlightening but honestly it terrifies me.

In 2007 on a routine visit to the vet, Dr Taylor told us about Chaos's juvenile cataracts. We've kept an eye on them and watched them slowly grow over the years. Today, I took the boys on a walk on the Narrow Gauge trail today during low light and some soft falling snow.

The trails were soft and we followed a snowshoe trail along the river. The boys took full advantage of the leash free escapade and played hard. I'm pretty sure Mayhem even tried to climb a tree...

but he could have just gotten a little too much into sniffing it. Chaos had a nice break and ate some snow...

his brother joined him and it became a big rolling party...

We crossed a small foot bridge and Chaos struggled. This isn't a new path for us, this fall he zoomed over the little bridge and chased Mayhem. It appeared that he wasn't sure of his footing. This bridge crosses a small stream; it isn't high off the ground and the slats are less then an inch apart.  We emerged from the woods and Mayhem zoomed across the large bridge that crosses the Carrabassett River. I followed but stopped when I realized Chaos was still on the other side of the river. The bridge that crosses the Carrabassett River has a few slits in it where the snow has melted and created an optical illusion that stopped Chaos in his tracks. I went to the middle of the bridge and called him over. He started across then hesitated... it became clear to me that my pup was struggling to see. I walked to him and guided him back to the car with the realization that his life as we know it has changed.

We've joked about Mayhem becoming Chaos's seeing eye dog... we just didn't think it would happen so soon after Chaos's 7th birthday.

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...

camp chaos hits the road

Last weekend we loaded up the 4Runner and headed northeast to catch up with all the folks in Summit County. We even squeezed in a few extra visits along the way. Dave's finished for the season as there isn't much demand for groomers after the mountain closes and I took an extended weekend so we didn't have to rush the trip.

Chaos in blue and Mayhem in green cuddle in the sunshine

We left Thursday morning and stopped in Vail to see our friend Sandy who currently lives in Alaska and was in Vail for a conference. We walked the dogs along the busy ski town paths and grabbed dinner at a local pub. Big Dave also made the trip out of Telluride as he had to drop a friend off for knee surgery and met up with us at Sam & Meghan's house. They rent a farmhouse in Silverthorne and it has a big area for all the dogs to run and play in. They had borrowed a Wii for the weekend and it kept the boys up late each night for some rounds of bowling and golf.
Friday we started our day with a breakfast at Kula's in Dillon. It's a small cafe and run by the nicest people... they also happen to specialize in gluten-free goodies. It's not often I get to enjoy gluten-free french toast and I made sure to document the occasion for my GF blog. Sam had the day off and the three boys and I headed over to Copper for the day. Meghan was able to meet up and ride with us for a bit as did Jon in the afternoon. We also spent some time watching Alex and a crew of CVA kids compete in SBX. Alex had stayed with us last December when the World Cup hit Telluride and it was great to be able to watch him race and take 5th.
Saturday found us with a repeat at Kula's before Team Dave and I hit slopes at A-Basin. It was a cloudy day near Loveland Pass and colder then expected. We had taken Chaos, Mayhem as well as Kaya and Echo on a big walk that morning so we didn't feel too bad about ditching them. Saturday night was Courtney's birthday and we hit their house for Chinese food and birthday cake. Chaos and Mayhem had a great time playing with their cousins and the girls even took Mayhem and Chaos for a walk with me. Both dogs were on their best behavior as the girls held the leashes. These days Chaos only pulls when he sees another dog and Mayhem had on his gentle leader harness which reigns him in nicely.
Jon and Courtney had Sunday off so we hit Copper for a ski day with the crew after our 3rd Kula's breakfast of the trip and another big dog walk. Kula's also had great pocket snacks for me. They made this incredible GF carmel bar with a rich chocolate topping that was great fuel for both A-Basin and Copper. I can't ski without loading my pockets now as I never know where I can find "safe" food. It's imperative that I don't have gluten while traveling since it would kill the trip with a migraine and other issues that I'll spare you the details on. This last weekend I was a huge fan of Kula's treats and fruit snacks.

The kids have progressed a lot since the last time we were able to ski with them, and Courtney and Jon aren't half bad either...

Team Drabik ripped it up and we ended a big ski day with free music at the base of the mountain in the sunshine. It was a very full weekend and we're both looking forward to a quiet time at home with the monsters this weekend to recover from the Summit County crew and the trip out of Telluride.


Spring Travels

puppies and the valley floor....

Chaos & I watched another golden this week, a cute fellow called Jager. Jager had a sweet temperament like the monster and it was fun watching the boys play. They also both went to work and would lay near my desk or play toys waiting for the next trip outside.

Two big dogs may seem like a lot but the boys got along well and it was easier in many ways as Chaos had a friend to play with. Walking up to two 80+lbs dogs breathing on me was a wonderful experience and I was motivated to get moving and let the boys play before work. Chaos also enjoyed Jager's front yard and we spent lots of time outside. At our house we have to grab a leash whenever we do anything but here the world was wide open for the pups. Jager lives near the Valley Floor in Telluride which if you happen to read any of the Telluride papers (Daily Planet or the Watch) you may know that the VF is a hot topic here in town. I'll take a break from the puppy tails and share some news about Telluride's drama.

Basically it's the big open space of land, 570 acres as you enter the box canyon that it the historic town of Telluride. The short version is the town has used eminent domain to take this land from the developer which has been process years in the making. There were votes, a trial and a verdict in this tale which has dominated the papers since our arrival. The trial determined that the town would have to pay $50 million for the land. That's a bit of money to say the least. This town of 2,200 people managed to do that in a mater of months. How... well Telluride has some pretty famous ties and folks that are very passionate about this land. It was a mix of bonds from the town, a lot of normal people digging deep and some people with deep pockets. But the $50 million doesn't guarantee a happy ending to this story... the land owners are appealing in the Colorado supreme court.

So there is much more going on in Telluride then Chaos's adventures... but that's why we have a blog as Chaos has not yet made the papers here and someone needs to share Chaos's Tails of Telluride with the world (or the few people who read this blog...).

welcome to camp chaos

camp chaos began in a cozy cabin (in maine-speak a "camp") near the edge of the Bigelow Preserve and Sugarloaf/USA in the western mountains of maine during 2004. the name came later after the arrival of a fluffy golden retriever dubbed Captain Chaos Monster in February 2005.

Life in maine was good but winters were hard- not for the bitter cold and snow- but because of the effects of global warming- rain in december, extreme wind and grey skies put a damper on the ski season. So camp chaos relocated to south western colorado in search of powder, mountains and sunshine to play in.

Camp Chaos packed a subaru, a tacoma and the small u-haul with whatever fit plus a few things that didn't and drove 2,600 miles with Mu-nee Kitty and Chaos Puppy Monster navigating for each driver. Four days later they were in Telluride and life was forever changed.