Sunset

I came out of work today, and saw this purple and orange sunset:

South Arapaho Peak

As promised on Friday, I hiked up to South Arapaho Peak today, more or less along this route. I went with Ken and John from work. We saw some wildlife on the way up, including this pika

and many marmots.

From East of Boulder, South Arapahoe Peak doesn't look this intimidating:

But I made it anyway.

Here's what Google Earth says the picture above should look like -- not a bad rendition, Google Earth!

Here's a picture of where John and I were two weeks ago:

We hiked up from the lake to the right side of the ridge with the small oval of snow.

On my way down, I took this picture over the edge.

It's hard to tell, but the rocks in the top right hand corner were about 800 feet below my head.

Working Late

One of the best things about working at Erie is the view of the mountains. I had to work a little later today, which allowed me to catch the sunset.

When I first arrived, I noticed these sunbeams in front of Longs Peak:



While killing time reading a book in the car, I had a visitor:



On the way home, the sun had set behind the Indian Peaks:



On Sunday, I plan on hiking South Arapahoe Peak with some coworkers. It's the peak directly above the right traffic light. The larger peak to its right is North Arapahoe Peak.

Niwot Ridge

Sunday I went for a hike with Sean and Rich up to Niwot Ridge, part of the Indian Peaks Wilderness area. The hike took us up to the grassy ridge seen here:



Here's another picture of our destination as seen from above the tree line:



Once we made it to the top, I ran a little ways past the saddle and up the ridge (it started to get rocky) to take a picture of our route from the top. We passed some meteorological stations (the last one can be seen on the top of the hill) run by CU. Off in the distance to the right is Boulder:



We decided to take the quick way down:



Before we went, I took this picture of an airplane flying ... below us.



Here's a picture of Sean on the way down:



And here's Sean and Rich back on a path at the bottom. We began our descent from just to the left of where the picture cuts off the ridge on the left.

Work Last Week

I spent most of last week moving my instrument out to the Erie Tower (in Erie, CO, a 40-minute drive East of Boulder). My boss and I used the same setup we do on the airplane:



My CO2 instrument is comprised of the box with the keypad in the top right of the rack, the gold-colored structure above it, and the laptop. Everything else pictured measures NO, NO2, NOy, and ozone.

Luckily we are inside the building this time. I was out at the Erie site last November helping NASA develop a satellite-based CO2 instrument. I had to put my instrument on the tower's carriage and run it up and down to obtain vertical profiles of CO2. Just for fun (since I didn't have a blog back then), here's a picture of the building I'm in now, taken from the top of the tower last November (it's to the right of my foot):



The tower is about 1000 ft. high. The yellow strap is part of my safety harness.

Arapaho Pass

John and I hiked up the Fourth of July trail to Arapaho Pass today. We sheltered ourselves from the wind while eating lunch. This was our lunch view:



After lunch, we explored.



We saw a marmot:



Then we went up along a ridge to take pictures. My car is in the lighter area of the valley in the upper-left of this picture:



I was taking photos for a 270 degree panorama and caught John coming over the ridge:

Fifth of July

John and I hiked up to Rogers Peak Lake today. About half way up, it started hailing,



so we put on our raincoats:



The trail was awfully snowy for July 6th.



After yet another rain delay, we finally made it to Rogers Peak Lake:



Unfortunately, the trail up to the continental divide was still under snow, so we had to turn back. We wouldn't have seen much through the clouds anyway.

Fourth of July

I started off the day by going for a hike with Tara, Jason, and John at Walker Ranch, which is situated on the other side of Bear and South Boulder Peaks from Boulder. Here are two pictures of the hiking party:




And now pictures of the back of Bear and South Boulder Peaks, and one of Eldorado Canyon:




And now I'll try my first blogged video, one of South Boulder Creek:



Then we went back to Tara's and Jason's for some grilling of sausages and hot dogs. But that wasn't the only 4th party I went to! I ran home to shower, then went to Kristen's 4th party (which was also her birthday party). Kristen works at NOAA as well. There I had more sausage, and some excellent smoked ribs.

Third of July

I am now under contract to buy a condo in Louisville. It's a two-bedroom townhouse with a basement. The inspection is on Monday. If that goes well, it should be smooth sailing to a July 30th closing!

In other news, Dan, a co-worker of mine from Australia, had a Third of July party this evening. I ate kangaroo steak and a burger with fried eggs and beets on it (I guess that's the way they do it down under). Both were quite tasty. After dinner, Dan treated us to some didgeridoo playing, complete with circular breathing and everything!