From 2023 to 2024

December 31, 2023 on Broadway in Denver, Colorado.

It's sorta disturbing how empty one of the busiest spots in Denver is on New Year's Eve. I was pickng up dog supplies on my monthly supply run. Next stop.... Englewood Walmart for my own supplies. That gave me a chance to recap the end of my recent Little Dry Creek hike and take some pictures of that end in daylight. I'm working on that long blog, which will be out soon. I'm also running some analyses on water from the creek and I'll be reporting on that and rock identification. In short, I'll be wrapping up my explorations of the local geology. 

Two are upcoming. I want to visit the Denver Museum of Nature and Science before I'm done and I'm planning to hike from Center City to Idaho Springs for a look at Colorado's Mineral Belt. Of course, I'll continue to occasionally look at local geology and chemistry as I work on the LabBooks.

Cherry Creek is calling to me. I'll be hiking it's length instead of Station-to-station hikes next year. Denver's history is concentrated along it's banks and it draws wildlife to it's waters. It's also unusual in that it's been a major waterway for Denver but it isn't a mountain river. It rises from the Palmer Divide just north of Castle Rock. I expect an exciting serial hike.

My adventures will be segueing to biology in 2024. Paleontology provides a natural path to biology, zoology, botany, medicine and bioengineering. That means I'll be starting some new LabBooks.

So, one last requisite shot of the Rockies for 2023.

What adventures are you planning for 2024?

Years

If you've been following this blog, you'll have noticed that I've slowed considerably. The pandemic has had a lot to do with that, along with...aging, I guess. But I'm still on the trails.

This last picture is appropriate. It's the National Mining Museum in Leadville, Colorado. It should be on the bucket list of anyone interested in geology. Housed in a retired high school, it displays everything mining and mineralogy.

A close friend wanted to drive to Vale to hike around this picture postcard tarn...

Despite two feet of snow, we finished early and decided to go into Leadville. Glacial topography and mining...a perfect lead-in to next year when I will segue from physics and astronomy to chemistry and geology, mostly geology because the Denver area is a geotourists dream.

I won't be leaving physics and astronomy behind. I'll keep working on the LabBooks, but my trail adventures will carry me from the margins of the Rockies into the mountains.

I'll be focusing on my back yard and I invite you to join me in exploring your own back yard. You might be surprised by what you find there.

And, as always, I wish for you a greater future than any that has gone before.

--- End of the year, start of the next ---

I've focused on religion and social sciences during 2018. The physically disastrous end of the previous year left me drained and I haven't regained my endurance completely, but I haven't let it slow me down too much. I haven't made any particularly long hikes but I did, for instance, make it out to Strontia Reservoir, around 13 miles round trip. And I made my second near 1000 foot ascent without much pain. Then I capped off the year with the 1400+ foot ascent of Lookout Mountain in Golden.

There were some big gains during the year. Most outstanding was my gain of a son by adoption and the addition to our extended family of an exceptional little canine. I learned something about family law.

I'm not done with the social sciences. I plan to continue explorations of the local community through next year. That will mesh nicely with one of my planned topics - language. I will be making a (last?) attempt to learn Spanish using MIT's Spanish courses as a core curriculum. It's not the first language that I've added on. I learned German and American Sign Language in college and, although I've lost the ability to converse in either, I can still read German with some difficulty. Perhaps I will polish those languages once I get to where I can talk with my Spanish speaking neighbors.

I will also be playing around with mathematics. That doesn't seem like much of a field subject but, in fact, there is a lot of math in my future. Mathematics is a primary language of sciences and 2020 I will embark on a hands-on exploration of hard sciences beginning with astronomy and physics.

I've already made use of mathematics, for instance, in my study of smiling on the trail. In the coming months, I will be developing trail mathematics and measurement techniques in earnest. For instance, I plan to use surveying skills to determine how tall that huge monolith at Red Rocks is using only primitive tools and trigonometry.

                                                                       [Red Rocks]

I have some larger scale hikes planned. This year the station-to-station hikes have been on the order of less than 10 kilometers. Next year, I plan to check out the ends of the lines (there are 11 destinations). I have already explored the area around Mineral station - Chatfield Lake, Waterton Canyon, and the Mineral to Littleton section of the Platte River Trail - and Golden Station, with my hike up Lookout Mountain. That leaves nine more.

I also plan to hike the Highline Canal Trail in four sections, one for each season. These will be 20 mile lengths but I will start at the beginning (Waterton Canyon) and, since the canal runs on gravity, it will all be down hill.

So, join me for a year of adventure and learning in 2019.