Pass Time

The Pass Time Beer was too light for my taste.  Okay, i guess, for a third beer of the evening when i didn't want to overdo it.

Colorado

Sitting here drinking.  Singletrack Copper Ale from Boulder Beer Company.  Good, very.  Chocolate Stout from Fort Collins Brewery.  Good and rich.  Pass Time Pale Ale from Boulder Beer.  I haven't tried it yet, Doug is drinking the first of the six that he brought, i will report on it soon.....

Salt Lake City ultimate page

Forgive me, all you loyal readers, if any, and people to whom I was supposed to respond about one thing and another.  I have been sorely distracted, snowboarding for five days with Bruce Morgan and Mark White.  It was tough!  We had to get up at dawn to be on the lift chair when it opened at nine.  Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday we went to Brighton, twenty minutes up to the end of Big Cottonwood Canyon from our motel.  Monday we went to Solitude, just down the canyon from Brighton.  Wednesday we went to Snowbird, a bit further south, in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  We liked Brighton best, as you might guess.  Solitude and Snowbird were a bit steep.  Not as much fun when it is really steep.   

At Snowbird we took the tram (gondola) to the top, where it turned out visibility was really bad and I snowboarded over a lip and broke my board.  In order to get down off the mountain, as Bruce pointed out, it payed off for me being skilled at riding “switch,” that is leading with the other foot, so that the broken tip of the board didn’t get caught in the snow.  I just knew there was a reason to practice riding switch so much, other than to be better than Bruce.  I had to go to REI and buy a new board Wednesday nite because a snowstorm was coming.  I got a Beautiful 159cm K2 called Darkstar.  I got a very good deal on it, because the season is winding down.  

On Thursday we had to put the chains on the car to get to the resort.  There was at least 6" of fresh powder and a lot more in some places.  My new board performed very well!  We saw a white weasel.  It ran across the hard snow and dove under where it was soft, popping up occasionally to look around.

In Utah, to get full-strength beer you need to go to the State Store, so we did.  To pay off my Super Bowl bet I bought Bruce a six of Mirror Pond Ale from  Deschutes Brewing of Bend, Oregon,  Good.  We also had: Thunderhead IPA from Pyramid Brewing of Seattle, Good.  Winterfest Seasonal Ale from Wasatch Beers, Utah Brewers Cooperative, Salt Lake City, not my favorite but 7.1% alcohol.  The Devastator Double Bock, also from Wasatch, 8.0% alcohol.  Good.    Hop Rising Double IPA from Squatters Beers, also of the Utah Brewers Coop, 9.0% alcohol.  Good and Strong!  Squatters IPA.  Also Good.  

Tonight I stay again with Wayne and Colleen, and head for Copper Mountain, Colorado, tomorrow morning.  Should take ten or eleven hours...

Salt Lake City page2

beer report:  Scuttlebutt brewing of Everett, Gale Force IPA.  good.  Uinta Brewing of Salt Lake City, Angler's Pale Ale.  Nice label, but too bitey.  

We survived our first day of snowboarding/skiing, in fine style.  Now it is definately hot tub time!

Salt Lake City 2nd time around

I have successfully driven to Salt Lake City.  Slept in the car in a truck stop parking lot in Idaho.  Picked up Bruce and Mark at the airport.  Paid off my Super Bowl bet.  Tomorrow we head for a ski resort, maybe Brighton.

Olympia Page 2

I am sorry to report that i was wrong.  The sun does not necessarily show every day here.  I don't think they saw it here on Thursday.  I did, because i went to Crystal Mt. to snowboard, and we were above the clouds there.  I got in on a group bus thing out of the Tacoma Country Club.  They were very nice, but i was a bit out of place, being the only snowboarder (I am not sure any of them had ever spoken to one before, other than to complain about being run over), and the only non-regular, and the only one who could not talk at length about golf.

 The weather has been warm and dismal, but is supposed to start clearing tomorrow, just in time for our 3 day excursion to the Olympic Peninsula.

I have been trying so many Fish Tale Ales and Levenworth Biers, both brewed by Fish Brewing Co. here in Olympia, that i cannot keep track.  The four of us had dinner at the brew pub last nite, i had a glass of "cask of the day."  It was, of course, good.  So was the ale that followed it, but my mind has gone mysteriously blank as to the name.  Sorry about the sloppy reporting, i am slipping in my commitment to detail.

Olympia

Nothing to report here except beer! Fish Tale Organic Wild Salmon Pale Ale from the Fish Brewing Co., Olympia. Very good., but that's not why i drink it. I drink it because it's good for me: it's organic! We already finished the Whistling Pig Hefeweizen from Leavenworth Biers, also by the Fish Brewing Co. It was good, too.

One other thing to report, the trees are quite large here, and the sun is seen at least once every day.

Super Bowl Losses

I have been watching the big game with brother Nick in Seattle, drinking of course.  Bridgeport Hop Czar Imperial India Pale Ale, Portland, OR.  Good, very hoppy.  Lagunitas IPA, Petaluma, CA.  Also good.  Bad that i bet a six pack on indy with Bruce Morgan and another with Alban.  Thats a swing of a case of beer.  But they are both like keeping it in the family, and i hope and pray they both will share. Plus, i had a great time  one-ringing Bruce when my team was doing well, and he didn't have a clue,i guess, or he would have returned the non-favor.  Maybe if the guy whose chain you pull doesn't know his chain is being pulled, it is wasted.....   oh well, i gave it my best shot. 

Yellowstone 4

Us in front of our snow coach and a repeat of  two mountain pics in Montana, I think, that i cannot figure out how to delete....

Yellowstone 3

More yellowstone pics

Yellowstone 2

all pictures of Yellowstone except the windmills

Rockies

These are  various views of Montana and Idaho

the Road to Seattle

We got a pretty late start from West Yellowstone, on account of the snow coach ride out of the park and returning my rented skis and the lunch at Running Bear Pancakes, so it was late in the afternoon when we got to Missoula, MT.  I did not know that Missoula was large enuf to have a rush hour.  We got stuck in it because we got off the highway to look for a campground.  All the campgrounds in Montana close for the winter, it seems.  Surprise, surprise.  We found a very secluded closed campground near Lolo Hot Springs, parked in the snowmobiler’s plowed parking area and tent-camped in the snow nearby.  Nobody ever knew we were there, we turned off our headlamps whenever a vehicle went by on the main road.  The snow under the tent was ice in the morning, but we stayed warm. Actually, the night was not as cold as the times we camped in South Carolina and Florida.  The stars were incredible.

            Next morning we drove on thru a light snow to the hot springs, but they didn’t open till ten am and we didn’t want to wait two hours.  Drove all day to get to Nick and Karen’s in Seattle.  Got to see a lot of big beautiful mountains and the lights of Seattle at dusk and had the luck to hit Seattle’s rush hour, also.  Made Missoula’s look pretty tame.           

            Bought a six of Moose Drool by Big Sky Brewing of Missoula as a gift for our hosts (hey, they’re family, they don’t need no stinkin gift?!).  Gave the gift, asked for a beer.  A little sweet, but good.  Just like Moose Turd Pie!  Anyone who doesn’t  get the references to “don’t need no stinkin…..” or Moose Turd Pie, raise your hand and I will get back to you.

Yellowstone

Okay, where to start with Yellowstone?  At the beginning?  We took the snow coach from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful.  The snow coach has "Caterpillar" tracks under the back and skis at the front.  It carries up to about 10 people and has a luggage rack up top, and some hatches for popping out the top for better views and photos.  It is very noisy at top speed, which may have been 30 mph.  We felt lucky to have Zac as our driver all three times we used the snow coach, but since we never had a different driver, we may be wrong.  Zac was very friendly and knowledgeable, and we got to see three coyotes fighting over a mouse with him (i worded it that way special for the grammar police!) plus he was happy to stop and sight-see plus he gave us a water bottle when he dropped us for our cross-country skiing adventure.  After our 10 mile ski, which kicked our butts to the extreme, we were sitting in the lodge and felt a small earthquake, of which they have had many, recently.  We also saw plenty bison, and were trying to stay the required 25 yards from them, but they were in our way, damn it.  I felt like the soccer players setting up the wall in front of the free kick, pretending they don't know what 10 yards is.  So we may have been a bit closer than 25 yards, but not enuf to be dangerous, or in trouble with the law.

We saw lots of impressive geysers and colorful pools and steamy things.  Beth kept dragging me thru the steam with her because the guy at the hot spring spa in Pagosa Springs told her such stuff has health benefits.  We saw some Bald Eagles on their nest, we saw lots of Elk, and we just missed seeing three wolfs at an elk kill.

I had a Bent Nail IPA from the Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company of Red Lodge, MT., in the dining room, and it was good, but it cost $4.50, so after that we made do with our stash of Santa Fe, which i discovered i could keep cool and safe by putting it in the crawl space under our cabin thru the access hole in the bathroom floor.  I thought long and hard about leaving a beer down there for the next person to think of it,  but my thrifty nature got the better of me, and the next visitor to the crawl space will find an empty six-pack and an apology for it being empty.

Almost West Yellowstone

We stopped for groceries an hour short of West Yellowstone.  It said LAST CHANCE and it also said Beer.  It did not seem prudent to continue.  I asked the store woman if she had any recommendations for good, cheap, locally owned motels in West Yellowstone.  We stared that in Pagosa Springs, asking for locally owned businesses - It's an extension of the local beer thing.  We are the tourists who are all local all the time!  She told us we should stay at the Anglers Lodge right across the street because the motel views in West Yellowstone are of other motels.   So we did.  The room does have a great view and a back door onto a back porch; looks like in summer you can fish in the river from your seat on the porch.  It has occurred to me that maybe this fuss about fly fishing is warranted; you get to mess about in pristine river settings and you don't have to mess with nasty bait or poke any poor little worms.  If you are lucky, you won't even hurt/hook any fish, unless you are hungry, and then you do want to snag em.

Message to Gilah: the rest of you don't need to read this.  I had a band dream last nite.  Never had one before.  It was a concert, and the director (Clair Miller?) pulled a fast one on us, started with some weird Cage type piece called Ode to New Mexico that we had looked at once. The music (what is the name for  our copy of the music?) said we were supposed to whisper and say things and we were lost right from the beginning - the audience up in the bleachers was doing it better than us.  I am not sure if it was you, but I was on the end, and we were looking at each other whispering "Where the hell are we?" so it sure seemed like you....

BEER REPORT!  youall can start reading again.  Pale Ale from Snake River Brewing in Jackson Hole.  I like it.  You would think it might have been expensive being brewed in a hotsy-totsy place like Jackson Hole, but it was the usual or a dollar cheaper at $7.99.  However, I am suspicious about the name.  The Snake River flows to the Columbia, and i thought Jackson Hole would be on the eastern side of the continental divide.  I am probably wrong.  

We tried the chains on the car in the snowy parking lot.  Well, technically, I put the chains on only one wheel, but now I feel sure they will both fit, and i won't need to read the stinkin directions.  The sign on the motel says to park back from the building 10 -15 feet because if snow sliding off the roof, and there is a lot up there, maybe 2 feet.  Makes you think twice about walking underneath it.  Today we take the snocat to the motel cabins at Old Faithful!