Because Being Ordinary Is Boring: Tommyknocker

Showing posts with label Tommyknocker. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Week in Review (July 1 - July 7)

Tuesday (11,670 steps) - Slept much better, thankfully. Did a very short Peloton ride before getting ready and taking Olive to work. Never really thought I would say I was looking forward to work, but I was. I have taken a lot of things for granted that I am normally able to get done during the day for sure. Thanks to relatively good coverage, I was pretty much caught up on all my work by lunch. It helps that I had to check my email somewhat regularly because people were still emailing me since my out of office was vague on how long I would be out. Went to the gym and did the StairMaster (which I did NOT miss) and some weights. Really appreciate getting more sleep and being able to workout again on my lunch hour!! I did some deliveries on the way home from work and Ben picked up a pizza for dinner. We took Olive for a walk after dinner and then caught a few more episodes of Squid Games before another early bedtime.

Wednesday (21,128 steps) - Slept AWESOME - first time in a while. I did have some weird dreams about the trial (not the case itself), however. Took Olive for a walk before going to work in the office. Since I actually had a hill-related workout to do, I had to do it after work. Unfortunately, since it was supposed to be about a zillion degrees. Ariel was able to let Olive out during the day, so I headed over to Green Mountain. I had a different type of hill workout, but since I was supposed to find something of at least 10%, I did my warm up on the bike path before doing the repeats. It was definitely HOT, but not as bad as I thought it would be?

I was starving when I finished up and met Ben at Torchy's for a delicious dinner.

Took Olive for a short walk. Squid Games.

Thursday (11,379 steps) - Work from home. Went to Dutch and Torchy's with Ariel before taking Olive for a walk. We got another episode of YOU watched while I finished up my day and did some packing for our weekend of "camping." There was a car fire with fatalities on I-70, so we were going to be delayed heading up. Once we got the camper loaded we went to 4 Noses for a beer, then stopped at the grocery store. By about 6:30 things were supposedly cleared up, so we headed up. Unfortunately, I think everyone else did the same thing - it took us probably twice as long as usual, but we got up safely. Our friend Lee lives in Dillon and has a huge driveway and he had no problem with us camping out in his driveway. The best part was having access to an indoor bathroom and running water.

Olive is the blur at the bottom of this picture

Lee was doing a bike race in the morning, so he headed to bed. We had a beer and relaxed.

Friday (14,475 steps) - We took Olive for a walk and Ben cooked some eggs while we decided what we wanted to do for the day. I had jokingly said that we should go to Webster Pass and run/hike up to Red Cone where the flag is for the fourth. Ben decided that we would drive up the pass. We got to drive by the house we are looking at (sigh, probably won't happen) and headed up. First off, neither of us seemingly had any recollection of the "road." It was a lot more technical than we remembered. Rocky, and very slow going. It took a LONG time to get to the saddle where we decided we would start. It was a bit windy and chilly when we arrived and took our initial pictures (and I let Olive roll around in the snow on the other side - but only on leash since there is still a drop off).

By the time we started it was a lot colder, very windy and was starting to lightly rain. Neither of us had pants, but we put on our R1s and rain jackets. The below picture is me looking back at where Camille was parked:

You wouldn't know it, but it was REALLY raining pretty hard at this point. With the wind, we were getting pelted and it almost felt like it was graupel. My legs were really cold! Since we were on the road, we had to wait for probably a half dozen jeeps to come down the trail.

Red Cone

We made it to the second hill before deciding we were cold and not having fun and decided to head back to the truck.

No regrets! I am glad that we came out this way though. I was really caught off guard for this section during Summit last year, so seeing it again was a good thing for me. It is definitely still really slow going, but knowing what I'm doing will benefit me, I think. We took the way down a "little" faster than the way up, but it was still a long way to town. We decided to visit a "new to us" brewery in Keystone, Steep. The beer was just ok, but the food was delicious.

Outer Range for one more beer before heading back to Lee's house. We made some hot dogs for dinner.

Saturday (20,844 steps) - Went into Breck for another activity. We decided to do Vomit Hill loop that we have done before.

It was much warmer so we took a lot of breaks. Both for us and Olive.

Once again, I had forgotten Olive's bowl, but thankfully I always have random things I can turn into one. We stopped to let her drink out of a ziplock bag.

We took a different way back, this time on the Blair Witch trail. This picture of the three of us is relatively hilarious.

We were all toast when we finished. Stopped at Broken Compass on the way back to Dillon since dogs are allowed inside.

Hamburgers on the grill for dinner.

Sunday (22,308 steps) - Up early to head to Herman Gulch for the annual hike that I coordinate every year. I was especially excited that Ariel was going to drive up to join us since she had the morning off. We had a decent sized group this year:

As always, it was slow-going heading up. Partly because of all the pictures we had to take of the flowers.

Once we got near the lake there was finally a snowfield for Olive and Waylon to play in - they had a great time!

We stayed at the lake for a decent amount of time waiting for everyone. Plus, the weather was much nicer than the year we summitted and had to immediately head down because it was raining.

We made plans to go into Idaho Springs for lunch so that the people who had to go to Denver would be out of the worst of the traffic. Ben wasn't super crazy about that since we were still planning on being in Dillon until evening. Since we discovered last year that Tommyknocker's is dog friendly, we met up there. Lunch was delicious and it was nice to sit on the patio.

After lunch we headed back up the mountain, unfortunately hitting some traffic. We headed to Outer Range to meet up with Amanda, who needed a ride back to Lee's house. We packed up Shelly and had a snack before starting the drive down. Thankfully, waiting as long as we did, there was no traffic back to the city. Unpacked and had a frozen pizza for dinner, plus watched an episode of Squid Games.

Monday (18,116 steps) - Work from home, yay!! I had a run to do and went early since it was supposed to be in the mid 90s. Even starting before 10 am it was already so hot and I was sweating like crazy.

Ariel and I went to Dutch and Torchy's. I decided I better walk Olive before it got even warmer.

We were able to finally finish the last season of YOU. Joe is crazy. Picked up dinner at Costco and took Olive for a walk. Olive got so dirty camping over the weekend that Ariel actually gave her a bath. She doesn't need them that often!

Squid Games finale and then we started Nosferatu.

Stats:

119,920 steps
25.97 miles run
11.15 miles walked
45 minutes of cardio
25 minutes of strength

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Week in Review (September 24 - September 30)

Tuesday (11,670 steps) - Row and walked Olive before work. StairMaster at lunch, doing the Eiffel Tower again.

Took Olive for a walk when I got home from work.l

Wednesday (21,325 steps) - Walked Olive before work. Did my run/workout at lunch. Due to the closure that I'd experienced last week, I went the other direction on the path and it was disgusting. Saw multiple dead and partly decomposed rats on the trail. There were also dozens and dozens of homeless people and lots of garbage. Not my favorite.

Ben and I met up at Parry's for a happy hour beer and then we went out to eat at the sushi restaurant down the street for our (4th) wedding anniversary.

We planned to watch Independence Day 2, but we both fell asleep. We are old people.

Thursday (10,571 steps) - Work from home and Peloton ride before taking Olive for a walk at lunch. Saw a random post from New Terrain on Facebook that indicated they were releasing a special beer for Colorado School of Mines and Blaster. Of course that meant I had to go... I worked from the brewery from 3 until I got off at 4:30. It was insanely hot.

Ben met me after work, but we didn't stay long since it was hot AND there was going to be a band (which we don't care for). Torchy's for dinner and finished watching Independence Day.

Friday (15,179 steps) - Wash Park with Olive and the gang!

Olive went to work with me, met Joyce, and even got to go into a signing. Exciting day for her. After work we rushed home since we still had to pack for our weekend getaway. Took Olive for a walk while Ben was packing.

Unfortunately, unlike last weekend, it was not an easy drive up to the mountains. We did not want to run into the same issues of nothing being open for food, so I was checking what was dog-friendly in Idaho Springs and found out Tommyknocker is! I haven't been there in ages. They have completely revamped their menu (smaller, probably more expensive, still good).

Not only are they dog friendly, they treat dogs like VIPs! They bring out dog bowls with ice water and even beds for them to be comfortable on the floor AND a special dog menu.

We had enough time to grab a beer out Outer Range before checking into our hotel.

Saturday (31,550 steps) - Took Olive for a quick walk near our place, it was shaping up to be a beautiful morning!

Ben decided to get breakfast out instead of at the hotel. French toast, bacon and eggs. Yum.

Ben had planned a route for us that he indicated would be a decent amount of climbing, but mostly on single track. We did get a late start, so we had to work a bit to find parking, but it worked out. We also didn't expect to have so little phone service at the start, so it was a bit challenging getting the route put on our watches, but I was able to get it done before we headed up.

The lower road had a decent amount of water access for at least a half mile, which was good news for Olive! Probably a little over a mile up we arrived at this mine and passed a big group of people to head up on some single track.

It was hot, so it was nice to have shade in the trees for a bit. Most of the climbing was on fire roads, so it didn't feel as bad as single track. I'm not really sure why that is though. We had a great view most of the way up. Super pretty with the mountain peaks and fall colors.

Once we got above tree line, I was wondering where on earth we were actually going. Ben was insistent we were NOT going to the top of Baldy, just that we were going to some parking lot.

I was definitely getting tired and not sure how much more I wanted to do, and based on the route on my watch, it seemed like we still had a lot to do. Ben insisted it was a quarter mile to where he wanted to go and it turns out he was right. We sat on a log and had a snack before heading back down. We had routed an alternative route (to cut back mileage a bit) and I'm glad we had the map, because not sure that we would have found the right trails! There was at least a mile of bigger, loose rocks that neither Olive nor I super loved.

We came upon an opening in the trail with a bench and sat for a minute. Olive enjoyed the break too.

Finally, we got off the garbage loose rock section and moved onto what was my favorite part of the route. And somehow, we did not see ANY bikes or other hikers. Truly bizarre!

The True Romance overlook was really pretty as well.

We were all pretty happy to be done! Olive's longest activity at just over 11 miles. Go, Olive! We met Lee at Outer Range for a beer. We decided to pick up Chinese food at J J's and then decided to bring it over to Syndicate, the newest brewery in Dillon.

We unfortunately got bamboozled. Their menu had a bunch of IPAs on tap, but then we got there and there was only one, and it was marginal. Seems they are primarily German beers, which aren't our favorites :(

It WAS dog friendly, so that was nice. We went to the hotel and watched Step Brothers and some of the Halloween movies. I must say that I must never have watched Halloween 3, because it made ZERO sense.

Sunday (20,141 steps) - Took Olive for a quick walk and had breakfast at the hotel. We packed everything up and headed up to Vail. We had plans to hike Booth Falls. Unfortunately, you can no longer park at the trail head OR the lower lot by the road. We were told to take the shuttle in. Ben was not crazy about that day, but I said we should just do it. We had to park at the transit center in Vail, which was a nightmare anyway because of the farmer's market in town. We got all the way to the bus station only to be told that they don't allow dogs on the buses. So FYI, if you want to do that hike with a dog, it's basically impossible without a person that is NOT going that can drop you off. Really sad that people ruined this for everyone.

To make the best of it, we walked through the village and decided to hike up Berry Picker. We did this once a few years ago and I remember it being tough. We confirmed that we would be able to take the gondola down with Olive and off we went. It may not have been what we wanted to do, but it was GORGEOUS!!!

The lower section is hard and hot and exposed (seriously, it was supposedly like 60 and felt 20 degrees hotter.

It was interesting to me how many people we saw hiking down. We did not encounter nearly as many people hiking up - but that's probably because it's a ton of vert going up a ski slope.

It was basically a struggle for all of us after yesterday's big day, so we just took a ton of pictures. I think the ones I am sharing are less than half of the ones we took.

An unintentional/intentional selfie with Olive. Best we can do with her!

She actually has a leaf on the top of her head in this one

And here I have a leaf that blew into my front pocket

Finally arrived at the top. There were a zillion people. I had to look it up later, but people pay FIFTY-NINE DOLLARS to ride the gondola up. $59!!!!! Lunacy. They had food and a bar at the top and we had a beer and enjoyed the scenery before Olive's first gondola ride!

She was a little spooked, but did good!

Went into the village and got lunch at Garfiinkle's. View beautiful, beer and food was meh.

We had been watching the traffic all afternoon and it still seemed like it was going to take a long time to get home, so we opted to go to Outer Range for a bit and see if it calmed down. Finally at maybe 7, with the maps saying it was going to take an hour longer than usual, I suggested that we just get the drive over with. We started to head out and about 4 miles before the tunnel we hit gridlock. Time kept going up on our arrival. Suddenly, it jumped up over another HOUR after we got through the tunnel. Some quick digging showed that there was an accident that closed all but one lane of the highway. Ben thought we should just turn around and get a hotel in Dillon for the night, which is what we did. We turned around and got to the hotel at 8:20 and were told we would need to hurry because the onsite restaurant closed at 9 pm. We were able to get food, and it was "good," but incredibly pricey for what it was.

Monday (11,856 steps) - Had to get up by 4:15 so that we would have time to drive home and both of us get ready for work. I showered and took Olive for a walk and headed in. I don't normal work in the office on Mondays, but with it being Nicole's last day a bunch of us were going to go out to lunch. They picked Cheesecake Factory, which I haven't been to in years. Sad to report that they don't have the grilled cheese anymore. This turkey club was pretty good though.

Even though we went insanely early, it took forever and I think our lunch ended up being almost two hours. THEN, we had a "party" with cake later. After work I headed home to walk Olive. Since I'm starting sober October again, we went to 4 Noses for beer and Korean BBQ. We started playing trivia, but we are just terrible, so we left in the middle of it.