Current News
8-20-2010
We arrived to the base of Mount Sherman and started hiking at 8:00am. Brad's sinuses wouldn't allow him to clear so around 9:30am he headed back to car. Going solo with about 30 other hikers around I made it to final ridge line at 13,700 feet roughly 300 feet to the summit. My real reason for turning back was the trail got a little to technical / narrow ... but I'm claiming a near summit since I was only 300 yards from it and that I felt bad for Brad hanging back at the car.
That's my story!!!!!
Mount Sherman with my estimated stop point
Brad holding in the sinus pressure along the way up
When we started it was about 45% with a few clouds
Brad tried to keep going but the head ached too much
Brad made it to the last mine at roughly 12,800
The area had lots of abandoned mines .... this one was just below the saddle between Mount Sherman and Sheridan
From the saddle looking upwards to Mount Sherman
Some other hikers coming up from saddle
Coming up from Saddle
Looking back to the valley ... Four Mile Creek
Nearing the ridge at 13,200
Others on this ridge
This was my stopping point roughly 13,700 .... I think the group in the photo was a group of high school
Looking back to Mount Sherman and the saddle
Looking back to Sherman
Same photo but with a dumb facial expression
8-19-2010
Tomorrow Brad and I are heading out at 5:30 am to try to do my 14er summit of Mount Sherman for my 50th bday! Papa has agreed to loan us the car so that we can reach the parking area at 12,000'. We drive on highway 9 to Fairplay Colorado where we head up a four mile creek road a 2wd road but recommends a SUV for the clearance thus the need for Papa's car. The peak is 14,060 feet so assuming we can drive to the gate we should only be gaining 2,000 feet or so .... I'll post the results tomorrow evening .... wish us luck :-)
Here's a link to the trail description
Photography by Edward B Weltner on Colorado River near Kremling Co.
Photo's that PaPa took from the lake near Loveland Pass
Brad fishing
Ed and Sue enjoying by the lake
The master fishing while Brad takes notes
Relaxing by the wonderful spot that Steve found!
8-17-2010
Added some more photos ... I'll come back later with the description
Topo of the hike
Brad on the way up
A breather
We stopped at 13,100' and another 1,000' was just too much for Dad
My feet were killing me
Some mountain goats were enjoying the hikers
They came right up to us
Mama
Baby Goat
Daddy Goat
If only I could run like a goat
These rocks were leg and ankle beaters and seemed to go for ever
hey look i can take my own photo
Looking back over Blue Lakes
On the way down Brad would hike out in front then wait for me
Oh .... the last 100 yards
8-16-2010
Sunday we drove 941 miles to Longmont CO to link up with David and the crew. David cooked up dinner while Ariana & Kyle showed me Lady GaGa on Youtube. We left David's about 9 and arrived in Keystone around 10:30. It was raining :-( so we went and did some shopping and ended up buying a 12 pack of bud light!!! Around 1 the sun came out so we rushed back to Loveland Pass and did a 13er summit which was the same one I did with Kyle back in June.
SueSue and Papa arrived around 5 and we had dinner at the Brewery in Silverthorn. Tomorrow we will try to summit Quandary Peak.
8-13-2010
Not allot of updates ..... my bad! Brad and I are heading to Keystone CO this week are purpose had included some mountain biking activity however Brad dislocated the shoulder so now it's just hiking and fishing. The old man want to do two 14ers and Brad is game .... we'll see if the just short of 50 guy can make it! SueSue and PaPa are meeting up with us Monday for the week which will be great .... PaPa is bringing the PFG (professional fishing gear)
Sharon's officially XX :-) .... Brent starts school in a week and fingers crossed Kyle finds a job.
7-10-2010
Rich's website is up with all the photos ..... Great Job!
Here's two of them but for all of them go to Rich Daley Photo
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7-8-2010
Brent & Sharon made it back late Thursday night .... about four hours of mechanical plane delays. Thursday they had some extra time and did the Spy Museum and Smithsonian. I posted Sharon's photos below ... Rich took his camera and has a bunch more :-)
Waiting .... Metro
DC .... Zoo
Family
Coach can we just play
LAX Team Texas
Brent with Will Nevotti
7-07-2010
The second match team Texas ran into a Jersey machine losing 17 to 1. In third game we lost but we managed to put up few more points losing 15-4. Brent netted another one!
adidas National Lacrosse Classic 5 p.m. – Rochester (2-1-1) closed out its day with a 15-4 win against Texas (0-3). Patrick DAngelo, Nick Doktor, Alex Colbar and Erich Wischmeyer each had a pair of goals. Derek DeJoe, Jonathan Hauck, David Smith, and Christopher Wood came away with a goal each. Jacob Martin scored twice, while Bucky Desadier and Brent Weltner netted one each for Texas.
adidas National Lacrosse Classic 1 p.m. – New Jersey (1-0-1) rolled to a 17-1 verdict against Texas (0-2). Six different players had multiple goals for New Jersey; Dylan Benedickson (3), Ethan Bliss (2), Ryan Coakley (2), Terry McKenna (2), Colin McLinden (2), and Chad Smith. Single-goal contributions came from Ralph D’Agostino, Sean O’Donnelly, Mat...thew Dupras and Ben Laffoon. Baker Owens scored for Texas.
The first game for team Texas was at 8am and here's the summary from the Facebook site for Adidas .... Brent did get a goal :-)
adidas National Lacrosse Classic Ian Robertson scored three times and assisted on another goal to help Carolina top Texas 8-4. Carson Sterling contributed a pair of goals to the winning effort. Alex Hall, Jack Meakin and Alex Sparrow added goals for Carolina. Scoring for Texas were Bucky Desadier, Tyler Lee, Drake Mercer, and Brent Weltner.
7-5-2010
Sharon and Brent made it to DC ...they arrived on the 3rd to Regan airport and made it to the hotel around midnight. I called them at 7 to make sure they were up early to see the sights. They did the Zoo, Holocaust, Metro (few times) and Science Museum and capped it off with fireworks at the Washington Monument. Today they made it to Germantown for the Lacrosse meeting ?? and Rich and Diane arrived this afternoon.
For those wanting to follow the Adidas Lacrosse Classic check it out on facebook adidas-National-Lacrosse-Classic
Brad and roommate Brett came over for ribs. Kyle and I, feeling left out on the DC thing, built our own backyard monument .... sorry about the poor photo as it was with my phone. The blurry thing is a spitting frog. Maggie did fine with it going for a quick drink .... we'll have to see if Chloe is as gentle???
6-20-2010
Fathers Day - Sharon started day by taking Brent to TCU Lacrosse camp for the week. Brad, Kyle and I played golf at Plantation Resort in our old neighborhood. Afterwards we came back to the house for dinner. Great job by all and this Father had a real good day!!!!!!!!!
6-14-2010
It's now officially been rumored by rivals orangeblood site that McKinney LAX team will join forces with several other teams in Texas and Colorado to form a national powerhouse in league of their own. Or something like that ..... doesn't the all this conference realignment suck ???
Here's an article appearing in the McKinney Courier Gazette.
On Friday June 4th The National Lacrosse Classic Regional Team Tryouts took place at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas. Top 80 – 90 high school lacrosse players from Colorado to Texas were invited to participate. Only 25 players were selected to represent the Central US Region in a national lacrosse event to be held in Maryland during the week of July 4th. Two of the major sponsors are Adidas and Gatorade. This is one of the largest national events for high school/club players in North America. Texas is becoming one of lacrosse’s fastest growing hot beds for college recruits. Congratulations to the following 5 McKinney Varsity Club Lacrosse players that earned their spot on the team. McKinney wishes you good luck as you prepare to face some of the best lacrosse teams in the nation.
From Left to right: #2 Will Nevotti - Defenseman (McKinney HS), #10 Brent Weltner - Midfield (Boyd HS), McKinney Varsity Head Coach Brendan Carney, #33 Nate Clark - Midfield (Boyd HS), #21 Jacob Moran - Goalie, #41 Jack McKane - Attack
6-13-2010
Finished the patio in the back. I have put in 26,000 pounds of rock and dirt!!!!!!
Four tons of Oklahoma Flagstone ... Nine tons of decomposed granite
Completed the re bedding ..... I'm losing the red oak on the left
The walkway added Saint Augustine around the edges
Real injected molded chairs
The fire pit
6-5-2010
Kyle is 20 - Our original hope was to summit a 14er but that wasn't possible this time of year. We drove back Wednesday and have been chilling in Dallas .... well sort of :-)
6-4-2010
Brent made the Central Region All stars - Texas team in Lacrosse and competes for the National Championship at the Adidas National Lacrosse Classic July 5th-8th in Germantown Maryland. McKinney should have a very strong team next year as we were awarded 5 of the players on the 25 person Central-Texas roster.
6-1-2010
We got up at 5:30 am and headed over to breakfast at the Village Inn. By 7:00 we were driving up to Loveland Pass to attempt a 13er Cupid Peak and Grizzly. Last night we did some surfing at 14ers.com and found this cool trip www.14ers.com with no snow to the top!!!!!
We started the hike at 7:40am and reached the type or at least the 12,915 peak at 9:00am Mission Accomplished!!! The wind was nuts .... maybe 50 mph so we didn't stay long before heading back to the car.
Topo Map @ top of Loveland Pass to the Peak 12,915
We started the hike at 7:30 am and hiked directly to the East into the Sun
Getting closer
Looking back down you can see A-Basin Ski Area
Kyle at summit of Cupid Mtn 12,915' at 8:30 am
Wind at summit was well over 30 and I'm guessing the gust were close to 50 mph
Yes I made it !!!
I think the rock carne behind Kyle marked the top ... we tried to sit behind as wind shield
Time to descend as always Kyle moved a little faster than I
Lot's of snow
5-31-2010
No photos from today. We took a rafting trip in the morning down the Blue River minutes from our Hotel. Great trip but no camera's were recommended and the professional photographer was missing. Later we found our trail head to Wheeler Lakes and did a quick hike about 1/2 way. The idea is tomorrow we will pack in and stay the night. We shall see .... below is the topo for Wheeler Peeks which is just across the highway from Cooper Mountain.
5-30-2010
Kyle and I left Saturday at 12:15pm and made it all the way to Frisco CO at 1:20am. Roughly 900 mile drive in 14 hours. Sunday - We headed to A-Basin for Kyle to do some Snow Boarding and my goal was to get in shape. Got to the lifts about 9:00am for the opening where we got a full lift ticket for Kyle and foot pass for me. I rode up the first lift and hiked over to the second lift to reach the top. From here I could see Lenawee Mountain and a perfect ridge to climb for my exercise efforts.
Getting started
I'm ready let's go dad!
Strapping it up
Ready to hit the lift
up and away
Random shot of going up
Kyle coming down
Almost to the photographer
Passing the me
Man versus Mountain Goat
Hiking towards the ridge I decided to follow a small foot trail which disappeared into the snow. I opted to just kick thru the snow and found this impossible as it was firmly packed not allowing for kicking my boots in for a grip. Time for a change in my game plan to the top and create a route around the snow. In 30 minutes or so I was on the first false summit. Looking towards the next summit it was about 200' above me and seemed to have a reasonable enough route without snow. While looking up I noticed something at two white mountain goats .... cool my first encounter with wildlife other than the rabbit I ran over the day before (another story !). I climbed another 100 or so feet and was getting close to the summit .... weird the goats were just hanging at the top looking right at me. Normally any wildlife scatters but not these guys. Hiked a bit more and now I'm 20 or so feet from the summit and the goats aren't moving. In fact I would claim they were dipping their heads at me exposing their antlers as to show me this was their turf. WOW this sucks I'm 20' from the summit and two dam goats are stopping me. OK I decide to stand tall and hold up my arms with ski polls in hand to scare them away .... still no luck they wouldn't’t budge. 20 minutes have gone by and now two A-Basin Snow Patrol guys appear.... when they arrive they tell me they been watching this from below and I can hear their radios going with the chatter about the standoff. So the three of us head up towards the ridge and the goats vanished over the cliff. I pay my thanks to them and get one of them to snap the photo below. The two patrol guys headed off to the east side of the ridge to take care of some other business leaving me to head back to the lifts. When I arrived back down I saw them and we chatted and they told me the dam goats had reappeared and chased one of them. So much for nice mountain goat
The blue lines are the two lifts needed to reach the 12,300 top at A-Basin. The Red line marks my hike up the ridge
A photo from the top of A-Basin which is open until June 6th this year .... as one of the highest Ski Areas in the U.S.
Taking my own photo about 1/2 way up
Looking back from the ridge to the lift
Looking towards the summit and noticing the beautiful wildlife .... Mtn Goats
Hey they are still there!!
Still there
Not only are the still there they look to be dropping down towards me
The standoff ... this took 20 minutes before thank god for Snow Patrol guys
I made it!! ...
