This is post 4 of 8 in the series “SCOUT Epic”

1. Southern Colorado and Utah (SCOUT) Epic Roadtrip/Adventure
2. SCOUT Epic, Day One (August 5)
3. SCOUT Epic, Day Two (August 6)
4. SCOUT Epic, Day Three (August 7)
5. SCOUT Epic, Day Four (August 8)
6. SCOUT Epic, Day Five (August 9)
7. SCOUT Epic, Day Six (August 10)
8. SCOUT Epic, Days Seven & Eight (August 11 & 12)

A week-long roadtrip through Colorado and Utah, combining backpacking, fishing, hiking and mountain biking. Exploring National Parks, landmarks, and interesting areas of Colorado during my sabbatical.

This is post 3 of 8 in the series “SCOUT Epic”

1. Southern Colorado and Utah (SCOUT) Epic Roadtrip/Adventure
2. SCOUT Epic, Day One (August 5)
3. SCOUT Epic, Day Two (August 6)
4. SCOUT Epic, Day Three (August 7)
5. SCOUT Epic, Day Four (August 8)
6. SCOUT Epic, Day Five (August 9)
7. SCOUT Epic, Day Six (August 10)
8. SCOUT Epic, Days Seven & Eight (August 11 & 12)

A week-long roadtrip through Colorado and Utah, combining backpacking, fishing, hiking and mountain biking. Exploring National Parks, landmarks, and interesting areas of Colorado during my sabbatical.

This is post 2 of 4 in the series “SCOUT Epic”

1. Southern Colorado and Utah (SCOUT) Epic Roadtrip/Adventure
2. SCOUT Epic, Day One (August 5)
3. SCOUT Epic, Day Two (August 6)
4. SCOUT Epic, Day Three (August 7)

A week-long roadtrip through Colorado and Utah, combining backpacking, fishing, hiking and mountain biking. Exploring National Parks, landmarks, and interesting areas of Colorado during my sabbatical.

On the first day of the trip, I wanted to head south through Deckers to go fishing, and then get down to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The fishing in Deckers turned out not to be too great (and it was drizzling), but it was beautiful nonetheless. The water was also a lot colder than I expected, so I really should have brought my waders/boots so that I could have gotten out there properly.

This is post 1 of 4 in the series “SCOUT Epic”

1. Southern Colorado and Utah (SCOUT) Epic Roadtrip/Adventure
2. SCOUT Epic, Day One (August 5)
3. SCOUT Epic, Day Two (August 6)
4. SCOUT Epic, Day Three (August 7)

A week-long roadtrip through Colorado and Utah, combining backpacking, fishing, hiking and mountain biking. Exploring National Parks, landmarks, and interesting areas of Colorado during my sabbatical.

When we moved to Denver, one of the primary reasons was to be able to get outdoors and enjoy nature a lot more. Between moving to a new city, then buying and working on a new house, I didn’t actually feel like we’d done much of that, so this summer I planned to fix that. With a three month from sabbatical, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I planned to take a road trip, and combine it with a bunch of hiking, backpacking, fishing and mountain biking. I spent a week on the road, heading south from Denver, then across the bottom half of Colorado, into Utah, back up to I70 and across to Denver again. It was amazing.

When we bought our house in Denver, we intentionally got one that didn’t really need any work done on the house itself. That didn’t entirely work out (yay emergency bathroom remodeling!), but most of our attentions have been focused on our yard, and particularly our back yard. We wanted a “livable” space, that we could spend a bunch of time in and really enjoy. It’s fun to look back at where we started, and where we are now.