Losing the Familiar: Holidays Recap #1

This is part 1 of our epic holiday adventures....stay tuned for additional recaps....

Hut-to-Hut...San Juan Mountains, Ouray, Colorado:

On December 17th, after Adam and Ryan finished their pediatrics clinics for the evening, the 3 of us + a farting Bandit and a skeptical Chena piled in the car for an all night and 1/2 day journey to Denver. Once we started the drive, Bandit immediately began to pass putrid gas to welcome Ryan to our car. Bandit's gas and the wafting of my cinnamon broom deodorizer was a somewhat lethal combo. I think I felt my eyes burning.... After an hour or so, Adam woke up from a nap, put on the flashers and requested that I pull over. Vomit. This cycle of waking up, flashers, pulling over, and vomiting went on for several hours, while Ryan and I gave each other sideways glances of concern...for our own health....luckily Adam did not pass on his virus acquired as a parting gift from Corbin pediatrics.

After crossing the CO border we picked up Ben at his cousin's farm. Ben had been biking along the west coast and was meeting us for the trip! We made it to Denver and went to dinner with more friends from various places in our lives: Rick (also joining the Hut Hut gang who I went to school from 2nd-12th grade with) and Stephanie (Rick's girlfriend from Boulder) and Dave (Adam's freshman year roommate from Centre) and Karen (Dave's wife from Ecuador).

(The dinner group minus Ben who took the pic.)

Post dinner was the ultimate concert of the year - Ben Sollee (from Lexington, KY) and Trampled By Turtles!!! Despite having driven for 20+ hours and feeling slightly nauseous, the concert was phenomenal and we got to introduce Ben and Ryan to some new music.

(Ben Sollee!)

We stayed with Rick and Stephanie in Boulder that night and in the morning met up with some more old friends - Rachel (her mom and mine were best friends growing up in Nashville) and Benjamin (younger brother of a friend of both me and Rick in highschool). Eventually Adam, Ryan, Ben, Rick, and I (plus the dogs - Bandit, Chena, and Lexi) started the drive south towards Ouray.

(Members of the "hut hut 2009" crew)

(Ryan with Mt. Sneffels and Bandit in the background)

The hut trip went really well. We snowshoed into the Blue Lakes hut on the first day, spent the night there, spent the next day snowshoeing in the same area and spent an additional night at Blue Lakes. The 3rd day we headed to the Ridgway hut (where we also stayed last year). This was a tougher day physically and mentally because there were some challenges with route finding, it was colder, and there was a substantial ascent. We spent the 3rd night at the Ridgway hut and snowshoed out on the 4th day - the 23rd of December!

(Sunrise at Blue Lakes Hut)

(we spent a lot of time playing "nines")

(Rick and Lexi)

(The group that went last year too - Adam, Bandit, Emily, Chena, Rick, and Lexi)

We got back to our cars at a decent hour, filled our bellies with beef, checked out the Ouray icepark, and got in the car to head home in time for Christmas! Problem. We started getting calls from friends and family about worsening weather conditions. At first I thought people were overreacting. They weren't. Once in Denver the roads were icy and conditions continued to deteriorate into Kansas with ice, wind, snow, and whiteouts. We continued to safely and slowly push ahead. It was taking us twice the time because we were driving half of our normal speed. Great.... Finally after a particularly icy stretch we stopped to put chains on the tires. By "we" I mean Adam, Ben, and Ryan. I was feeling increasingly cranky and was worried that we would never make it out of Kansas. The wind was intense and the temperature was below zero. The boys struggled with the chains because they were the wrong size for our tires. I eventually went inside the gas station and convinced two men to help us out. After getting the chains on we decided to take a more southern route across Kansas. This would increase our mileage and the time it took to get home but at that point we felt like there was no other option. The southern route was clear for a while and we made good progress, but a little before dark the roads became treacherous again. The combination of ice, wind, snow, and darkness made it ridiculous to continue on. It was Christmas Eve. Super 8 in El Dorado, KS was calling....