Flyin' High
My upstairs neighbor is a pilot for United, but he also has his own plane. He had told me it's a biplane because he does aerobatics. I had pictured a WWII-era vintage plane, but when he invited me out a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see this brand-new looking plane. 
He promised not to do any loops or rolls, which was good, because I have to admit my stomach was a little queasy at first. The open cockpit was actually better, though, because I had plenty of fresh air. 
For this picture I actually had to do some work, as opposed to going up in a plane. Right near my house are the beautiful Flatirons (some day I'll get a picture). One of my hiking groups finally had to schedule a hike that started 5 minutes from the house in order for me to climb to the top of them. It's that old story of never doing the things right in your own backyard. It was definitely a workout. On the hike was one guy from Nebraska who had only been in Colorado 2-3 weeks and had never done a serious hike before....in his life! It was 3.4 miles, but it climbed 2900 ft. in those short miles. I guess you might as well dive right in to the tough stuff. Here's a view of the City of Boulder from the top of Bear Mt. If I had a better camera I could point out my house. 
In Colorado they are fiercely proud of their 14ers. These are mountains that exceed 14,000 ft. It's kind of amazing, but of the 68 or so 14ers in the Lower 48, there are 54 (or 58 depending on who's counting) in Colorado. And there are a ton of freaks who feel that it is their destiny to climb every single one of them. Fortunately, or unfortunately, one of these freaks happens to lead the hiking group that I go with the most. Luckily, she doesn't exclusively do 14ers, but she certainly has a strong affinity for pain and punishment of the vertical variety. Well, I finally did my first one a few weeks ago with Mike, the pilot, and Gwen. To me, the best thing about going up high on these peaks is the view. It also is a great sense of accomplishment, or is that feeling overwhelming relief, when you finally get to the top. 
OK, so Mt. Bierstadt is probably one of the easiest 14ers in the state, but its name notwithstanding, which means "beer city" in German, it is still a good workout. We lingered for a while on the top until we saw the ubiquitous afternoon thunder clouds rolling in. I was trying to be optimistic and kept saying we're not going to get hit before reaching the parking lot, but we not only got dumped on, we got hailed on too. Being good Coloradoans we were well-prepared with our rain gear. In this state you don't go to the store in the mountains in the afternoon without it. 
No, Mike and I did not coordinate our attired. I had actually seen him before we left, but I had on my last clean hiking shirt. So we just had to pretend that was the uniform of our hiking club.
