Magic Meadows Disc Golf Course – One of the Last Groups to Play before Closing

Posted: October 08, 2014
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Colorado, Disc Golf, Front Range, Location Categories
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Who: Andy, Caitlin, Bret, Tweak, and Bubbha.

When: June 15th, 2014

Detailed Course Walk through with photos of nearly every hole! (Click for Link)

In July 2014 our group of four was one of the last groups to ever get to play the Magic Meadows Disc Golf course located near Pine, Colorado. It may have been one of the most beautiful days of disc golf you could have asked for with perfect weather, flowers blooming in the fairways, thick green aspens, and plenty of throwing.

Tweak throwing through the Aspens on Hole #3. You have two options with tough alleys on either side:

Magic Meadows was built to be a private course that had open tee times and was to feature several courses on one of the most beautiful chunks of property along HWY 285. Unfortunately after opening there was some problems with the family that owns the land and the course was put into flux. Not wanting to deal with the on going issues and uncertainty the course founders decided it was time to close up-shop.

The course had many unique elements that are solely unique to the land it was located upon. This tee box was one of the highlights of the day (and there was a lot of highlights that day!):

Tight Tunnel shots were common:

Posted: August 03, 2014
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Colorado, Events & Parties, Front Range, Location Categories
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On a beautiful day in the middle of winter we found ourselves doing an Wedding Engagement Shoot at Roxborough State Park just outside of Denver. Caitlin was my assistant as we spent the morning under perfect blue skies with a nice snow backdrop.

Wedding Website

Below are some of the highlights from Andrew and Whitney’s Engagement Shoot:

Of course this photo shoot was of our good friends Andrew and Whitney! So we had plenty of fun taking photos, goofing around, and trying not to fall off of cliffs.

Here are some of the other adventures we have been on with Andrew and Whitney:

Posted: December 31, 2012
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Camping, Colorado, Front Range, Location Categories, Rock
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Over the course of the year we did a lot of trips that were awesome but not big enough (or unique enough) to warrant a normal in-depth Trip Report. Instead here are those trips where cool photos were taken with a brief write-up. (Most of the links below go to more photos, so click around!)

July 15th, 2012: Elevenmile Canyon (link): quick overnight trip, some bouldering, and some Denver heat-escaping:

Sept 22nd: Klettergarden Bouldering and Quick Overnight Camping Trip (link): With Jake, Annie, Caitlin, and myself plus some canines.

Jake on the Minturn Mile, super close to sending this classic problem:

Annie with Caitlin Spotting:

The next morning was beautiful. Caitlin playing in the Aspen forest:

Sept 30th: Devil’s Head Camping, Climbing, Hiking and Aspen Leaf Viewing (link): with Brea, Rambo, Andrew, Whitney, Caitlin and I.

Nov 21st: Turkey Rocks trad Climbing the Day before Thanksgiving with Rambo (link):

Just a sampling of many fine smaller trips!

Quick Moments of Fall

Posted: February 07, 2012
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Colorado, Front Range, Location Categories, National Parks, Rock, Travel
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Just like that we went from blazing hot to the cool temps of fall. I experienced this during a little landscape project that started in late August and went up to mid-Sept (essentially going from dripping sweat to just normal sweat). That little landscape project turned into a much bigger project somehow miraculously finishing moments before the start of the Backyard Bouldering Competition.

The cool temps lead to an active fall of many short-outings experiencing the intense fall colors. Below is just a photographic taste from the short adventures that took place during the extended fall season

Kenosha Pass (and all surrounding areas) were absolutely breath-taking on Oct 1st-2nd, 2011:

Once finished with the climbing comp I was able to get out again (had no real adventures since Independence Pass in early August). Here we are at Mt Sanitas in Boulder doing some bouldering, September 17th, 2011:

Andrew relaxing on the top-out:

Aspen’s just starting to get really colorful on Squaw Pass Road near Evergreen on September 25th, 2011:

A trip to Crested Butte with RAMBO happened on Oct 1st-2nd. Potentially the most colorful weekend in my life. More will be posted on this adventure, however here is a teaser:

My sister flew in from Austin, TX and we checked out Rocky Mountain National Park on a snowy day in the park. October 9th, 2011:

There were also a lot of elk out that day and we had fun watching them in their rut:

Friday afterwork session in Castlewood Canyon with Caitlin at the 9 Lives Boulder, October 14th, 2011:

Day trip to Sheep’s Nose for some boulder exploring with Caitlin and some sightseeing, October 23rd, 2011 (Pike’s Peak in the background):

Oct 28th Halloween party!!!

Fall more or less wrapped-up in Colorado for me on a beautiful, brisk day in Castlewood Canyon doing some bouldering with Jake and Ben. November 11th, 2012:

Full Post here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2012/02/quick-moments-of-fall/

2011 Backyard Bouldering Comp Recap

Posted: October 31, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Climbing Wall, Colorado, Events & Parties, Front Range
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Thank you everyone for attending the 2nd Annual Backyard Bouldering Comp!!!

It was a huge success and I am really glad we had such an awesome group of people out ready to climb hard and have a lot of fun. The event was at least twice as big as last year and it was one of the most fun gatherings that we have ever had!!!

Below is a quick recap of the results and the event. There was 10 problems featured this year and a brand-new feature on the wall (literally finished the day of the comp!!!). Of the 10 problems 9 were completed which means I need to make it a little harder next year. Also glad to see such a diverse group of climbers out there and really glad to see all of the costumes.

Results:

Awards:

Men’s 1st: Jake Fell (2nd year in a row!!!)
Men’s 2nd: Gabe Craveiro (after just barely missing it in the climb-off for 1st place!)
Men’s 3rd: Vinny English (a late entry that come-in strong)
Women’s 1st: Annie Bacci (Huge improvement over the past year!!!)
Women’s 2nd: Brea Galvin (the Chilean Hooker outfit really helped the climbing)
Women’s 3rd: Caitlin Shay (On the podium both years)

Prizes (these are the fun awards and glad everyone put a lot of effort into it):

Best Costume: RAMBO (making a guest appearance as some sort of sexy chilean prostitute and climbing in extremely tight jeans)
Best Determination: Bubbha (the hipster tried hard all not but realized it just wasn’t that cool to win)
Midget’s Unite: Katie for not ever really rock climbing before and coming out and doing amazing
Best Beer: Gabe/Marcio (for bringing a delicious belgian beer)(lots of hard competition)
Most Bonus Holds: Andrew Giamberardino (somehow winning this prize both years for hitting the most amount of bonus holds but not completing the problems)
Drunken Monkey: Andy Librande (flashing two separate problems after chugging a beer each time)

Thanks again for the awesome comp/party/BBQ!!!

More Info including the Competition Poster: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/09/backyard-bouldering-comp-2011/

Details on the Scoring Format here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2010/08/backyard-bouldering-competition-sept-4th-2010/

Enjoy some pics from the night:

Castlewood Canyon Spring Climbing

Location: Castlewood Canyon State Park Colorado

Dates: 3/26, 4/8, 4/9, 4/15

In between powder sessions in the mountains, hail storms in Denver, and intense wind along the front range we have been taking advantage of the beautiful climbing opportunities at Castlewood.

We have had several sessions (love the afterwork sessions) at the Fontainebleau area of Castlewood with Caitlin coming pretty close to sending Rocket Ship. Here she is on the first day out with the new Organic Pad March 26th:

Jake leading with style at the C-Section wall at Castlewood on April 9th:

The elusive Rambo made an appearance and we worked on the Plate Rock South Face Arete in an after-work session on April 15th:

Rambo up high on the Plate Problem with all of the committing moves at the top:

Eying out the most intense crack climb at Castlewood. The South Sentry is a perfect crack formation with a undesirable landing on a small boulder that is nearly impossible to protect with only one spotter/photographer…Rambo got up in it but the next moves were a little dangerous for our situation (4/15/11):

The largest herd of deer I have ever seen at Castlewood and surprisingly they weren’t too spooked (3/26/11):

Full post here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/05/castlewood-canyon-spring-climbing/

Backpacking in Lost Creek Wilderness

When: September 10th-12th, 2010

Start: Goose Creek Trailhead, Lost Creek Wilderness

Destination: Shaft House Area

Caitlin and I decided to finally get in a backpacking trip just as the Fall colors were starting. We decided to check-out a place that my roommate was just a few days before us as the scenery looked just amazing.

We took off late on Friday and drove to the trail head as quick as possible (lets just say the Honda Civic tore-up the last 14 miles of dirt-road to the trail head) and arrived to the parking lot with the sun just about to set and darkness setting in really quickly.

We took off down the trail moving as quickly as possible to try to take advantage of the last glowing hints of evening sun, but we quickly found ourselves hiking in the dark. The trail is relatively easy with the first chunk of it on a smooth hillside just above the creek. At one point it does climb far above the valley and with the looming trees (and moonless night) we encountered some seriously dark hiking. Out comes the headlamps and what seems like an eternity of rolling trail we eventually got to the turn-off to the “Shaft House”.

Relieved that we finally hit the turn-off we hiked-up this new trail with no idea of where we would camp. In the pitch dark we occasionally smelled some campfire smoke, hear some bumps in the night, and eventually set-up behind a massive boulder. The sheer darkness and absolute stillness of the night made it challenging to get our bearings.

Morning was an unbelievable site. Huge granite rock-formations everywhere with thick forest and the beautiful fall colors just starting to show.

We hiked out to a overlook over a massive valley with an incredible array of large domes, massive boulders, and a creek wandering through the middle. With the help of some guys that were camped nearby we learned that it was possible to get all the way to the creek bottom. We scrambled all the way to the far stream in the picture below:

Attempting the get to the creek bottom was a major event in itself. With a significant amount of rock hopping and scrambling (sometimes over great exposure), we had to drop through chimney’s, climb over knife-edges, do some sketchy jumping over crevasses, all while trying to pick out which route would be possible. Awesome stuff!

Once we were at the stream we were rewarded with a Wild Raspberry Bush!!!:

Hanging out down at the stream-bed (ie Andy falling into the stream):

On the hike out we found a little more direct route but had to take this insanely sketchy, rusted-out ladder that was precariously perched between a couple boulders (not bolted into the rock), above a pretty gnarly ravine. Here Caitlin shows her discontentment with me taking photos instead of holding the ladder steady:

Once back to the top we had to relocate our campsite to this one with a phenomenal view of the valley around us. Then off for more exploring.

Caitlin at the old Shaft House (they actually tried to pump concrete into the ground to seal-up all of the rocks to form a reservoir where we hiked earlier in the day; luckily they failed):

We snagged a sweet spot from the guys we ran into previously. Our campsite had to be one of the most scenic locations I have ever slept:

We built a fire on top of the massive rock formation and hung out looking at the stars in a perfect moonless night:

Hiking out of our camping spot was fun. We were completely protected on all sides by rock cliffs, boulders, and tight squeezes. Here is what we had to do to get out of there:

We hiked out with minimal water (the filter was not working well) and towards the end the heat of the day caught-up to us and made the last climb out of the valley very hard. Once back to the car (which was in direct hot sunshine) we raced out of there and headed down the dirt-road to where the road went over the river; we desperately needed to cool off and clean off the grime!

The drive home was a little different as we stopped at Zoka’s for lunch (amazing as usual) and then headed towards Breckenridge over Kenosha and Hoosier Passes as Caitlin needed to go buy some skis on pro-form (she picked up some new Armada JJ’s!!!). The colors were starting to look real nice on both passes and the drive was well worth it.

If you are following from a feed please check out this post on http://andylibrande.com/news/

Bachelor Party in Camp Dick

Posted: September 24, 2010
By: andylibrande
In: Camping, Colorado, Front Range, Rock
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When: July 30th – July 31st, 2010

Where: Near the Camp Dick campground close to Lyons

Who: Ben, Andrew, Scott, Yours Truly, and Stranahan’s

Why: Well Ben decided to randomly get married on extreme short-notice so we had to throw a bachelor party on extreme short-notice.

Let’s get the elephant in the room a little explanation. Yes, we did have a bachelor party in a place called Camp Dick. Yes, it was just a bunch of dudes camping out together, drinking together, and reminiscing about the good ol’ days. And yes, it was a lot of, uhhh… fun….

We left Denver Friday night all jammed into Andrew’s SUV with several crash pads, gear, food, adult beverages, and four of us with the mission to give Ben a damn good evening/weekend. Luckily for us the drive to Camp Dick is just enough time to enjoy some beverages in the backseat and ramble on about how cool we all once were.

We get to Camp Dick and Andrew has to navigate the 4×4 road in his Ford SUV which was a little tight but we managed. We quickly found a awesome camping spot near the river and had a awesome boulder that we could sit on in the middle of the St Vrian river were we could cook and chill. Luckily I have been there a couple of times (documented here), so everything was pretty easy to figure out.

Morning was a little rough but here Scott and Ben discuss the merits of sleeping in a tent directly under a fallen tree:

We hit up the Bolt Boulder to try out our climbing skills the next day. Awesome high-ball boulder with easy access and a few really fun problems. Andrew getting high into the crux of the main easier problem there (crux is at the top):

Ben showing off his good looks:

There is a easier slab climb to the top which is much more sketchy when your hands are wet from the condensation on your beer and you have to use your teeth to hold the can:

We tried to convince Ben to eat this colorful friend:

Anyways congrats to Ben and Beth!!!

Spring Climbing Fun

Spring has been busy with a bunch of activities but just wanted to catch-up with some climbing updates and some other cool photos I may have taken.

Been spending a number of days up inThree Sisters park outside of Evergreen. I have been up to this park a number of times and there is just so many boulders to play on and the scenery never disappoints.

Here is a decent photo from a trip with Ben, Paige and Whitney (I spent more time nursing a hang-over then anything else). Here Whitney works on one of the larger blocks lying in this awesome pine forest:

A couple days were up at another section at Three Sisters where there is this awesome cave feature and a really clean, fun dyno block. Here Caitlin is in the cave:

Side perspective, great overhang and something unexpected in that area:

Here is the awesome dyno (well a photo of me on the launch holds, I was 6-10″ short):

We also had an awesome Friday Night climb session at the same place as the above photos with a big crew! Jake the redhead, Annie, Paige, Caitlin, myself and with a guest appearance from Terra made for a fun evening under beautiful spring weather. Here Jake crushes the Cave problem with speed:

Went to one of the best locations for a climbing competition held on the banks of the Boulder Reservoir. Battle at the Bubble was the comp and they had two of these amazing walls set-up outside with a big-screen projector and a huge amped-up crowd. Daniel Woods pulled together an insane finale move that sent the crowd into a frenzy that I cannot describe. Here is Angie Panye (2nd place) on one of the walls:

To wrap-up here is a cool photo I took of a storm passing through Denver from the top of the DU light-rail station:

Denver Zoo in the Winter

Date: March 20th, 2010

Accomplice: Caitlin (and the furry animals)

Location: The Denver Zoo

We decided to hit up the Denver Zoo the day after a 8-10″ snowstorm as in the morning the weather was absolutely beautiful. We arrived in the early afternoon and had a great time as it had been a long while since either of us had been there.

Let’s just say the weather was perfect, the animals were insanely active and the crowds were non-existent.

Numerous times throughout the day, Caitlin and I found ourselves in exhibits with only us and the animals (which may or may not be legal…). It much more enjoyable to see animals when they want to be outside instead of hiding in the corner from the hot sun and screaming kids.

The Male Brown Bear was Playing around and Real Happy:

And then we found out why he was so happy – Apparently licking the Urine of the Female Bear brings him much pleasure:

The Cheetahs were out running in their snow-covered pen:

Caitlin near the Monkey Area. Due to the Large amount of snow the monkeys were the only animals inside. But you can see how much snow there was in the early afternoon which was quickly melting off:

The Rhino was out enjoying the nice Light:

The Birds were Dive-bombing each other in Bird World as they fought for fish. We sat here for at least 15-20 mins watching them with only two other people coming through in that time.