Sarah Ause / saussie.com »

The dogs and I spent the last three days of our trip exploring Colorado. I’ve never really been before (unless you count passing through while sleeping most of the way), so it was nice to finally experience a little more. I left my parents’ a day early so I wouldn’t have to have all-day drives and the pups and I could take our time in that big rocky mountain state. We drove through national parks and monuments, stopped for hikes in gorgeous canyons along the way, and even hit up the local dog parks when we could. We planned to camp, but weather pushed us to motels instead, and that was okay with me. They are good travelers, my little ones. We had a good time.

A couple days before I left for Jackson, Becky posted a photo on her Facebook page. It was a photo of Paintbrush Divide, and it made me desperately want to hike there. It’s a 20-mile hike, up to over 10,000 feet, but I didn’t care. We would go there. Nevermind that I’ve hardly been hiking at all this year, and it would be the longest day hike I’ve ever done. The way I saw it, who cares if it kills me? Why do a shorter hike that you’ll soon forget about when you can do an epic, back-breaking one that you’ll remember forever? And so last Saturday morning, with grand plans of waking up early and hitting the trail, we slept in. But don’t worry, we still hit the trail.

The plan was to do the entire Paintbrush Divide loop, which heads up Cascade Canyon to Lake Solitude, over the divide, and then back down Paintbrush Canyon to the car… but well, I puttered out from not eating enough on the trail and carrying too much extra water. We reached Lake Solitude, the resting stop before making the final uphill ascent to the divide, and I downed some Emergen-C and some carbs and instantly felt better. From there, we could see the trail to the top, and it looked simple enough, but it was getting late, and though I felt great, I wanted to keep feeling great. Heading up to the divide and down the other side would tack two extra hours onto our time, and so I had to make the hard decision to say no to the place I wanted to see so badly. We turned around, and headed back for the car. There’s always next time…

Several hours later, covered in dirt, we arrived back at dusk. In the end, we hiked 18 miles, which almost seems like a waste to not have just done two extra miles for the full loop, but those extra two miles are the most brutal ones… so I think we made a good decision. We picked huckleberries and rinsed off in the lake, changed clothes and headed out for a beer.

Becky in Cascade Canyon

a pretty red bird that let me be his friend and get really close

Becky shrinks her swollen feet in the chilly water of Lake Solitude

one of the many marmot friends we made

and a pika

and a moose

and as Becky is a plant biologist, we also made friends with all the flowers, like these paintbrushes and elephantheads.

the fresh huckleberries we picked and chowed down on at the end of the hike

and of course, my infamous bridge pose.

I’ve had so many posts I’ve been trying to catch up on lately, but I get so busy with work and travel, personal life and play, that they all just keep getting pushed back. I’ll write something to post, then never finish. And so tonight, while I’ve tried to push some out, and can’t find the motivation to do so, I’ve come to a simpler solution… just forget about it and post some photos. I think that’s why people come here anyway…

I rang in my quarter century birthday by catching bats in the middle of the night!

I planted two more gardens… but this dill plant is not mine.

Molly took a cute photo of me and my cute boyfriend.

I saw Busta Rhymes’ likeness in the Cedar Mountain trees.

breakin’ all the rules somewhere in Pennsylvania

campfire art

It rained here over Thanksgiving. It didn’t let up. It just rained, and rained, and rained some more. I woke up the next morning and I could barely see out my window because it was so foggy. But around here, when the fog lifts, it’s a sight that never gets old (maybe you remember last time).

I headed up to work early and photographed the cliffs and the morning wildlife. The wild turkeys were out in huge flocks, the males strutting their stuff in an effort to try to find a mate. Secretly, I imagine they know what Thanksgiving is, and that they were actually celebrating having lived through it. If I were a turkey, I’d be celebrating too… especially on a morning as beautiful as this one.

Florida was like a week or two ago, and I’m now en route to Chicago, but thanks to freezing rain in Denver and them flat-out cancelling my “unimportant flight,” I am stuck in the tiny Rapid City airport all day today. Expect a lot of catch-up posts. Thank god they have free wireless here.

I took a lot of photos of birds during my free time in Florida. We all know I dig birds. Here are a few of them.

I saw my first praying mantis ever this weekend. It blew me away. They are so surreal and alien-like, it was almost kind of scary.

Also, the title of this post really has nothing to do with anything, except is a reference to one of the great lolcats of our time… which you can find here.

I went hiking in Zion this weekend for the first time in a long time. Summer temperatures and tourist crowds have kept me at bay. Thinking both might have cooled down a little, I was itching to get back. Molly and I spent Saturday hiking Observation Point and hanging out in Springdale. On our way back home, we spotted a huge herd of bighorns and I stopped to take pictures. Obviously.

… because I haven’t posted much lately.

I’ve just returned from Paria Canyon, one of the world’s “premiere” backpacks. Only a few people are allowed into the canyon each day from any direction, and we had to book our permits over three months in advance (and even then we just barely got in). I’d been waiting day after day for the past three months to go by, and it was well-worth every day I waited. I knew it would be great, but it was so magnificent, so utterly breath-taking, and so much better than I ever imagined it would be.

There were critters everywhere, everything from tiny tadpoles to bighorn sheep. Out of sight, mountain lions lurked, and down below, enormous caterpillars crawled alongside our feet. The canyon walls towered so high above, some areas never even see sun. We spent our days walking in the water and our nights sleeping on sand under the stars. We winded through Buckskin Gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world, and ventured to one of the most remote and largest natural arches in the world too. We climbed over beaver dams and combed through reeds as thick as the South American jungle. And an epic ending to an epic hike, we came out of the canyon just as the Paria River collided with the mighty Colorado at the Grand Canyon. To call it great is an understatement. To call it amazing is too. It was so much more.