A beautiful hike, and the begining of the mural!

I'm here! Aspen is just as absolutely beautiful as i remember it being. The weather is amazing, its been warm, sunny and bluebird skies since I got here. The first day, we went for a short hike up the Ute Trail to take a look at the valley, and that night we went slacklining in a local park. SO FUN! I'm totally addicted. I really suck at it. We did it for about a half an hour or so, and I could only get about five or six steps down the line. We ran into some kids, so we worked them into our rotation and let them give it a try, they were pretty good at it!

Yesterday, we went for a big hike up to Cathedral Lake. We were going to go up to the peak, but we got a late start due to watching the tour. Whoops! Anyhow, we hiked up, and GOSH it was a good thing that I've been training, because if I thought I was hiking fast before, I WAS WRONG! It was buggy. Kurt took OFF up the trail, and I was determined to pace him. Yeah. Good luck with that! I was definitely faster than I've ever been before, but it seriously kicked my ass, which was, of course, FANTASTIC!

The lake was beautiful, and we hiked up the opposite side of Electric ridge, off the trail and over these sort of tongues of scree. We hiked up to the grassy saddle, and saw the incredible site of Peral pass on the other side. We hiked up to the highest point, scrambling up this beautiful purple rock with orange lichen all over it, and came very close to an enormous raptor of some sort!

I have great photos of all of this, but I am working off a friend's computer, and can't download my camera onto it. One thing I can't wait to share with you are the photos of our descent, which was an adventure and a half and a major blast.

We hiked down this super steep scree field, and i got to learn how to use both my poles in my uphill hand to stabilize myself on the steep slope, like poling in a gondola. It was a very helpful tip that Kurt learned from the guide he climbed Mt. Rainer with.

We got over to this little sliver of snow that was left on the hill, and decided to glissade down it! It was super steep, and kind of ridiculous, and we were both totally psyched to give it a try. Skiing in our tennis shoes, yes we did! I have photos of our tracks coming down this thing, its insane.

We hiked over a huge boulder field where all the boulders had come crashing down a long time ago, covering the old mining road, and crossed over the stream to meet back up with the true hiking trail. All in all, it was a beautiful, beautiful day, with gorgeous weather, and I got great photos for Doug's mural, which I started today.

Here are some photos of the underpainting! I'll try to keep posting as I work on it! Tomorrow is a possible rock climbing day, and more painting if the underpainting has set up enough.