ANDREW'S ADVENTURES WEST

Here's just a glimpse of my travels to the amazing state of Colorado and beyond.

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Adventures in Georgetown and Garden of the Gods Colorado...

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NCAR Hike(June 13) On Friday, June 13 my friend Rachael drove to visit me all the way from where she lives right outside of Denver. We decided to hike on the NCAR hiking area in South Boulder. This turned out to be a great hike and it wasn't the first time I had the opportunity to visit this specific trail. Earlier this spring in March when I was out visiting Colorado. NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research has a beautiful IM Pei designed building at the end of Table Mesa Rd which is fairly easy to find. How To Get There: In order to get to the NCAR Trailhead all you have to do is turn west from Broadway onto Table Mesa and climb to the top. At the top of the long winding road there is a large parking lot, which has plenty of room for all of the visitors to both the atmospheric research center as well as the NCAR trails.

Now that you know how to get to the NCAR Trailhead you should take the time to check out the trails next time you're in the area. There are several trails including the main trail, the Bear Canyon trail, the trail to Mallory Cave and various other destinations from this awesome trailhead!

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"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." Chris (Alex) Mccandless

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Chautauqua Park: I was bored one night and decided I wanted to go check out Flagstaff Mountain since my roommate had suggested it... instead I ended up checking out the Chautauqua Park area because I had heard so much about the famous park. According to all of the locals I had talked to it was one of the classic hikes in the area. When I arrived at the park I realized that this must be true since I couldn't find a single place to park in the whole parking lot.

How To Get There: In order to get to the Chautauqua Park area all you have to do is take Broadway street south from north Boulder and then head west on Baseline road. You will then see a big sign Chautauqua Park on your left hand side of the road.

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During the weekend of June 6-7 I decided to take a drive up to the Gopro Mountain games. It was a great time, I volunteered at the kids mountain biking event, the cross country mountain biking event both pros and experts, and the biking timed trials. Included in this post are pictures of these events as well as others that I had the opportunity to check out.

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I drove from Upsala, Minnesota to Boulder Colorado and it took about 15 hours to complete the whole drive. Since I had already made the trip earlier this spring and it took me close to 16 hours on the way there and more than 18 hours on the way back I decided to leave extra early this time. My plan was to leave at six in the morning... But then after saying good bye to my family it was closer to seven in the morning before I was able to start my trip.

The first half of the drive was filled with torrential downpours and thunderstorms. Then halfway through South Dakota the weather lightened up and I was able to drive through bright sunshine the rest of the way through South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado.

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During my first full day in Boulder Colorado I was hit by a car while biking back from the Pearl Street Mall. Needless to say it hurt… Six stitches later I can say I learned my lesson to only bike on the right hand side of the road in cities such as Boulder. I also learned that you should never trust that the people driving cars see you and to always make eye contact with them before crossing the openings to driveways or alleyways.

After spending four hours in the emergency room I was all stitched up an went and watched the hockey game with my friends Mike and Kim at Lazy Dogs pub in Boulder.

The rest of the week I did my best not to be too lazy and I made a point of getting up and going for a run each morning. I was amazed at the awesome views I saw each morning. Some of my favorites included the street art as well as the majestic mountains on the horizon. I wasn’t able to bring my camera on these morning runs so I had to use my Iphone to capture these moments.

Check out some pictures from my first week in Boulder above!