A Weekend to Nerd-Out

I spent this past weekend up in Northern California touring the Bay Delta and State Water Project facilities. One of my clients invited me to tour the facilities with their staff. We spent three days up in the Bay Area near San Francisco. We saw for our own eyes how vulnerable the Delta is to levee collapse, salt water intrusion from the ocean, and other environmental issues such as protected fish.

The Delta, and the starting point for much of our water supply in SoCal.

This trip was a very unique experience for me. Even as far south as Southern California, more than 400 miles away, we plan for and consider the State Water Project facilities and water supplies on almost a daily basis. I have seen countless pictures, read countless charts and tables on flows and supply reliabilities, but I had yet to actually see these facilities that we are so reliant on. It was a great experience and we had excellent tour guides from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

I may get arrested for posting this picture, but I'll take my chances. 

The picture above is of the Banks Pumping Station, essentially one of the first big pumping stations to send water from the Bay Area all the way down to SoCal. The Delta is in the background and the SWP forebay immediately upstream of the pumping station. This is a secure area and some pics aren't allowed, but my camera just seemed to have a mind of it's own. Quick, look over there!

Snowshoeing in Colorado

I took yet another opportunity to make a quick trip to Colorado and visit some friends. I stayed at my friend Nancy's place in Boulder and had a few days to wonder the Boulder and Denver areas and also made a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some snowshoeing. On the way we took the mandatory photo op in front of the Estes Park sign. Snowshoeing was amazing!

Kathleen, Nancy and I snowshoeing up

with a forteener in the background. 

We snowshoed about 5-6 miles or so into the park and saw loads of others along the way. The pow was deep off trail and I took every opportunity to makes some fresh tracks up and down. We made our way to the top of a trail where we saw some shoers with snowboards on their backs. They were hiking their way up the mountain so they could snowboard down! Ingenious. I'll have to do that soon. On the way up the trails we had to cross a frozen lake. It was a little spooky seeing glass beneath you but we were close enough to shore just in case!

Snowshoeing across the lake was awesome.

Good thing the shoes have grip!

Colorado is a beautiful place. If you love the outdoors and don't mind being disconnected to the ocean and the occasional blizzard, you gots to go. I'll be returning sometime soon I'm sure to hit up the mountain biking scene. Perhaps add this to the tail end of my Yellowstone trip that I still need to make happen.