Back from Vacation!

Hello again! Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but I've just returned from a little 4th of July vacation to see some of my old guiding friends in Colorado. I made the 10 hour drive to Salida, CO last Wednesday and just returned around 8 o'clock last night. In addition to spending some quality time with some of my best friends, I also got to revisit some of my favorite trails that I used to take clients on in my guiding days. On Thursday, I sniffed around S-Mountain, the conical little hill that rises above downtown Salida and the Arkansas River. It's also where I used to guide a few mountain bike trips, and it offers a supreme view of the town and valley below. Later in the evening, my friends and I returned downtown to watch some fireworks. For a town of less than 10,000, Salida can really put on a show! On Friday morning, I made a quick day trip up to Brown's Lake, which is a modest alpine body of water that served as a base camp for many of the expeditions I used to guide up Mt. Antero (14,276'). I cranked out the nearly 12 mile hike in a little less than 3 and a half hours, and you can check out some other stats on my [Strava!][1] Later that evening, I joined my friends in putting on the campfire that we use to close out our week of clients. It was so good to be back with them for that, as campfire is when we really got to let loose and put on raucous skits in hopes of getting more applause than the river guides. To close out the night, about 20 of us went out into some nearby BLM land to have a campfire of our own. Few things can beat sitting around a campfire at night with some of your best friends. After working so hard the past several weeks on this website, my online class, and my full time job, this long holiday weekend was exactly what I needed. I also feel like I got some much needed closure on my guiding career, and am feeling more excited about my future than ever before. Speaking of the future, I've been brainstorming some new project ideas in addition to numerous improvements that I'd like to make to this website. But I've kept you reading for long enough with this post already. Stay tuned for further news on the coming changes to this site! -Joe [1]: https://www.strava.com/activities/2506674140