Write To The Point
Green-house Show Generates Ideas
March 29, 2009, The Denver Post
Called "Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design," the traveling exhibit from the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., opened in Aurora on March 17. The museum has dedicated three galleries, about 2,500 square feet, to the show, which runs through May 3.
In the first two days, the exhibit drew about 130 people, said Jennifer A. Kuehner, education curator for the museum — not bad, as the museum typically draws about 500 people a month.
"The timing is right" for the exhibit, said MaryJane Valade, curator of exhibits at the museum. "It fits in so well here, with all of the green activities going on in Colorado and the Denver area."
In the first two days, the exhibit drew about 130 people, said Jennifer A. Kuehner, education curator for the museum — not bad, as the museum typically draws about 500 people a month.
"The timing is right" for the exhibit, said MaryJane Valade, curator of exhibits at the museum. "It fits in so well here, with all of the green activities going on in Colorado and the Denver area."
Visitors will get quick tips and inspiration for sustainable building.
By John Rebchook
Steve Truesdale has three children and spends a lot of time wondering about what kind of world they'll inherit.
"What is going to be our legacy?" Truesdale asked on a recent morning while visiting a green-building exhibition running at the Aurora History Museum.
"What is going to be our legacy?" Truesdale asked on a recent morning while visiting a green-building exhibition running at the Aurora History Museum.
The exhibit may be an eye-opener for consumers who think going green takes a lot of green, as in money. In fact, many green solutions cost little upfront and have quick paybacks.
"I think for consumers, they can discover there are really simple, inexpensive things they can do, like caulking and changing to more energy-efficient light bulbs," Valade said.
Indeed, the museum staff is handing out free compact fluorescent light bulbs, better known as CFLs, to visitors through an Aurora city program in which Wal-Mart donates the bulbs.
If someone is building a home — or planning a dream home — the exhibit is ideal for generating ideas, ranging from solar photovoltaic panels to harness the sun's energy to generate electricity or heat water, to geothermal systems that provide heating and cooling, Valade said.
Her favorite section is dedicated to handsome residential architecture in various settings, including deserts, mountains, cities and suburbs.
"Unfortunately, there aren't any homes from Colorado" in that gallery, Valade said.
Truesdale, the lone visitor on a Thursday morning, said that portion of the exhibit dispels the notion that green buildings are ugly.
And if builders would educate their subcontractors on how to tweak construction practices to accommodate green features displayed in these homes, the price of sustainability would drop dramatically, said Truesdale, who works for Parker Winnelson Co. in Centennial.
"I am worried that now gas is no longer $4 a gallon, that we will not remain committed to building green," he said. "No one liked paying a lot at the pump, or paying high utility bills, but hopefully that scared people into realizing we do have finite world resources. I think high prices were a needed wake-up call. We really have to ask ourselves what kind of world we want to leave to our children."
Paint these lectures green, inexpensive
As part of "Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design," the Aurora History Museum has added a green lecture series. All lectures start at 2 p.m. and cost $2 for Aurora residents and $3 for nonresidents. For information, call 303-326-8650.
"I think for consumers, they can discover there are really simple, inexpensive things they can do, like caulking and changing to more energy-efficient light bulbs," Valade said.
Indeed, the museum staff is handing out free compact fluorescent light bulbs, better known as CFLs, to visitors through an Aurora city program in which Wal-Mart donates the bulbs.
If someone is building a home — or planning a dream home — the exhibit is ideal for generating ideas, ranging from solar photovoltaic panels to harness the sun's energy to generate electricity or heat water, to geothermal systems that provide heating and cooling, Valade said.
Her favorite section is dedicated to handsome residential architecture in various settings, including deserts, mountains, cities and suburbs.
"Unfortunately, there aren't any homes from Colorado" in that gallery, Valade said.
Truesdale, the lone visitor on a Thursday morning, said that portion of the exhibit dispels the notion that green buildings are ugly.
And if builders would educate their subcontractors on how to tweak construction practices to accommodate green features displayed in these homes, the price of sustainability would drop dramatically, said Truesdale, who works for Parker Winnelson Co. in Centennial.
"I am worried that now gas is no longer $4 a gallon, that we will not remain committed to building green," he said. "No one liked paying a lot at the pump, or paying high utility bills, but hopefully that scared people into realizing we do have finite world resources. I think high prices were a needed wake-up call. We really have to ask ourselves what kind of world we want to leave to our children."
Paint these lectures green, inexpensive
As part of "Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design," the Aurora History Museum has added a green lecture series. All lectures start at 2 p.m. and cost $2 for Aurora residents and $3 for nonresidents. For information, call 303-326-8650.
The traveling green-home exhibit at the Aurora History Museum has an area dedicated to Colorado green-design contributions, including this solar dollhouse created by Namaste Solar. (Kathryn Scott Osler | The Denver Post )
Former Governor Persuaded Bottler to be in Windsor
By John Rebchook
January 24, 2009, Rocky Mountain News
Back in 2004, then-Gov. Bill Owens caught wind that Owens-Illinois was seriously considering Wyoming as the site for a $130 million bottling plant.
He knew that Wyoming could throw far more money at the bottling giant for the economic plum than Colorado could ever afford.
"So I pitched Budweiser directly and called Augie Bush," chairman of the St. Louis- based Anheuser-Busch company at the time.
"One of the great things about being governor is that everyone takes your call," Owens recalled this week.
It was one example of the behind-the- scenes wheeling and dealing by Owens to help land clients at the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor.
Owens also sent David Solin, his economic development director, to Denmark in 1999 to try to persuade Vestas to open a factory in Colorado.
The Vestas deal at Great Western was brought to the one-yard line under Owens' watch, and Gov. Bill Ritter scored the economic development touchdown in the first few days of his term in January 2007.
"Like Gov. Ritter is doing now, we were pitching companies all the time," Owens said. "You throw a lot of lines in the water, and sometimes you get a bite. Not just for this park. I might have been trying to convince a company to locate from San Francisco to the Denver Tech Center or hopping on a plane to help bring a company to Aurora."
But reaching out to August Anheuser Busch III, better known as Augie, was one that really stands out.
Anheuser-Busch, parent of Budweiser, has a giant brewery in Fort Collins, and Owens knew that would be the major client of the Owens-Illinois bottling plant that was the initial company in what is now known as the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor.
"I think I called Augie at the suggestion of Pat (Broe)," the principal of the Denver-based Broe Group, a privately held company that is the parent of the park and the railroad that serves it.
Owens suggested to Busch that Windsor was a better fit than Cheyenne for the plant.
"I told him I know that Owens-Illinois is looking at Wyoming, but you've got that wind up there," Owens said. "Can you imagine all of these trucks filled with glass being blown around? And do you really want to have all these trucks backed up for days, because I-80 (that connects to Interstate 25) is closed because of blowing and drifting snow?"
He also said it is more economical and efficient to have trucks travel only 20 miles or so from Windsor to Fort Collins instead of coming all the way from Cheyenne. An added bonus: shorter commutes mean less pollution and truck traffic in Colorado, Owens noted.
Broe and Owens are close friends.
"The thing about Pat is that he really isn't a real estate developer; he is a business developer," Owens said.
The former governor said that Broe's business acumen ranks him with other Colorado business leaders, such as the late George Wallace, founder of the Tech Center, and entrepreneur Philip Anschutz.
"I think at one time, between Vestas and Owens-Illinois, Pat's efforts accounted for 10 percent of the net new jobs created in Colorado," Owens said.
The press-shy Broe declined to comment for the record.
But Alex Yeros, a managing director with the Broe Group, said that both Owens and Ritter have been a delight to work with. "We've been blessed to have two governors that have this unique ability to open doors for business to come to Colorado," Yeros said.
He knew that Wyoming could throw far more money at the bottling giant for the economic plum than Colorado could ever afford.
"So I pitched Budweiser directly and called Augie Bush," chairman of the St. Louis- based Anheuser-Busch company at the time.
"One of the great things about being governor is that everyone takes your call," Owens recalled this week.
It was one example of the behind-the- scenes wheeling and dealing by Owens to help land clients at the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor.
Owens also sent David Solin, his economic development director, to Denmark in 1999 to try to persuade Vestas to open a factory in Colorado.
The Vestas deal at Great Western was brought to the one-yard line under Owens' watch, and Gov. Bill Ritter scored the economic development touchdown in the first few days of his term in January 2007.
"Like Gov. Ritter is doing now, we were pitching companies all the time," Owens said. "You throw a lot of lines in the water, and sometimes you get a bite. Not just for this park. I might have been trying to convince a company to locate from San Francisco to the Denver Tech Center or hopping on a plane to help bring a company to Aurora."
But reaching out to August Anheuser Busch III, better known as Augie, was one that really stands out.
Anheuser-Busch, parent of Budweiser, has a giant brewery in Fort Collins, and Owens knew that would be the major client of the Owens-Illinois bottling plant that was the initial company in what is now known as the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor.
"I think I called Augie at the suggestion of Pat (Broe)," the principal of the Denver-based Broe Group, a privately held company that is the parent of the park and the railroad that serves it.
Owens suggested to Busch that Windsor was a better fit than Cheyenne for the plant.
"I told him I know that Owens-Illinois is looking at Wyoming, but you've got that wind up there," Owens said. "Can you imagine all of these trucks filled with glass being blown around? And do you really want to have all these trucks backed up for days, because I-80 (that connects to Interstate 25) is closed because of blowing and drifting snow?"
He also said it is more economical and efficient to have trucks travel only 20 miles or so from Windsor to Fort Collins instead of coming all the way from Cheyenne. An added bonus: shorter commutes mean less pollution and truck traffic in Colorado, Owens noted.
Broe and Owens are close friends.
"The thing about Pat is that he really isn't a real estate developer; he is a business developer," Owens said.
The former governor said that Broe's business acumen ranks him with other Colorado business leaders, such as the late George Wallace, founder of the Tech Center, and entrepreneur Philip Anschutz.
"I think at one time, between Vestas and Owens-Illinois, Pat's efforts accounted for 10 percent of the net new jobs created in Colorado," Owens said.
The press-shy Broe declined to comment for the record.
But Alex Yeros, a managing director with the Broe Group, said that both Owens and Ritter have been a delight to work with. "We've been blessed to have two governors that have this unique ability to open doors for business to come to Colorado," Yeros said.
Securities Analyst Poised to Help Rebuild Market
By John Rebchook
September 26, 2008, Rocky Mountain News
Red-hot bottles come out of the forming machine at the Owens-Illinois glass bottle plant in Windsor. When the bottles are formed, they are heated to about 2,100 degrees.
Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky/2007
Photo by Darin McGregor / The Rocky/2007
Sue Allon thinks her fledgling Denver-based company is uniquely positioned to be a big player in the oversight of the $700 billion bailout package working its way through Congress.
"There are very few woman-owned businesses in this industry," said Allon, who launched Allon Financial, which analyzes pooled mortgages, about five months ago. "And very few people have had five years with the RTC and then all of the years I ran Murrayhill."
Allon's Murrayhill Co. had a $137 billion bond portfolio under management in Denver before she sold it four years ago.
"I think the timing is right," Allon said. "We can help bring these assets back to life" by once again helping create a market for trading mortgage- backed securities.
Allon, 49, thinks the bailout package has a good chance of working. And she said she has the experience and knowledge to make sure Uncle Sam knows what it is buying when it starts to acquire the so-called "toxic loans" from banks. Her company's analysis of the underlying mortgages in a portfolio can give confidence to buyers, she said.
Frank Raiter, the retired managing director of Standard & Poor's Rating Group, agrees.
Allon and her team should be at the “top of the list” when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is looking for outside help for a bailout plan, said Raiter, who has known Allon, then Sue Ellis, since about 1995.
“Sue, with her experience and this new venture, would be ideally positioned to provide some significant service to whatever the bailout plan is,” Raiter said in a phone interview on Friday morning.
“The government doesn’t have this kind of expertise on its staff,” Raiter said. “It is going to need to hire people from the outside.”
The company, so new that it is renting temporary space in the Tabor Center before it moves into an office in LoDo, already has about a dozen clients, mostly New York City hedge funds interested in buying pools of mortgage-backed securities. Allon said she recently reviewed one portfolio of $63 million and another of $25 million in distressed loans for clients interested in acquiring them.
Allon was raised in Pueblo. After graduating from Colorado College in 1981 with a degree in economics - "I wanted to be on the President's Council of Economic Advisers" - she joined Pulte Mortgage Co. and became involved with some of the first private-label-packaged mortgage securities in the nation.
"I found I had a passion for that kind of security," Allon said. "I saw it as an emerging business with no boundaries."
Along the way she received a master's degree in accounting from the University of Denver and an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.
She "got a taste of Wall Street." Then came "Black Monday" in October 1987, when the stock market crashed.
"Some of my classmates at Tuck got great offers from Wall Street firms, and (the firms) told them to keep the bonuses but they had no jobs for them," Allon said.
She went to work for the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, where she was in charge of business development for its Resolution Trust Corp. asset- management practice. The RTC was the government agency created to dispose of the assets of failed savings and loans and has been used as a template for the latest bailout plan.
"Coopers & Lybrand became the largest contractor for the RTC at that time," she said.
After that she joined Asset Investors, a real estate investment trust owned by MDC Holdings, parent of Richmond American Homes, which was described at the time as the most complicated company on Wall Street. It managed high-yield bonds backed by residential and commercial real estate loans, while most REITs simply owned properties.
"At Asset Investors, I got the idea for Murrayhill," which provided analytics and risk management for the fixed-income industry, focusing primarily on mortgage-backed securities.
"We ended up with $137 billion in assets under management," Allon said.
She realized she couldn't expand the company, so she sold it to a private equity firm, TA Investments, in 2004. TA also bought another, larger company, Clayton Holdings, and merged them. Allon was on the board of Clayton, but stepped down in 2005.
"I didn't have any type of noncompete agreement," Allon said. "I have just sort of been waiting and watching for an opportunity to arise."
"There are very few woman-owned businesses in this industry," said Allon, who launched Allon Financial, which analyzes pooled mortgages, about five months ago. "And very few people have had five years with the RTC and then all of the years I ran Murrayhill."
Allon's Murrayhill Co. had a $137 billion bond portfolio under management in Denver before she sold it four years ago.
"I think the timing is right," Allon said. "We can help bring these assets back to life" by once again helping create a market for trading mortgage- backed securities.
Allon, 49, thinks the bailout package has a good chance of working. And she said she has the experience and knowledge to make sure Uncle Sam knows what it is buying when it starts to acquire the so-called "toxic loans" from banks. Her company's analysis of the underlying mortgages in a portfolio can give confidence to buyers, she said.
Frank Raiter, the retired managing director of Standard & Poor's Rating Group, agrees.
Allon and her team should be at the “top of the list” when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is looking for outside help for a bailout plan, said Raiter, who has known Allon, then Sue Ellis, since about 1995.
“Sue, with her experience and this new venture, would be ideally positioned to provide some significant service to whatever the bailout plan is,” Raiter said in a phone interview on Friday morning.
“The government doesn’t have this kind of expertise on its staff,” Raiter said. “It is going to need to hire people from the outside.”
The company, so new that it is renting temporary space in the Tabor Center before it moves into an office in LoDo, already has about a dozen clients, mostly New York City hedge funds interested in buying pools of mortgage-backed securities. Allon said she recently reviewed one portfolio of $63 million and another of $25 million in distressed loans for clients interested in acquiring them.
Allon was raised in Pueblo. After graduating from Colorado College in 1981 with a degree in economics - "I wanted to be on the President's Council of Economic Advisers" - she joined Pulte Mortgage Co. and became involved with some of the first private-label-packaged mortgage securities in the nation.
"I found I had a passion for that kind of security," Allon said. "I saw it as an emerging business with no boundaries."
Along the way she received a master's degree in accounting from the University of Denver and an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.
She "got a taste of Wall Street." Then came "Black Monday" in October 1987, when the stock market crashed.
"Some of my classmates at Tuck got great offers from Wall Street firms, and (the firms) told them to keep the bonuses but they had no jobs for them," Allon said.
She went to work for the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, where she was in charge of business development for its Resolution Trust Corp. asset- management practice. The RTC was the government agency created to dispose of the assets of failed savings and loans and has been used as a template for the latest bailout plan.
"Coopers & Lybrand became the largest contractor for the RTC at that time," she said.
After that she joined Asset Investors, a real estate investment trust owned by MDC Holdings, parent of Richmond American Homes, which was described at the time as the most complicated company on Wall Street. It managed high-yield bonds backed by residential and commercial real estate loans, while most REITs simply owned properties.
"At Asset Investors, I got the idea for Murrayhill," which provided analytics and risk management for the fixed-income industry, focusing primarily on mortgage-backed securities.
"We ended up with $137 billion in assets under management," Allon said.
She realized she couldn't expand the company, so she sold it to a private equity firm, TA Investments, in 2004. TA also bought another, larger company, Clayton Holdings, and merged them. Allon was on the board of Clayton, but stepped down in 2005.
"I didn't have any type of noncompete agreement," Allon said. "I have just sort of been waiting and watching for an opportunity to arise."
Gold, Silver, Savings Accounts Can Help Limit Your Losses
By John Rebchook
September 19, 2008, Rocky Mountain News
Protecting yourself from investing in financial land mines is no easy task in this volatile market."I'm battered, beaten and still standing," quipped Denver financial consultant Dennis Clark on Thursday afternoon, after the Dow closed up more than 400 points, returning most of the losses suffered on Wednesday.
"What do you invest in today? That is the burning question on everyone's mind," said Clark of Capital Asset Management.
It's not easy picking a winning strategy when so many losers litter the landscape.
"There is not really any asset class in the world that has not been on a downward trend this year," Clark said. "But, of course, you did want to be in the market today."
The Dow rose 410 points.
Clark sees value in some sectors such as energy, consumer staples and certain pipeline companies.
"Some of these pipeline companies are giving you an 8 percent or 10 percent yield," Clark said. "They are pretty much gatekeepers who are paid to move the product, so the price of oil or natural gas doesn't make that much difference."
However, the rapid rise of oil to about $147 a barrel this summer was a classic "bubble" before it retreated to below $100.
Patrick Peternahaus of Focused Financial Planning in Boulder said if you are looking for a truly safe haven, park your money "in a savings account in a federally insured, solid bank like Wells Fargo. That is about as safe as you can get.
"Of course, the risk you are taking in a safe haven savings account, at Wells Fargo or any other big solid bank, is that you know the market is going to come back and you're going to miss out on that."
Still, he said, many of his clients are now 25 percent in cash, while typically they might have only 5 percent of their holdings in cash.
He said he's not trying to time the market, rather, he hasn't been aggressively investing the money as it has been coming in this year.
"I'm probably going to miss the absolute low in the market," when he starts to put the money to work.
Gregory Robert Anderson, principal of GRAnderson in Cherry Creek, said that year-to-date the investment strategy he subscribes to is down 1.5 percent, compared with a 16.93 percent drop in the Dow and a 17.85 percent drop in the S&P 500.
His strategy is to use international bonds and put options as core holdings to preserve and protect capital. Put options give the buyer the right, but not an obligation, to sell a stock at a pre-determined price and are used as a hedge against falling stock prices.
In addition, he has what he calls "satellite investments" that include things such as nonpublicly traded real estate investment trusts and equipment-leasing companies.
He thinks the current market will create buying opportunities. Anderson said there may be bargains in energy and some of the bigger technology companies, but he said it still appears too early to buy financial companies.
In an unusual twist, both stocks and gold surged Thursday.
There has been so much demand to buy gold at Rocky Mountain Coin that the company is not taking phone orders. "We can't handle the volume," said Klaus Degler, president of the company, which has stores at 538 S. Broadway in Denver and 9625 E. Arapahoe Road in Greenwood Village.
"If you have got silver or gold, bring it on down - we're paying premiums," Degler said.
He said he thinks silver is an even better deal than gold.
Degler said he thinks investors should keep at least 10 percent of their portfolios in precious metals - gold, silver and platinum.
"It's an insurance policy," Degler said. "Precious metals are not AIG or Merrill Lynch or Lehman Brothers. You know that they are not going to go down to nothing."
Mark Brown, a principal of Brown & Tedstrom Inc., said he doesn't make investment decisions based on the recent "feeding frenzy" mentality of the market.
Rather, he said, he determines the mix of stocks and bonds for his clients by how much of their portfolio they are withdrawing to support their lifestyle.
If they aren't tapping any of it, or a very small percentage, he might have them 80 percent in stocks and 20 percent in bonds. If they're taking out 3 percent or 4 percent annually, he might keep 60 percent in stocks, depending on their assets and risk tolerance.
"The withdrawal rate is the driver, not the market conditions," Brown said
"What do you invest in today? That is the burning question on everyone's mind," said Clark of Capital Asset Management.
It's not easy picking a winning strategy when so many losers litter the landscape.
"There is not really any asset class in the world that has not been on a downward trend this year," Clark said. "But, of course, you did want to be in the market today."
The Dow rose 410 points.
Clark sees value in some sectors such as energy, consumer staples and certain pipeline companies.
"Some of these pipeline companies are giving you an 8 percent or 10 percent yield," Clark said. "They are pretty much gatekeepers who are paid to move the product, so the price of oil or natural gas doesn't make that much difference."
However, the rapid rise of oil to about $147 a barrel this summer was a classic "bubble" before it retreated to below $100.
Patrick Peternahaus of Focused Financial Planning in Boulder said if you are looking for a truly safe haven, park your money "in a savings account in a federally insured, solid bank like Wells Fargo. That is about as safe as you can get.
"Of course, the risk you are taking in a safe haven savings account, at Wells Fargo or any other big solid bank, is that you know the market is going to come back and you're going to miss out on that."
Still, he said, many of his clients are now 25 percent in cash, while typically they might have only 5 percent of their holdings in cash.
He said he's not trying to time the market, rather, he hasn't been aggressively investing the money as it has been coming in this year.
"I'm probably going to miss the absolute low in the market," when he starts to put the money to work.
Gregory Robert Anderson, principal of GRAnderson in Cherry Creek, said that year-to-date the investment strategy he subscribes to is down 1.5 percent, compared with a 16.93 percent drop in the Dow and a 17.85 percent drop in the S&P 500.
His strategy is to use international bonds and put options as core holdings to preserve and protect capital. Put options give the buyer the right, but not an obligation, to sell a stock at a pre-determined price and are used as a hedge against falling stock prices.
In addition, he has what he calls "satellite investments" that include things such as nonpublicly traded real estate investment trusts and equipment-leasing companies.
He thinks the current market will create buying opportunities. Anderson said there may be bargains in energy and some of the bigger technology companies, but he said it still appears too early to buy financial companies.
In an unusual twist, both stocks and gold surged Thursday.
There has been so much demand to buy gold at Rocky Mountain Coin that the company is not taking phone orders. "We can't handle the volume," said Klaus Degler, president of the company, which has stores at 538 S. Broadway in Denver and 9625 E. Arapahoe Road in Greenwood Village.
"If you have got silver or gold, bring it on down - we're paying premiums," Degler said.
He said he thinks silver is an even better deal than gold.
Degler said he thinks investors should keep at least 10 percent of their portfolios in precious metals - gold, silver and platinum.
"It's an insurance policy," Degler said. "Precious metals are not AIG or Merrill Lynch or Lehman Brothers. You know that they are not going to go down to nothing."
Mark Brown, a principal of Brown & Tedstrom Inc., said he doesn't make investment decisions based on the recent "feeding frenzy" mentality of the market.
Rather, he said, he determines the mix of stocks and bonds for his clients by how much of their portfolio they are withdrawing to support their lifestyle.
If they aren't tapping any of it, or a very small percentage, he might have them 80 percent in stocks and 20 percent in bonds. If they're taking out 3 percent or 4 percent annually, he might keep 60 percent in stocks, depending on their assets and risk tolerance.
"The withdrawal rate is the driver, not the market conditions," Brown said
Shoveling, Snowshoeing Don't Mix
By John Rebchook
InDenverTimes.com
I’ve snowshoed in blizzards so fierce outside of Frisco that the snow covered the top of my knee-high gaiters and when I turned around to see where I had been, my tracks were already covered by fresh powder.
I’ve snowshoed near Monarch Pass in Salida, on a well-groomed trail where I saw maybe five people in as many hours.
I scared myself to death in Park City, Utah, by unwisely going above the tree-line, and wondered the entire time as I headed down a steep decline whether I would set off an avalanche and my body would not be recovered until the spring.
But this morning I did something really different.
After shoveling snow for an hour - following 2½ hours of moving the heavy white stuff yesterday evening left by the storm you may have heard about - I decided to forgo my usual 5.5-mile morning run, and replace it with a snowshoe jaunt through the still deep-packed snow in my West Highland neighborhood in northwest Denver.
Maybe a fox will match me stride for stride, as sometimes happens during my run, I thought.
So I strapped on my Red Feather snowshoes, my GPS watch, and downed a container of GU - an energy gel - and took off.
It wasn’t hard to still find deep snow, which in my opinion is the best to trudge through on snowshoes - otherwise, you might as well be walking in hiking boots.
A couple of people shoveling their sidewalks stopped, looked at me as if I were mad.
Half-way around Sloan’s Lake, as the sun began to break through the clouds, I decided they were right.
Except past the 21-mile mark in a marathon, when at times I have splattered all of my energy against “the wall,” I have seldom felt so weary while exercising.
And I hadn’t seen one fox.
I scratched the idea of introducing a new cross-training regimen of shoveling heavy snow, with a snowshoe chaser.
I began to cut the tangents, as we say in the Boston Marathon, to reduce the amount of real estate I needed to cover to make it home.
“When people see your footprint in the snow, they’re going to think Bigfoot was here,” one gentleman with long hair, a scraggly beard, wearing an orange snow suit, told me. I thought he might have been a little bit out of it, as he was sitting at a park bench near Sloan’s Lake for no apparent reason. That was confirmed when he asked me if I had seen his skis, which he said he had lost when the wind started blowing snow around. I thought he had gone cross-country skiing around Sloan’s Lake during Wednesday’s storm, but he told me he thinks he was someplace around Berthoud Pass when he lost them.
I headed north on Wolff Street, climbing what has to be one the steepest hills in Denver, and made it home. I looked at my GPS watch and found I had walked 4.21 miles. And it only took me 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 50 seconds - a blistering pace of 33 minutes and 14 seconds per mile. For a comparison, my marathon record is 2 hours and 42 minutes, and that is just about 22 miles longer than today’s workout.
Once home, I ate my usual bowl of oatmeal, poured myself a cup of coffee and told my 12-year-old daughter Sierra, about my expedition. I knew she would be fascinated, as she is a fan of snowshoeing.
“That’s cool,” she said. “Can you take us to the mall now?”
I’ve snowshoed near Monarch Pass in Salida, on a well-groomed trail where I saw maybe five people in as many hours.
I scared myself to death in Park City, Utah, by unwisely going above the tree-line, and wondered the entire time as I headed down a steep decline whether I would set off an avalanche and my body would not be recovered until the spring.
But this morning I did something really different.
After shoveling snow for an hour - following 2½ hours of moving the heavy white stuff yesterday evening left by the storm you may have heard about - I decided to forgo my usual 5.5-mile morning run, and replace it with a snowshoe jaunt through the still deep-packed snow in my West Highland neighborhood in northwest Denver.
Maybe a fox will match me stride for stride, as sometimes happens during my run, I thought.
So I strapped on my Red Feather snowshoes, my GPS watch, and downed a container of GU - an energy gel - and took off.
It wasn’t hard to still find deep snow, which in my opinion is the best to trudge through on snowshoes - otherwise, you might as well be walking in hiking boots.
A couple of people shoveling their sidewalks stopped, looked at me as if I were mad.
Half-way around Sloan’s Lake, as the sun began to break through the clouds, I decided they were right.
Except past the 21-mile mark in a marathon, when at times I have splattered all of my energy against “the wall,” I have seldom felt so weary while exercising.
And I hadn’t seen one fox.
I scratched the idea of introducing a new cross-training regimen of shoveling heavy snow, with a snowshoe chaser.
I began to cut the tangents, as we say in the Boston Marathon, to reduce the amount of real estate I needed to cover to make it home.
“When people see your footprint in the snow, they’re going to think Bigfoot was here,” one gentleman with long hair, a scraggly beard, wearing an orange snow suit, told me. I thought he might have been a little bit out of it, as he was sitting at a park bench near Sloan’s Lake for no apparent reason. That was confirmed when he asked me if I had seen his skis, which he said he had lost when the wind started blowing snow around. I thought he had gone cross-country skiing around Sloan’s Lake during Wednesday’s storm, but he told me he thinks he was someplace around Berthoud Pass when he lost them.
I headed north on Wolff Street, climbing what has to be one the steepest hills in Denver, and made it home. I looked at my GPS watch and found I had walked 4.21 miles. And it only took me 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 50 seconds - a blistering pace of 33 minutes and 14 seconds per mile. For a comparison, my marathon record is 2 hours and 42 minutes, and that is just about 22 miles longer than today’s workout.
Once home, I ate my usual bowl of oatmeal, poured myself a cup of coffee and told my 12-year-old daughter Sierra, about my expedition. I knew she would be fascinated, as she is a fan of snowshoeing.
“That’s cool,” she said. “Can you take us to the mall now?”
John Rebchook following snowshoeing excursion
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