Brittany Walker Konsella

May 31, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

TBT: Mountain Biking Sidewinder Trail (Oct 2016)

The newer trail of Sidewinder lies between Delta and Montrose, running parallel with the Gunnison Gorge. And that trail is quickly becoming one of my favorite mountain bike rides. A scenic trail overlooking the valley below, it’s also full of technical features that will keep even expert riders challenged. Just a short way from Grand Junction, this trail should be one you consider when you travel next for some riding on the Western Slope.

Crested Butte Hiking

May 28, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

Early Season Hikes near Crested Butte

Both visitors and locals alike often gravitate toward Crested Butte to enjoy the outdoors. The scenic hiking is one of Crested Butte’s primary attractions. However, in early season, the classic alpine hikes are still buried in snow and hikers will have to access lower elevation trails, often closer to town. Knowing where these trails are and when they tend to melt out is the key to enjoying early season hiking in the area. This post provides a list of some great early season hikes near Crested Butte.

Biking Crested Butte

May 25, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

7 Early Season Mountain Bike Rides near Crested Butte

In May, the valley of Crested Butte glows in emerald green while the mountains still glimmer with white. It’s a time of transition and locals know that the changes can be huge, even from day to day. Snowmelt can happen alarmingly fast in some places, and utterly slow in others. Even so, there are certain trails that melt out earlier than others, where avid mountain bikers can begin to satiate their hunger for “brown pow”. Here, we have listed 7 of the best early season mountain bike rides near Crested Butte for all to enjoy!

Backcountry Skiing Front Range

May 18, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

TBT: Rollins Pass Summer Skiing (June 2006)

Back in 2006, I didn’t want the ski season to end. I mean, most years that’s how I feel. But, that was the year that I started to meet people who felt the same way. My friend Dave had talked about skiing some lines up by Rollins Pass in summer. So, when the calendar finally changed seasons, we headed up to that area of the Continental Divide.

Biking Gimps

May 17, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

ACL Recovery Update: 6 months post-op

Every step of recovery is big. But, with improvement, each step takes longer and longer. After my knee surgery, improvements were fast with the first week. After a month, the straight leg brace came off and I was able to actually begin riding my trainer and improve my strength. At month three, I could ride my bike outside. And then after 6 months I can finally ride my bike on single track.

Travel

May 15, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

Bocas del Toro Boat Tour

The Panamanian archipelago surrounding Bocas del Toro is best done by boat. If you book your tour somewhere in Bocas Town, you’ll likely end up crammed on some tiny boat with 20 other tourists. So, when we found out that a boat tour was leaving straight from our dock at Koko Resort on the other side of Bocas Town, we were game on. A tour with 5 sounded a whole lot better than a tour with 20.

Travel

May 2, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

Visiting the Panama Canal

US History doesn’t usually teach us that we vastly intervened in the politics of “Gran Colombia” and helped Panama become an independent country in 1903. Then we started work on building the Panama Canal ourselves. Oh, and yeah, 18 years later we paid Colombia $25 million in “compensation” for basically stealing a nation from them.

Travel

May 1, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

Panama City

We stayed in the Casco Viejo neighborhood which is the historic center of the city and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2003). The city was actually founded in 1519 a different section called Panama Viejo. But after it fell in 1671 to Captain Henry Morgan, the city was moved 8km southeast to the current Casco Viejo. This peninsula was easier to defend and walls once surrounded the city.

Backcountry Skiing

April 27, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella

TBT: Crystal Peak – North Face – then & now

Crystal Peak will always be special to me. Back in April, 2006, my friend Dave Bourassa asked me to join him to ski the north face. When we arrived to the summit, the line had not yet softened. So, we had to bide some time for better conditions. Just below the summit sits a wind drift feature that typically forms and is a good place to seek shelter from the wind. We sat there for quite some time waiting for the sun to do its work, chatting. It was then that I confided to Dave that I was thinking of skiing all of Colorado’s fourteeners. I hadn’t skied a single one of them, yet though, and questioned whether a goal like this was even possible for me. So, I asked Dave if he thought I could do it, and he said he knew I could.