All about clouds.

We went to bed socked in by clouds and woke up the same way. The locals told us on cloudy days, if you drive up in elevation, you can be above the clouds. So we enjoyed a lazy breakfast and then headed up, back to where we hiked yesterday to try to catch this!

Luckily, we did. We were in between two cloud layers...it was beautiful. The deep valleys and ocean views of yesterday were gone. Replaced by thick white puffy clouds settled along the coast and in the valleys.

I also woke up feeling like a have a cold coming on, so we decided to take it easy today. So, we hiked a levada, one of those ancient drainage ditches that Madeira is known for...we picked a somewhat flat hike, as our legs were still recovering from yesterday's big hike. Choosing Levada do Caldeirao Verde was perfect for us. It was probably around an 8 mile hike, but mostly flat and on a good trail. I believe there would've been killer views, but we were completely in the clouds, so it made everything look like an eerie scene in a movie. Huge drop offs accompanied us most of the way. They've put cable railing up on most of the super sketchy areas, but in some spots, it makes you really appreciate not having vertigo!

There is an insanely large drop off of Toms left. The trees are growing straight out of a sheer cliff. Impressive. 

Waterfalls along the trail. 

The hike was beautiful. Way different than the dry and sunny weather we've been having. The moisture felt good and we rarely have the opportunity to hike in the clouds back home. 

But I think tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it, we will tackle something a bit more challenging!

Pico Ruivo

Pico Ruivo is the highest peak on Madeira at around 6100ft, ironically about the same altitude as our house back in Colorado. There is a good trail that links Pico Arieiro (3rd highest) with Ruivo. The trail is maintained and ridiculously well constructed, even with metal staircases in some areas and plenty of paving stones laid. That being said, it is not an easy trail. These two peaks may be of similar height, but in between lies a solid 3300ft  of ascent and 3300ft of descent. My knees are a bit angry with me tonight.

You can drive all the way to Pico Arieiro (think Mt Evans for you Colorado folk). We arrived around 9am and got started under a partly cloudy sky.  The weather held all day for us, it was beautiful and in the 60s. Absolutely perfect hiking weather!

There are sweeping views of jagged mountains and plunging valleys everywhere you look. It is truly one of the most beautiful hikes I've done. It's massive in every way. The alternate route that I wanted to take one way is closed due to a rockslide last year. That would've been a more challenging, longer and more exposed route, but it wasn't in the cards today. So we settled for an out and back of around 8-9 miles with killer climbs.  And for every quad burning  step up, there was a knee crunching one down.  Ouch. 

Morning vistas. 

Tom looking like an ant on top of that far away staircase.  

The terrain was ruthless. So many ups to be followed by downs. Usually when you climb a peak it's all ascent then all descent, it's humbling to constantly be giving up the elevation you just gained. And the alternating up up up then down down down really takes its toll on your legs, but it does break it up quite nicely.  We were plenty ready to summit. It was windy but not too chilly up there and we sat down and had lunch while enjoying the view. 

View from the top. Really awesome. 

From the summit, we spotted this tiny peak below and decided we should try to get it too. 

So we headed back down the trail until we found a good spot to leave it and scrambled up to the tip top. You can actually see Ruivo in the background, where we just came from!

A big thumbs down for the "fun" route being closed. 

We saw a pair of these cool birds on the way back down. 

With all this hiking, I think tom and I are running on a calorie deficit. A wonderful problem to have on vacation!!

Movin' on up, to the east side...

From Funchal (pronounced Foonshal) we've traveled to the east side of the island, to the small town of Santana. We've traded sounds of the city for the quiet rolling, terraced fields of vineyards and other local crops. It's much more peaceful over here. We're staying in a small hotel with a few hectares of vines that are just starting to leaf out. We are perched high on the cliffs that drop dramatically to the coast. Our room has a gorgeous view of the ocean, we have all of our windows wide open - waves and crickets are all we can hear.

We went for a walk along the coast earlier and started down a steep path to the ocean, just to realize that it was only an access path for local farmers to attend their small vineyard located precariously halfway down the cliff. They were very friendly and were working to clear it today, probably because the vines are coming alive for spring. Awesome views though.

Then we returned to the hotel and were checking out the old wine press and tasting room and stumbled upon a free Madeira wine tasting...oh darn. It was a perfect pre-dinner appetizer for us.  We've both really come to like Madeira wine in the last few days, it isn't popular in the US but I think we will continue to enjoy it from time to time.  It's a fortified wine, which I knew nothing about, but it is actually quite tasty!

On the drive over we stopped in Camacha and visited a wicker factory. We purchased a nice breadbasket and visited the strangest herd of animals I've ever seen. 

Tomorrow we are tackling the three highest peaks of the island. We have had beautiful sunny weather since we've arrived, but March is the end of the rainy season so I think we should bag those peaks while the bagging is good!  I can't wait to get some altitude...

A hikers paradise.

I think Madeira may be one of the best places for hiking we've visited. There are just so many trails. Everywhere. And there are buses to many of these trails and levadas. Levadas are the reason a lot of people visit Madeira but there are many non-levada hikes as well. There are peaks over 6000ft (which we plan to tackle later this week) and hikes along the coastline, which we did today.

Yesterday we did many touristy activities. 😄  We rode up to the Monte neighborhood in a cable car, hiked a levada up there (more on that later), had lunch with a great view, and took a wicker toboggan down the hill - only powered and steered by two Portuguese men!  This used to be a very real way they got down the hill here, but as Marco from our guesthouse said, they only go half as far and charge twice as much now. Ha!  We also took a tour of the Blandys Madeira Wine Lodge after our toboggan ride. Yum.

The Levada dos Tournos:  we started out under the cable car house on a well worn trail. It led away from the chaos and into the woods. Just a bit in, we crossed a pretty impressive bridge over a fairly fast running river.   You can see me perched up on the bridge below.

We wound our way up to the levada, passing a long abandoned house on the way. Everything is in bloom here right now. The flowers are spectacular. 

Before the start of the levada, there is this warning sign.

And rightly so, check out that drop off next to Toms foot!

We spent quite awhile along the levada, weaving through the forest. 

We finally switched back to the "trail". I say that in quotes because this area had burned recently and since the ground cover was decimated and trees killed, this is a slide area. We were honestly happy to finish the trail only seeing a fist size rock fall next to us. You can see the fallen trees below. Between the trees, drop offs, and stinging nettles over growing the trail, the last mile was interesting.

Today, we picked up our rental car that we will need to get to our next stop tomorrow. We leave the big city on the island (Funchal) and head to Santana on the east coast, definitely more rural.

Since we had a car, we decided to go out to the Sao Lorenco peninsula for a hike today. It was gorgeous and we had beautiful weather. High dramatic cliffs and rolling hills.

Our target is that far off summit. 

We've hiked no less than 10 miles a day for the past 3 days. My brain says this is paradise. My legs say they need a light day.  Bah, what do they know?

We're tired.

With a combination of my Madeira Hikes book, and a recommendation from Marco at our guesthouse, we chose what we thought was about a 9 mile walk for our first day on Madeira. This was made up of a 6 mile hike along a levada (ancient drainage ditches that Madeira is known for), a stop at a glass platform over a 1500 foot sea cliff and a return trip via the seaside promenade.

We had an awesome breakfast at the guesthouse, leisurely got ready for our day and caught the 1130am number 96 bus to Estreito, a small town about a thirty minute ride away. We found the start of the levada hike after a short climb up a very steep street and were immediately surrounded by vineyards. Madeira wine is made here and there are many small, family size vineyards that dot the countryside where we walked today. It is the very beginning of spring, so there aren't any green vines, pruning is still happening.  But it was beautiful. We walked next to the winding levada for just over 2 hours. 

Flowers are starting to bloom and they all seem to be very vibrant in color.

Tom walking next to the levada on his right. 

After many miles of small hamlets, valleys and terraced fields, we came out of the levada and found the sea cliff platform (glass-bottomed so not for those afraid of heights). Quite the drop.

From here, we expected a few mile walk/stroll along the seaside promenade. NOT.

The first part was beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of this portion, but we walked among terraced vegetable and fruit fields for a mile or so, straight down, down down.  Drop offs everywhere and with everything just starting to grow, it was very green. Really interesting and beautiful.  Well I take that back. I took one picture. I like to call it "Creepy baby on a stick".

Then the not so interesting part started. Basically we alternated between being on the seaside promenade, then the promenade disappearing, us hoofing it back up a steep hill to find a passable road, then finding the promenade again. This went on, oh, for about ELEVEN miles.  When a local guesstimates the length of a walk, never trust them. Want to know why?  Because most of the time, they don't walk the routes they're recommending.

Tom got to test out his stellar elliptical skills along the promenade. 

And more good news, we found a Madeira wine tasting house along the way and stopped in for a bit.  

We definitely don't regret a bit of the walk, but 17 miles on a recovering knee, and Tom wearing his Chaco sandles makes for two tired tourists with some aches and pains - but it was beautiful, we saw a good portion of this area of the island and we certainly earned the dinner we woofed down tonight.

15K, my arse, Marco. 

Tomorrow?  Hopefully more hiking, although maybe a bit less of it. 😄

Steamboat and backcountry.

A few weeks ago, my hubby and I went to Steamboat Springs for a weekend of skiing...and snowboarding for him!  Our passes cover a few days there, so we try to go once a year for a change of scenery. We didn't hit great snow this time, but we still love the area. They have wonderful tree skiing, which we take advantage of for most of our runs.

In the trees:

Bluebird day:

We also decided it is finally time to try out backcountry skiing (splitboarding for the hubby). So, we booked an all day intro with Colorado Mountain School out of Estes Park and went this past weekend. Unfortunately, I hurt my knee a few days back, and wore a brace yesterday but the instructor had to modify the day a bit for my gimpiness, so while we learned tons about the important things:  avalanche knowledge, how to pick your lines/locations and basic skinning techniques, we didn't get tons of skiing in. So that'll be our next step and I cannot wait. Riding a lift is super easy, but both of us long to leave the crowds at ski resorts behind and enjoy the solitude of the mountains.

Tom in transition between skinning and boarding:

We also had my favorite weather in Colorado recently, freezing fog and hoarfrost.  The front range was caught in the clouds for a few days. Lots of moisture and really cold. This makes for frosty icy trees. It's surreal, the clouds dampening the sound, clouds surrounding you and everything you look at is covered in beautiful frosty shapes:

Here's to hoping my knee injury (TBD) won't hamper our hiking in Madeira. We planned to hike the heck out of the mountains there. Crossing my fingers...

Winter in Colorado.

Winter is one of my favorite seasons. Here in Colorado, winter is a true wonderland. We try to get up and ski/snowboard as much as possible and we also get out to hike or trail run as well. With the right equipment, you can be just as comfortable in the winter as you are in the summer. Sometimes even more so, IMHO. 

Anyway, that's what we've been doing. Playing. We are headed to Steamboat Springs for a weekend soon and I'm really looking forward to it. We have hit some monster snow weekends up there and we are definitely hoping for some fresh powder.  We've also decided it is time to try out backcountry skiing/ski touring. We are signed up for a full day lesson and I cannot wait!  Don't get me wrong, riding lifts makes for a full day of downhill, but there is something attractive about no tourists, near complete solitude and amazing views.

Also on the horizon is a nice, long trip to Madeira and Madrid. Madeira is not only known for their wine, but also for their insane amount of hiking opportunities. For those of you that may not know where Madeira is, it is an island off the coast of Morocco that's actually owned by Portugal. It's very mountainous, green and beautiful.  We plan to hike as much as we possibly can, and maybe sneak in some mountain biking, depending on the weather.  Madeira is subtropical so it should be in the 60s and absolutely perfect for exploring. 

Also, we have a cat!  We both said "never again" on a cat in the house, but Ellie needed a friend and we are hoping he keeps the mice population down near the chicken coop!  Ellie and Fred have built a good relationship in a short amount of time. Go pets!

 Some pictures from our winter so far!

And I had a great visit with an old BFF in Florida. We haven't seen each other in far too long.