Well we’ve completed another month and as such we are coming up with another goal that we are working for. In previous months we’ve worekd for a new roof and to pay our taxes. This month we decided that it would be a good idea to come up with a solution to what appears to be high energy bills in PR.
We are planning on living on a budget and it would appear that the utilities might take up quite a bit of that. So this month I figured it would be a good idea to save up for some solar panels.
We don’t plan on using too much electricity other than for a few fans, a new refrigerator, music, charging laptops and using computers and lights. Of course there will be other things like dishwashers, various kitchen appliances and the like. I don’t even need to be off grid, I just want to off-set some of the long term subscription costs so I will have to start thinking about a design.
From what I read on CA2PR’s blog, electricity in Puerto Rico costs 29¢ a kilowatt-hour. I think we pay around 4¢ here in colorado if you stay under 500kwh, everything above that gets billed at 9¢. So the cost of electricity is quite a bit higher!
In this second installment of “Why we’re still working in Colorado” we come to the conclusion that this month we are working to pay taxes AKA impuestos. No, not property taxes in Puerto Rico that we just paid. Those came in the mail this week and were a whopping $37.97 for the year! That’s awesome for 4 acres of land in Rincón with two structures on it! No, that we could handle quite easily even while we are living in Puerto Rico with limited income.
CRIM statement in the mail- Paid via Internet
In comparison, the property taxes on just our own residence in Colorado is nearly $800 a year, but that’s divided and escrowed into our mortgage payment, so we don’t have to worry too much about that once the house is rented out here too. And as for our income taxes, for the most part they are being withheld from our paychecks so we don’t have to worry too much about that either (the money’s gone before we even see it).
So, what we’re really working for this month are the taxes on the property we sold at the end of May. We really have no idea how much those will be. We are assuming they will be capital gains taxes on the amount we made over what we paid for it in 2009. So it will be the long-term variety and not the short-term type which I think saves us quite a bit.
But we are bracing for the worst when tax time comes around, and hoping for the best. In either case, this month’s labor is not as functional or even visible as last month’s intentional working to put on a new roof in Puerto Rico. But, sadly taxes and death are the only guarantees in life, so we might as well acknowledge and plan for them.
This weekend we accomplished one of the goals on our Colorado bucket lists: we climbed a fourteener! A 14er is one of the nearly 60 mountain tops (last I heard they counted 54) that reach 14,000 feet or higher. The one we climbed is called Grays Peak. We had never climbed to the top of a mountain before so we had no idea what we were in for. These last few weekends we had tried to prepare for inclines by going to Devil’s Backbone in Loveland and other close spots, but nothing would prepare us for what we went through in terms of length and altitude.
Grays (left) and Torreys (right) Peak in the distance
We met at our friends Kelly and Todd’s house just after 6am and arrived at the trailhead that is located near the town of Georgetown right around 9am. We arrived a little late, but still managed to find parking. We started the trailhead at about 11,000 feet (Greeley is close to 4,000) and would ascend to over 14,000 ft over the course of about 3.5 miles.
The trailhead starts below treeline, so there was quite a bit of pine trees and plants.
First part of the trail (Kelly and Todd walking) -still lots of plant life
Slowly though the trees thinned out until there was just low-lying brush and then just a little bit of tundra plants left. We saw a lot of wildflowers including Colorado’s state flower, the columbine.
Pretty wild flowers with mountains in the distance
Columbines growing wild
The beginning was somewhat steep but not too bad. It had a low-grade meadow in the middle that was great for catching my breath. My heart was pounding pretty hard and I could feel with each step that I was getting less and less oxygen. Thankfully Britton offered to be the mule and carry our backpack full of food and supplies.
Britton and me
We got to a point where many people were second-thinking whether or not to keep going up. I was getting winded and feeling strange with just a few steps. I had to scale boulders that were about half the height that I am. A few people were turning back. Not even the plants dared to live much further up. We sat at this juncture and had a snack for a little while. It was breathtaking in more than one way.
Looking down into the valley from whence we came as the sun and clouds chased each other
It was tempting to stop. I was spent. We had been climbing for about 2.5 hours by then. Kelly and Todd had kept going ahead of us, so it was just Britton and me alone. People said it would be about another 45 minutes to the top if we kept walking. I didn’t know if I could do more, as it was getting steeper and steeper and the air was thinning with each step. But I convinced myself to continue to do what we had set out to do: climb a Colorado fourteener.
Some people had plenty of energy (see the guy on the rock)
Soon, Britton became worried about me as my hands started turning purple and splotchy. I felt a little nauseous, I had to sit down about every 100 steps or so. He was so great. He was very patient with me and was supportive of whatever decision I needed to make. But I pushed on. Even when I felt like stopping, I kept going. I kept counting my steps. 75 steps. Sit. 50 steps. Sit. 40 steps. Sit. Finally we started hearing people coming down who had made it to the top. “Just two or three switch-backs and you’ll be there.” That really helped in keeping me motivated. “Is it worth it?” I asked more than once. “Totally!” was the response. Just. A. Few. More. Steps. I think I probably was not fully hydrated and maybe had a touch of altitude sickness. I’m not sure, but I felt like I was dragging my body along.
Finally we looked up and saw Kelly and Todd waving at us from the top. They had been there about 25 minutes already. I pushed on and through to the zenith. Victory! It was an amazing accomplishment for me. Many moments of doubt, but I pushed through it. Through the pain and discomfort. We were there!
On top of the world! With Todd, Kelly, me and Britton
It was absolutely gorgeous and much more difficult to me than I thought, but totally worth it. After climbing this mountain I know that at least half of anything you do is mental. You can psyche yourself into or out of anything. I almost wanted to cry with feelings of relief and achievement. It was incredible.
View from the top –looking toward Torreys
We had thought we might also try climbing the neighboring peak, Torreys, but everyone felt that we had done enough for one day, plus it looked like a rain storm might come in. Britton and I reached the top of Grays at about 12:30pm. It took us about 3.5 hours.
Coming down I felt great. With each step I was getting more oxygen and energy. I was even able to jog a few areas! We made it down in only about 2 hours. By 3pm we were loaded and ready to take on the crazy I-70 Sunday traffic.
Coming down off the mountain. Look how barren and rocky it is! Like walking on the moon!
It was an absolutely amazing experience in more ways than one. If you ever have the opportunity to climb a Colorado 14er, I would whole-heartedly recommend it. And just remember, a mountain is conquered one step at a time.
We are still trying to train for our climb up a 14,000 foot mountain that is coming up next Sunday (yikes!), so we’ve been seeking out spots to practice. We’ve done the Devil’s Backbone in Loveland about 3 or 4 times, and Britton has taken his mountain bike up there too. It is by far the closest hiking we have around here because it is only 25 miles or so away from home. But I was getting a little tired of going to the same place and suggested we climb stairs or something around town. Britton wasn’t up for that and said that we should instead go up the mountains a little further to hike. We knew the Poudre Canyon was out of the question due to the huge fire that is still raging there, so we decided to go up the Big Thompson Canyon instead.
Mountain Road
Well…we got about half-way to Estes Park when Britton noticed that the heat gauge was at its maximum. We started to smell some funky antifreeze or oil and thought we’d better pull over right away. We stopped at a little overpriced tourist shop and popped the hood. The coolant was smoking hot! It was boiling and bubbling in the overflow container!
Britton popping the hood (and me documenting it of course)
At least we were in a really pretty area and we had a place to use the restroom and grab a bite if we needed. But we didn’t really need anything except some time for it to cool down. So we milled around the shop and looked at all the expensive Indian and Cowboy knick-knacks in the shop, thumbed through books about the Old West and played around with some of the natives (ha!).
With some really realistic wooden Indian dolls
Even after all the dilly-dallying, the car was still hot, so I suggested we try to get at least some semblance of a hike in. But there was no trailhead anywhere near there. But I did see a bridge and a small trail behind the shop. I convinced BK to jump the fence and we were off exploring. It was pretty fun climbing up some really steep terrain. We even had to use our hands to keep from falling a couple of times. We hiked around a bit and then linked up with a larger trail and followed it back to the main road where there was a cabin site. Someone saw us taking pictures and offered to take ours on the bridge over the Big Thompson.
Overlooking the Big Thompson River
By the time we got back to the car, it had cooled down considerably and we were able to take a look in the coolant hole. The radiator cap had gotten so hot that it had broken apart! It was just a mess of gaskets and springs! Britton filled it as much as he could with water and a little coolant that we had in the car and we coasted back into Loveland with our fingers crossed where we found a little parts store and a new radiator cap. We think the stress of driving up a steep mountain in 95+ degree weather really wore on the poor old Honda with 280,000 miles.
We managed to get back into Greeley and visit with Britton’s family for Father’s Day. When we got there though, the car was mad and hissing out all sorts of hot steam. Britton thinks he may have fixed the problem, but we’re still not trusting it too much yet. Thankfully, he is off of work for a week and doesn’t need to drive it too much. All in all it was definitely an adventure and much more interesting than climbing some stairs in an air conditioned building 🙂
Here’s a short video of the drive up the canyon before the overheating.
