On my final Colorado weekend, I joined James and Chappell, Slater, and a fun crew of buddies for a quick hop down to Shelf Road. It's a sport climbing mecca, with big limestone walls that form a vertical rimrock along several small drainages. We had an awesome time playing around on the rocks and camping on the valley floor. In the evening, we threw the frisbee, built a nice fire and cooked up some tasty venison chunks. After dinner, I wandered over to an adjacent campsite, where the evening's entertainment included burning a chair.
I put up the 40-meter dipole antenna and talked to a couple of folks over the HF radio. I had a great talk with a fellow in Texas who lived out in the country and had just seen an owl, and a brief contact out to San Diego, California with a guy who used our contact as a educational demo for a group of kids at his club event.
The wind blew strong and steady the next morning, and we sent my pocket camera up on my small rainbow parafoil kite. Here are a couple of photos from the kite's dizzying ascent.
