I have some great memories of Jim and a couple of stories to share.
Jim and I had become very well acquainted while working together in the Electromagnetic Properties of Materials group at NBS/NIST.
I actually helped him wire the house that he and Karen built in Lyons. My name, along with Jim’s, is somewhere under the sheetrock in the living room of their house
I remember when Jim bought the land. I even considered buying a piece of property close to the one they have. One of the toughest and shortest motorcycle rides I ever took was on my Harley Sportster – just up and then, very, very carefully, back down the steep driveway leading to their house in Lyons…and they weren’t even home!
These stories took place probably 12 to 14 years ago.
The story I have to start off with is that I spent probably the coldest day and night of my life with him. I had never done any snowshoeing in my life and was thinking about getting a pair of the newer, light aluminum framed ones to try out. Well, Jim asked me if I wanted to try snowshoeing with him and doing some camping as well. Jim thought it would be nice to snowshoe into Blue Lake, which is about 3 miles almost due west from Chambers Lake on Cameron Pass. I thought this would be a great way of learning how to use snowshoes.
I had a zero-degree bag, thermals and plenty of warm clothes to put on. I was ready to face the challenge…or so I thought. So, I accepted Jim’s offer.
He loaned me some of the old wooden, big, heavy (and I mean big and heavy) snowshoes to use. After all, I was going to be carrying about 50 pounds of gear and he thought I should use some of these to try out. Keep in mind, I had backpacked a lot but had never done this.
I still remember the work to get through that snow! Those snowshoes were so wide and so, so heavy. The snow was so deep and fluffy that even those snowshoes sunk fairly far into the snow. I remember going up and down those hills. Some were pretty steep. At one point, I really almost told him that I had had enough and was ready to turn around.
Well, we finally made it to Blue Lake. It was beautiful. Jim very nonchalantly started to set up camp. (By the way Jim was on cross country skis, which he told me later were easier to be on than those snowshoes.
I remember a couple of guys snowshoeing - on smaller snowshoes, I might add - stopped in at our camp. They said that they were going to go down into the “bowl” of Blue Lake. I recall Jim being very concerned they would “break” the top layer of snow and get swept into the lake because of the depth of the snow.
To go on with the story, I remember I was so tired and beat when we got there, all I could do was stand and try to get enough energy up to help. Our beards and moustaches were just caked with ice from our breath freezing. I wish I had a picture of us and the area we were in. What a pair!
It was unbelievably cold. We had a great dinner. I was so hungry! I was still hungry after we ate and we crawled into our sleeping bags. I was so cold and tired when I finally crawled into my nice warm sleeping bag…okay, okay, I crawled into my very, very cold sleeping bag with all my clothes still on. Even with everything I had on and in my zero degree sleeping bag, I was still so cold I do not think I slept more than a couple of hours at the most.
I have to say, the next morning was so beautiful there. Like I mentioned, I had done a lot of backpacking but this was different. There was not a breath of air moving and not sound to be heard; it was so white because of the snow, so green because of the trees and so blue because of the sky and the lake. It was so awesome but oh so, so cold.
If memory serves me, we were going to stay for 2 days but we decided to head back out. By the time we got back to the parking lot, I had warmed up so much that I was sweating. There were actually quite a few people out hiking close to the trailhead and parking lot. By the time I finally got into my car, I think I was so exhausted I was about ready to fall over. I was never so happy to sit down on a car seat!
I have never gone back to Blue Lake or done any snowshoeing since. However, I hope to do both again someday. When I do, I will surely remember our trip. But I will have some lightweight aluminum snowshoes next time!
The other story is about a canoe trip. My former wife and I thought it would be fun to do some canoeing. It had been years since I had done any boating. Having grown up on the Chesapeake Bay, I missed getting out on the water in a boat.
We knew that Jim and Karen did a lot of canoe trips so we talked to Jim about trying to do a trip with them. Jim evidently had thought about a canoe trip on the Conejos River but he actually decided on trying the Rio Grande River.
I remember going into Alamosa where we were going to find a place to put the canoes in. We learned however that there were several dams we would encounter and have to portage. It also seemed the river was running pretty fast. So, we decided to go to Lake Powel to canoe on.
If memory serves me correct, we went into Bull Frog Resort and Marina. We found a place to put the canoes in and a spot to park our vehicles. We headed out in the canoes toward a small island we had spotted. Then it started raining. It was a light rain but it kept on raining. I remember that Karen had built a good fire despite the rain.
We spent the night on that little island. Much to our surprise, that fire kept burning all night long and was still burning in the morning. I was sure glad it was because it was still misting the next morning. It was nice to have some heat from the fire while we ate breakfast.
Because of the weather we finally decided to pack up and go rent a houseboat. I think we all had a lot of fun on the boat. Because I was the only one who had navigated with a power boat, much to my chagrin, I was elected to run it. This houseboat was a lot bigger boat than I had ever operated before. It had twin motors on it and it could “go”!! After some “navigating” problems, we found a great spot on a bend in the river to set up our camp and spend some time. It was a nice place.
Well, after a nice stay we headed back to the marina. By the time we got back to the pier I had hit a submerged rock, which busted a sheer pin. So, we limped into the marina on one motor. What a chore it was to jockey that houseboat around on one motor “offset” from center. We finally got the boat tied up. What a great adventure that was.
There are other good memories I have about Jim, but one thing I do remember is that Jim loved his work but he absolutely loved the outdoors and going new places. He used to tell me about his bike trip across the USA and that he was planning to go do it again. He also talked about when he and Karen used to hop freight trains when he was going to college. He knew I loved trains and we would talk about hopping a UP freight train in Cheyenne and taking a ride. But he was very concerned about one of the “bulls” (railroad police) catching us. So he would say, we need to hop on a Burlington Northern freight somewhere. He said they weren’t as tough as the UP “bulls.” Good memories of Jim.
Although I haven’t worked with Jim in a very long time, I will miss seeing him in Wing 6 or in the laboratory. However, I will always remember that “coldest night of my life” and the friendship we shared.
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