Lauren Dances to Treadmil video

This is a video response to Keith's treadmill video!

Skiing and Beer

Hey there so a few cool things have happened lately one is the new keggerator that was donated by Justin Moore (well the fridge part) and I bought the parts but it is up and kick'n. We here at 602 s Mcgillen are currently poring some Red Lodge Ales IPA! pretty sweet.


The second cool thing is that I got to ski some POWDER today and it was free, sweet. I have a deal with Red Lodge Mountain were I shoot photos for passes so not to bad. even thought the snow was nice it isn't to deep so we hit lots of rocks. Still a good day of skiing.

Sweet Groomers DUDE!
OH YA! The goods.

Time for one of those cold beers!

Skier vs Avalanche

Nick Baldwin and Mike Newdgent in an avalanche on the back side of Bridger Bowl.... Momentary laps of reason.

Bla Bla Bla

Nothing new to report from the MT strong hold. Kim Showed up this weekend and is now fighting Cooper for ever inch she can get of the futon which seems to be working fairly well and he makes for a pretty nice bed warmer seeing how the Guest room/ porch / Kim's room is not insulated very well it isn't as warm as the rest of the house. Having Kim around is awesome hopefully we can take advantage of her and maybe Sony and I can get out and do something while she is around. Kim is working at Sylvan Peak for the break were she instructs the tourists as to what down jacket to buy and big fluffy hat will go best with there Ugg boots. not a bad job for x-mass break. Oh ya and she gets pro-form discounts while working there and full use of the rental Tele fleet so she will probably take advantage of that once or twice.

I have been helping out he Search and rescue here in town and gave a presentation on a avalanche that took place in the bridgers a few years ago that two of my friends were in. We also watched a movie at the meeting called "A dozen more turns" anybody that skis in the back country needs to see that movie it is a great movie about a group of friends all will lots of back country training and skill and one had his masters in snow science all of them from Bozeman. An avalanche on there last day killed one of them and broke another s leg so bad it needed amputation, but not to focus on the bad. It was an eye opener to all for sure. Jeff Gildahouse the head of recreation at the forest service in town also gave a great presentation that included a film by the Utah back country association that was really good.

On a lighter note I got the kegerator finished and I will be buying the keg in the next few days to put in there I can't wait to have a keg on tap at home! I just don't know which of Sam's beers to put on tap first I was thinking IPA but if anyone has any other ideas I am open to suggestions. They did just come out with the chocolate stout (dam good) but it would take months to finish that off.

And just in case I don't get to talk to blog again before x-mass have a MERRY Christmas and a HAPPY New Year!

Weekend Fun

Sorry it has been awhile since the last post but we have been pretty busy. Tis the season for running around like maniac so we did that well. this last weekend we were in Bozeman we started out the weekend by having a wild game night at Amy and Jason's house with lots of friends. Now if you think like I do you thought that wild game night is were you play twister and spin the bottle and weegie board but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it meant game as in stuff that runs around in the wild until some crazy guy with a gun or bow shoots. so we had Antelope witch Jason cooked up amazing, there was some elk BBQ we brought some smoked pheasant and a lot of other mystery meat that I didn't know what it was but it was all delicious! and with all the beer and old fiends I hadn't seen since I left it was a great time. Lauren was were she loved to be the center of attention and had a great time running around. It was kind of weird being the only ones there with a kid, I think those Bozemanites need to get on the ball and start having kids so L will have someone to ski with!

We then spent the rest of the weekend doing what we normally do which is run around trying to see everyone and get shopping done. As you can imagine we didn't do much shopping because that place was a nut house and being from RL we have a hard time going anywhere with more than 20 people is really crowded. I think someday we may become hermits. On sat night we had a little Birthday dinner for Sonya which was at the Ale works, man they have changed that place. I guess they figure that pool tables were not as valuable as the tables filled with people eating. Especially the way I play pool a quarter table can last all night.

Sunday Jason and I hiked Slushmans south of Bridger Bowl the hike was killer due in part to me weighing 50lbs more than Jason he kicked my ass up the hill not breaking through the crust layer and being in way better shape than I and the fact that my skins kept falling off my skis on the kick turns and i would slide back it sucked I think I climbed twice as far as Jason. while we were hiking Sonya and Amy were XC skiing with Lauren in our really cool new ski trailer Lauren loves it and it is really nice to pull. after all of that we got back to Red Lodge at about 7 on Sunday and passed out a pretty good full weekend if you ask me.

Keith's new mudding buddy

This ones for you Keith! I knew the silver built had it in her, and I think that plaid shirt with a mullet is really working for you keep it up.

Evel Kneivel

This is in honor of the late great Evel Knievel

Early Bird Special

Well this morning I did something I don't normally do I got up at 5:45 and hiked up our lovely ski area for some Powder turns. If you are not skiing there is absolutely no reason to get up before 7! which reminds me of my younger years, growing up in Colorado even when I was there gave us quite the opportunity to get up at the butt crack and start the slog up to the ski area or to Loveland or Berthed pass. Most of the time with my dad listening to Fleetwood mac or Dan Fogelberg and driving the speedy sparrow. And thank you Stu for all the memories in the purple mini van (ya whatever we know it was purple) good times. Like that one time we ran out of wiper fluid and I had to scrape the window with a spatula that for some reason was left in the back seat oh ya and never mind pulling over let alone slowing down there was powder and so I leaned out and with spatula in hand scraped the windows while Stu drove 70 mph down I 70 not a bad day skiing either if I remember correctly. Oh man there are many more were that story came from if you care to here more I will divulge more when the time is right, when the PBR is flowing and the friends are plentiful.


So back to this morning. I didn't look at the thermometer because I didn't want to know how cold it was I just knew it was cold so I took all the warm gear and headed out. we hiked up to the top of Coal creek and then skied the back of the mountain it was pretty good about 6-8 in of new snow over night and some of the 1 foot from last week was still good. Needless to say I was a little late for work this morning but the boss was cool about it so that was nice.
oh ya when I got home the thermometer read 5 degrees, it was pretty chilly.

Second Anual Rink Install

So This last weekend we installed the Red Lodge Ice rink at Lyons park all went as well as one could hope for when there is stakes that have to be put in frozen ground. So we enlisted some muscle and got to work on Saturday morning drilling holes in the ground every 4 feet using jackhammers and hammer drills. (not light tools) After about 6 hours of drilling and pounding we finally had all the boards up not to bad and only a few places were the boards are a little crooked. once that was completed we made a B-line to the tap room for some much deserved beers.

On Sunday morning we got up bright and early and rolled out the liner and started the patching process (this year the rink is 20 feet longer than last year so we ended up with some holes from last years use) then we got to filling it up. About 3 hours it took to fill the liner using a 6in diameter fire hose. While the liner filled we had to Wangle some bubbles which is always quite a sport.
After all of that now all we can do is wait for cold weather and hope it doesn't snow (I still cant believe I don't want it to snow because I really want to ski).

As of last night when I check the ice level we had 2 inches of frozen ice in 2 days pretty good I would say if we can get another 2 inches we are in the clear and ready to play some HOCKEY! I will post the pics later.

Last post for the Day I promise

Lauren walking!

One more powder pic

One more parting shot of our great day of skiing.

The day of thanks

So yesterday was thanksgiving so I figured I would list a few things I am thankful for.
1. Family The ones here and the ones far away.2. having a healthy and happy baby.
3. POWDER! and especially making powder turns on thanksgiving day. while everybody else was at home eating and sleepingand last but defiantly not least FRIENDS. thank you to all of you for always being there.

Snow Day

Here They are the Happy couple of snow lovers L and Cooper.

Opening Statement

So I am a Blogger sounds nasty but seeing how it may be easier for others to check in to the life of Mapp and Mapps in and around the area of Red Lodge I figured it wouldn't be such a bad deal.

Today we here In the North Country have received 1 ft of snow I don't have a picture yet but I will work on getting one. So the one to the left will have to do for now. So I wrangled my 1987 mint condition Trek Antelope to the office this morning with one hand on the grip and the other on my coffee, and for you that know the of the excellent plow job that our city does you know that it was no small feet in getting here, but I figure riding is much better than walking so I went for it. I am here and only shy a few drops of coffee so not bad I would say. I think that I need to put this snow to better use but seeing how it is the first snow of the year it would be pretty ugly skiing at the mountain. which I hiked last Friday in hopes of making some turns and ended up taking a long hard hike with Cooper up and then did a semi ski semi walk down the mountain. Any way it is a good sign for the start of winter and I am STOKED!

I will take some pictures and update this later.

signing off
-G