Epic Ghost Hunting Adventure.

The title says it all. That's what I did the night I got back from my weekend home.

It was a uneventful Sunday night. Some friends and I had been hanging out in Corey's room, not really doing much, just watching some TV and what not, when my friend Chelsy (who I refer to as Lemon) decided enough was enough, it was adventure time.

After stealthily sneaking out of the room, we threw on some jackets and headed out into the unknown. We really had no clue where we were going or what we were going to do, but dang it we knew it was gonna be an adventure!

We started out by making our way to the overflow parking lot above Willett Hall in a lame attempt to see the cool view from the hill over there, but I soon realized that the cool view was from the very top of the hill and it was quite snow covered so that plan back fired horribly.

From there, we headed down to the lowest parking lot near Monson Hall where some dudes were hitting an insane drop in with a big kicker onto the top bar of one of the soccer goals in the soccer field below the parking lot. It was wild. From there, we headed down a side trail past the soccer field. This was the start of the scariness. The trail led past a shed we dubbed The Serial Killer Shack. It was creepy. It then led past a house and down to 12th St.

The scariness relaxed up as we headed down to Lincoln Ave. to roam the streets and see what we could turn up. We stopped for some classic shots of the weird bronze statues of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein with some children.

Before we got to far into town, considering it was a pretty cold night, we turned up a side street where Lemon pretended to break into a car. The side street lead to Oak St. where the ghost hunt began to take shape.

When we got onto Oak St., we were near the Tread of Pioneers Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed. We were most disappointed. We decided to start the trek back up to school when the scariness came back in action.

While walking up Oak St., we passed Lowell Whiteman Primary School which we decided used to be an insane asylum, and on top of that, it's attached to an old church with a mini graveyard out in front. It all started when we were looking at it and started walking closer when Lemon thought she saw the outline of person inside a window. "I bet it's haunted!" Lemon said. "I wonder if there's any orbs here."

I had absolutely had no idea what orbs were, so I will explain for those right there with me. Apparently, orbs are little spirits that appear only in pictures. Now, I was incredibly skeptical at first, blaming it on dust or something on the lens or snow but as the photos kept coming, these orbs seemed to be more real. For starters, it wasn't snowing. On top of that, even after cleaning of the lens, the spots were still there, and I doubt there really any big dust particles floating around outside on that cold night. On top of that, there are these two pictures, which I'll post when I get them, that really show there was something up with these orbs. In the first one, a couple orbs were on the right. When Lemon turned to the right a bit, the orbs showed up on the left side of the photo like they were floating in the same spot. It was crazy.

After an intense photo shoot all around the school, church, graveyard, and even back at the museum, we got many pictures of these orbs. By the end, however, we realized just how crazy cold we were and started back up to the school. We then realized just how insanely cold we were, so we called Corey for a ride. He picked us up at the end of Bob Adams, and we told him of the crazy our adventure ended up being.

So there you go. I hope you were able to see the entities in these pictures and that this gave you a little glimpse at the awesomeness that can happen when you're bored in the Boat. Peace.

R.I.P Grandma Malenick.

My first full weekend back in the Boat was spent back in Minnesota. As nice as it was to see family and friends again so soon, I wasn't exactly home under the best conditions.

The last week of my winter break, my grandma, dad's mom, was admitted into the hospital for having multiple heartattacks. She had called my dad, telling him she had some pains in her chest that felt like indigestion but she wanted to go to the hospital. When my dad got there, she had an overnight bag packed and he knew this was very serious.

After she was diagnosed with having multiple heartattacks, she was scheduled for an immediate operation to have a stent put in through a vein in her leg. The operation went very smoothly and she was feeling much better. I was able to visit her on my last day in Minnesota, which was Friday, Jan. 9, and I was very happy I was able to do that, especially now.

On Sunday, January 11 around 1pm, she passed away. It was incredibly unexpected, but thankfully very peaceful. The nurses had come to get her for another test or scan, I'm not qute sure which, but when she got up, she felt very light-headed, laid down on her bed, fainted, and passed away very peacefully, just the way she wanted to.

I got the call from my mom, telling me she had died, while I was snowboarding with my friend Nate. All I can say is thankfully I was snowboarding when she called to keep my mind off it as much as possible. I loved my grandma very much and it was a big shock to here she was gone, but the funeral was very nice, my uncle and oldest cousin gave some really nice sentiments at the service. I even had to get off the plane and go directly to the wake as soon as I landed, but I was just glad to have made it back home for my grandma.

Besides the funeral, I got to see all my friends again which was awesome. We hung out my buddy's house down by St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN. There was an excessive amount of Halo played and some serious bro time.

But now I am back in the Boat and spent my first night back on a ghost hunting adventure (which will most definitely be another blog very soon). I was very happy to be able to make it home for my grandma and the rest of my family. Hopefully nothing like that will happen again soon, and I'll be able to see everyone again over spring break.

The Winter Break Blog.

I don’t really know where to start about winter break except that it was awesome and I love Minnesota. I’m excited to be back in Steamboat Springs to try out this powder riding I’ve heard so much about, but I just love the bitter cold and the butter run fun the Midwest offers.

I started writing this blog in the Denver airport, worked on it on the shuttle to Steamboat from Denver, and am finishing it up in room back here in the Boat. I starting my semester off with quite a long day which consisted of a 2 hour flight, 3 hours waiting around at the airport, and 4 hours on a shuttle. I’ve been watching my fill of the Office (which, if you haven’t seen it, is the greatest show ever), as well as jammed to the new Jack’s Mannequin CD while writing this. It was great to be able to have a day of riding on Sunday before classes started up today.

My winter break started with a much needed, relaxing night with my good friends from back home, followed by probably the funnest day of riding I’ve ever had with my friend Ryan, who I like to refer to as Dub D, Dirty Dizzle, DFB, Ocean D himself! Together over winter break we learned tailblocks and tail tap rewinds, not to mention we built a mini snow quarter pipe to jib on.

As far the rest of my snowboarding adventures of break, I spent my time at Welch Village, which is near Hastings, MN. Besides the awesome times had there riding with friends, the highlight/lowlight of my winter break was the trip to White Cap. Eight of my closest friends and myself went to White Cap, WI, on the edge of the U.P., MI for 4 days and 3 nights of snowboarding and bro time. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out the way we had planned. For starters, on the way up there, Ryan hit a deer. He, as well as myself and my friends Scotty K. who were both in the car, were very lucky at how it turned out. The deer had just jumped out in front of the truck, so Ryan’s headlight hit the deer right in the head, which was way better than if the deer had been entirely in front of the truck. However, the body did slam into the driver side door, denting it in, keeping it from opening and the window from rolling down.

So after that incident, which happened very early in the morning, we got to White Cap for our first day of riding. It was pretty crazy warm out, so the snow was really slushy, but as it would turn out, this would be our most fun day of riding. After exploring the mountain, we headed back to the house for the night to hang out.

The next day we wished we had the slush back. It had frozen solid overnight and the day itself was freezing cold. Towards the end of the riding day, we did find some fun on a trap box and a cliff jump that my ridiculous friend Joe hit quite a few times.

The third day wasn’t as bad ice-wise, but the last was insanely icy, cold and windy. However, my friends Ryan and PJ did not get to experience these conditions because of the final ridiculous incident of the trip. My friends Joe and Jimmy B. had to leave early the last morning, however, the night before, Joe had borrowed PJ’s keys and yes, forgot to give them back. They were about 3 hours away when we called and Joe realized he had them, so Jim dropped the keys off at a cheese store on the border of Minnesota, forcing Ryan and PJ to spend the day driving to get them, making them miss a day of riding. This is the third year we’ve all gone on a snowboard trip and I gotta say, as fun as some of the times were, this was probably the worst one. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from this ridiculous adventure, but Joe had a video camera with him so I’m sure a fantastic video will be hitting YouTube in the near future.

Besides friends and snowboarding, it was great to see my family again and hang out at home. Christmas was super fun seeing all the cousins and extended family, not to mention I got some great gifts. We did the usual Christmas tradition of brunch and presents at my grandparents’ house with my mom’s side of the family, then dinner and presents at my house with my dad’s side of the family. It’s a pretty crazy day since I’m the second oldest grandchild on my mom’s side of the family right after my brother, but I’m the youngest grandchild on my dad’s side of the family so that definitely keeps it interesting.

I also unfortunately had to go back to work at Pacsun in Rosedale Mall near my house. I work with some cool people but I would definitely rather have not had to work, but I suppose at times like these I should be grateful I had a job to come back too. Plus it was for sure nice to get a bit of money before I go back to spending way to much of it.

An awesome thing for me that happened over break was I made my first order of t-shirts for the snowboard company I’m going to school at Colorado Mountain College to try to start. That being said, I gotta take this opportunity to make a shameless pitch. If anyone would like one, they could be yours for the low, low price of $15 a shirt! Just send me an email at jake3613@comcast.net with where to send it, and I’ll send you an email back of where to send the money. I have sizes medium, large, and extra large left so act now!

Now that my dignity’s gone, I’ll leave you with this: winter break was awesome even though I had a sinus infection for most of it and still kind of do. I wish break was a little longer but I’m excited to be back in The Boat and ready to ride some epic runs now that the whole mountain is open. I hope everyone else’s break was awesome and I look forward to writing more throughout the semester. Peace.

Riding The Boat Once Again.

Today was my first full day back at Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus here in Steamboat Springs, and naturally it was spent on the mountain.

After passing out early from a long day spent getting here (which I'll post about soon), I woke up around 10:30 after a great night sleep ready to ride. My buddy Nate and I hit some breakfast consisting of some not very missed cafeteria food, jumped on the Yellow Line bus, and were on our way.

We didn't get to the mountain until around noon, but since neither of us were used to the epic runs Colorado has to offer, we were there in plenty of time. We started the day off right by taking the gondola up to mid mountain, then cruising down a run to another lift to take us up to the peak. As it turned out however, this was not the best idea. Down in town it was snowing nicely, which, as we soon realized, meant it was insanely foggy, windy, and snowy at the peak. With our faces frozen, we made our way downhill as fast as someone could who can only see 15-20 or so feet in front of them. However, fighting through the rough weather payed off because we ended up at a lift that took us to one of the funnest parts of the day; the roller mini-park.

We must have taken at least 7 or 8 runs through, throwing as many little spins and butters as we could, as well as riding some powder on the sides of the track. From there, we decided to make our way to the bigger terrain parks Steamboat has to offer. On the way there, we took a super fun run called Broadway, which has some fun banks and hips all the way down it, and even though it made my calves burn like no other, it was well worth it.

We then came upon a pretty empty main park consisting of only a few features, but there was a pretty fun flat box that we hit a few times. From the main park, you can continue down the same run to another mini park in the front that actually has some mini features such as some short flat boxes, mini pole jam, and a few smaller but still fun jumps. After taking some more main/mini park runs, we decided to head back to the roller park. We of course had forgotten about the fact that we needed to head back up to the peak to do so.

We jumped on the gondola and back to the first lift we took and were once again amongst the fog, wind, and snowfall. However, this time did not go so smoothly. We of course found the park by shear accident the first time, so now that I knew where we were trying to get, I screwed it up. I ended up going right too early because I still coudln't see a thing in front of me. After taking the longest, bumpiest, and most tiring run of my life, I realized I had ended up at the wrong lift. After a few phone calls back and forth with Nate, trying to figure out where we both were, we met up and decided to just head back down, since it was getting toward closing. We took the Elkhead lift back to mid mountain, and cruised back down to the main park. After a run through that, a few laps through the front mini park, and one final run through the main park, we called it a day, mostly because all the lifty's told us to.

After we were off the mountain and headed toward the bus was when we realized just how exhausted we were. This made the hour bus ride back to school even worse. It definitely doesn't normally take an hour but we left when the mountain was closing so there was a lot of people crowding on and off.

That night was a lot of fun getting to see everyone I missed over winter break and after a night of cathcing up about everyone's life, I passed out once again, getting ready to ride again the next day.