Let’s face it spring weather in Colorado can be unpredictable. For those of us who like to hit the streets to get

our workouts in, it can be hard and we may find ourselves inside on the treadmill more often. But, don’t despair,

getting a good workout in is possible and doesn’t have to be boring.

“”You don’t have to be on the treadmill for an hour,” says Angie Schumacher, owner of Fit Chick Express in

Longmont. “Break it up. It’s about quality, not quantity.” Emily Wester, personal trainer at Gold’s Gym in Loveland,

agrees that working out on the treadmill is all about mixing it up, keeping it exciting and making the most out of a

workout by maximizing “muscle confusion.”

“Just remember to listen to your body, rather than focusing on speed,” Wester says. “You want to tailor it to

what is comfortable to you, don’t make it too easy but be able to complete it and feel done.”

Try these six treadmill workouts, no more than twice a week, from Wester and Schumacher to get the most out

of your treadmill workouts.

1. Change it Up with Intervals

Intervals on a treadmill are the perfect way to maximize your cardio fitness. If you are looking to get rid of

belly fat this is the workout for you. Wester explains the more dramatic the intervals are, the more demanding it is on

the body. Intervals can also be done at a walking or running pace depending on fitness level.

To get started always do a 5 minute warm up. Then run intensely (6 mph for a beginner) for 1 minute, then

walk (3 mph) for 1 minute. Do the intervals for 20 minutes. Finish with a 5 minute cool down.

Wester says the speed will vary depending on the individual, but a good guideline that you are challenging

yourself is that after 1 minute of running you are ready for 1 minute of rest.

2. Add an Incline

This is not a speed workout, but is about working on your form, teaching your body about stability and working

different muscles. Depending on your fitness level, increase to an incline of 5 to 15 percent. To get the most

out of your incline workout, make sure not to hold on while walking or jogging.

3. Put Some Weight into It

Make your time on the treadmill a little harder by adding some weight. According to Wester this exercise

transcends well to real life experiences, such as holding kids. One way to do this is to walk with 5 to 12 pound

hand-held weights. If you feel uncomfortable and unsteady walking while holding weights, Schumacher recommends

either wearing some type of vest or backpack so that the extra weight remains close to your body.

Another option is to keep the weights on the floor by the treadmill and jump back and forth between running and lifting.

Wester recommends running for 1 minute, and then pausing the treadmill for 1 minute while you lift weights. Alternate

like this for 20 minutes, with a warm up and cool down you will be at a 30 minute workout.

4. Hop to It

That’s right add hopping into your treadmill routine. Wester says hopping on both feet, while landing softly

on the balls of your feet, is going to work the stabilizers in your core, hips, legs, knees and ankles. So how

to do it? Hop for 15 seconds, then walk for 2 minutes. Repeat for 20 minutes.

5. Walk it to the Back or to the Side

Walking on the treadmill backwards or sideways is going to give you strength in all ranges of motion.

Again make this an interval. One minute backward, 1 minute forward, 1 minute sideways, 1 minute forward

and repeat for 20 minutes.

6. Full Body Workout

This is for those who really want to mix it up. Schumacher says this routine can be varied and it also allows

you to continuously challenge yourself. Begin with a 5-minute warm up, run for 2 minutes, then do pushups

for 1 minute, run for 2 minutes, do abs for 1 minute, repeat for 20 minutes.

Finish with a 5-minute cool down.

Nestled on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Coffman Street, the Firehouse Art Center houses the studios of five artists who call Longmont home. One of these artists-in-residence, Rick Stoner, says he appreciates the town’s history.

“It has a stately, old town feel to it,” he says. “I enjoy the physical aspect of this town.” Stoner, whose primary medium is paint, says his childhood in Cortez, Colo., inspired the colors and light in his paintings.

“I grew up in an area where the light is very intense and there’s wonderful bright color and light, so I think that has translated a lot into the way that I see things,” Stoner says. “My colors have always been somewhat vivid ver-

Stoner says he sees some humor in his place as artist-in-residence at an art center that was once the town’s firehouse. “There’s some irony in this because as a kid I loved fire trucks,” Stoner says. “I still love fire trucks. The fact that I’m in a firehouse is kind of fun for me.”

Martha Williams, another artist-inresidence at Firehouse, says she enjoys the communal element of working at the art center. “It’s very supportive and stimulating to have other artists,” she says. “It’s fun to have a place to show your art work and it’s nice to have a place to work that’s away from home.”

Williams is a plein air painter, which means she does her paintings outside rather than in a studio. A native of Longmont, the nature of her art has kept her in this community.

“This is a beautiful area,” Williams says. “You get so much sunshine and the weather is good. It’s conducive to painting outside.”

Williams uses her space at Firehouse to create artwork from sketches and photos she takes on location, but most of her art is completed outside. “There’s something special about painting outdoors,” Williams says. “When you’re outside, nature is really your teacher.”

Unlike Stoner and Williams, whose inspiration is found outdoors, Firehouse artist-in-residence Dwayne Wolff finds his inspiration in people.

“For me, my true art is my portraits,” Wolff says. Wolff has lived in Longmont for almost 30 years. His art career was impacted by the community 10 years ago when he had a show at Firehouse titled, “Main Street USA,” which included portraits of several local people.

“It put me on the map locally as an artist in town,” Wolff says.

This art show and subsequent popularity led Wolff to pursue a position on the Firehouse Board of Directors, which he maintains today.

Lynn Brown, now part of the artists in-residence at Firehouse, began her time with Firehouse on the board as executive director. Two years ago, when she finished her time as director, Brown moved into a studio above the gallery where she works with fibers of all types: dog hair, yarn and even engineering wire.

“I don’t consider myself an artist,” Brown says. “I’m more of a fine crafts person. I think the difference between craft and art is that craft is art that has a function.”

Brown’s crafts take many forms, from hats to scarves to baskets. Brown appreciates the calm atmosphere of Longmont, where she has lived since 1980. “This area of Longmont reminds me of a small town,” Brown says. “I really like that.”

Brown also appreciates her place as an artist-in-residence and says the experience has been one of learning for her. “One of the first things I learned from Rick – to me, he’s the consummate professional artist – is that just because you conceive it doesn’t mean it’s going to work out. As soon as you conceive of something new, it becomes an experiment.”

Artist-in-residence Mark Montgomery, who uses a scroll saw to make wooden art, says his next experiment will be a three-dimensional wood work called intarsia.

“Being able to create something out of a single piece of wood is what inspires m” he says. “It’s a total image.”

Montgomery began working with wood as a hobby and turned it into a livelihood three years ago. He’s the most recent addition to the artists-inresidence and came to Firehouse in June of 2011.

“It was a luck of the draw,” he says. “These are hard places to get and I feel really fortunate.”

Montgomery tries to make his artwork sustainable.

“I like recycling old, used wood if I can,” he says. “I don’t like seeing anything go to the landfill. I’m very conscious about that.”

Montgomery, whose studio is in the hallway adjacent to Brown’s, also says his experience at Firehouse has been educational.

“It has affected my art quite a bit: being around other artists, seeing what they do and how they do it and how they stick to their mediums and perfect one thing,” Montgomery says. “I admire what other people do and it creates a whirlwind of visions that I pick and grab from. It’s been a very good influence for me.”

Vegetables for many people often fall into one of two categories: Love or hate. But no matter what one thinks of them, they are an important element in anyone’s diet, often naturally providing healthy vitamins and minerals to the body.

One such spring vegetable, a flowering perennial plant, asparagus, is no different. The green, lanky spears that make up asparagus are both succulent and tender and have been considered a delicacy since ancient times, as well as a natural “cleansing” and healing vegetable.

Kelly Leonard, MS RD, of Healthful-Lifestyle.com, says that all fruits and vegetables, not just asparagus, cleanse the body. “Since they provide fiber, which helps eliminate by products by bulking up the stool, and antioxidants, which help rid the body of damaging molecules called “free radicals” by neutralizing them,” she says.

Other health benefits of asparagus noted by Leonard include that the spring vegetable provides the body with Vitamin C and folate. It is also a great source of Vitamin A and K and it is a prebiotic, which Leonard says is a food preferred by the good bacteria or proboitics that live in our gut system. Asparagus is also non-fat and only has 27 calories in 1 cup, Leonard says.

Asparagus is fresh in the springtime and can be found at its best throughout the month of May. Leonard says this is the best time to buy it, because it will be at its peak in taste and flavor but also at its highest nutrient value. Leonard notes that one of the drawbacks for many when consuming a “green” vegetable is that the flavor can sometimes be bitter, which is in fact caused by the photochemicals and nutrients within the vegetable. “Some people’s taste buds are more sensitive to these chemicals, and have a hard time camouflaging them,” Leonard says. “But you need to eat it, because it is so good for you.”

Leonard’s suggestion: Include asparagus in a recipe with other ingredients, to help reduce the bitter taste. “As with any veggie people disliked as a kid it may take several attempts with new recipes to find an acceptable way to include more veggies,” Leonard says. But the key is to keep trying until you find what works for you. Add a sprinkle of cheese or dip it in ranch. The important part is getting it into your diet to optimize health.

“The important message with fruits and veggies is including a variety of different colors, because each color signifies a different set of nutrients,” Leonard says.

Here are some simple ways to cook with asparagus and enjoy its many benefits.

• As a Side Dish: Saute asparagus in olive oil with fresh garlic and dill. Top with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Be careful not to overcook the vegetable, you want it to still have a snap when you bite into it. You will know the vegetable is done, because it will become a darker green while cooking.

• For Breakfast: Cook it up with some eggs. Add a slice of whole wheat toast for a complete, well-balanced meal.

• Grill It: Wash it, wrap it up with scallions, drizzle olive oil on it, add a little salt and pepper to taste and you’re good to go.

• Make it a Meal (camouflage it): Add it into any casserole or soup that you make. Or include it as a pizza topping. The options are endless.

If you’re looking for great food without the intimidating atmosphere, Colterra is the place to dine, says Executive Chef Michael Drazsnzak.

“It’s very approachable food,” Drazsnzak says. “It’s very simple in its approach. It’s very simple flavors. We let the food be the food.”

Allowing the food to stand on its own is part of the farm-to-table movement that inspired Chef Owner Bradford Heap to open Colterra in 2006. Drazsnzak explains that farm-to-table is the basic and age-old idea that local is not only better for you, but also better for the planet.

“This is what people have been doing for quite some time before anybody put the marketing spin of farm-to-table on it,” he says. “We can live better by living locally. We can have less impact globally by living locally, by sourcing things that are down the street or even just within the state.”

This concept is at the heart of Colterra’s menu. The goal of the restaurant is to better the lives of their customers in more ways than one.

“We’re directly feeding the local community,” Drazsnzak says. “Not just through food but through economic stimulus.” Drazsnzak is sure to be clear that while local is always utilized when possible, it is not always possible.

“Clearly, it’s not entirely farm-to-table but absolutely as much as we can,” he says. “But we also source from abroad for some products.” Dining at Colterra is meant to be a holistic experience in simplicity and relaxation. Drazsnzak says that the location in Old Town Niwot, which used to be the restaurant Le Chantecler, was carefully chosen by Chef Owner Heap because of its European atmosphere.

“When this property came up for sale and he saw this, it totally reminded him of the restaurants he saw in the countryside in the south of France and in northern Italy,” he says. “He saw the opportunity for a big garden that surrounded the patio that he could feed people out of. It creates that wonderful

Hiring managers say one of their biggest frustrations is getting a great looking resume, inviting a candidate for an interview and then being disappointed by the candidate’s interview. This according to Andrew Hudson, who hosts 20 job hunting workshops a year in Denver and is the creator of andrewhudsonsjoblist.com.

It’s like a bad movie of a great book, he says. Interviewing is an art, and one that many job seekers could use improvement upon.

Hudson offered up some basic tips on nailing the interview, making sure that the in-person version of you stacks up to your resume.

Priority No. 1: Sell Yourself

“Job seekers are the chief marketing officers for themselves,” Hudson says. “We’re taught from the age of five to be modest.” But in this situation, go in with guns blazing, showing how your skills and background relate to their company. “You have to take ownership for all of the things you have worked hard for.”

It’s also important not to assume that prospective employers understand what job seekers have done. “Provide quantifiable examples about how your expertise played out at your last position,” he says.

Can You Tell Me About Yourself?

Prepare to answer this question. “Take it as an opportunity to take control of the interview,” Hudson says.

Start by looking at the job posting for clues as to what they are looking for, and sell yourself as a perfect fit for the job.

“It’s up to you to tie everything together and convince them that you are right for the job,” he says.

Confidence is Key

When a job seeker brings confidence, though not arrogance, into an interview, it allows the interviewer to feel comfortable envisioning the person in the position.

By taking control of the interview, using it to show your strengths and developing a dialogue with the interviewer, job seekers have much greater success than if they try and answer questions in a way you think the interviewer wants you to.

Ask Questions

“One of the things that drive HR people crazy is that they don’t ask questions,” Hudson says. Try to use questions to understand what the company is about. Find out about the office culture, team, benefit programs and make sure it is the right fit.

Don’t Disrespect

There tends to be some disrespect given to HR people, Hudson says. Adversely, the HR person is probably the most important person you will deal with, and you want them to be your advocate. “HR people are trained in being able to identify talent,” he says. “They are trained in making sure they get the right people.” So be polite, respectful and maintenance-free.

Turn the Interview Into a Conversation

After studying the job posting and the company, prepare three to five key points that you would like to get across during the interview, Hudson says. Take your time, smile, relax and engage your audience, trying to create a dialogue.

This will make both you and the interviewer more comfortable and will help develop your personal brand.

Ideas for key points:

• Why are you the most qualified for the position?

• What makes you special?

• What experience do you have that demonstrates why you are a good fit for the position?

• What would your former colleagues say about you?

Prepare specific examples of the answers to these questions as much as you can, he says. The idea is to put the pieces of the puzzle together of why you are the best candidate.

Stinkin’ Thinkin

Don’t take it personally if you don’t hear back from employers after sending in your resume or interviewing. “People start to internally think bad thoughts, Hudson says, “and before you know it confidence erodes very quickly.”

To combat this, start asking yourself what your strengths are and refocus on those things. If you’ve been laid off or fired, don’t let it sabotage your chances. “Employers now are a lot more empathetic particularly to people who have been laid off,” Hudson said. Be prepared to answer that question, without trashing your former boss or company.

Ask The Kilted Man his most requested song at a St. Patrick’s Day performance, and the answer comes easily: “Danny Boy,” followed by “The Scotsman.” Ask The Kilted Man his favorite song to perform on St. Patrick’s Day, and the answer is much different.

“It depends on the audience and situation. Songs are for moments, and each moment has its own perfect song.”

For The Kilted Man, there have been many moments: Travels. Experiences. Catastrophes. And music. Always music.

Matthew Gurnsey – The Kilted Man – was born in Jamestown, west of Longmont up Left Hand Canyon. Situated on a mountain, the family home, which was originally built in 1894, was struck by lightning in 1973 – the year Gurnsey was born. The top floor was burned, and the family moved to an apartment above the Jamestown Mercantile while the home was repaired.

His parents – a father who was a hard-rock miner turned professional firefighter for the city of Boulder when the mines closed down, and a mother who worked as a librarian, at one time for Burlington Elementary in Longmont – introduced Gurnsey to music at a young age, often by the light of an oil-burning lamp.

“The power goes out up here (in Jamestown) a lot, and there was nothing else to do but sit around and play music as a family,” Gurnsey says. “I started performing at 4 or 5 (years old).”

As a teenager, Gurnsey’s father taught him to play the bagpipes. “Dad would play and people would call across the canyon and make requests,” Gurnsey says. Gurnsey has extensive, but not exclusive, experience in music and theater. He’s also herded cattle, taught rock climbing, performed extensive community service and acts of volunteerism, obtained multiple college degrees, fished on a professional shrimping vessel off the Alaskan coast, and worked as director of property management for Pearl Street Properties in Boulder, to name a few of his other ventures.

More than a decade ago he coformed a traditional Celtic band, “The Muses!” and toured through 42 states as well as internationally, performing upwards of 250 shows a year. The band’s time together produced six albums and a DVD, and billing at 10 of the largest Scottish/Irish festivals in the country. But in the midst of creating a new album and music video, the band’s 40-foot tour bus was involved in a roll-over accident, totaling the bus and everything inside.

Shortly after, the band broke up and Gurnsey launched his solo career as The Kilted Man. He settled back in Jamestown, into his childhood home perched atop the mountain; 15 years earlier he had purchased the home from his parents. “I enjoy the freedom of the solo career, but miss the harmony. I play 14 instruments, so I still get some harmony. The instruments fill in well with my voice.”

However, seemingly determined to finish the job from years ago, fire – this time from electrical wiring in a wall – burned his home to the ground in November 2011 while Gurnsey was away with his two 150-pound dogs. His cat escaped the fire, later returning. His instruments and kilts did not. He lost between 35 and 45 instruments to the fire, including bagpipes, an antique accordion, antique fiddles and his family piano.

“Neighbors have said they really miss hearing the bagpipes coming from the house,” Gurnsey says. Unable to locate a rental for Gurnsey and his dogs while he plans how to rebuild, insurance has provided them with a small travel trailer. On windy nights, Gurnsey doesn’t sleep.

On the road for St. Patrick’s Day for a number of previous years, this year he will be home, a word with perhaps a different meaning now. On March 15, he will perform at the Longmont Public Library. The 6:30 p.m. show will feature music and storytelling by The Kilted Man, along with soda bread and Shamrock cookies. He has performed several other times at the library.

“He’s fabulous, a phenomenal performer,” says Elektra Greer, head of the Children and Teen Department at Longmont Public Library. “There aren’t enough family friendly St. Patrick’s Day events in Longmont.”

“Growing up with a librarian, libraries are near and dear to my heart,” Gurnsey says.

To this end, he has launched yet another venture, a booking company that books cultural and educational events for libraries; he plugs traveling musical groups into libraries on their off days for a huge discount.

“It’s good for the artists to try out new material and have fun, and great for kids and families. I hope it’s excellent for libraries, brings people back to the library. And it’s a family friendly, cultural, fun, safe event. We have vetted our performers’ shows to make sure they are safe for families.”

For all the experiences, all the travels and performances, Gurnsey says nothing measures up to St. Patrick’s Day. “No matter how many shows I do in a year, St. Patrick’s Day is always special to Celtic musicians. There’s no other day quite like it in this community.”

BY SUMMER STAIR

Aaron Wise always knew he wanted to write a book and publish it, but he never thought it would be about zombies. “Interestingly I never expected to write a zombie story,” Wise says. “The idea came from a conversation with a friend and we just felt like the whole zombie thing had been done. I challenged him that I would come up with a zombie story that he would read and enjoy, and that’s when I started out to make Deadlocked.”

Deadlocked, a self-published novella that has been broken into four different parts, is focused around a zombie apocalypse and how a family battles through it for survival. The first Deadlocked, focuses on David, the husband of Laura and father of Kim and Annie. The story follows David as he battles to reach his family, who are at home on the outskirts of the city, and get them to safety. The story is well told and by the end you find yourself relating to David and his emotional and physical struggles.

Deadlocked 2 picks up immediately where the first Deadlocked story ends. This time though, the story is told through the eyes of Laura. The second Deadlocked novella offers readers a suspenseful, action-packed adventure and expands on the. character of Billy, a teenager who is introduced in the first novella. At first, I thought I related more to the second Deadlocked, because I am the mother of two kids, but Wise was quick to tell me he gets this reaction from many readers.

“Everyone says this, that they liked part one, but it was part two that really got them,” Wise says. “Delving into Laura and her personality, it was heart wrenching. I fell in love with Laura.” Wise, who often writes the endings to his story first, found himself changing the ending to Deadlocked 2 once he got there. “The ending was set, but when I got to the last paragraph I changed it,’ he says. “With this one the character (Laura) did take it out of my hands. I always heard this could happen, but had never experienced it until this book.”

Deadlocked 3, which will follow Billy in his adventures in the city, is currently available at Smashwords where the first two parts can be found. The fourth and final Deadlocked will be out by then end of March, Wise says.

In the end, Wise is glad he has made this venture into publishing and hopes others will do the same. “If you have a story you want to get out there, now is the time to do it,” Wise says.

On January 1, 2010, Donna Wolff was tired of being Donna Wolff. She was overweight and unhealthy, so she set out to change.

“Each month I changed something,” she says. In January, Wolff started eating better, the next month she began exercising, eventually adding weights and doing workout DVDs at home. By October, she’d lost 75 pounds. Wolff began needing something to light a fire in terms of exercise, however, so after seeing the Twin Freaks CrossFit sign on the building at 1001 Delaware Ave. in Longmont, she tried a 12-session intro course. “The trainers were so well-trained and interested in who we were,” she says.

 During the intro course they focused on teaching Wolff the proper form and technique with basic CrossFit exercises. CrossFit has caught fire across the nation, with a niche of short, intense workout sessions focusing on using a combination of plyometrics, OIympicstyle weightlifting, rowing, sprinting, jumping rope and various body weight exercises. Workouts push participants to their limits and benefit strength, endurance and body shape all at once.

“It’s totally unique for me,” Wolff says. “It’s a totally new experience.” Wolff has lost an additional 18 pounds since starting CrossFit, and she has no plans of stopping. “It’s been really fun to see the change in my body,” she says.

Wolff looks at CrossFit as a form of medical insurance. For example, she recently slipped on her stairs and was falling, then she caught herself on the handrail and used her newfound strength to keep from falling. The money she invests in CrossFit is keeping her out of the doctor’s office, she says.

Jennifer Piggott has also found success at Twin Freaks CrossFit. She likes it for the variety it provides with different workouts.

“I feel like I’m always learning something new,” she says. “I have quit many workout regiments in the past because they become mundane, but there is so much variety in a crossfire workout that I can’t imagine getting bored.”

She also likes that CrossFit can be done by anyone. “The trainers do an amazing job of scaling each workout to meet the needs of any ability level,” she says.

Immigration is often a volatile topic. Everyone has a different opinion, and so addressing the issues that go with it can be daunting. For immigrants themselves, it sometimes feels as though immigration can close as many doors as it opens. However, attaining citizenship can be an uplifting occasion worth smiling about.
It was because of these reasons that Lee Shainis, co-founder and executive director of Intercambio Uniting Communities in Longmont, began a nonprofit organization to help immigrants unite with their community and those who live in it.
“Intercambio has provided English classes and cultural integration programs to 7,000 residents in 45 countries in Boulder and the St. Vrain Valley for a decade,” Shainis says. “Many struggle to maintain a decent standard of living and provide for their families, and Intercambio has helped to ease that stuggle.”
Through workshops, classes and new programs, Intercambio  finds itself

Intercambio hosts an annual Chautauqua Hike. Lee Shainis, co-founder and executive director of Intercambio, is in the front row holding up peace signs. (Courtesy Intercambio)

offering help in places they didn’t find themselves before. Through Intercambio and School
Together, Intercambio and its volunteers help immigrants integrate themselves into the school system.  “The problem is the parents don’t know each other because of the English barrier. So we have English speaking parents talking and helping the other parents,” Shainis says. “They can talk a lot about the cultural differences and find out how to interact with the schools.”
 Another program Intercambio has incorporated is building cultural awareness training. In this program, Intercambio speaks with the English-speaking community and discusses culture as a whole and how it impacts everyone in the community.
Intercambio holds monthly events free of charge, in addition to offering dance and fitness sessions at the Boulder office and the YMCA in Longmont. The programs are unique, because they go beyond the classroom and directly reflect the needs of the students.

David Nazeri of Longmont learned to ice fish the hard way while living in South Dakota.
Unfamiliar with the sport, but  eager to learn, he fashioned a handmade chisel by attaching a screwdriver to a dowel, spending hours drilling through four feet of ice before reaching water.
“It was a practice in digging more than fish catching,”  says Nazeri, who’s been ice fishing now for more than
25 years. But those long hours on the ice are at the core of the sport.
“I think ice fishermen are seeking solitude, I think that’s the heart of it. I’ve thought about this many times. Why is it that you go sit in the middle of no-man’s land?”  It’s quiet, peaceful and provides a sense of freedom, he says. “It’s so fun.”
Eventually Nazeri moved from his handmade chisel to a hand auger, an ice fishing tool that looks like a giant corkscrew, then later invested in a power auger and sonar equipment when he moved to Minnesota.
Nazeri taught his kids to ice fish and goes on trips each year with friends and family, introducing new people to the sport.
“I enjoy it because it’s so much different than during the summer,” says Tim Sauer, of Longmont, who has been ice fishing for the past 65 years, continuing a tradition that started with his father. “It seems to be a different group of people, more comradery, less, I don’t know, me-for-me attitude. On a nice sunny day sitting out on the lake on the ice, it’s pretty quiet, pretty isolated.”
Sauer has fished throughout over Colorado and now mainly fishes at Foothills Reservoir, west of Hygiene. He is the president of the Foothills Fish and Game Club, a private recreation club, which leases the reservoir from the Highlands Ditch Company.
The club stocks the reservoir with fish each year, and Sauer estimates a third of the club’s core 75 members ice fish there at least once each winter.
Ice fishers get close to their fishing, Sauer says, with shorter fishing rods and a seat looking right over their fishing hole. Shorter rods make it easier to detect a bite as fish are generally slower that of the winter and less aggressive.
Ice fishing equipment is lighter than in summer fishing, Nazeri says. Winter water is clearer requiring a thin line so the fish won’t see it and a lighter sinker (the weight that drops the line) because the water is calmer. 
“Once you get to know how to fish in winter, you are a lot better in summer, because you get to know the habitat. You get to know the finesse involved with catching fish. Fly fisherman are very good at that. They know that colors have a direct impact on fish biting. So they change color, they change the pattern. It’s the same with ice fishing.”
 The Colorado Department of Wildlife holds ice fishing clinics in various locations each winter, including St. Vrain State Park in Firestone. Times and locations have yet to be scheduled; check the Upcoming Events calendar at www.fws.gov/letsgooutside/ for updates.
St. Vrain State Park is full all winter long with ice fishers, says Linda Richards,  the park’s administrative assistant. Park improvements in recent years have upped the number of summer visitors, and with them, more ice fishers each winter. Some regulars get pretty competitive, she says, bragging about how fast they hit their limit on online forums like FishExplorer.com, which Richards likes to follow. The park is stocked with trout each year in the fall and, depending on the cold, stocked again in winter.
Ice conditions on Front Range lakes like St. Vrain State Park can change quickly, especially in the spring. Ice fishers should be aware of currents that can change the ice and leave a pond or lake partially frozen over and partially ice free, Richards says.
 Four inches of good ice is the Department of Wildlife’s rule of thumb for walking on the surface, if less than two inches, stay off. They caution that ice is never safe and an ability to identify strong ice and various risk factors is ideal.
Visit http://wildlife.state.co.us and search for “ice fishing” to find ice safety information, stock reports and ice fishing opportunities, or call the main customer service line at 303-297-1192.
Fishing licenses are required for individuals 16 and older and can be purchased at Wal-Mart and sporting goods stores for $35.