Monthly Archives: July 2011

CT Cronica: Remote Cochetopa Hills

28 Thursday Jul 2011

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You’re now hiking the second half of the Colorado Trail so the trail heads are further away.  It takes you 3 hours to drive to Poncha Springs – which is fast – but this is simply to meet up with Tumbleweed.  It takes another couple of hours to drop off a car at Sargents Mesa and return to Monarch Pass to camp at the Fooses Creek Trail Head.  You pitch your tent in the dark, thinking of your brother-in-law for gifting you a headlamp for Christmas.

The rolling Cochetopa Hills are as remote a location as any you’ve ever visited in Colorado.  There are more cows than people.  You actually expected the CT to route through the Sangre de Cristos.  You’ve heard of those.  But now you understand the Sangres range lies east of the trail as you drive by them for several hundred miles while shuffling cars to the extremely remote trail heads in the Cochetopas.

Tumbleweed launches Saturday with coffee by 5am and you gear up.  You have some new gear today.  The most important is the REI Trekker 1.75 Self-Inflating Sleeping Pad you bought hoping it would contribute to a better night’s sleep.  It does.  Highly recommended.  Of course you still used your old sleeping pad under the new one.  Why not?  The other gear is a pair of Outdoor Research Rocky Mountain Low Gaiters.  These look as thick as your high gaiters but only cover your shoes and a bit of your ankle, leaving your legs cool.  These work out well also.  By 6am you begin hiking the second half of the Colorado Trail, planning a twofer by combining segments 15 and 16 for a 28 mile day.

The trail is nice with some patches of good dirt and pine needles.  It’s an uphill climb for the first 7 miles so you don’t run, but you do maintain a decent 3 mile per hour pace.  The elevation tops out just under 12K and you find you’re now well conditioned to hike strong even uphill at this altitude.  You  barely rise above treeline, but you do cross through some beautiful mountain meadows littered with wildflowers.  You’ve been waiting for such meadows; this is the time of year to get up in the mountains.

The climb up provides some decent views of the Collegiates to the north.  You run some dips but mostly maintain your hiking pace.  It’s a nice day but rain is expected and you can see the clouds begin to form.  You don’t expect to be vulnerable though and even look forward to a light rain.

You encounter well over a dozen mountain bikers on segment 15.  They like to start from Monarch Pass and ride the Monarch Crest Trail to Marshall Pass – which is where segment 15 ends.  This is maybe one of the best trail rides in Colorado in terms of trail condition and views.  The trail runs around a rim much like a bowl and allows the riders to view the terrain for miles.  You envy them and consider getting a bike yourself.  Maybe next summer.

The Monarch Crest Trail is quite nice for running as well and you take advantage.  There are a good 3 miles or so mostly downhill.  You start off slowly though as you miss an initial switchback.  It might have been under snow or not well defined in the rocks, hard to say since you didn’t see it.  You end up bushwhacking down the hill until you’re back on the trail.  No biggie.

Segment 15 ends around 13 miles at Marshall Pass where Tumbleweed stashed a cooler of drinks the day before.  You have many more drinks than required because you also expected a third hiker with you today.  Thomas from Texas couldn’t make it.  He got stuck in Amarillo with family obligations.

But you meet a thru hiker at the pass named Viewpoint.  And he seems thirsty, so you share some drinks with him while he relates trail stories.  Viewpoint seems like a great guy and he takes some of your garbage off your hands as he is hitchhiking into town.  This enables Tumbleweed to carry the cooler for segment 16.  This will keep you from having to drive back to this trail head later in the day and subsequently save you a good 90 minutes.  Considering the long car shuffle you have for tomorrow’s hike, this could mean the difference between pitching your tent tonight in daylight or darkness.

You start off again on segment 16 after a good rest and two or three bottles of water and energy drinks.  Marshall Pass is less than halfway and you have another 16 miles to hike.  Despite starting from a pass, the trail winds uphill.  The trail is a series of rolling hills cresting after 6 miles a little under treeline in a mountain cow pasture.  The hills are never too steep to thwart your 3 mile an hour pace, and each meadow affords nice views of Mt. Ouray to the north.  Otherwise this segment is fairly unremarkable and is much more rocky than segment 15.  You can appreciate why you don’t see any mountain bikers on this segment.

After 18 miles the trail drops sharply in elevation down to about 10.6K feet.  There’s enough flat segments from 20 to 24 miles to run a bit but that doesn’t work for Tumbleweed carrying the cooler, so you hike it for the remainder of this segment.  You maintain your 3 mile an hour pace up a 1000 foot climb from mile 24 to mile 27.  This brings you to the high mountain meadow you’ll be camping at.  You reach Tumbleweed’s truck to rescue it from cows who are licking it for some odd reason.  This is Sargents Mesa – the most remote trail head so far in 16 segments of the CT.

Exhausted, you drive to Monarch Pass to pick up your car.  You hope again to meet up with Thomas, but he can’t make it.  You witness some freakish lightening over the Cochetopa Hills around Marshall Pass and recognize you got off the trail just in time.  Before dropping off Tumbleweed’s car at the last trail head on Hwy 114 near North Pass, you stop for dinner at The Oasis in Sagauche.  It’s not bad for Mexican food.  You’ll likely regret this choice tomorrow, but you’re damned hungry and you both order the El Grande Combination.  This plate comes with every known Mexican entree from tacos to enchiladas to a chili relleno.  You leave stuffed, drop off Tumbleweed’s car and make it to your camp site at Sargents Mesa just as night falls.  You have your best night’s sleep ever on the CT.

The stars are still amazingly bright as you wake before 4:30am Sunday.  You see a couple of shooting stars while drinking the morning coffee.  The slow wake up viewing the solar system is nearly the highlight of today’s hike.  This trail isn’t exciting enough to take many pictures of.  It rides on top of the hill crests, actually the Continental Divide, but trees block most views.  You are able to run much of this but at a pace driven hard by Tumbleweed that you find brutal.

You complete the 21 miles at a pace 2 minutes faster per mile than yesterday, both for the moving pace at 14 minutes per mile and the overall pace at 18 minutes per mile.  It doesn’t hurt that this hike loses 2000 feet in overall elevation, although it nearly all comes in the final 4 miles.  Mile 17 to 18 begins the downhill ride through another gorgeous old growth aspen grove, but the most remarkable thing about it is finally this exceedingly rocky trail yields to soft dirt.  Your feet are grateful.  But wait, there’s more.  At the Lujan Pass Trail head at mile 18 is the most amazing Trail Angel ever.  A tent is pitched with scores of cold drinks, food, batteries, first aid, bug spray – you need it it’s here.  You drown in orange crush and pink lemonade.  It’s unfortunate you drink so much because you can’t keep up with Tumbleweed as he sprints the final few miles to Hwy 114.  You join him after a couple of minutes to complete another 50 weekend miles of the CT.  You’re deep into a summer surge.  Next weekend has 4 segments on the menu that look to be equally remote.  Can’t wait.

CT Cronica: The Sawatch Exit

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

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You have your best sleep to date on the CT.  You’ve been slow to acclimate to the hard earth but seem to be adapting to it.  A 3 day hike is good for that.  You wake up to the sound of Tumbleweed packing up his tent and note how refreshed you feel.  You credit your soak in the hot springs after yesterday’s hike.  Recovery was a key concern for you and you’re pleased to be able to check that off as a success.  And you’re excited to begin the day as it marks the completion of half the CT segments, roughly half the mileage, and you’ll be leaving the huge Sawatch mountain range and entering into the San Juans range.

Typical of launching from a creek bed, the trail begins with a steep incline, affording you a nice view to your left of the chalk cliffs.  The Chalk Creek TH is somewhat low in elevation for the Sawatch range at 8400 feet.  This segment of the CT remains fairly low only reaching a height of 10,200 feet, but rides up and down like a roller coaster.  This is hard on your legs but you take advantage of the flat segments to run much more than you expected.

Some of the running segments take you through picturesque old growth aspen groves.  Many of these trees tower over 50 feet tall.  You feel as if you’re running through a Hallmark card and you think forward to what the scenery will be in September.  The experience doesn’t end with the trees either.  Much of it comes from the ground.  Trails layered with soft, moist dirt and pine needles present you with a dream-like running opportunity.  You feel special and you take advantage of it.  In fact, while you expected today to be slow due to fatigue, it’s your fastest pace of the weekend with a 19 minute mile average.  That includes rest time; moving time averages 15 minutes per mile.  You run the 18th mile in 11 minutes.  Damn!

Today’s hike has been beyond belief, until you reach the end and you discover you mixed the CT trail head with the CDT trail head; the result being your car is parked 4 miles uphill on Monarch Pass.  Dammit!  So you pull what thru-hikers refer to as a “yogi” and hitch a ride.  Fortunately 3 mountain bikers are shuffling a car across the road from you with the plan to drive up to Monarch Pass to start their ride.  Tumbleweed and you owe a big special thanks to Brett, Shelly and Dan for squeezing you into their van for the ride to your car.

This works out well for you and next on the agenda is lunch.  You ramble down the mountain pass toward Hwy 285 and stop at the intersection with Hwy 50 which is a little town called Poncha Springs.  Here you gas up and try out a small hamburger joint.  The burger is ok and the chocolate malt is pretty tasty.  Not a bad lunch.  Tumbleweed then shuffles you to your car for the end of another epic weekend adventure.  You plan the logistics to meet up again next weekend in Poncha Springs and expect to have a third hiker – up from Texas – join you for segment 15.  Let the good times roll.

CT Cronica: Yale to Princeton

26 Tuesday Jul 2011

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No out to eat for breakfast this morning.  And no late wake up call.  Tumbleweed is back on pace so you pack up your tent in the dark while he brews coffee.  It was nice being able to sleep in the same spot two nights in a row, but after today’s hike you’ll setup camp at the Chalk Creek Trail Head near Nathrop.  You could name this blog Silver Creek to Chalk Creek after the trail heads, but you instead title it after the peaks on either end that everyone you meet on the trail are hiking to.

Today’s hike will be 4 miles longer than yesterday, although over similar terrain.  It has about the same elevation gain of around 4500 feet, but loses 1000 feet more at 5500.  It has a long downhill finish but you’re not looking forward to it as the final 10K is on a road.  You start off slow, which is fair since the first 3.5 miles takes you straight up to nearly 12,000 feet – the high point for the day.  The following downhill is just as steep, so you don’t even consider running today.  It’s a recovery hike.

The trail is very much like yesterday’s hike in terms of scenery.  Mountain meadow flowers.  Old growth aspen groves.  Clear skies so you’re grateful for the shade under treeline.  Without running, your pace is 2 minutes per mile slower overall than yesterday.  With the added distance this makes for a 8.5 hour day.  You exit the trail at a Young Life youth ranch and begin the long hot walk down the road to Chalk Creek.

Fortunately you pass by the Mt. Princeton General Store and take advantage to resupply your provisions.  This carries you the remainder of the road to your trail head and new camp site.  The last mile of road is about the cutest street ever, named Bunny Lane.  Looking more like Disney World than Colorado, it’s lined with ideal cabins with flowers in every window – many available for daily and weekly rental.  One cabin has woodpiles with a sign, “Organic Firewood.”  As you consider what sort of premium such rarefied kindling sells for, you design a plan in your head to bring Karen up here for a weekend getaway.

After dipping your feet in the cold creek waters, you repeat yesterday’s recovery regimen and soak another hour in the Princeton Hot Springs.  This is brilliant.  They should put these hot springs near every trail head.  Seriously, it’s a bit pricey, but the opportunity is too rare to pass up.  And it definitely makes a difference.  You woke up feeling pretty good this morning.

Refreshed, and clean, you head to the Asian Palate for dinner. Sushi isn’t your first choice in the backwoods of Colorado, but this place comes highly recommended from some local retirees you met on the trail. You’re a big fan of sushi and are incredibly surprised at how good this place is.  And not just the food; this is a swanky hangout for a Saturday night.  But don’t ask Tumbleweed.  After 3 Saketinis, he probably doesn’t recall having been there.  Based on Tumbleweed’s experience, you award this place a puerco pibil, and you didn’t even drink one.  You both fall fast asleep after the hot springs and satisfying dinner.  The next day will be your third hike in a row.  Something you’ve never done before.  You hope your body is up to the task.  But instead of worrying over that, you drift off with thoughts of Bunny Lane in your head.

CT Cronica: The Collegiates

24 Sunday Jul 2011

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You drive out of the Interlocken parking lot after meeting with a business partner at 5:35pm on Thursday.  And you take two more work calls while driving on Hwy 36.  This is not the early start for Buena Vista you were hoping for, but you get lucky with traffic and find yourself driving once again on Hwy 285.  You recall what a milestone it was to cross Georgia Pass on segment 6 and leave behind Hwy 285 for I70 and Hwy 9 and highways 91 and 24.  But now that the CT trail heads are down by Buena Vista it makes sense to take 285 out of Denver again.  It really is a scenic drive, certainly beats the tunnel.  Plus, Salida/Buena Vista has Colorado’s most badass classic rock station ever and as you reach South Park you tune to 93.7 KSBV.  You reach the North Cottonwood Creek/Silver Creek Trail Head around 8:35, just as darkness is setting in.  You believe the Guidebook is incorrect in that this is the Silver Creek Trail Head, while the North Cottonwood Creek TH is another 1.5 miles up the road.  A good reference for Chaffee County trail heads to access the Collegiate Wilderness Area is at this web site.  Regardless of trail heads, Chaffee CR 365 borders on the need for 4WD.  Fortunately you see Tumbleweed parked at the Silver Creek TH and pull up alongside his car.  He chuckles when he sees you in business dress.  You are taking Friday off to squeeze in a massive 3-day, 61 mile hike through the Collegiates, but it sort of sucks to have to work so late and show up like this.  Not a biggie though.  There’s just enough time to setup your tent before total nightfall.

Your late arrival isn’t critical because you won’t shuffle cars tonight.  Instead, you plan to take breakfast at an early open diner in BV (you learn the locals refer to Buena Vista as BV).  You do have time to chat and drink a beer before going to sleep.  Tumbleweed tells you some of his AT and PCT hiking stories.  Surprisingly you have yet to hear them all.  In the morning you drive into BV on Crossman Street and turn right onto Main Street.  You stop at the first open diner that appears good based on the parking lot being full.  You enter Jans Restaurant and discover mostly only old people eat breakfast this early.  No matter.  You order a short stack of blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon and coffee.  They’re fantastic and too big to finish.  You drive off for the Clear Creek Trail Head north of BV near Granite feeling like it will take today’s 18 miles to put a dent in that breakfast.  Having finished segment 11 at this trail head, you knew it would not make a decent spot to camp.  There’s parking for only 3 cars, although countless cars can park alongside the road.  There are no trees and the ground looks very uninviting.  That’s Tumbleweed pictured next to a cairn at the Clear Creek TH waiting on you to gear up.

You start off today with a little running but very soon, after you cross a new footbridge, the slope increases dramatically.  The guidebook states you’ll climb for 1.5 miles, drop, then repeat a slightly higher climb.  These two climbs make up the first half of today’s hike with the remainder a low drop into your camp site.  You think of this in runner’s math of two quarters followed by a half.  You note how strong and refreshed you feel starting out.  The only injuries nagging you this year have been in your feet, plantar fasciitus in your left foot and some sore toes on your right.  You don’t feel any of this now.  The first slope is sufficiently steep enough to make your lower buttocks burn.  But you maintain a decent pace throughout the hills.  Nearly halfway though the CT you’ve developed your trail legs and can maintain cadence despite terrain.

After running out of water on segment 11, you determine to only drink from your 2 liter camelbak on this hike.  When that’s empty, you’ll have your two water bottles.  This way if you do in fact empty your camelbak, you’ll have a measured amount of water left that you will be able to control based on the remaining distance.  No surprises.  It’s a mistake to drink from the water bottles first and end with the camelbak.  This hike goes well though and although you do deplete your camelbak’s 2 liters, you don’t finish all your bottled water.  Perhaps because you’re shaded much of the hike.  You rise above treeline for a short spell on the highpoint at around 9 miles, but then you duck back under the branches for the remaining 9 mile downhill.  The second half does throw in some surprise hills, but you average a 4 mile an hour pace the final 10K, which is pretty decent for mountain hiking.  This is because you run most of the second half of today’s hike.  And you planned to run it, but had it not been for Tumbleweed taking charge after the trail top you might have continued walking.  Your legs were stuck in their walking cadence and you completely forgot about running.  You might have also been thinking about pacing yourself for the 3 days.  A little preventative pain management.  You have no idea how your legs, and especially your feet will fair over the course of 3 days and 61 miles.  You finish today with tender feet and soak them in the icy cold creek for relief.

This is applied pain management.  The water is cold to the point of nearly stopping your heart as you enter the creek.  It even continues to burn a bit after you exit the natural ice bath.  This should stop the swelling.  And if that’s not enough, after shuffling the second car, you stop off at the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs for some hot bath treatment.  This is brilliant and you soak in those hot springs for a good hour.  This should prepare you for tomorrow’s longer 22 mile hike.  You consider adding this to your routine tomorrow as well since you’ll finish near here.  Refreshed, you head to Quincys for dinner, based on the recommendation of some locals you met on the trail.  Ironically, the same old people you ate breakfast with at Jans are dining here as well.  You really do keep early hours on these hikes.  The menu is simple at Quincys – prime rib or roast sirloin.  Since the menu says “roast” sirloin, you opt for the prime rib.  This is a satisfying dinner and you sleep really well afterward.  Two more days of hiking the Collegiates await you if your body sufficiently recovers.  You’ll see how you feel in the morning.

CT Cronica: Mt. Elbert

21 Thursday Jul 2011

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As the Starbucks VIA coffee boots up your system in the blackness of the 5am forest, the headlamp from a tall, fit runner darts past you and Tumbleweed onto segment 11 of the Colorado Trail.  This is the very first time you are not the morning trail blazers.  You suspect this injures Tumbleweed’s pride more than yours’.  And as you take a rest to adjust your gear choices and admire the rising sun after a half mile, another large group of hikers plus a single hiker pass you on the trail.  Hikers clearly want to summit Mt. Elbert early before lightening moves in.  It’s ironic given your 5:30am start is the earliest your feet have ever hit the trail, and yet for the first time also so many others are racing ahead of you.

The Mt. Elbert junction comes a little bit later than you expect per the Trail Guidebook.  Apparently some previous trails are closed for repair, but it comes at about the 1.5 mile point.  The steepness of the trail is totally in your face.  You quickly pass the groups that previously passed you a mile earlier.  You made the call to leave the trekking poles behind and wonder now if you’ll need them for this climb.  Maybe it’s no steeper and aggressive than Mt. Massive, but your expectations were set for a more gradual approach based on descriptions of this being a gentle trail.

Those descriptions must be referring to the south approach and not this north trail.  You’ll descend on the south trail so that’s probably a good thing for your knees if the downhill is more moderate.  You appreciate how this trail tries to help with numerous switchbacks, especially above treeline.  But there’s just no way to sugarcoat climbing 4500 feet in five miles.  In fact, this entire trail presents you with a total elevation gain of 6500 feet – and a drop of 7600 feet.  Those extremes are almost hard to believe considering how much flat trail there is.  The peak though is as awe inspiring as yesterday’s Mt. Massive.  Similar views accept you are also looking into the backside (western slopes) cliffs of Mt Massive.  One difference is the trail today has many more hikers on it.  You can see that.  Given the choice no doubt hikers choose the tallest peak over the second tallest.  You’re mixed on whether you like so many other hikers.  You like seeing people but you don’t necessarily want to hike alongside others for miles on end.  Flatulence in front of Tumbleweed isn’t so much of an issue.  You crossed that barrier.  But complete strangers?

You are apparently mistaken about the southern trail being less steep than the northern route.  You keep expecting the slope to flatten during your descent but it never does.  Not until you reach the junction with the CT do your legs get some relief from the pounding.  Tumbleweed expresses his relief by giving the trail sign a big smooch.  You sort of understand where he’s coming from.  You don’t ask questions, you just take the pictures.

At around 9 miles now, the trail still continues downward but at a much less steep grade.  This encourages Tumbleweed to try some running.  You pick up your pace over the next mile or two but keep it conservative since this hike will extend over 26 miles.  Actually, you don’t know that and believe it will be 29 miles.  And to your horror, you run out of water after 17 miles.  This is just after crossing the Twin Lakes dam – which is part of a 4 mile Bataan death march around the Twin Lakes under a glaring sun.  You maintain a strong 16 minute per mile pace around the lake in an attempt to reach the shade of the trees on the far side.  Not only do you deplete your water in the process, but the trees aren’t as thick as they are green and the heat and sun remain issues.  You’re not exactly concerned about heat stroke, but it’s becoming clear you might finish this hike fairly dehydrated.  You announce your intentions to drink from the next strong running creek you come across.  These have been prevalent throughout the CT given the above average snow pack this year.

You almost begin to feel stupid.  Cheated even.  Where are the damned creeks?  For whatever reason, the ridge beyond Twin Lakes is dry as a bone.  A little desperation begins to creep into your mind, let in by the heat.  You see some weak streams and are able to soak your shirt.  These brooks aren’t strong enough to trust drinking from but the wet shirt helps cool down your core.  It’s unfortunate you’re so hot and thirsty.  You’d run much more of these last miles otherwise.  Instead you walk to conserve strength.  Tumbleweed talks about maintaining a zen state to keep from sweating.  You wonder if they taught that in his search and rescue training.  He lived on the West Coast then.  Right now you’d welcome some merciful cool sweat.

You slog onward.  And then the trail does bestow mercy upon you.  You expect the trail distance to be 29 miles.  This is uncertain because of the new route up to Mt. Elbert.  But you cross a ridge around 25 miles and suddenly see Tumbleweed’s car parked down at the Clear Creek Trail Head.  Incredible.  You just finished talking about possibly completing the hike in 12 hours and now you see it’s possible you might finish in 11 hours.  Tumbleweed takes this to heart and begins a mad dash down the hill.  You can’t be certain of the remaining distance as you can’t see the length of all the switchbacks leading down to the trail head.  It turns out to be just over a mile.  You run all of it in about a 10 minute mile pace – which is screaming fast for rocky trail running.  The distance turns out to be 26.2 miles – a marathon.  Oddly enough, your overall pace matches yesterday’s hike exactly at 25.05 minutes per mile.  Your actual moving pace is under 20 minutes per mile – or 3 miles per hour which is essentially normal walking pace.  Pretty impressive for having climbed up Colorado’s tallest peak.

You need to catch your breath after this sprint, but otherwise pack up and drive away as soon as possible for food and drinks.  As part of the car shuffle, you have to stop near Twin Lakes to pick up the cooler you stashed for drinks.  This puts you on Hwy 82, the highway to Aspen, and you decide to try eating at the Twin Lakes Village General Store.  Turns out their restaurant is closed but you are so hungry you microwave their frozen enchiladas.  This is not the best course for dinner, but the most expedient.  Along with some waters and cans of Coors, you sit outside by the highway to refuel.  This was an epic weekend.  Climbing Colorado’s two highest peaks was not a primary objective but an accomplishment that added greatly to the experience.  One more weekend of hiking and you’ll be halfway complete with the Colorado Trail.

CT Cronica: Mt. Massive

19 Tuesday Jul 2011

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This weekend starts Thursday night as Jessica drives in from Houston with Brian – her boyfriend.  You dine on the front porch to leg of lamb tacos and catch up on how the Lopesuarez family have been over the years.  You’re not certain the last time you saw any of them.  It might have been Enrique, Miguel and Aurora in Austin about 10 years back, or Loli in England around that time.  Jessica related that your good friends are all doing well.  Thursday night was nice.  Friday is a busy workday and you don’t head out toward Leadville until after 5pm.  Traffic however is amazingly light and you reach the Halfmoon Creek Road Trail Head around 7:30pm.  This dirt road is as busy as the Interstate as you discover it’s a massive camping spot for hikers looking to climb Colorado’s highest peaks – Mt Massive and Mt Elbert.

Tumbleweed isn’t sitting in his car, so you explore the trail a bit until he shows up.  When he does, you leave his car at the trail head and drive your car to the Hagerman Pass Road TH where you’ll camp for the night to start segment 10 in the morning.  You’re pleased to discover a back road to Turquoise Lake that saves you probably 10 minutes from if you’d driven onto Hwy 24 through Leadville.  Nice.  You pitch your tent with plenty of remaining daylight which leaves you and Tumbleweed a chance to quaff a beer and chat before nightfall.  It’s been a long day and you retire to your tents before 9pm.

The night air is reasonably warm and you take some blog notes on your iPhone before falling asleep.  You capture the experience you’ve gained in setting up your tent. First stake out the 4 corners of the footprint. You learn you can adjust them later, so you don’t care about how you drive the stakes. And you discover the best direction to position the stakes. Then you lay the tent out on top of the footprint and join it at the 4 stakes. Next, you take out your poles and let the long end of the tripod self-straighten; which you thread through the tent loops along the spine. You also discover a clever way to tie the fly to the tent at its sides and then stake.  You catch yourself dozing off and kill the iPhone to save battery power.  You sleep well enough and while the full moon is still high in the sky, Tumbleweed wakes you up around 4:30am to announce he’s brewing coffee.  This begins Saturday’s adventure.

After coffee and pastries, you suit up for a massive day.  Segment 10 is 13 miles but adding the climb to Mt. Massive will add another 8 miles.  You wear running shorts, a couple of light shirts, and a wind jacket.  You leave behind your gaitors but take the trekking poles.  You didn’t even bring along snow shoes – those days are long over.  You start off slowly but add some light running since the trail isn’t overly steep.  You reserve energy though knowing the trail to the summit doesn’t start for 10 miles.  You’re not committed to the summit though and will skip it if you discover you’re not up for it after 10 trail miles.  These miles are totally under the tree line however and well shaded from the sun.  The shade and trail conditions combine to make one of your most pleasurable hikes to date.  Your body is well rested and you feel strong.  For much of the hike, you catch views of Turquoise Lake to the North.  That’s one long lake.  You meet Blue Bird, a thru-hiker, with her two dogs – Jasmine and Lilly.  She’s hiking the CT because for some reason she couldn’t make the PCT this summer.  Tumbleweed departs some PCT advice on her which she appreciates.  Shortly after this encounter, you meet up with the Mt. Massive Trail junction.

The trail becomes measurably steeper immediately.  You leverage your poles for strength.  The pace slows but soon you exit treeline on a relatively flat stretch of terrain and you catch your breath with Mt. Elbert over your left shoulder.  You steel yourself for 3000 more feet of vertical over the next four miles.  That sounds as tough as any climb you’ve ever done, and it is.  After the pain fades, your thighs and calves become senseless stone.  The sun beats down without trees for protection, although the air feels cool enough.  The view is spectacular with Turquoise Lake to the north, Twin Lakes to the south, Mt. Elbert over your shoulder and the multiple peaks of Mt Massive straight ahead.  You crest a saddle and see the snow peaked ranges to the west.  The trail mostly disappears as you scramble across boulders to the final peak.

This is Colorado’s second highest peak at 14,428 feet – third highest in the contiguous U.S. – so you’re surprised to find you have a decent signal.  As you sit down to enjoy a lamb sandwich, you check for messages.  Jessica wrote a thank you note to your wall and said she’s checking out Red Rocks.  Wow, Thursday dinner seems like a full week ago.  It’s only noon but this has been a very full day, making work and other events distant.  The views of Leadville to the east and Aspen to the west among a million snow peaks sparkling like stars in the Milky Way warp time.  You could sit here forever and be happy.

You’re not a peak bagger, you don’t gain satisfaction from the stats of 14ers you’ve climbed.  But the view from these monsters is unbelievable.  Even if you could describe it in fair terms, sitting on one of these gorgeous mountain tops must be experienced.  You determine that you’ll climb Mt. Elbert tomorrow as well.  That’s a rash decision considering you don’t know how you’ll feel in the morning, and that climb starts in the first mile or two of the hike.  But how could you not consider it?  And that peak is 12 feet taller!

You enjoy the summit for about 15 minutes – roughly a minute rest per mile you’ve trekked to get here.  Wanting to avoid a storm though, you begin the descent.  Again you leverage the poles, more for safety than strength.  It occurs to you this trail didn’t really call for them.  Poles are still a good call for safety, but this trail never presents the challenges where poles are a necessity.  Your descent follows the same trail down to treeline.  Only a few miles remain and you squeeze in a little more running.  Garmin records a 12 minute pace on mile 20.  Not too shabby.  You finish this hike feeling really strong.  All that’s left to make this a perfect day is to find decent food in Leadville.  That could require the trekking poles.

After a couple of misses during your last outing in Leadville, this time you score with the Tennessee Pass Cafe.  Not only does this place understand good food, but they have a nice beer garden for you to sit down in for drinks, chips and salsa, and dinner.  You order the Buffalo meat stuffed green pepper.  Yum!  You might be going easy on the place in light of Leadville’s poor dining reputation, but they get a puerco pibil for the stuffed green pepper.  Stuffed yourself, you and Tumbleweed do the car shuffle for the next day’s hike.  There’s no commitment yet between you to do Mt. Elbert, but you’re certain you want to climb it after today’s awesome experience.  It would seem a shame to have climbed the 2nd highest peak in Colorado and pass up on the absolute highest.  You hope your legs recover with a restful sleep.  It’s not long after you pitch your tent, and well before nightfall, that sleep comes to your aching body.  Tomorrow’s hike and climb are just a dream away.

The Mountains Win Again

11 Monday Jul 2011

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Vacations are brilliant.  And I definitely need them.  I don’t know why I build up so much stress but I do.  And stress is extremely counterproductive.  It kills the creative process and leads to lower productivity.  It takes the fun out of the day.  I like to have fun at work but that’s more difficult working alone from home.  I find myself simply focusing on problems.  All work and no play.   A two hour drive up into the mountains is the answer.

This is my third day in Breckenridge and I feel better about everything.  Work-related email or the customer presentation I have to give from the hotel room tomorrow is no biggie.  I feel good.  I even had some innovative business thoughts on my trail run this morning.  And my task list at home is nearly as intense as work, but I feel better about that too now.  I’ll get to work on fixing the tub and shower, stain the steps and tend to the yard without thinking of it as work.  Breckenridge has hit my reset button and I feel refreshed.

The mountains are perfect right now.  The temps aren’t hot but call for shorts.  There’s still snow on the peaks, even a little on the slopes.  I’ll be up here the next three weekends straight hiking the Colorado Trail.  My schedule calls for completing 200 more miles by the first week of August.  I started in Denver in early April and am currently at Leadville.  If I can really pull off those 200 miles I’ll be in good shape to finish in Durango by early fall.  I swear, the mountains are making me a better person this summer.

Moving

09 Saturday Jul 2011

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No, not us.  But my sister-in-law’s family is moving from Spokane to Carlsbad for Chad’s job.    They stopped over with us for the night on their way.  We were able to put Chad and Yaya up in the carriage house since we don’t have tenants right now.  The kids bunked with Ellie.  I’m going to miss having them live in Spokane.  I really enjoyed visiting for Thanksgiving.  I run the most awesome route around Liberty Lake outside their door.  But it’s not about me.  Chad got a nice opportunity to run a hospital in New Mexico.  So they packed the kids up in the car for a massive drive south to the Chihuahuan Desert.  It was nice to see them.

Actually, now that they’ll be living half way between us and Austin, we expect to start driving through on our annual trips to Texas.  It’ll be a different route than our typical overnight through Amarillo, and a nice change of scenery at that.  I haven’t been to Carlsbad, but I’m familiar with the state and I like New Mexican food.  It’s way hotter than Tex-Mex, but quite a bit more favorable too.  They seem to have advanced the Tex-Mex gastronomy beyond cheese, while keeping all the best parts of a frozen rita.

I moved a great deal as a child.  I was born in Davenport, Iowa and lived my first 6 years there.  But my father died young when I was five from a brain tumor and my mom had seven kids to care for.  So I found myself moving every year or two up until high school.  That was the big move to Texas.  I still remember my friends from 8th grade asking me if I’d be riding a horse to school, and I didn’t know.  Even more memorable is the first girl I met in Round Rock asked me if I wanted some of her dip as she took a pinch.  Nice.  Yaya’s kids seemed in good spirits last night – totally up for the expedition.  I hope they have some great experiences in New Mexico.

CT Cronica: Leadville

04 Monday Jul 2011

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You spend another night as the old man gazing up at a spectacular starry sky.  And Tumbleweed again rises well before daylight to make coffee.  You pack up your gear but leave the tent until more light filters through the trees.  You misplaced your headlamp among your gear and will need more light to find all the stakes.  The headlamp was a Christmas gift from your brother-in-law.  How did Chad know you’d be camping this summer?  The headlamp is awesome when it’s on your head.

Gear you now agree with everyone else that should be updated is your camera.  Using the iPhone as your camera, while convenient, isn’t cutting it for blog-worthy pictures.  This pic of Tumbleweed starting off from the Tennessee Pass Trail Head serves as a case in point.  The panoramic views of the CT deserve a better camera.  You up it on your list of priorities.

It’s interesting how you share gear with Tumbleweed.  He of course has everything one needs for camping and hiking.  He’s through-hiked both the Pacific Crest Trail PCT and Appalachian Trail AT – alone.  Once you discover how valuable some of his gear is, you pay a visit to REI.  Your trekking poles are one such purchase.  You’ll be taking advantage of their utility long after the snow is gone.  A more recent example is Starbucks VIA Ready Brew.  Most people will agree that instant coffee sucks.  Ironically, it taste pretty good when you’re camping.  Something about the hint of civilized living in the morning after sleeping on a rock.  Well this stuff really kicks it up a notch.  It’s actually worth it from convenience alone based on its single cup packaging, but the flavor will blow you away.  You’ll find it at your grocer past the coffee beans just before the tea.  Fortunately the snow is melting to the point you don’t expect to be blogging about the use of an ice axe.

You expect today’s hike to be relatively easy.  It appears fairly flat on the elevation chart, albeit entirely over 10,000 feet.  And you again leave behind your snowshoes.  So you imagine you could run a significant portion of segment 9, but yesterday’s 25 miles deserve a recovery hike.  You begin with a gentle walking pace as demonstrated by Tumbleweed below. 

The trail remains mostly shaded from the sun but it’s warmer than yesterday, and yesterday was hot.  Your neck is sunburned and you feel it today.  You apply liberal amounts of sunscreen to try making up for yesterday’s burning.  Less than 2 miles in you encounter a couple of through hikers.  You chat with Dusty.  He’s young, athletic, and you figure he’ll run past you before this hike is half over.  These guys aren’t packing snowshoes and simply look fast.  You and Tumbleweed exchange guesses on how long it will take for them to catch up.  A little further, just over 2.5 miles, you cross Wurtz Ditch Road and count nearly a dozen cars.  Wow, this really is 4th of July weekend.  But where are all the people?  You find them a couple of hundred feet later in a massive tent city.  Five tents are pitched literally on top of the trail to where you have to be careful not to trip over their stakes.  The campers appear to be sleeping and you’re greeted by some little yapping vermin that might possibly be a dog.  It nips your calf twice and chases after you along the trail, waking up the entire forest with its wannabe dog barking.  Several of the campers yell at it to shut up but no one bothers to wake up and retrieve the mini beast.  So it doesn’t bother you that your early hike-by disturbed the late morning sleep of these trail ass-wipes.

You enter the Holy Cross Wilderness Area before 7 miles, and exactly at 7 miles, you encounter snow.  Like yesterday, it’s hard and easily supports your weight.  What makes it difficult is that it’s combined with fairly steep terrain.  This slows down your pace for the next two miles but the snow mostly fades once you return below 11,000 feet at mile 12.  The last mile or two is sharply downhill but your legs have enough strength to handle them with confidence.  Your feet are tender though and you recall the pedicure you had a few months ago with the girls from Team Prospect.  Some foot pampering will be in order after this weekend.

Mercifully, today’s hike is mostly shaded.  The snow has given way to a woods so lush and green that at times you imagine it a rain forest.  When the trail itself isn’t a stream, you are hopping over hundreds of water jumps where the snow melt is gathering to eventually form into mighty rivers.  From much of the hike you can view the head waters of the Arkansas River.  At just under 14 miles, this hike is short but very pleasant with the shade and views.  You recommend this hike to anyone looking for a decent workout.  You finish it at Timberline Lake Trail Head near Turquoise Lake one minute short of six hours, and before Dusty.  You wonder if Dusty survived the yapping dog in Tent City.  You are less exhausted than the day before, but tired from the cumulative effect of 39 miles in two days.  Eating real food is all you can think about and you determine to stop in Leadville to eat before picking up the second car still back at Tennessee Pass.

Since turning left onto Leadville’s main street, Harrison Avenue, didn’t present you with the best choices yesterday, this time you turn right.  It’s hard to ignore the legendary Silver Dollar Saloon, so you don’t.  The first thing you notice upon entering is the extremely dark lighting.  You hope the cooks can see the food well enough to cook it.  Apparently they can’t however as you eat one of the worst burgers in the history of beef – with yet more bottled beer.  You guess the cook hasn’t cleaned his grill since Doc Holliday shot dead his last man in this very saloon.  Bummer.  You’re expectations have been set too high from the discovery of some outstanding small town Colorado eateries from hikes past.  But you won’t give up on Leadville just yet.  You’ll be back to hike 14,421 foot Mount Massive in a couple of weeks.  Perhaps you’ll review Quincys or Callaways.

CT Cronica: Copper

04 Monday Jul 2011

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You drive up to the mountains Friday afternoon, along with the rest of Denver for the 4th of July weekend.  At times, it’s an uphill parking lot, especially around Idaho Springs.  It occurs to you that maybe you should have taken Hwy 285, but you reach Tumbleweed at Tennessee Pass, on Hwy 24 near Leadville, just a little after 6pm.  The traffic only adds about 30 minutes to your drive.

You leave Tumbleweed’s car at this trail head and drive to Copper Mountain to setup camp.  You find a nice spot near the rushing snow melt of Ten Mile Creek.  The parking lot is huge, it appears to be for overflow parking for Copper.  This is very near tomorrow’s trail start at the Wheeler Trail bridge.  Once you’ve pitched your tents, you head across Hwy 91 to Copper Mountain for dinner.  You quaff a Guinness at a nice pub on the pond, but select Tucker’s Tavern for dinner based on the recommendation of some locals.  You’re not disappointed.  Tucker’s serves Henke’s beef from Paxton, Nebraska and you award them a puerco pibil for their ribeye.  The guitar player/singer outside added to the atmosphere.

You retire early, and if that doesn’t reveal your age you get up sometime during the night to pee.  As you step outside your tent, you gaze upward at the night sky.  Nearly two miles up in the blackness of the forest, the stars are amazingly bright.  If you were to leave home tomorrow morning, this view right now would make the trip worth it.  Tomorrow morning is announced by Tumbleweed as he strolls by your tent to say it’s 4:35am and he’s headed down to the car to brew some coffee.  Had he only stated the time, you’d have ignore him like the beep from your iPhone announcing a tweet.  But he also mentioned something about coffee.  So after a few minutes of deconstructing his complex sentence, you roll out of bed, tear down your tent, and pack it down to the car.  25 miles and snow require an early start.

The best news of the day came yesterday afternoon when Tumbleweed encountered some through hikers who’d just completed segment 8 without snowshoes or trekking poles.  They report snow, but say it’s hard enough to walk over.  So you leave the snowshoes in the car and gear up in shorts, gators and two shirts to warm you until the sun is up.  But the sun never rises in Copper Mountain, it crests over the Ten Mile Range.  A mile into the hike, headed west, you sight this sun crest as a reflection in the eyes of an eastbound smiling girl wearing a knit skull cap and walking her dog.  She is the trail spirit Aurora.  The beauty of the CT never ends.

You climb across the slopes of Copper Mountain and at 7 miles encounter snow.  Your La Sportiva trail running shoes and REI gators are more than a match for the packed snow.  Even above treeline where you must cross sizable fields of snow, you rarely post hole your trekking pole let alone a leg.  This is passable.  You reach Searle Pass at 10 miles and cross Elk Ridge to Kokomo Pass.  The views here are among the best of the CT to date.  All you see are snow-capped mountain peaks in your 360° vista.  It’s not an original thought but you feel literally on top of the world.

The tall trail posts along Elk Ridge are visible, but Tumbleweed consults with Garmin way points to guide you through some questionable spots.  You’re delighted to discover that since earlier through hikers bushwhacked their way across the tundra, you’re still blazing some of this trail as your shoes leave the first tracks in the snow.  After your own bushwhacking experience over Georgia Pass, you appreciate Garmin way points.

The difference in the texture of the snow is worth mentioning.  Above treeline are countless small seas of snow with rippling waves that fully support your weight.  It’s even stronger near the rocky beaches, whereas two weeks ago the edges were slushy and sloppy.  No doubt your early start is affording you this still hard surface.  The sky is cloudless and your skin already burning from the sun.   Two hikers you spotted about 30 minutes behind you seem to drop back on their pace.  You suspect the snow is already softer by the time they reach it and it’s slowing them down.

As if they ever stood a chance at catching you.  Tumbleweed notes your plans to begin running down from Kokomo Pass and begins to trot the start of your third 10K in this 40K hike.  Having only walked the first half of today’s hike, you have the strength to run downhill.  The pace is best described by “dancing” as you negotiate foot placement among the rocks.  You rely upon the trekking poles first as caution and later for support as your knees begin to weaken.  You run most of these 6 miles downhill but begin walking before it flattens.  Your knees aren’t in pain so much as you lose confidence in their ability to withstand any more pounding.

Once in the flats, you recover your strength by walking.  Tumbleweed clears some of winter’s damage of downed trees from the trail.  You’re surprised to encounter so few hikers/bikers on the trail given this is a holiday weekend.  The only other hiker was an older woman with a shepherd mix named Rainbow whom you passed by after Kokomo Pass.  At 16 miles, where Tumbleweed stashed refreshments Friday afternoon, you’re deluged by a clockwork orange of droogs on RTVs, filling the air with dirt from the gravel road they’ve commandeered.  The flats are further burdened with a scorching sun that taps out your energy and lengthens the last few miles.  And while not overly steep, the final 10K is measurably uphill.  Enough so that your legs feel it.  And your feet, having been slammed on the downhill, are now tender and you’re thinking of reaching the car to sit down.

But there are more odd sights along the way.  The 10th Mountain Division litters the trail with huts and other WWII paraphernalia.  You don’t know what to make of this monolithic cement structure, but recognize other huts and the coking ovens.  You recall the history of this fighting crew that lost up to 25% of its forces battling the Germans in the Italian Alps.  They prepared for battle in paradise.

You’re as tired as you’ve been on any of the CT segments after you reach the trail head.  While certainly not as brutal as crossing Georgia Pass, you credit an unrelenting sun for your complete exhaustion.  You change into comfortable clothes, shuffle cars and head to Leadville for a meal.  You consider driving another few miles to the trail head to setup your tents, but after hiking 25 miles in 10 hours, the need to refuel is paramount.

Dinner at the Golden Burro was fair, although not close to your expectations.  You’ve enjoyed some really unforgettable gastronomical experiences on the prior 7 segments of the CT, so your foodie bar is set high.  Perhaps as important as the food is you prefer a locally brewed tap beer.  Is that too much to expect in Colorado?  No, it isn’t.  But that’s fine.  You buy some chips and a 20 ounce PBR while gassing up your car on the drive back to the trail head.  You pitch your tent with noticeably less precision than the night before.  You’re tired.  Tumbleweed announces it’s camper’s midnight at 9pm and you pass out ’till morning.