Sky on Fire

16 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail, Running

Tags

bulletproof, CDT, Colorado Wildfires, continental divide, hiking, Never Summer Wilderness, RMNP, Willow Creek Pass

Never Summer

La Plata and I rejoined for a second hike this summer along the Continental Divide Trail. We met at the Bowen Gulch trailhead off Hwy 34, inside the Rocky Mountain National Park. We left my car there for our finish and drove through Granby for Hwy 125, which took us up to Willow Creek Pass.

The yellow and burnt orange aspen were much thicker here than in RMNP. La Plata said the colors were incredible between Durango and this valley. Their color was echoed by the sun setting under plumes of smoke from the Kremmling fire as we drove up the pass. The smoke filtered blues on top of hot pinks, mirroring the inferno below, telling the story of our summer with the sky on fire.

Willow Creek Pass

We set off at 6:30am and tracked forty-five minutes of fast-paced progress before I discovered I’d left the keys to my car back in La-Plata’s car at Willow Creek Pass. This added ninety minutes to our twenty-two mile trek, and a good four more miles. Today would be a marathon.

I discovered a new 200 calorie snack bar that I highly recommend – Bulletproof. I ate their lemon cookie for breakfast. Yum. I doubt there is anything else on the health food market anywhere close to this tasty. The Kremmling fire smoke is in the picture below – those aren’t clouds.

Bowen Pass 2

Hiking with La Plata is like trail running with anyone else. Fortunately, the section of the Continental Divide Trail between the Willow Creek trailhead and Bowen Gulch near Grand Lake is mostly below tree line. My breathing seemed good despite the altitude and La Plata’s torrid pace. He schooled me with this unyielding pace for the earlier blunder with the keys, not slowing down until we crossed Bowen Pass, our high point a little above treeline.

Bowen Pass

Can’t thank him enough. Always the coach, and actually a personal fitness instructor, this training will serve me well for the three days of trail half marathons in Utah and Arizona next month. I did have to run at times to catch up with La Plata in the early going. I took advantage of downhill sections of trail. We maintained a strong two mile per hour pace. That’s good for high altitude mountain trails. Standard walking pace is about three miles per hour. I don’t expect the Trailfest to be nearly this challenging, except that it’s three days in a row for a total of thirty seven miles. Recovery will be paramount.

I missed the photo-taking for Ellie’s homecoming dance. The kids looked good. The first photo is with Ellie and her boyfriend Will at Chautauqua. The second is the group shot.

IMG_1346 (1)

Buffalo Pass

07 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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CDT, Continental Divide Trail, magic mushrooms, Moose Watch Cafe, Rabbit Ears Pass, Steamboat Springs

buffalo pass TH I continued my hiking with Rob on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) near Steamboat Springs this past weekend. We’ve been hiking northbound generally but the most efficient car shuffle for this outing suggested a southbound route. We hiked two sections southbound, first 15 miles from Buffalo Pass to Rabbit Ears Pass on Saturday, then 24 miles from the Three Island Lake Trailhead to Buffalo Pass on Sunday. For Rob, this leaves the section of trail between Grand Lake and Rabbit Ears, and the 50 miles of trail south of Wyoming, for him to complete all the CDT within Colorado. He also he completed the northern half of New Mexico.

moose watch cafe

Saturday’s adventure began at the Moose Watch Cafe for a breakfast burrito and a few donuts. I ate one of these maple bacon delights, along with something cream filled.

Wyoming Trail

It might be hard to read this sign but it says the Wyoming Trail. Whenever we were in doubt, and the CDT is nothing if not poorly marked, we followed signs for the Wyoming Trail. Apparently the section of CDT between Rabbit Ears Pass and Wyoming, is also known as the Wyoming Trail.

moose

Early in our hike, as we stopped to adjust our gear, this cow and her calf sprinted up behind us. They stopped and acted a bit startled after spotting us, before continuing their trot deep into the woods. Moose are really just super large deer. They’re somewhat spectacular to see up close in the wild.

lakes

This section of trail consisted mostly of alpine meadows and lakes. Everything, even the tundra above tree line on day two, was lush and green, like these high mountain daisies I’m standing in here.

parry primrose

I’m not totally certain what these flowers are. My best guess is Parry Primrose. Could be fireweed.

Rabbit Ears Pass

Saturday’s hike ended at Rabbit Ears Pass, just south of Steamboat Springs. We saw a decent number of other hikers, and even more mountain bikers. Even a few fishermen headed up to those alpine lakes.

butcherknife amputator IPA

To heal our sore muscles after the 15 mile trek, we dined in Steamboat and quaffed a few of the local Butcherknife Amputator IPAs.

camp fire

Despite the very wet ground, we got ourselves a camp fire for the night.

3 island lake TH

We started out the next day at the Three Island Lake Trailhead, 50 miles south of the Wyoming border. Sunday’s hike was mostly above treeline, but the ground was still more soggy marsh.

first snow

The melt off these snow fields accounted for some of the sogginess, constant afternoon rains for the rest.

The photo above captures what much of the top of the CDT looks like, fields of alpine flora with very little signs of an actual trail. You just walk between the drop offs.

snow fields

Other times, you look for the next cairn to guide the path, when the trail is under near permanent slow fields, or like below when there’s not enough foot traffic to carve out a path through the fast-growing grass.

no path

This sign points to a spur trail, Grag’s Trail, that runs behind me. You can’t make out a discernible trail in the grass, but you can spot the cairn over my shoulder pointing the way. Our trail in this photo, is the Wyoming trail running horizontal, also without any visible path.

fly agaric top

There were so many photo perfect moments on the trail but for the most part, I simply experienced them without taking pictures. Like when the team of elite mountain pixies came running past us. Spaced over a 20 second spread, four unbelievably attractive runners ran by us at maybe a 7 minute pace. Clearly under 8 minutes per mile. At extreme altitude. While they were wearing different racing outfits, you could see they were a team by how uniformly they maintained form, like a peloton in bike racing.

Either Rob and I really were passed by a quad of beautiful elite trail racers, or we took a bite out of this hallucinogenic Fly Agaric mushroom growing alongside the trail and imagined it. After 8 hours, we completed Sunday’s 24 mile trek, this time entering Buffalo Pass from the north, satiated for that moment, hungry now for the next opportunity.

Colorado River Headwaters

10 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

CDT, Charge, Cloudbuster, High Lonesome Trail, Knights Ridge Trail, Monarch Lake, NoBo Through Hiker, Peak Brewpub, Red Dog Saloon, SoBo Through Hiker, Squeaks

Berthoud Pass

This weekend’s fifty-four mile backpacking hike along the Continental Divide begins at Berthoud Pass at 6am. The early start required a 3:30am wakeup from our stellar Shadow Mountain Lake beachside camp site in Grand Lake, where we leave one of our cars because that’s where this trek will end.

berthoud pass weather station

1100 feet of elevation gain later, Rob stands atop Mines Peak, the first of so many peaks that I lose count. I didn’t capture stats with a Garmin, but traversing the Continental Divide Trail above the headwaters of the Colorado River likely included well over 10,000 feet of vertical on just the first of our three days.

mt Eva 1.jpg

My legs are so spent by the end of day one, I’m near tears when Rob tells me we have to scale yet another giant boulder field to avoid having to glacade down a scary snow cornice that covers the trail over Devil’s Thumb Pass. We need to get around this snow to camp on the east side of the pass.

avalanche

We end day one having trekked twenty miles in thirteen hours. Not a strong pace but considering 30 pound backpacks and terrain, we’re impressed with ourselves. Thousand foot climbs followed immediately by thousand foot descents. Boulder field after scree field after boulder field. For this final scramble, I use my bare hands to steady myself against the cold, abrasive granite on each step. I no longer trust my fatigued legs to land without buckling.

ridge

This photo of Rob above shows the typical tundra we walk across from Mines Peak to Devil’s Thumb Pass. No trail for much of it, just a route for us to keep between the edges of East and West. The Cairn at the top of this hill leads the way.

alpine flowers

The tundra isn’t all moonscape, alpine flowers are lush from this season’s strong snowfall. I’ve never seen so many alpine daisies.

alpine daisies

Camping over the pass near Devil’s Thumb Lake offers us not just water to resupply, but the softest high mountain meadow grass to pitch our tents. I go to sleep fearful I won’t wake with the strength needed to climb back up that pass to continue on the trail. I credit the meadow with my recovery. We wake to see Elk streaming across the mountainsides, crossing fields of melting snow. I climb back up that 1000 foot pile of rocks, and for the most part, the rest of the hike is downhill.

squeaks

We meet Squeaks as we descend the High Lonesome Trail from Devil’s Thumb. She looks to be about 65 years old. She’s a south-bound (SoBo) through-hiker backpacking from the Wyoming border to New Mexico. We’ve met other NoBo through-hikers, Charge, and later Cloud Buster. She tells us about the rough blow-down we’ll face on Knights Ridge Trail. Blow down are dead trees, some Aspen but mostly Lodgepole Pine, that fall from strong winds and block the trail. Squeaks also tells us about the three or four family members who have joined her for sections of her hike. I figure her pack weighs forty pounds. I mean, look at it. No idea how she can do this.

Monarch Lake 1

Day two takes us below tree line, where we remain the rest of our hike. The downhill direction and the oxygen that comes with each downward step help us to complete over twenty miles in twelve hours. Cooling off at Monarch Lake helped as well.

Monarch Lake 2

Shortly after Monarch Lake, we stumble across the world’s smallest bar, the Red Dog Saloon. The bartender Lee, qualifies his boast of the world’s smallest bar by excluding Malaysia, where he says they have smaller bars. Rob and I polish off a six pack of ice-cold Ranger IPA, a Colorado brewed 6.5 ABV thirst-quencher.

Ranger IPA

Rob considers renting a teepee for the night, but I convince him there’s yet more hiking before night fall.

teepee

We end the night at the southern tip of Lake Grandby, on a sandy beach. This is the view from my tent.

Lake Grandby

We start out day three earlier than the others, at 5:30, and hike the final stretch alongside Lake Grandby, the Colorado River, and Shadow Mountain Lake. Much of this is down near the water, some miles are up in high mountain meadows. On our first climb, we watch a moose take a bath in a marshy pond. He shakes the water off like a dog, sending shock waves across the meadow from the force of his hooves. The prettiest flowers in these meadows above the Colorado River are these Columbine.

Columbine

The headwaters to the Colorado River are dammed up to form a sizable lake, although the northern end flows like a river. I refill my LifeStraw water bottle, given to me last Christmas by my sister-in-law Susan, at a point where we need to cross a creek streaming into the river. This water bottle filters untreated water so that it is safe to drink. Worked awesome for me. At another creek crossing, either the water is too high or the bridge is washed away, so we cross over the top of a beaver dam. One of our more dicey creek crossings.

East Shore TH

We complete the twelve remaining miles on day three at the East Shore Trailhead after six hours. A total of 54 miles, 20 above tree line, and 31 hours spent on the trail. We celebrate this truly epic hike at the Peak Brewpub in Winter Park.

Peak Brewpub

Grand Lake

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail, Running

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Boulder Marathon, CDT, continental divide, IllegalTrailRunners, massivemileage, RMNP, training plan

The last thing I remember Friday night was looking up at the stars, undiluted from urban light sources, high in the Rocky Mountains outside Grand Lake. Sleeping cowboy style, I dodged fallin’ stars aimed straight at me. I finally tucked inside my tent after midnight once the temperature dropped. Rob and I camped out here to hike a 25 mile segment of the Continental Divide Trail. The accuracy of CDT maps are specious as my Garmin captured 29.5 miles. Fortunately the weather was cool, between 40° and 60° so that our water lasted through those final four unplanned miles.

Grand Lake sits at the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, and is also part of the headwaters to the Colorado River. A quaint mountain town with wooden boardwalks and expensive but good restaurants, it’s worth a stop if you’re near Rocky Mountain National Park, or the Winter Park ski resort. Grand Lake anchors the southern end of Trail Ridge Road. Rob and I ate surprisingly good Mexican food at El Pacifico. After two large margaritas, I was seeing stars.

The 25 (29.5) miles would complete my 90 mile running week, for a total 510 miles of my massive mileage Boulder Marathon training plan. I run 20 miles today to begin my 100 mile week – the final week before I begin my taper. I can still report no muscle strains or injuries. Keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll start some strength training and work on my pace once I cut my miles by half.

We got some decent running in Saturday on the trail. This section of the Continental Divide Trail is a loop that begins and ends at the North Inlet Trailhead outside Grand Lake. It’s contained within the southwest corner of Rocky Mountain National Park, so permits are needed for camping. We stealth camped, setting up our tents shortly after dusk to avoid the Park Rangers. We encountered a number of group backpackers who camped along the trail. One father was trekking his kids on a 3 day outing, targeting 8 mile days with their heavy packs. There is a Big Meadow trail that shortcuts the CDT, forming a slightly shorter 24 or 25 mile loop. Sporting light packs, we ran about two miles worth of the big loop. The coolest part was running across the alpine tundra among the rock cairns above 12,000 feet.

Another cool section of trail was this burn area on the northern part of the loop. Would have been hot without shade but we benefitted from partial clouds and 60° temperatures. I’m happy mixing up hiking with my running. I count the miles toward my training plan because hiking with Rob at high altitude is little different than running. We maintained a 3 mph pace for essentially a 50K ultra. Ascending above tree line had my cardio going. I imagine I burned well over 3000 calories over the ten hour hike. Once I finish my coffee this morning, I’ll set out on a 20 miler on the LoBo Trail to begin my 100 mile week.

The Route

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Breckenridge, CDT, Colorado wildflowers, continental divide, Frisco, Horseshoe Basin, Keystone, massivemileage, Salomon Speedcross 3, The Continental Divide Trail, trail shoes

The Continental Divide Trail isn’t as well marked with signs as the Colorado Trail, and much of what I hiked this weekend with Rob wasn’t marked by trail at all. The CDT along the mountaintops above Breckenridge, Frisco, Dillon and Keystone is essentially a route. So few hikers travel this twenty mile section of alpine tundra that there is no trail. The entire width of the mountaintops define the path. Where I’m standing in this photo, the route is about as wide as the length of a football field. Clearly, it narrows across that hill behind me. This photo captures the pathless trail and general conditions above 13,000 feet as Rob and I hiked from Argentine Pass to Georgia Pass Saturday.

We didn’t have much snow to worry about. This photo shows one of the larger snow fields we encountered, but we were able to hike alongside its edge. Good thing as I wore my running trail shoes for this effort rather than hiking boots. I wanted to test out my trail shoes, even though I knew they would fatigue my feet much more than boots. The Salomon Speedcross trail runners are awesome. I don’t think they have a rock plate, but their sole is strong enough to step across sharp rocks and their tread never slipped once for me. I did notice some hot spots, but this was after 8 hours of hiking. We completed the twenty-plus mile jaunt in 10.5 hours.

Everything was so green, even above treeline where the ground oftentimes turns to moonscape rock. The Cushion plant moss was easily 3 inches tall in places. The Alpine Sunflowers and Forget-me-nots were thick, and the Marmots were quite fat as well – presumably from eating the lush grasses and flowers. This photo captures Rob in a mountaintop field of Alpine Buttercups.

I can’t say enough just how stunning the views were on this hike. We spent at least eight hours hiking above treeline. I applied the 20 miles to my weekly running goal, giving me 70 for the week and a total of 260 miles toward my marathon training plan. We hiked an additional six miles this morning which I’ll apply to this coming week’s 80 mile goal. 74 more miles to go over the next six days.

Silver Plume

02 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

Argentine Pass, CDT, continental divide, Silver Plume Tea Room

Seemingly everything in this gulch, if it isn’t named silver this or silver that, is named argentine something. That doesn’t refer to the South American country, which one could easily think considering the creek on the other side of Argentine Pass is named Peru. Argentine is Latin for silver. The element Ag in your chemistry class. So there you go. This is where silver was discovered in Colorado over 100 years ago.

We’re up early this morning for trailhead coffee but skip the regular oatmeal. We’re hoping to find something open in Silver Plume. We drop down from Pavilion Point along three miles of the most perfect, picturesque running trail imaginable. The sides are lined with golden yellow and burning orange Aspen. The trail is buried in fallen leaves. The dirt is soft and the grade smooth because 100 years earlier it provided footing for a silver mine train. After the mines closed, the train carried tourists to McClellan Mountain. So many of the trails today in Colorado were once the routes to work for miners.

This morning’s hike feels anti-climatic. This is our third official day on the trail but we’re coming down from the Continental Divide. Could be I find these Aspen trees so spectacular because I’ve been above treeline for the last two days. Yesterday’s scrambling across a knife edge continues to thrill my memories. I tell La Plata I want to complete that ridge with him when he returns.

The trail bottoms out in Silver Plume at exit 226. That suggests we have a five mile walk to Bakerville. That’s fine, it will be easy hiking at relatively low altitude. We enter the sleepy town looking for anything open. La Plata queries a garage mechanic for water while I encounter a hotel proprietor and engage her in a conversation. This pleasant lady owns the Windsor Hotel B&B and instructs me to turn right on Main Street in search of the best bakery ever. George and I recover La Plata from the garage and we walk down Main Street. We don’t find the bakery (maybe she said turn left) but discover the Silver Plume Tea Room instead. They are closed for a party but forgot to lock the door and we wander in. They graciously feed us thinking we might be gone before their brunch party begins. Their food is incredible. I have waffles with walnuts and drink copious amounts of flavorful coffee. We take turns resupplying our camelbaks with water from their restroom, and leave after having pie for desert.

We hike the service road to the Bakerville exit, leaving just three miles to our truck parked up a steep jeep road at the Gray’s Trailhead. La Plata and I leave our backpacks with George at the overflow parking lot to make a quick run up to our truck. We estimate we can manage a 2 mph pace if we don’t stop. That will get us there in 90 minutes. Instead, we get competitive and race up in 44 minutes. A 4 mph pace. A totally satisfying way to end our three days on the trail. Next, we pick up La Plata’s truck and quaff some beers and lunch at the Breckenridge Brewery. After, I drop George off at DIA and head home to finish the weekend with family.

Backpacking might not be the most logical weekend training regimen to prepare for the Denver Marathon. I sort of think it is. My legs are exhausted. I’ll know for sure in a few weeks.

Argentine Pass

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

Argentine Pass, CDT, continental divide, Mount Edwards, Pavillion Point, Silver Plume

La Plata calls us to trailhead coffee at 5:30am and we’re back on the trail by 6:30. Another group of hikers launch even earlier from the Argentine Pass Trailhead and pass us on the ascent with their much lighter backpacks. One of the gentlemen is 72 years old. We chat with them on the pass and discover we are trekking backwards on the CDT. Turns out we should have taken the trail on the left coming off Grays Peak. The high point behind La Plata and me in this photo standing atop Argentine Pass is Grays Peak. Rather than bushwhack our way into the valley, the CDT continues along the ridge to the right in this picture. We are correct in that this pass is part of the CDT, but we should be going the other direction. Hmm.

We do the math on turning around and determine it will be highly unlikely we will reach Georgia Pass in time for George to make his flight home Sunday evening. We determine our best course of action is to complete the loop by crossing the ridge we missed and return to our original starting point via Grays Peak. This might allow us to go into town for a nice dinner. We can find a suitable hike for Sunday. We’re flexible. I’m quite excited about the prospect of real food for dinner. While La Plata actually has an agenda to complete the entire CDT from Mexico to Canada – eventually – I’m happy doing whatever. I just like to get out from my basement office and breathe some fresh air. George agrees and we head back toward Grays Peak in a loop.

Much of the trail resembles the photo above with La Plata and George walking seemingly aimlessly among the rocks and tundra above treeline. Apparently this section of the CDT entertains few hikers because there is no discernible trail. The path is essentially a ridge though, connecting Argentine Peak to Argentine Pass to Mount Edwards to Grays Peak. We try to follow the cairns, or in narrower sections, simply stay between the edges. The ridge varies in width from 50 yards to maybe 10 yards. The view is incredible. This photo looks down into Horseshoe Basin, where we camped the previous night. That’s Ruby Mountain behind me.

George and I are both a little disappointed that we aren’t now hiking down slope. Argentine Pass is the highest pass on the CDT. Climbing it for breakfast was no small effort. This ridge is a series of hills undulating up and down, with Mount Edwards as the high point until reaching Grays Peak. We don’t reach Grays Peak though. As you can see in this photo of La Plata descending Mount Edwards towards Grays Peak, the ridge begins to narrow. The section beyond is referred to as a knife edge.

In this photo, La Plata demonstrates the need to begin holding on to the top of the ridge for balance. This isn’t nearly as thin as the ridge eventually becomes, but I’m not comfortable taking pictures on the more exposed sections. I need both hands. We traverse some extremely exposed trail, above 2000 foot slopes. I’m surprised with myself that I am comfortable with it. We don’t reach the even scarier parts though.

With this view looking down 2000 feet as motivation, we make the decision to turn around. None of us feel uncomfortable with the exposure. But we figure it will take us four hours to cross this series of increasingly more exposed ridges to Grays Peak. Carrying 35 pound backpacks is the reason for our slow pace. It also will lead to balance issues. We know that we will be highly fatigued after two hours of this unnerving trek and that we will begin to lose confidence in our footing. Having to take another step, totally bonked, with no room for error, is not something any of us care to experience. We also expect the chance of rain, with the corresponding lightening, while out on the knife edge. We make the tough call to turn around.

I say tough call because we really have no good plan at this point for getting home in time. Our first thought is to hike out of Horseshoe Basin below. We don’t have a map so we don’t know the distance, but suspect we could find our way to Keystone. And we could do so by end of day Sunday assuming we can hitch a ride along the way. We discuss options as we hike back over the ridge.

None of us are overly concerned. We made the right call for safety. We are now faced with the possibility of walking until Monday afternoon plus likely needing to hitchhike to reach our car. I learn a little something about La Plata and George. Like me, this is just another part of the trail. We almost enjoy it. We take it in stride and work the problem. We encounter a half dozen jeeps and another six quads upon our return to Argentine Pass. We’ve fully considered the route out Horseshoe Basin and ask them about what’s on the other side. Jeeps can’t drive over the pass but can only come up on the eastern side. We figure from Georgetown.

It’s exceptional really just how ignorant most of these tourists are of where they came from. I say this knowing full well that I’m essentially lost myself. One guy tells us it was just a forty minute drive on his Quad from Georgetown. That equates to an easy hike for us but I know if that were true, I would be able to see the town from here. No one can actually tell us anything meaningful. It’s like even the drivers weren’t paying attention. One does consult his GPS, after I prompt him too. That tells us it is 17 miles to Guanella Pass Road, and another 3 miles to Georgetown. We determine that is doable and more deterministic than hiking toward Keystone. We have a new plan.

We save time on the descent by bushwhacking straight down, cutting across all the jeep road switchbacks. We nearly beat some of the jeeps down. The bottom begins a comfortable trail that follows an old mining railroad. The gradual grade helps our legs recover after the brutal plummet off the pass. And we are rewarded for our efforts by sighting this moose. Not something one sees when roaring by in a loud vehicle. To see the moose, you might have to click to enlarge the photo.

We have to hike for several hours along this jeep road, but it turns quite picturesque with Aspen trees. We encounter a mountain biker who informs us we don’t need to hike to Georgetown. There’s a trail that splits off the road that leads to Silver Plume. At that point, it’s only a 3 mile hike into town. It takes us until nearly nightfall to reach this point and we setup camp.

Our camp site is across from a large chimney that apparently used to have a house attached to it. We learn later this is Pavilion Point. If you click on this photo of my tent, you’ll notice a line of car lights in the distance. Three miles downhill is I-70. We are so close to Silver Plume, we can taste breakfast. We suspect the walk from there to our trailhead might be 6 miles, give or take. We should be fine.

Grays & Torreys

29 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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CDT, continental divide, Grays & Torreys, Horseshoe Basin, Mount Edwards, Silver Plume, Stevens Gulch

I take a half day Thursday, which at IBM somehow adds up to 5.5 hours. I rent a high clearance 4WD vehicle and pick up George from DIA. George is La Plata’s ole UT college buddy. He lives in Austin with his French wife Nathalie and two sons. On our drive up to Summit County, I discover George, while soft-spoken, is an ex-Marine. He’ll be fine over the next few days. He’s prepped well with hikes in the Guadalupe Mountains. And George writes a great blog. Not sure how to describe the content. Mostly athletic oriented, but he’s a horizontal thinker who can mix up genres.

We meet up with La Plata at Empire Burgers in Breck. Afterward, we drive to the Georgia Pass trailhead to camp for the night. This trailhead is located on the Middle Fork of Tiger Road. We seem to forget this and drive up the South Fork of Tiger Road. We spend a good hour searching for the trailhead in the dark, on a wicked 4WD jeep road. We finally determine to try the other trailhead we are familiar with. It would add three miles to our hike. Fortunately, this turns out to be the TH we were looking for to begin with. Issue is there are three forks to Tiger Road. North, Middle and South. The two THs to Georgia Pass on the Colorado Trail are on the North and Middle Forks, not the South Fork. Great camping spots on the Middle Fork.

La Plata wakes us up before sunrise with trailhead coffee. We leave behind his truck and take mine into Frisco for breakfast. I forget the name of the place, but I have huevos rancheros and La Plata picks up the tab. Then George generously pays for my gas on the way out of town. We drive back toward Denver, through the tunnel, and take the Bakerville exit 221, just a few miles east of Loveland Pass. There’s a large parking area here. I imagine it’s for the Grays Trailhead for people without 4WD, but could be overflow parking for the Loveland Pass Ski Area. There is a paved bike path from this lot all the way to Loveland Pass. I plan to bring my friends up here sometime to run it.

We drive the dirt road up through Stevens Gulch to the trailhead. There are two popular 14ers accessible from this trailhead – Grays and Torreys. We snag the last available parking spot. Breakfast slowed us down and we don’t launch until nearly 9am. Unlike many trails, this one begins at treeline with a gentle grade. I imagine George appreciates the easy warmup as we intend to climb both 14ers – first Torreys, then Grays. And that’s what we do. The trail leads up a few miles to a Y junction where the left leads to Grays and the right to Torreys. We hike toward Torreys because Grays is on the path we expect to continue on for the Continental Divide Trail. Both peaks are named for botanist colleagues of the botanist who first climbed these mountains in the late 1800s. In the photo above with us three standing at the trailhead sign, Grays is on the left and Torreys on the right.

Our branch of the trail reaches a massive cairn on the ridge between the two peaks. There is another option to turn toward a different approach up Grays. We smartly drop our 35 pound backpacks at the cairn before the half mile climb up Torreys. We expect a long day and need to conserve energy. I find the views interesting atop the peak because I am so familiar with Summit County. The peak actually forms the border between Summit and Clear Creek counties. In the second photo above of the three of us, the Keystone ski slopes are to the left, behind my right shoulder. Lake Dillon and Frisco are further back. You can’t see it in this pic but we can also see the Breckenridge ski slopes back behind Keystone. Click to enlarge any of the photos. The photo here of George is on Grays Peak and looks back upon Torreys.

With the close proximity to Denver, there are countless other hikers. The slope spreads them out well enough so it doesn’t feel crowded, but we enjoy some lively conversation. One girl carries a Captain America shield over her backpack. Another girl wants us to know where to meet her later for pizza and beer in Idaho Springs. She doesn’t guess from our bulging backpacks that we plan to stay out on the trail for a few days.

La Plata scouts our descent down the eastern slope of Grays Peak while George and I rest. There are three routes and we aren’t exactly certain because we didn’t bring a map. I do have an app of the CDT on my iPhone but it’s difficult to make sense of it without the GPS showing our location. I have it in airplane mode to conserve power. I only use it as a camera. We elect to take the trail that appears to be the most direct route down to Peru Creek where we expect to camp for our first night. We can see the trail across Horseshoe Basin climb up to Argentine Pass, and we know that pass is on our route, so we feel confident.

To call our descent steep would be an understatement. We plunge down a wicked slope of rocks and scree. Some of the most treacherous scree I’ve ever encountered. We take care to ensure we don’t send an avalanche down on each other’s heads. And we debate the senselessness of the phrase, “head’s up”. We’re certain though we prefer this route over the trail option to the right. It would trek across some jagged crags to Ruby Mountain. That option is pictured here with the small lake at the bottom. We later meet a hiker who traversed it. He rates it a class 4 which means scrambling with your hands and massive exposure. Our route is only class 2, but as difficult as any hiking I’ve ever done. I follow Nathalie’s ski advice to George, “turn inside”. The comparison to downhill skiing is fair. We all agree we wouldn’t want to return up this trail.

This photo depicts the trail option to the left that we could have taken from the top of Gray’s Peak. It doesn’t look easy either. And we don’t exactly see a trail on it. We find out later, this is in fact the route we should have taken. Instead, we bushwhack our way to the bottom. We ultimately find the trailhead for a trail to Argentine Pass. We’re fairly certain we are back on track now and begin searching for a spot to camp.

There are no good flat spots but we find a site that is good enough. It’s close to a flowing creek. Having water is more critical than a flat site to sleep. We pitch our tents as the sun sets an alpenglow on the side of Mount Argentine. I scratch my forehead on a tree branch while pitching my tent. I don’t pay it much attention as I inhale my freeze-dried Mountain House dinner. La Plata sparks up an exceptional fire and we retire shortly after dark with plans to start early again tomorrow.

Berthoud Pass

21 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail, Running

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Tags

Boulder Marathon, boulder marathon cancelled, CDT, continental divide, Denver Marathon, GoGo Squeez, New Balance Leadville 2010, Pearl Izumi

I receive the email Friday afternoon informing me that the October 5th Boulder Marathon is cancelled. I have made such a big deal out of this race that I’m stunned. But only momentarily. I quickly recover and register for the Denver Marathon October 19th before it’s full. I’m fast to move on.

A few hours later, I drive up via I-70 to Idaho Springs. I meet La Plata at the Tommyknocker brew pub at 6:30. We break bread and share grape. More specifically, we have jalapeno poppers and mac-n-cheese with red chili. This is similar to Cincinnati chili, but with mac rather than spaghetti. Very satisfying and highly recommended. After dinner, we shuffle my van to the massive parking lot on top of Berthoud Pass and camp down at the Herman Gulch Trailhead off I-70 at exit 218.

This site is less than ideal with incessant engine noise reverberating along the canyon walls throughout the night. I don’t sleep well, but at least it’s warm. We breakfast on oatmeal and trailhead coffee. At 6:30am, we hit the trail. We gain 3000 feet in elevation over the first six miles. By this time, we also shed our cold weather gear and are down to running shorts and a T. I wear my Pearl Izumi 2and1 ultra trail running shorts. The long seam brief works well to protect against chaffing. These shorts are great but could use additional pockets. I’d like to see what I call a “shark knife pocket” stitched on the brief alongside the outside thigh. It would be underneath the shorts so it would not be visible. I’m thinking of two or three times the size of the gel pockets along the back sides.

Despite the steep grade, we get in a little running each mile. I can’t begin to describe how perfect this supple trail is for running. You can see it well here if you click to enlarge this photo. The ground feels raw with fresh dirt. We’re quickly above treeline and mostly stay above 12,000 feet. Our highest point is 13,200. Not surprisingly for a trail following the Continental Divide, it runs mostly along the very top of the ridge with unbelievable views in every direction. At one point, we are running a thin ridge lined with craggy rocks. I feel like I’m running across Godzilla’s spine.

The sun is out strong and creates interesting light between glare and shade along the ridge. You can see how the trail undulates along the ridge in this photo with La Plata. You can even see some snow to the right. The cool air countered the full sun and kept us comfortable all day. We both forget to wear hats but apply liberal amounts of sunscreen continuously. Still, the backs of my legs are now sunburned.

The muscles in the backs of my legs are hurting too. The 6000 feet of total elevation gain is a tremendous workout for my calves, hamstrings and glutes. This twenty-plus mile run along the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) is perfect marathon training. Rather than the three hour, twenty mile workouts I’ve been running on the weekends, this run will take eight hours. We planned for eight and we finish with twelve minutes to spare. Clearly, it’s mostly hiking, but at an aggressive pace. Averaging over 12,000 feet, we are often winded as if we are running. It feels great to be up here with light packs. The weight in my pack is mostly from the 70 ounces of water in my camelback reservoir. I also carry warmer gear should the weather turn bad – which it never does. For nutrition, I carry Epic Bars and Hammer Gels. I have Skratch mixed in my water. The idea is to practice consuming what I will rely upon for my marathon to ensure my stomach can handle it and that it keeps my muscles from cramping. Everything works out great.

My new trails shoes also do well. These New Balance Leadville 1210s have a rock plate in the front of the sole. I don’t feel it in there, these shoes are so pliable, but I never feel any rocks either so it does the job. These would have been fine shoes to race the Boulder Marathon in, on that course’s dirt roads. Their tread proves capable on this extreme trail by gripping loose dirt with confidence during steep descents. My ankles are quite fatigued now, hiking boots would have provided better support. But I love being able to run a trail with light shoes and pack. I’m thinking though about buying new shoes for the Denver Marathon as that run is entirely on paved streets. I’ve been thinking about buying a pair of Hokas. I know they are a bit gimmicky, but everyone I’ve talked to, like Gadget Girl, absolutely loves them. I would need to train in them of course first, but I have time for that.

Another new item I intend to pick up for the Denver Marathon is a gel-like snack La Plata gave me – GoGo Squeez. It’s 30 calories less than my 90 calorie Hammer Gel, although 3 times the volume at 3.2 ounces. Still, the real fruit content is yummy. Not often you can say that about these sports foods. Plus the twist cap is convenient and overall the pack is less sticky than gels. There is nothing better than real food. Fruit performs well in terms of supplying quick energy. All these products do well on my stomach while running. And fortunately, I didn’t have issues with the poppers from the night before.

I expect to see more people out on this trail, being so close to Denver. I can’t imagine a better day to be out here. We do see a couple wearing Beaver Creek caps. Several other hikers and one trail runner. And a few bikers. They really impress me with the technical nature of this trail. Good for them though, riding on top of the world.

Saturday’s 20.6 mile trail run was so much better than I could have imagined. Perfect in every way. From the weather, to our pace, to my conditioning that made itself evident. Despite the altitude, my breathing felt strong. And the workout my legs received will help me in the Denver Marathon. We lunch at Jenny’s, a small cafe in Empire. We both eat the half pound buffalo burger. Very tasty. We will meet up again next weekend for a forty mile backpacking hike along the CDT that extends from near Breckenridge to the Grays and Torreys Peaks. We’ll be joined on this outing by La Plata’s college buddy, George Schools. George is an extremely fit athlete from Austin. This could turn out to be a three-day race under the load of 35 pound backpacks. Can’t wait.

Alpine Tunnel

12 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

CDT, Colorado Trail, continental divide, CT, Hancock Trailhead, high school reunion

Our final morning begins with a short hike, couple of miles maybe, back to the trailhead and La Plata’s truck. We lighten up our packs since we won’t need tents or sleeping bags for today’s hike. We then set out on our first northbound direction toward the Alpine Tunnel. This is what remains of an old rail line that supplied miners back in the day. The trail itself actually follows the old tracks, although only a few timbers remain.

There is a surprising amount of snow on the trail. Probably because the trail appears to be on the east side of a hill. And we are just under treeline as you can see in this photo. Each of us brought along our trekking poles in case we need them, which we do later. Initially though this trail, following an old railroad grade, is fairly pedestrian. Discounting the extreme altitude.

We also brought along head lamps thinking we would need them to walk through the tunnel. We were wrong. That’s the east portal of the tunnel behind us. Nowhere are there any signs or clues that the tunnel has been caved in for years. Maybe the west side is open but we don’t go there. Instead we hike up over the ridge to Tunnel Lake. This is where the trail becomes challenging. Snowfields are quite large. One forces us to bushwhack across a boulder field which is arguably more dangerous, albeit quicker to navigate.

Mike and I turn around at this lake while La Plata sprints a few minutes further to capture the pass as part of his CDT quest. Maybe Mike is trying to get to DIA early for his flight but he leads the return at such a torrid pace I am unable to keep up. He must have gotten in shape on this trip.

And seriously, what a week. Every day was simply amazing but at the same time, the week was totally exhausting. We are all ready to return home to our families, while talking about our next hike. La Plata wants to train us with some snow and ice skills. Mike wants to get his three boys up here. I want a shower. We clean up again at the Mount Princeton Hot Springs which is located on the drive off this mountain. Three hours later I drop off Mike at DIA. There most definitely will be a next time.

Cottonwood Pass

10 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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CDT, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, CT, high school reunion

The Cottonwood Pass segment of trail had me more excited than any other during our planning phase because it begins at over 12,000 feet and stays there. It snakes back and forth between peaks from the east to west to east sides of the Continental Divide. Of course, with this season’s deep snow pack, it’s questionable how much of the trail will be passable. Almost immediately, we find ourselves bushwhacking off trail around glacial snow fields.

We plow over the easier snow fields, as Mike demonstrates here. It’s early morning so we don’t post-hole into soft snow. We do have to dig our boots into the snow pack though to gain our footing. This is a slow process. Fortunately there aren’t too many of these snow fields to navigate. It’s cloudy with strong winds. We suspect a storm is moving in so we keep a strong pace. Atop the first big hill we find a man-made wind break and tuck in behind the rocks for a spell. You find these rock walls on top of peaks occasionally.

We turn around after an hour or so once the trail becomes too buried under snow. We rush back at an even faster clip to beat the storm. Not that it’s raining or lightening, but because the wind is brutal – easily a sustained 25 mph. It’s almost comical when we pass another hiker, seemingly from some Monty Python skit, with a net chasing alpine butterflies. Seriously. Our hike south of Cottonwood Pass was short by our standards, but presented us with some spectacular views. I intend to return to this trailhead someday. We’re not done though. We move on to our next trail – Hancock Lake.

For this destination, we pass through BV again on our way south. This might actually have been the day we lunch at K’s Diner. I think I said it was yesterday in my previous blog post. The days are starting to run together in my memory. Next time I’ll take notes. I generally use my photos for a digital record. Unfortunately I didn’t take as many pics these days. I did get some of Mike’s pics this week though after he shared them on dropbox.

We scout a decent camping site along the trail up to Hancock Lake and snag it by dropping off our packs. The lake and Hancock Pass are not that far up the trail. Mike stops at the lake while I follow La Plata to the base of the pass. He’s running and I finally give up to rest at the bottom. La Plata is trying to hit a good point, such as the top of the pass, because he will return later from the south to hike there again from Monarch Pass. This is part of his goal to complete the entire Continental Divide Trail in sections.

This is our last night camping. La Plata builds his most admirable flame of the week. This site isn’t as devoid of dry wood as most. We recount our experiences from the week. Climbing a peak. Water rustling. Skinny dipping. Post-holing in snow. La Plata and I are so incredulous of Mike’s determination to tough out this altitude. We consider our favorite gear. I have several; my hiking boots, my puffy jacket, my sleeping pad and my water purifier. All winners. At 11,000 feet, the temperature cools down dramatically with the dropping sun so we retire to our tents with the coming darkness. Tomorrow will be our last hike, to the Alpine Tunnel.

Tincup Pass

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Asian Palate, Buena Vista, BV, CDT, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, CT, Deerhammer Distillery, high school reunion, Mirror Lake, Tin Cup

We sleep in to almost 5:40 this morning. Today is a recovery day. We breakfast again at the Roosters Crow Cafe because it was that good the first time. I keep it light and only order one plate this time around.

First stop after breakfast is the Mount Princeton Hot Springs near Nathrop – a few minutes south of BV. This hotel and spa is located along Chalk Creek and sits only two miles east of the eastern loop of the Colorado Trail. Once there we acquire day passes to the spa. First order of business is a shower and shave. This spa is a little oasis in the wild. We receive big fluffy towels and robes, razors and combs, and libations. After we clean up, we spend the morning lounging in multiple hot springs of various temperatures and drinking Bloody Marys. The bartender runs them through a juicer which we don’t exactly approve of, but drink willingly anyway. Mike and I schedule treatments for mid afternoon while La Plata does laundry.

After a late lunch we drive back over Cottonwood Pass, leaving my car at the trailhead on top and take La Plata’s four wheel drive truck down into Tin Cup. We camp along Mirror Lake for a continuation of our epic adventure. The first photo above is of our early morning rise with the trail off to the left of the lake and Tincup Pass in the background. This photo is at the top of the pass, but we’re not yet done climbing.

We could stop here but instead determine to mount our first peak of the trip. It’s unnamed but rises north of the pass another 1100 feet. The jaunt to the pass itself was about three miles and took us only an hour bearing lighter packs. The climb up this unnamed peak is less than a mile but takes nearly another hour due to a steep slope.

Mike leads us to the top and the views are impressive. This is the Continental Divide and we can see both sides. Crested Butte fifty miles to the west. Aspen’s Maroon Belles to the north. God’s country everywhere. At over 12,000 feet, possibly heaven. The descent is tough on the quads and knees but quick. I leverage my trekking poles for stability. We reach Mirror Lake in another hour and this completes our shortest day to date. We head back over Cottonwood Pass Road for lunch at K’s Burger joint in BV. We run some errands and actually I forget what all we did for the afternoon.

Soon enough, we find ourselves sitting at the bar in the Deerhammer Distillery on Main Street – which is also Cottonwood Pass Road. Lenny serves us their products paired with stories. We learn that whiskey begins as beer mash, but is then distilled. We first drink Whitewater Whiskey which is, well, white. Or clear to be more exact. There is no color because it spends very little time aging in an oak cask. We follow this up with a more traditional oak-aged whiskey. A single malt named Down Time. Our final tasting is of a gin distilled over very unique botanicals. With this knowledge of their stock, we order more Bloody Marys fueled with Deerhammer Gin.

After happy hour, we cross the street to dine at the Asian Palate. La Plata and I have been here before. The three of us sit at the sushi bar to interact with the chef. He relates to us how the finer dining scene in the Arkansas River Valley has pushed north from Salida into BV and might one day reach Leadville. He’s a Vail transplant. We eat our fill while mapping out a strategy for backpacking the next two days. Our plan is for more day hikes like today. The benefit being we are able to leave heavier gear like our tents and sleeping bags in the car. Our packs will easily weigh less than half their original weight, and in fact do. Before dusk, we ride back up Cottonwood Pass Road and find a nice camp spot at a trailhead to an older CDT trail route. We’re learning our way around the Collegiates. Tomorrow, we plan to begin from Cottonwood Pass and hike south as far as the snow allows.

Collegiates Three Day Loop

05 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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CDT, Collegiates East Loop, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Divide Trail, continental divide, Cottonwood Pass, Eddyline, Texas Creek, Winfield

I wake up at what becomes our typical morning rise – 5:30am. Mike is already up and packing his gear. He’s fresh and ready for another day. I monitor his breakfast to ensure he eats plenty because today will be a Bataan 16 mile march. The altitude and amount of climbing should be less strenuous but that distance carting a 35 pound pack isn’t trivial. The plan is to carve out a mini 3 day loop from the 160 mile overall Collegiates loop. Our original plan had been to hike southbound down the western loop but the snowpack changed that yesterday. And we obtained reports from other northbound thru-hikers that other segments are impassable as well.

Today begins with a 6 mile stretch on a jeep road that follows Clear Creek down to its reservoir. We pass through Winfield, an old mining town – ghost town now – that sits unattended as a walk through museum of sorts. Pretty cool. The museum signs tell stories of water feuds and killings. About the time we discover we’re low on water ourselves, the creek becomes fenced in by a local ranch with no-trespassing signs that warn of prosecution. This is funny at first in light of the Winfield stories, but we actually are running low on water and have a full day’s hike in front of us.

Our experience hiking this segment of the east Collegiates Loop in 2011 suggests we might not find much water. That was later in the year and the creeks should be running strong now, but do we risk it? We find a good spot to jump the fence and rehydrate our camelbaks on the private ranch land. Let them shoot us. This is a health and safety issue. We quickly reach the trailhead to the CT after this resupply and launch up a sizable hill. The first photo above shows us on this climb with Clear Creek Reservoir and the private ranch below us in the background. The top of the ridge has us enter countless aspen groves like the one pictured here. Turns out there are a couple of strong running streams once we crest the ridge.

Fortunately the final ten miles on the eastern loop are mostly in the trees because today is hot. And we take advantage of every water source we encounter. We’re nearly giddy with relief once we spot the Twin Lakes coming down from a ridge. Sixteen miles with heavy packs, up and down massive hills, at altitude, is tough.

Even La Plata, the trail master, is exhausted. He revives himself by skinny dipping in the Twin Lakes. Likely as unauthorized as our water rustling earlier in the day. Mike and I soak our feet. We’re true trail trash by now. About the only thing we haven’t done is frequent respectable dining establishments with three days of sweat and trail dirt in our clothes and hair. We do that next.

From the Twin Lakes trailhead, we drive 20 minutes south to BV – our newly adopted mountain town that serves as base camp. We dine at Eddyline Brewery and not one of us thinks to clean up in the restroom. Too much hiking in the sun makes you stupid. Total trail trash. Eddyline, as well as a micro brewery, is essentially a pizza and burger joint. I don’t recommend ordering a steak, it’s not their specialty. We’re all satiated with food and beer by the time we leave. We cross the street and stealth camp along the Arkansas River. Tomorrow will be a rest and recovery day at the Mount Princeton Hot Springs.

Lake Ann Loop

04 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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CDT, Collegiates, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, continental divide, CT, Huron Peak, Lake Ann Pass, REI, Stratus sleeping pad, The Three Apostles

We sleep hard and wake up refreshed around 5:30am. You would expect we slept well given our previous day’s activites, but I found it surprising. My experience camping on the cold, hard ground is that I’m typically up every hour peeing in the woods. Mike and I both credit our incredibly comfy REI sleeping pads. Mine is the REI insulated air Stratus model. It weighs less than 1.5 pounds and compresses to almost nothing inside my pack. It’s just wrong that most pads are larger and heavier than sleeping bags. I highly recommend this blow-up air pad.

Sipping our camp coffee, we recount our previous day’s activities and assess the corporeal damage. Our encounter near Twin Lakes yesterday with a young girl running harnessed to a pony has by now taken on mythological proportions in our memories. She looked 16 but might have been a 20-something elite runner. She was physically bound in leather straps to a pony and running behind it similar to the sport of skijoring. This morning she is a nymph traveling by unicorn. The affects of fatigue and coffee at altitude. My legs feel totally refreshed today but my shoulders are bruised from the weight of the pack. My right shoulder has a burn from sliding off and on the shoulder strap. Mike and I are both ready to join Rob though on yet another massive hike up yet another mountain pass.

We set out again following La Plata along a comparatively flatter trail that traces the contours of the south fork of Clear Creek as it rises towards its headwaters in Lake Ann. We have our trail legs under us today and our pace begins strong. I made adjustments to my backpack during the first hour of yesterday’s hike and the better fit mitigates that weighty beast of burden. The weather is ideal for hiking and even our southern compadre wears shorts today, and in fact every day.

We meet several other hikers today, including northbound thru-hikers. These are hikers who begin the CDT at the Mexico border and continue onward to Canada. We are considered section hikers ourselves. One such group of NoBo thru-hikers is a family of two athletic parents and a young girl no more than 12 years old. They relate their experience traversing Lake Ann Pass. A large snow field sits on the north side of the pass and they were required to glacade down – sliding on their bottoms using an ice ax like a rudder for control. A twelve year old did this! Amazing!

We consider the possibility that we might not be able to cross Lake Ann Pass. Final determination requires closer inspection so we continue our trek onward. We face a number of challenges on our way up to Lake Ann. Creek crossings are savagely perilous. I’m thankful for my waterproof boots. Snow pack across the trail increases as we approach Lake Ann above 11,000 feet. This reduces our pace to well under one mile per hour. Mike learns what a momentum killer it is to post-hole up to his crotch in freezing snow. Two days earlier he was basting in the 90° heat of Austin, Texas.

As we near Lake Ann, our progress slows to a crawl. We vote for La Plata to drop his pack and sprint up the rest of the way to scope out the possibility of us navigating the snow field atop the pass. Mike and I sit down to rest. La Plata returns 15 minutes later to report that we don’t stand a chance of crossing the pass. We don’t have the gear or quite frankly the skills and any attempt would be reckless. Way too early in this epic hike to kill ourselves on day two. Instead we map out plan B, deciding to make a loop out of returning to our car at Twin Lakes via the eastern loop of the Colorado Trail. We can’t reach that tonight but will hike a jeep road in the morning across the valley. It will be long at 16 miles but also below treeline, compensating the effort. La Plata and I are evasive in our responses to Mike when he queries us on the distance.

Today’s hike isn’t finished yet as we have several miles to backtrack and then hike up the trail that would lead to Mt. Huron. We have incredible views of the three Apostles all day, which are in the background of the fourth photo in this blog post. The temperature drops and it rains on our descent. This evolves into rather heavy snow, more than yesterday. Not so much as to obscure the trail but we found ourselves gearing up with rain protection on our return.

Once we reach a 4WD jeep road, we begin to discover choice camp sites. We desire one with ready access to water and stop once we find that. Mike retires to his tent without dinner. He may have experienced some altitude sickness today which makes it difficult to eat or drink. He misses out on our first campfire. We figure he’ll feel better once he stops hurting. We’ll check on him if he wakes up in the morning.

Hope Pass

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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America's Biggest Loser, Buena Vista, BV, CDT, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, continental divide, CT, high school reunion, Hope Pass, Mike O'Neill, Patagonia, Punky's Diner, Roosters Crow, RRHS, Salomon, Twin Lakes, wieght loss training

Together with two friends, Mike and Rob whom I have known for 38 years, I set out last weekend to hike the Collegiates Western Loop of the Colorado Trail, where it follows the Continental Divide Trail west of Buena Vista. We met up in BV for BBQ at Punky’s Diner. Very tasty. Afterward we camped off Cottonwood Road since we were parking one of the cars here in the middle of our planned route. In the morning we ate breakfast at the Roosters Crow Cafe and began our southbound trek just north of BV at Twin Lakes.

The Twin Lakes are perched at 9200 feet off Hwy 24 and 82. We parked at the trailhead on the east side of the lakes and hiked the East Collegiate Loop CT well over a mile before reaching the intersection with the CDT and West Collegiate Loop. This newly designated trail runs for about three miles relatively flat and then rises through Little Willis Gulch over the next four miles to 12,540 feet, peaking at Hope Pass between Mt. Hope and Quail Mountain. I am pictured here with Rob aside the Twin Lakes with Colorado’s highest peak, Mount Elbert, in the background.

Carrying a 35 pound backpack, the 16% grade up to Hope Pass was exhausting. Despite the cool mountain morning air, I sweat profusely. I rethink my decision to not whack off my hair before this excursion. My three months of preparing for this effort consisted mostly of recovering from my surgery in early April. Walking, then running, and pelvic floor exercises. Man, I should have performed more leg weights and run some hills. My travails are nothing though compared to Mikes’.

Mike weighed 280 pounds when he committed to join us in early April. He lost a little over 40 pounds in his three months of training. Essentially, Mike was carting two additional backpacks in body weight than me up this hill. I wasn’t sure if this hike would be possible for Mike. Boy was I wrong. America’s Biggest Loser could not have pulled off what Mike accomplished. Averaging one mile per hour, Mike completed 12 miles in 12 hours at two miles of altitude. His FitBit reported his progress in terms of stair steps but otherwise lost its ability to accurately record the extreme results.

The trail over Hope Pass was buried under impassable snow. Rob lead us in a path that bushwhacked around the snow field. The Colorado Facebook page warned hikers that the Western Loop was still impassable due to such snow fields. With Rob, trail name La Plata, we were undeterred and ultimately reached the summit.

This was Mike’s first such summit, but only the first of many passes and saddles that lie before us. Despite our initial qualms, La Plata and I put our doubts aside about Mike’s ability to hike this trail with the unrelenting demonstration of will power required to mount this pass. For Mike, the views reinforced his commitment and confidence to continue forward.

We were then presented with a steeply dropping trail on the south side of the pass, three miles through switchbacks along Sheep Gulch – down into Clear Creek which lays between 9800 and 10,000 feet. It’s beyond me how runners of the Leadville 100 run over this pass in both directions as part of that storied ultra. The four mile ascent, nine miles total for the day, left us with very little strength for the descent. Our trekking poles kept us steady despite fatigued knees and burning thighs. Eventually, after a grueling plummet down Sheep Gulch, we reached a restful spot to make camp.

We took stock of our accomplished day as we setup our tents and replenished our water supplies. Mike and I were both quite pleased with some of our recent purchases – namely our Patagonia puff jackets and Salomon hiker boots. Mike was mixed on his collapsible trekking poles – they can be an irritating burden at times. And he didn’t care for the Epic protein bars although I absolutely loved them. 200 calories of tasty meat. Yum. Ending the day exhausted, there would be no campfire. I’m not sure we even made it to campers midnight – 9pm. We retired early and prepared for day two which would include another 12,000 foot pass above Lake Ann.

Collegiates West Loop

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

AT, Buena Vista, BV, CDT, Clear Creek, Collegiates, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Divide Trail, Colorado Trail, Coney Island, CT, DIA, high school reunion, Hope Pass, La Plata, Mike O'Neill, PCT, Robert Graham

I leave for the airport in another hour or two. I will pick Mike up this morning from under the Southwest Air Arrivals sign at DIA. His Southwest Flight 4316 from Austin arrives at 10:15am and he should be standing there by 11am.

I’ll bring along a photo album of my 500 mile Colorado Trail hike with Rob from three summers prior for Mike to peruse on the drive to Buena Vista. We’ll take Hwy 285 which I find more scenic than I-70. The two routes are equidistant. I plan to begin telling tales of the danger and pain that Mike can expect over the next week of backpacking. For instance, I’ll inform him, “Trailheads invariably reside along creek beds so that, regardless of direction, you begin hiking uphill. Your calves go numb after a half hour and never really thaw out the rest of the day. Whatever remains of your burning thighs is completely shredded on the subsequent thirty minute downhill. All you will think about for the next eleven hours is dinner to refuel your unsustainable calorie burn.” Mike will no doubt attempt to change the subject but I’ll maintain this dialog the entire three hour drive to BV. I’ll watch for the color to drain from his face when he spots the massive 14ers that will dominate our windshield coming down out of the canyon into BV. I’ll tell him these are the foothills to where we’ll be backpacking on the Continental Divide Trail further west. If Mike begins to feign altitude sickness, I’ll change the topic to dinner. “Want to do Sushi tonight? There’s a place on East Main Street called Asian Palate. They pour a wicked Saketini.”

I would of course only treat a good friend so poorly. I met Mike in 1976. Both our families recently relocated to Texas for jobs. Mine from Iowa. Mike’s dad worked for IBM and they moved down from Poughkeepsie. Nearly everyone’s parents worked for IBM in our high school as IBM was turning off the lights in their New York factories and joining the sunbelt, tech crowd in Austin. We first met on the football team. Then basketball. Then track. We both realized we weren’t big enough for Texas football and joined the cross country team our sophomore year. Running turned out to be our sport as we lead our team to State our senior year. Making state in Texas is like making global in smaller states.

Mike went on to UT but later joined me at Texas State to run Cross Country for a year. I believe he double-majored in either accounting or finance and information systems. Mike, Rob and I got into triathlons after college for maybe a year or two and trained together. Mike soon married, had kids and moved to Atlanta for a job. We went twenty years without seeing each other until my firm acquired an Atlanta cyber security company and I began to travel there.

We hook up with Rob (trail name La Plata until he completes the CDT) in BV. La Plata has solo through-hiked both the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and the Appalachian Trail (AT). He section-hiked the Colorado Trail (CT) with me over a six month period in 2011. This new 80 mile section of the CT that we intend to backpack coincides with the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) along the western side of the Collegiates, so La Plata is killing two birds with one stone. He’ll hike the section south of Monarch Pass earlier today while Mike and I are driving.

Rob moved to Texas his junior year, meeting Mike and me during our sophomore year – on the cross country team. Both of Rob’s parents were IBMers. Ironically, I’m the only one of us three to work for IBM now. Perhaps not so ironic. La Plata was an intense hiker even back then. We nick-named him Trail Master during one of our storied camping trips to Pedernales Falls. La Plata obtained his EE from UT and worked a few years for Lockheed before going back for a masters in education in physical fitness. He married, moved around a bit – Seattle, then Portland – before settling in Colorado. We’ve been hiking together since. We always would say, “We need Mike to join us.”

Mike and I will find La Plata somewhere in BV. We’ll shuffle his car to the trailhead atop Cottonwood Pass and descend back down to BV for dinner. Mike and I will have lunched earlier on the road trip in Baily at Coney Island. La Plata has a stealth camp setup near the Arkansas River where we plan to ensconce for the night. Sunday, we’ll head for the Twin Lakes trailhead to launch an epic backpacking excursion.

Devil’s Thumb Ranch

27 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Snowshoe

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CDT, continental divide, Devil's Thumb Ranch, snowshoe, Sorel Conquest snow boots, Tabernash, Winter Park

I’m interrupting my hiatus to report to you a continuation of this season’s snowshoe activities. Although I didn’t actually snowshoe. Ellie wanted to visit the mountains for her birthday and sonofagun if they don’t still have some snow. We drove up Friday evening after work in about 90 minutes. Winter Park still has some ski runs open but we didn’t go there. Devil’s Thumb Ranch is a few miles further north off Hwy 40. Turn east at the town of Tabernash onto County Road 83. DTR is three miles down this road tucked into a meadow hanging off the western side of the Continental Divide.
The weather Saturday was gorgeous. Karen and I hiked around the meadow for an hour in the morning while the girls swam. Ellie brought along her friend Ivy. Brit was back home working and watching the house and dog. The pool is outdoors but heated. Karen and I had to negotiate around mud and random streams of melting snow on our hike, but it was nice. Later in the morning, the girls did archery out in the meadow while Karen and I hung out at the pool. We also did some weights. This was my first time lifting weights since my surgery. Karen also introduced me to planks. I took it easy and felt fine. The swimming felt like a great exercise to stretch out my abdomen.

We woke Sunday to a few inches of fresh snow and cooler weather. Perfect for snowshoeing, although not for horseback riding. The girls planned to ride at 9:30 but the Stables cancelled the outing due to unsafe conditions. In addition to ice on the trails, a 25 mph wind was blowing which would have made the event unpleasant. I struck out on my own per plan though. I left the snowshoes off opting for my Sorel Conquest winter hiking boots. I could have used snowshoes after the first mile.

The wind dissipated after I crossed the meadow and reached some trees. This is also where the snow deepened. I post-holed a bit but only up to my shins. This didn’t completely kill my momentum but it made for a tough slog. I was smart enough to bring along my trekking poles. While snowshoes weren’t absolutely necessary, I would not have been able to hike very far without the poles. From the lodge, which sits at 8500 feet, I started out via the Interpretive Trail until I reached Horizon. I took Horizon north to the stables where I merged onto the Moosestomp Trail. I took this up to 8800 feet which is about the boundary of the ranch.

I crossed several creeks that were not on the map. Not that I took a map but later I compared my Garmin results to the trail map. A meadow like this undergoing massive snow melt has innumerable, ephemeral creeks. Pretty happy with my boots for keeping my feet cozy. My boots were often under several inches of water but my feet remained dry and comfortable. My total distance was 3.31 miles with a 22 minutes per mile pace. Seemingly slow but not really given the conditions. This is easily my biggest workout since my surgery on April 2nd. Naturally I was winded but I was never light-headed or dizzy. It appears the anaesthesia has finally worked its way out of my lungs.

Vacationing in the mountains during springtime is tricky given the random weather and certainty of mud. This worked out well for me though. Ellie enjoyed the archery and got in tons of swimming. I got in my best workout of all of April. I’m starting to think I might be running again well before my target date of July. In fact, I have an aggressive plan to hike 80 miles along the Continental Divide Trail at the end of June. That won’t be running necessarily, but it will be five days of hiking around an average elevation of 12,000 feet. This spring is mostly downtime for me but I expect to back be on track this summer.

Piedra Falls

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail, Running

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Tags

CDT, Pagosa Springs Hiking Trails

Dave took me on a four and a half mile bike ride this morning on Jackson Mountain. This was a different trail than Keith and I ran yesterday, it looped on the north side whereas our trail looped on the south side of Jackson Mountain Road. This was my first time on a mountain bike in nearly 25 years. My last ride was on the Austin Greenbelt. What a kick. I suspect I’ll be searching Craig’s List soon for a bike. My rented bike is a Trek from The Hub Bike Shop located near City Market in Pagosa Springs.

This trail was lightly used and hard to see in spots, but extremely soft. Keith and I might run it tomorrow or perhaps Thursday for a recovery run. It starts a couple hundred yards below where we started our run at sign post 738 and finishes just above it. Dave was the perfect coach for someone who needed to relearn how to ride. He advised me on when and how to shift. He told me to sit down when riding up hill on loose rocks to add weight to the back tire. And he explained how to use the rear brake (right-hand) riding down technical hills to avoid flipping, but to use the front brake on less technical downhills for the power.

Mountain biking was before breakfast. Later in the day we hiked to Piedra Falls. This is only a mile hike out and back, and a good hour drive from our cabin, but totally worth it to see these awesome falls. The trail guides all recommend this for kids and it’s a great family hike. There are also ample camp sites at the trailhead. This was a 40 mile drive on well maintained county roads. At 30 miles is the Piedra Trail trailhead. I plan to return this week to either hike or mountain bike that path through the canyon. Looks pretty cool.

Leche Creek Trail

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail, Running

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CDT, Pagosa Springs Hiking Trails

The sun crested the Continental Divide around 5:30 this morning and I captured this picture from the porch of our cabin in Pagosa Springs. The winds that blow to the north and east all day whittle away at dusk allowing the smoke from the West Fork San Juan fires to settle like mist around the hills throughout the night.

All the cool hikes I mapped out ahead of time along the Continental Divide for Keith, La Plata and me were off limits due to the fires. We resolved to hike the Four Mile Lake Loop but had to turn around en route as we encountered the signs stating it was closed due to the fires. We assume it was because the trail connects with the danger zones and the authorities are controlling access.

We redirected our plans and drove about eight miles south of Pagosa on Hwy 84 to Blanco Basin Rd. Nearly ten miles down this well maintained gravel road we turned onto Castle Creek Road, Forest Road 668 and continued for maybe a half mile, veered left at the fork and arrived at the trailhead to the south end of Leche Creek Trail. Drive slow if you do this to watch for cows on the road. It wasn’t immediately clear that the trail starts further up the road because there is a cairn in the other direction, but it leads to a camp site. Two or three miles in we entered the South San Juan Wilderness Area where all vehicles, including mountain bikes, are prohibited. Until about half way to the north end of the trail, the only tracks were from horses. In fact, a pair of horseback riders were the only others we brushed by on our six hour hike today.

This trail runs north and south and isn’t the technical experience I intended. I planned for La Plata (Rob’s trail persona as he hikes the CDT) to lead us along something more steep if not the CDT itself, but this was decent exercise. The weather was cool for most of it, in the 50s and 60s. The trail alternated from trees to meadows. Occasionally we were presented with some nice views. The course was mostly uphill until around eight miles when it dropped down some switchbacks to the unsigned junction with Navajo Peak Trail.

We sat down on the ground here to recover some calories. Very soon, killer caterpillars were crawling all over us. These Tent Caterpillars are nesting in many of the area Aspen and killing off the leaves. Not sure about the lasting effect to the trees. Many of these trees were over 40 feet tall.

Back to calories, do not eat GU Chomps Energy Chews. That tripe smells and tastes like fish bait. Honey Stinger doesn’t need to worry about competition from GU. These caterpillars probably taste better.

The trail had a couple of steep rises, otherwise the grade was fairly tame with a gain of 2500 feet over 8 miles on the way out. The final mile was a 500 foot drop, Keith lead us out on the return at a strong pace. This flume of smoke came into view upon reaching the top.

La Plata got us running on the return for a good three or four miles. This was likely due to the downhill grade on the way back. We saw some cool stuff on this trail. The Aspen trees were humongous. Many had initials carved into them dating back to the ’30s and ’40s. The oldest I saw was dated 1931. Keith discovered some wild asparagus – red in color. And I nearly tripped over this fawn lying on the trail.

About twenty steps before where the baby deer was hiding, I thought I saw a big deer running through the trees and snorting. It was shadowy so I wasn’t certain it was a deer, but the snorting was weird. La Plata suggested it could be a bear. We suspect the deer was trying to attract attention away from the fawn hiding on the trail.

There won’t be any more 18 mile hikes this week. And we might wait to run later in the morning to let the smoke clear if we hike/run close to Pagosa. Tomorrow’s plan is to run up Jackson Mountain which is essentially in our back yard. This will only be five to seven miles depending on where we start. I’m re-evaluating my hike plans based on fire closures but there’s so many trails in this town I’m not too concerned on each day being anything less than spectacular.

Burning Trail

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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CDT, CT, La Plata, West Fork Fire

Leave for Pagosa Springs in the morning where I intend to get in some serious mountain trail miles. Laundry seems to dominate preparing for vacations. There are other chores. Servicing the car. Prepping the bike. Planning the dinner we will cook when it’s our night. Printing hiking maps. Gathering hiking gear. But it’s mostly about laundry and then packing. Although I found time to meet up with my buddy Jim at the Tasty Weasel for happy hour. There’s always time for a tasty beverage.

The big story tonight though is on alternate driving plans and trail routes due to the West Fork San Juan Fire near Pagosa Springs. They’ve closed Hwy 160 between South Fork and Wolf Creek Pass. In fact, they are currently evacuating the entire town of South Fork. We’re still driving down Hwy 285, but this will re-route our drive through New Mexico. We have to drive out of the state to flank the flames and come back up into Pagosa Springs from the south. That’s fine – looking forward to lunch in Chama.

My first planned hike was to be with Keith and Rob starting from Wolf Creek Pass heading south along the Continental Divide Trail. I hiked the 500 mile Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango with Rob in 2011. The first segments of that trail are currently blocked due to a fire near Denver. Rob is hiking the CDT currently in segments, under the trail moniker La Plata. I joined him on a segment or two late last year and thought it would be pretty cool to get in a segment on this vacation. Now I’m not so sure it will work out. The CDT is on fire including Wolf Creek Pass. We’ll still meet up and find an alternate route.

I mapped out a handful of trails for Keith and me to hike/run throughout the week. I’ll mountain bike some too with Karen. The best looking trail has a viable slope for biking up to the Continental Divide with natural hot springs along the route and numerous wooden bridges across the creeks. This is the West Fork Trail and is at ground zero of the fire. I suspect another trail on my list, Windy Pass Trail is out too. But Pagosa Springs has a seemingly infinite number of trails so don’t worry about me. I’ll be trail running somewhere next week. This pic above is of me freezing my tail off at the start of the Steamboat Springs Marathon earlier this month.

Molybdenum

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

Arthur Dent, balaclava, CDT, Empire, Hwy 40

I drove up to Empire at 5am this morning. There’s a number of access points to the Continental Divide Trail off Henderson Road. I met Rob near the Big Bend picnic site where he camped overnight. Henderson Road leads of course to the Henderson Molybdenum Mine. The Henderson trail head leads from the mine up one mile where it connects with the CDT.

Rob said he heard truck traffic all night long, along with the roar of the mine itself. Business for Molybdenum must be good. This mineral is mostly used for strengthening steel and making other super alloys. But it even has biological and chemical uses and occurs naturally in tooth enamel.

We continued to hear the mine for miles, until we reached treeline. The wind turbines hum non-stop serving as a beacon to the trail head. Even the trail head and trail are named for a past mine engineer – Henderson. The mine dominates everything until treeline when the focus shifts to some of the area passes and peaks that are accessible by day hikes.

The day began cold and snowy so I geared up relatively heavy with a sweatshirt and ski jacket. I only had one of my long gaters, having been confused thinking my two short gaters connected by their velcro was the second long gater. I decided to wear the single long half-pair. With my boots and snow pants, gaters weren’t critical. Based on my post-hike assessment, I would say the boots were critical. I don’t have hiking boots – I always hike in trail shoes which allow for running. These are snow boots which I brought along because I expected to snow shoe. They work fine in snow shoes but not for hiking. Their traction is horrible and my feet slip inside them causing blisters – especially when hiking up a steep slope. Wearing ankle-high socks didn’t help as they slipped under my heel. I was able to stop this by pulling my tights down over the sock rather than the other way around. And this mitigated the blistering.

The weather was actually quite nice in the trees. No wind at all. And suffice it to say there wasn’t sufficient snow to snow shoe. Considering the time of year, Colorado is on track for a real drought next year. The ski resorts are likely feeling it now. Hopefully the spring will bring heavy snows. I guess it’s not even winter yet, not for another week or two. But still, it’s December and the mountains are way behind in expected snowfall. I don’t expect to get up here again until January. I can’t imagine not being able to snow shoe by then.

After the first mile of hiking, the connector trail hit the CDT at a T intersection. Click on the picture of Rob up top and you’ll be able to read the signs. We intended to turn south toward Jones Pass to complete the section that lines up with where we ended our last hike. But the hiking was so slow with poorly adapted boots (Rob wasn’t wearing optimal shoes either) and wicked ice spots covered by the fresh snow. The signs said 6 miles to Jones Pass and 4 miles to Berthoud Pass. Add in the one mile connector trail and we had a choice of 14 miles or 10 miles round trip. We selected the 4 mile route to Berthoud and turned north.

While snow shoes were not possible, I can’t imagine this trail being accessible without trekking poles. There was just enough snow, and especially the hidden ice, that poles are required. They were almost needed to withstand the wind. Most of the hike follows a ridge along the Continental Divide where the views are unbelievable, but so is the wind. Sometimes the trail would follow the side of the ridge protected from the cold mistral, but it also would pass from side to side and we had moments exposed to gale force blasts. My face appears a bit windburned this morning.

We didn’t make it all the way to Berthoud Pass as we were concerned about returning before we lost the sun. Although the clouds were so thick at times the sky appeared to be near dusk at noon. I was comfortable warmth-wise with my gear selection but wish I would have added a balaclava to my Christmas REI wishlist. This is something I could use to guard my face from the wind. We stopped after four hours of hiking for what would mark our turn-around and ate lunch on the wind-protected side of the ridge. I inhaled my store-bought sandwiches. Wish I’d taken the time to have made my own sandwiches at home. I make the world’s best sandwiches. Well, at least this world’s best sandwiches. I’ve never been to Lamuella and don’t see it listed on Urban Spoon.

Leading on the way back, I discovered some ice by taking a 20 foot fall down a frozen waterfall. My bottom is still sore and bruised. I never panicked while sliding down the hill, but did have to roll a couple of times when faced with large rocks aimed between my legs.

We found ourselves once again eating at the Mountainbuzz Cafe & Pizzeria in Georgetown. This place has some incredibly satisfying pizza, paninis and calzones. And beer. Rob is pictured here showing me his bruised elbow from a fall he took on the ice on the trek up. Given the holiday schedule, we won’t likely make it back up to the high country until January. Should be enough snow pack for snow shoeing by then. And hopefully I’ll have a balaclava.

Mountain Buzz

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

CDT, Herman Gulch Trail, Herman Lake, puerco pibil

Rob and I met up at the Mountain Buzz Cafe & Pizzeria Friday night in Georgetown, exit 228, to camp out and hike the CDT nearby on Saturday. We returned from our last outing with each other’s sleeping bag, so first order of business was the exchange. I knew I had Robs’ but did he remember mine? We’re good friends and all but I wasn’t giving Rob his bag unless he had mine. Funny thing was we both brought not only each other’s bag but an extra one just in case. I ended up using my extra bag for additional cushion in my tent.

I can’t say enough about how awesome this little pizza place is in Georgetown. I think the name alludes to their coffee. Hard to say considering we’re a “green” state. The menu is mostly pizza, but also calzones and paninis. And they have a few beers. We drank a couple of IPAs. Actually, Rob had to wait for me about 30 minutes and who knows how many beers he had. He was able to talk with Paul, the guy in the pic, as well as other patrons. He met some kayakers chasing the last fast running water before it dries up or freezes. The flat screen was playing my new favorite show – American Pickers. What’s the odds of a restaurant or bar playing the History Channel? Before leaving, I ordered a calzone to go to eat on the trail the next day.

After dinner, we drove up I-70 7 miles and setup camp at the Bakersfield exit 221. Our trail would launch from here Saturday but we were close enough to the other trailhead that we didn’t plan to shuffle cars until morning. I took my time setting up my tent, preferring to drink more IPAs while sitting in my camp chair. It was dark of course but the sky was clear and we enjoyed some great stars. The camp conversation was deep. I learned the first time Rob got drunk drinking beer was with Miller High Life. Mine was PBR.

We called it a night around 10pm expecting a half foot or so of snow overnight. I went to sleep in my Under Armour to keep warm. The wind hit us like a freight train some time after midnight but the trees sheltered us. The snow didn’t begin to fall in earnest until we woke up at 4:30am. Rob brewed some trail head coffee and we shuffled a car 3 miles west to exit 218. The plan was to start with a 4 mile run on the trail between our camp site and this Herman Gulch Trailhead. The trail runs along the south side of I-70 and is actually paved. I think it continues to the Loveland ski area. We began running at 6:10am expecting to need our headlamps but it was easy enough to see in the morning twilight.

This was a good warmup and helped us to determine the gear we would need to wear for the hike. Once we reached the car I took off some heavy cotton and dressed in layers of light gear. I wore snow pants along with my knee-high gaiters. I left my big snow jacket behind risking a lighter wind jacket. I don’t know the temperature but guessing it was around 32° and there wasn’t much wind – especially in the woods. We almost canceled this trip because of the weather reports but the day turned out to be great for hiking. It snowed non-stop but it wasn’t cold. In fact, we planned on snow shoeing but there wasn’t near enough snow for that. We did use our trekking poles and they were very much needed.

The trail was hard to spot at times and Rob did pull out his GPS after we lost the trail in the snow. It was slow going due to ice under the fresh fallen snow. This is a popular trail close to Denver with easy interstate access, so we ran into a number of other hikers. One big group had turned around and warned us about the ice. We managed though using our trekking poles and got in a 6 hour hike covering 10 to 12 miles. Rob did crash hard on some ice on the way back but lived. I bet he’s feeling that fall now though.

Rob demonstrated how to keep your fingers warm by swinging your arms in a windmill fashion. It’s always good to learn a new trick. Watch the video. This works well. We did occasionally have some strong wind when hiking ridges so we alternated gear a few times. I had plenty of options of light gear in my back pack. The sun came out by the end of the day – which for us was around noon. I ate my calzone in the trees below Herman Lake which we got in with a side trip on the return. This was an out and back hike. I award Mountain Buzz with a puerco pibil for that calzone. Some of the best hiking food I’ve ever had.

We planned to snow shoe and that didn’t happen, but it was a great day for using trekking poles. I can’t imagine not using them for this hike. My arms are sore still – this was very much a full-body workout. More so to guard from falling on ice than post-holing. Besides safety, the poles helped us to maintain a healthy pace. I suspect we will continue hiking segments of the CDT throughout the winter. And snow shoes are definitely in our future.

Gore Range Trail

14 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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CDT, Colorado Divide Trail, Dillion Dam Brewery

Fall in the mountains means snow. I drove through some freezing rain and snow on my way up to meet Rob in Silverthorne Friday evening. I think the place we met – the Dam Brewery – is actually in Dillon, but what’s the difference. It’s the massive Summit County Sprawl. This area offers everything to the outdoorsman and it’s making the transition to ski season. We hiked through this area, mostly Breckenridge-Frisco-Copper, last summer doing the Colorado Trail. We returned to hike part of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). We mistakenly thought a section of the Gore Range Trail makes up the CDT. It doesn’t, at least not anymore. But what the hell. It was on some CDT map at some point in time so we’re including it in our mutli-year quest to hike the entire CDT.

We stealth camped at a CT trail head in Copper, same place we camped before hiking through Copper Mountain as part of the CT last summer. As you turn off I70 onto Hwy 91 at Wheeler Junction, you drive past the traffic light that would take you into Copper Mountain and turn left a few yards down the road into an overflow parking lot. Toward the back of this lot is a CT trailhead that would take you up over the Ten Mile Range into Breckenridge. After the brew pub dinner we dropped off Rob’s car at the Mesa Cortina Trailhead in Silverthorne, then we setup camp here and relaxed in our camping chairs star gazing through gaps in the low cloud cover.

I slept great, despite regular sweeps by the Copper Mountain snow plow patrol with colored lights that looked like lasers streaming through my tent. We woke around 5:30am to snow covering our tents and maybe a half inch on the ground, but seemingly warm. There was no wind. We broke down camp and sipped coffee while discussing whether to start from here or drive a little closer. We ended up parking near the intersection at the gas station. It opens at 7am and has a surprisingly cozy coffee shop and bakery attached to its east side. We enjoyed a civilized breakfast and hit the trail at 7:30.

The trail begins on the northwest corner of the Interstate and Hwy 91 intersection. This is my first outing this season where I needed to wear winter gear. I mostly wore what I would refer to as transitional gear – spring and fall types of garments. My pants are thin quick-dry material. I had knee-high gaiters to protect my legs and feet from the snow but honestly it didn’t occur to me to wear snow pants. I will next time but these thin hiking pants worked out perfectly combined with the gaiters. I also wore a ski jacket but carried that more often than not and was comfortable with 3 layers of shirts and a wind breaker. We found ourselves removing layers within minutes and only needed the heavy coats when crossing some of the passes. Eventually I removed all but one shirt and my shell.

Hiking this direction, the trail heads up first to Uneva Pass. Visibility was poor and the wind at the pass made the light snowfall feel blizzard-like. The snow fell steadily most of the day but we could still make out the trail for this first hump. The pass was just above treeline and the wind was only an issue when either above treeline or crossing open meadows. Much of the hike was through trees.

Half way to Eccles Pass, the second big hump, we had the opportunity to bail out by taking the North Ten Mile Trail down to Frisco. We considered this as an option if the weather became dangerous. The trail was becoming deeper in snow as we progressed but Rob’s trail reading skills are expert. Still, coming down from the third hump at Red Buffalo Pass we lost the trail. We continued high on the ridge for a bit and then headed straight down into the creek drainage. The Mesa Cortina Trail is supposed to lead us out along the South Willow Creek. Sure enough, we ran back into the trail within a few minutes of bushwhacking.

The snow began to thin out fairly quickly now that we were headed down. The visibility never cleared but it did stop snowing at some point. There were a number of small lakes – none of them frozen over yet. We met our only other hiker on this final segment. He appeared to be a Chinese national based on his accent. Nevertheless, he was sporting a rifle and hunting for Elk. Not sure how he intended to carry any game out by himself.

The final segment was scared from a Bark Beetle infestation. Massive amounts of downed trees. The ones left standing looked pretty sad. You can see some of the dead brown in this picture, especially if you click on it to enlarge the photo. As we neared the trail head in Silverthorne, we began to see views of Dillon Lake and the Summit sprawl. This would be a great area to own a little condo. Incredible access.

Rob and I returned to the Dam Brewery to recover from our ten hour, twenty mile hike. The place is good enough for a return, and we knew they had the beer and menu our bodies were looking for. We ordered a pitcher of the velvety McLuhr’s Irish Stout. Ten hours was a longer day than we anticipated, but the snow slowed down our progress. I suspect trekking poles saved this from being a twelve hour hike. Haven’t used those in some time and they were a huge help today. We intend to continue hiking segments of the CDT, but expect to need snow shoes next time around. Certainly snow pants.

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A Runner's Story

Tag Archives: CDT

Sky on Fire

Buffalo Pass

Colorado River Headwaters

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Grays & Torreys

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