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Alpine Tunnel

12 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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

TunnelOur 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.

DCIM41[N3862354W10635535T40D992EAH0DBB84]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.

Alpine TunnelWe 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.

Alpine Tunnel LakeMike 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.

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Cottonwood Pass

10 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

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

Cottonwood PassThe 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.

snow packWe 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.

wind screenWe 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.

Hancock LakeFor 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.

campfireThis 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.

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Tincup Pass

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

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

Mirror LakeWe 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.

tincup passAfter 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.

ascentWe 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.

panoramic

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.

Deerhammer DistilleryAfter 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.

 

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Lake Ann Loop

04 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

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

Clear CreekWe 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.

map readingSipping 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.

trail signsWe 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.

shirtlessWe 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!

creek crossingWe 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.

CT SignAs 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.

IMG_4025Today’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.

campOnce 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.

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Hope Pass

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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

Punkys DinerTogether 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.

Mt ElbertThe 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.

scrambleCarrying 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’.

tree climbMike 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.

impassThe 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.

Hope Pass SummitThis 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.

descentWe 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.

Sheep Gulch THWe 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.

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Collegiates West Loop

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

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

mt-princeton-coloradoI 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.”

Unicoi GapI 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.

CT and CDTRob 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.

40.137598 -105.107652

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The Gap

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail, Running

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Tags

Buena Vista, BV, Collegiates West Loop, Colorado Trail, continental divide, high school reunion, Hope Pass, Mt. Princeton Hot Springs

CanyonRan for the second day in a row.  I dressed in tights and a light jacket to withstand the blowing snow and 38°, but man it felt so good.  I can feel that I’ve lost my strength.  My speed is back at zero.  But I also can sense that I could regain my fitness fairly quickly with enough discipline.  Thirty days will not create too large of a gap to overcome before my next big event.  Of course, my next big event is no longer the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day – I’ll be walking that with Ellie.  My next race is now set for the fall – the Boulder Marathon.  I took second in my age division last time around.  The goal this year is to maintain pace with my buddy Chris Price and try to win my age group.  This photo is of my last event two weeks before surgery – the Moab Half Marathon.

wild and crazy guysIf I broaden my scope beyond simply running, my next big event is really an 80 mile hike along the Continental Divide on the Collegiates West Loop of the Colorado Trail.  I’ll pick up Mike at DIA, Saturday morning June 21.  He’ll fly out from his home in Atlanta.  We’ll drive three hours directly to Buena Vista to hook up with Rob.  This photo captures the three of us preparing for a 10K road race 35 years ago in high school.  I know what you’re thinking.  I haven’t aged much.

Hope Pass saddleWe plan to start from Twin Lakes and hike south toward Monarch Pass. This is where Mike and I gain our trail legs. The Twin Lakes Trailhead sits at 9200 feet off Hwy 24 and 82. The trail leads south/southwest and rises through Little Willis Gulch over the next six miles to 12,500 feet, peaking at Hope Pass (pictured here) – which is the highest point of the Leadville 100 trail run. This is an average 10% rise, which at altitude will have Mike and me breathing as hard as if we were running. I only mention me and Mike because Rob is a mountain goat.  The trail then drops steeply, three miles through some switchbacks along Sheep Gulch down into Clear Creek which lays between 9800 and 10,000 feet. This 16% down slope should sufficiently shred all our knees. We’ll end our first day either here in Sheep Gulch or a few miles down along Clear Creek and set up camp.

We follow Clear Creek west along the Pack Trail for three miles and veer left (south) at the South Fork. We follow this course and reach Lake Ann after six additional miles. Assuming this is day two, we might rest here at 11,800 feet for lunch. We start up again heading south and rise up to a saddle at 12,600 feet after another mile.  We quickly drop back down to 11,000 and bounce along a series of undulations between 11K and 11,200 feet before settling around 11,400 feet along the Timberline Trail. After eight and a half miles, we drop through Prospector Gulch to Texas Creek. This puts us back onto Pack Trail and we follow the creek for another four miles before crossing it. We could camp out somewhere within those four miles. After crossing Texas Creek, we rise up above treeline and continue for yet another four miles, veering onto the South Fork of Texas Creek until we reach Cottonwood Pass which sits at 12,200 feet. One of our cars will be parked here with a cooler of libations.

We’ll shuffle a car down to Monarch Pass, likely adjust our gear, and then eat a real dinner in BV.  If we have time, we’ll also squeeze in a bath at the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.  The second forty miles of our backpacking trip will continue from Cottonwood Pass and end at Monarch Pass.  The average elevation will hover at 12,000 feet.  Despite it being the end of June, at this altitude there will be snow.  The entire 80 mile hike will take either five or six days.  We have enough time in our plan for contingencies.  I agreed to this get together just after my surgery while still sporting a catheter tethered to my bladder.  A boy needs goals.  I had no ideal then if I’d be prepared but now that I’m running again I feel fully confident I can hang with these guys.  Time to close the gap.

 

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Looking Back on the Colorado Trail

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Collegiates, Colorado Trail, Mesa State, Mt. Elbert, Mt. Massive, pocket shots, Robert Graham, Round Rock, Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, Tumbleweed

High PointA full two weeks after completing the Colorado Trail, I’m ready to look back.  It’s late Sunday afternoon and I have a rack of lamb butterflied and marinating.  I’m having my ass handed to me in fantasy football by Henry, a high school senior.  And the Cowboys and Patriots are playing a close game in the 4th quarter tied at 13 each.  Tumbleweed told me I’d go through some emotions after we finished the trail.  I guess he’s right.

Tumbleweed is none other than Robert Graham – a friend since high school where we ran Track and Cross Country together at Round Rock High School.  He lives now in Grand Junction, Colorado running the recreational sports program at Mesa State.  He was going to hike the CT this year with or without me, but he invited me to join him on the initial segments which start near Denver.  This was early spring, April 2nd to be exact.  The foothills of the Front Range presented us with ideal running conditions through deep, shady forests over soft dirt trails padded with pine needles.  We estimate we ran as much as half the distance on the first CT section of 5 segments.  The CT is organized in 5 sections of 5 segments each, except for the last section having 8 segments.  The 2nd section was mostly under snow which limited our running opportunities.  The 3rd section was the Sawatch Range which contains the Collegiate Peaks – so named because many of the peaks are named after universities like Princeton, Yale and Harvard – and was awesome for trail running.

I love trail running and those first outings were so epic that I kept showing up for subsequent hikes.  I quickly changed my commitment from the first two hikes to joining Rob until we reached Copper.  I didn’t think I could afford the time to continue beyond that, but then Karen told me to keep going.  What a good wife.  She knew I was enjoying myself.  And of course, by the time I climbed the highest and second highest peaks in Colorado in the middle of the Collegiates – I was committed to finishing the whole enchilada.  Completion required 6 months – from April 2nd to October 2nd.  We hooked up on 13 weekends consisting of 25 days of hiking; we covered 486 miles and counting the three 14,000 foot peaks we climbed, nearly 100,000 vertical feet.

Previous to this summer, I was not a very experienced hiker or camper.  Nothing like a little repetition.  I bought a one man tent and can now set it up (and dismantle it) in the dark in a few minutes.  I first went snow shoeing just this year in January.  I now consider myself highly experienced at the sport.  I even took my family snow shoeing in Breckenridge over spring break.  Related to this I have become comfortable with trekking poles.  With the right snow, I’ve learned the poles are sufficient without the snow shoes.  But in deep snow, the poles are absolutely required for safety.  They help to extract yourself after post-holing – which is when a leg sinks deeply into weak snow.  This is common around buried trees.  Still, I got to the point that I prefer to not carry trekking poles on long hikes.  While they increase your balance and strength on snow, they become an annoying burden on long hikes.  It helps though that all new models are now collapsible for portability.  I am confident reading trail signs including trail blazes and can skip across streams without breaking stride.  I even performed a yogi bear by hitching a ride and changed my shirt at the table of a restaurant – I’ve become true trail trash.

The one man tent, snow shoes and trekking poles were all new gear for me.  I also bought a new sleeping bag near the end of the trail as the temperature was dropping and I wanted better light weight gear for back packing.  Speaking of which, I bought a kick-ass back pack.  That thing is like an RV if not a house.  We back packed enough that I became very familiar with all its pockets and features.  Probably my favorite gear was my head lamp which my brother-in-law gave me last Christmas.  Those things are handy.  I can’t say I liked any of the trail food.  Even the pocket shots – while extremely convenient booze – taste pretty bad.  I think the only trail/camping food that I was seriously pleased with would be the Starbucks Via Ready coffee.  Those are a keeper.

I did discover some good eateries.  I’m not going to re-list them all, I did a good job of reviewing and linking them in my blogs.  A typical hike would burn several thousand calories, so food tended to taste pretty damned good at the end of the day.  Still, some restaurants really were superb.  As far as that goes, I enjoyed learning all the back roads and less-traveled highways.  I discovered Colorado with a view from the top and it was a kick.  Immediately after completing the trail I recall thinking just how much I love Colorado.  Actually, and admittedly I might have been a bit manic if not delusional, but I was totally in love with my life at the end.  Being able to do something like this is special and I’m extremely fortunate to have the health and the family support to be able to have done it.  I know that.  Life is good.  With that said, the picture above is me at both a low point and a high point.  Not counting some of the peaks we climbed, this is the highest official point of the CT – I believe at 13,200 feet.  But I was suffering from dehydration and subsequent altitude sickness.  I am laying down in this pic because I seriously could not stand anymore.  There were many moments like that.  This was not easy but I remember the challenges as much as the views, as much as the discovery of new towns and restaurants.  I’m not coming close to properly describing what an experience this was, but oh well.  The Cowboys just lost and it’s time to sear that lamb and roast a Sunday dinner.

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CT Cronica: The Durango Terminus

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Colorado Trail, CT, Durango, Las Platas, million dollar highway, Mountain House, puerco pibil, red eye, Silverton, Steamworks Brewery, Taylor Lake

You can’t think straight enough Wednesday night to pack. You’ve been distracted since you returned from Molas Pass  about getting back on the trail to finish what you started.  Distracted is not the right word.  Preoccupied maybe?  That would work in Spanish since in Mexico it means worried.  You’re concerned that the weather will turn for the worse.  Last weekend would have been ideal weather.  Well, seemed good in Longmont, could have been different 500 miles away near Durango.  But you scheduled this upcoming weekend to complete the CT.  And Karen entered the Beathard’s East Texas Red Chili recipe into the Prospect Chili cookoff last weekend, so you were committed to tasting a dozen chili recipes on Sunday.  Your concern with having this completed already stems mostly from the weather, but there are other factors.  Work Thursday morning is unbelievable.  Everything is going south faster than Lotus Notes can replicate your email – thanks to SameTime Chat which is faster than the speed of email.  You’re prepared to cancel the weekend but things come together and you’re able to take your half day vacation after six hours of work and drive off at 1pm.

Brittany no longer works at Snarfs so you pick up a sandwich for lunch in the car and two more for lunch tomorrow at Jimmy Johns.  Not as good but good enough.  Highway 285 is gorgeous.  The parking lots on both sides of the highway at Kenosha Pass are full – presumably from camera toting hikers.  Monarch Pass along Hwy 50 is  even more colorful.  Half the cars driving in front of you at some point stop for the passengers to get out and take pictures of the fall colors.  Turning south on Hwy 550 you see the snow covered San Juans which are the first thing to compete visually with the gold leaf aspens. Beyond Ouray, on the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton, you nearly stop yourself to take a few snapshots.  Never in your life have you seen such spectacular scenery.  You reach Molas Pass after 6.5 hours of driving and Tumbleweed has pizza and beer waiting.  Not that he waited – he’s nearly full.

You quaff two beers with some really good pizza Tumbleweed exported from Durango.  A friend, Tonya, drove him back to Molas Pass after he dropped his car off at the trail head in Durango where the CT will end.  This allows you to skip the car shuffle which is good since it was 25 minutes past sunset when you reached your camp site 5 miles south of Silverton on Molas Pass.

You pitch your tent in the dark after dinner and sleep soundly despite your excitement.  You rise at 5am to coffee and stars. You’ll miss the star gazing when this is over.  Using headlamps, you launch off on your final CT weekend at 6:21am.  Official sunrise won’t be for another half hour or so – which you catch in this third photo above.  After about a quarter mile you realize you forgot your gaitors in the car.  It would be easy enough to drop your backpack and run back to fetch them, but you make the call to trudge on without the ankle protection.  You’d have gone back if you expected heavy snow but you’re not concerned with a few rocks and twigs.

Over-confident?  Possibly.  More likely you are just so excited to get going that you don’t want to turn back for a few minutes.  And to be fair, you need to average 25 miles per day to finish this slog in three days.  But like the weathered trail sign you lean against for a pic, the trail could turn corrosive if not prepared.

Despite the forecasts for rain and snow, the day is as bright and sunny as the pic above depicts.  You’re making good time on a beautiful fall Friday and reach the segment highpoint on a saddle at roughly 12,400 feet a little after noon.

By 1pm the snow and freezing rain begin to fall and by 2pm you find yourself caught in a decent downpour and thunderstorm above treeline.  Less than ideal for sure.  And make no mistake, you’re anything but cavalier about the weather.  You’re super concerned about being struck by lightening.  You quicken your pace to reach the trees but this is impeded by the mud.  You complete segment 25 and progress another mile and a half or so into the next segment before calling it quits for the 10 hour day – just a hair into the trees at around 11,500 feet.  It’s fairly early, before 5pm, but you’re not confident you can make the next decent camping spot known to have water in this weather.

The rain makes for a cold dinner. In fact, you keep inside your tent to warm your feet as Tumbleweed heats water over the butane burner for your camp dinners.  You wonder now how much those gaitors would have kept your feet dry and free from the mud that now covers the floor of your tent.  Tumbleweed serves cheese and crackers before dinner with Makers Mark.  You’re not farmers.  And while some might consider this to be over-the-top sophistication, he adds Fritos to your Mountain House freeze dried camp dinners.  With light still in the sky, you retire to your sleeping bag satisfied.  Tumbleweed tells you the next morning that you were snoring by 7pm.

You rise at 5am Saturday morning and efficiently pack up your gear preparing for a long day.  The goal, to reach a good camp site with water – in this case Taylor Lake – will require a 28 mile hike.  You gear up with your big boy pants and hit the trail at 6am sharp – still drinking your unfinished coffee.

You’re able to shut off your head lamp after just over a mile once your eyes have become accustomed to the trail in twilight.  You climb a bit but after 5 miles you descend solidly for the next 5 miles – reaching an elevation well under 11K feet.  So much of this hike in the San Juans has been on ridges and tundra above treeline that you welcome hiking through trees again.  Somewhere in the middle of this you cross Straight Creek where Tumbleweed filters more water.  Much of the trail is covered in icy rain and you’re careful with your foot falls when walking down steep slopes.  You pound your feet harder than normal into the ground as you walk to make certain you gain traction on crushed ice.

You prepare to get soaked again in the early afternoon on segment 27, but somehow you skirt the edge of the rain all day.  You over-react to a little rain and snow by donning your $2 rain poncho only to have the sun come back out for a beautiful day.  You remain nervous because it’s near the end of the day you’ll have to cross several miles of tundra on a ridge above treeline.  You don’t want a repeat of yesterday afternoon, that’ll really suck.  But you’re making pretty good time and the clouds are still stuck to your right.  You get the impression they’ll stay there.

As you climb back up to around 11,000 feet, somewhere in the middle of segment 27, a woman drives by where the trail meets a junction with a forest road.  She stops to talk, asking if you are through-hiking the CT.  She proceeds to tell you her heart-breaking tale of reaching this point last year.  She through-hiked all the way from Denver.  With about 35 miles remaining, on nearly the same day as this, she was forced to bail out from the cold rain and pending threat of hypothermia.  This adds to your weather concerns and you step up your pace to try crossing that tundra before it rains.

You maintain a strong pace but grow weary after 20 miles.  Maybe even a little punch drunk because you can’t stop laughing after coming upon a sign that reads, “scenic overlook”.  Forgetting about the day’s objective, you drop your packs and walk a 100 meters or so out along a ridge for the view.  Once there, you snap a couple of pictures.  Right away the rain chases you back to your packs and you continue up the hill.

The trail has been rising steadily back up to 12,000 feet.  You recognize the tundra when you see it and feel comfortable you’ll traverse it before a storm approaches.  You’re a bit surprised by the steepness of the trail however.  Much of today’s hiking has been gradual in terms of steepness.  This hill resembles a mountain peak in its grade and the amount of loose rocks.  You feel the fatigue of 25 miles, but know this is the last climb and will soon be descending the final mile into Taylor Lake.  Like a dolly zoom, the tundra stretches out as your steps decay to a crawl.  At this altitude, your lungs rapidly push in and out air but the muscles in your legs aren’t receiving oxygen.  This is hard but you keep your chin up knowing this is the last hill.

Your chin lowers a bit when you reach the summit to find yet another hill, slightly taller, that was previously hidden from view.  Dammit!  Okay, one more then.  You’re seriously fatigued and thinking of dinner when you summit this second hill only to see a third, slightly taller again.  Sunofabitch!  This one is even bigger and you rest a tad near its top on a side hill to study your trail notes.  Each hill takes you closer to the Las Platas and the view is spectacular.  You catch a pic of Tumbleweed studying his notes with the Las Platas as background.  You consider the grammar of using redundant articles “the” and “las”, but technically you’re only saying one article per language.

It doesn’t surprise you when you reach the top of this side hill and see a fourth hill yet to climb.  You march onward with zero confidence in your strength and stamina but knowing there’s no way you’ll pitch a tent on this hill for the night.  Eventually you reach the descent and see the lake marking the end of the day’s hike.  The mile long ramble down offers little reprieve however.  Your legs are weak and your dismount from the tundra hills feels more like a collapse to the high altitude lake below.  Your knees twitch with straining muscles and you focus on careful and slow steps so that you don’t fall.  Falling is typical of nearing the end of anything.  There’s plenty of daylight remaining for setting up camp so you take your time.  At least it’s downhill.  Once there, Tumbleweed wades into the lake for a cool down.

This will be your last night camping out on the Colorado Trail.  You’d like to make a fire but there’s no dry wood.  As hungry as you were a few hours ago on the trail, you’re now nauseous and you have to force yourself to down your freeze dried meal.  Those tundra hills took their toll.  You sleep hard but wake in the night to various sounds.  A wind howls through the mountains at some point followed by a light rain.  You hear the red eye jets flying from LA to the East Coast.  A jet departing LA around 11pm PDT would arrive in NY by 7:30am EDT.  That puts it in the air over the San Juans around 2 in the morning mountain time.  You don’t check the time tonight but have on previous nights camping – you could set your watch by this.

You wake up ready to go.  Your tent is covered in a sheet of ice but it doesn’t matter that you pack it wet since you won’t need it tonight.  This is your last day on the trail.  You’re almost giddy.  You pack up your gear in record time and head up Kennebuc Pass.  This is only a fraction of a mile into the hike and is your high point for the day at 11,700 feet.  It’s downhill forever from here.  There will be another rise after 7 miles but everything is under 10,000 feet by that point.  Climbing hills is doable with air.

After the sun rises you can tell this is going to be another beautiful day.  The rains don’t generally fall until 2 or 3, and you expect to reach the Junction Creek Trail Head, 21.5 miles away in Durango, by perhaps 3.  You’re happy that you bought a new camera for this excursion to capture the fall colors.  Unfortunately you drop it during a gear change today and the lens won’t open – presumably from dirt.  Not critical since you can still take pics with your iPhone.  Good thing you bought the accidental protection plan.  All pics going forward will be 2.5 mega pixels.

Today’s hike has been entirely in the trees ever since dropping down from Kennebuc Pass.  Much of the San Juans has been on ridges at or above treeline.  The first 7 miles is also completely downhill, not too steep, but gradual and constant following Junction Creek.  You cross this creek several times, the final time at 7.1 miles over a wooden bridge.  You rest here before beginning the next section which is your final climb – 1000 feet over 4 miles.

This would not be a difficult climb as the grade is rarely steep, and your feet are loving the soft dirt through old growth aspen.  But you struggle to maintain Tumbleweed’s pace.  He smells the end.  You fall behind and frequently sprint to catch back up.  You begin to encounter mountain bikers now.  Their numbers increase, along with day hikers, as you near the trail head.  And they are noticeably social.  Everyone in Durango loves a through-hiker, and most have their own stories to tell.  You try to be polite but you both can taste the finish.  You’ve been fantasizing most of the day about a half pound cheese burger.  As rare as they’ll cook it.  These chatty bikers and hikers are between you and a fantasy burger and you find yourself cutting conversations short to plow on.

The hike doesn’t go quick necessarily.  Despite the excitement and strong pace, 21 miles is 21 miles.  But suddenly the trail widens into the trail head parking lot where Tumbleweed has his car parked.  Wow.  Really?  You unceremoniously dump the 40 pound back pack onto the ground next to the car.  You won’t miss it.  You give Tumbleweed a strong hug and walk around the gravel parking lot to cool down and recover your thoughts.  You completed nearly 500 miles of Colorado with a view from the top.  You gained years of hiking experience over the last 6 months.  You had a few moments of pending injury but were never hurt.  You nearly wrecked your car in a spring snow.  Post-holing over Georgia Pass was exhausting.  But you’d argue the most vulnerable you’ve been on this trail is when dropping your ass into the dark unknown during morning rituals.  You’ll have to read back through your blog to remember all the moments.  You plan to publish a photo book for Tumbleweed for Christmas.

Your burger fantasy hasn’t diminished and after a picture by Mike, a biker you met earlier on the trail, you drive into town looking for the Steamworks Brewery based on a recommendation suggested by another biker.  The burger menu doesn’t offer any configuration of interest to you, but you’re able to custom order a regular half pounder.  Your friendly waitress with an  interesting tatoo, Cassie, ensures you that they’ll cook it how you want it.  Tumbleweed orders a steak sandwich.  You begin with nachos and a pitcher of their award winning Steam Engine Lager.  When Cassie serves the burger, you know it’s going to be good simply from the aroma, and it is.  Seared but rare.  It’s everything you dreamed of and you award Steamworks a puerco pibil.  You can’t order avocado here to go with it, but have to instead settle on gaucamole.  This is because they buy it from another local outfit.  It’s good enough but has that artifical acerbic acid, tinny taste apparently to preserve it.  You find this unnecessary in Colorado as it takes just a drop of lime juice to keep guac green all day.  Still, this is a great burger joint.

You sleep overnight at the house of some good friends of Tumbleweed – Darren and Tonya.  They’re fantastic hosts.  They feed you again and provide great conversation.  They have even another guest spending the night, Steve who is an artist up fishing from Texas.  You rise the next morning as early as if you were on the trail for the 8 hour drive back to reality.  Everyone is already asking you what’s the next great adventure.  You’re simply looking forward to hanging around the house and watching college football.

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Return to Molas Pass

25 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

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Tags

Colorado Trail, CT, million dollar highway, Molas Pass

I’ll be returning to Molas Pass off the Million Dollar Hwy Thursday to complete the 70 miles remaining of the Colorado Trail.  From the day I started hiking outside Denver with Tumbleweed to the day I exit the trail into Durango will be a full six months.  About the only regret I have is that I never brought along a nicer camera than my 2.5 MP iPhone 3Gs.  The pics are okay though and I’ll publish a photo album from my blog’s CT Cronica series when it’s all done.

I’m surprised at how massive an event this little hike has become.  I’ve gained years of hiking and camping experience; along with handy snow shoeing skills.  No doubt I own considerably more gear.  I feel very fortunate for the family support.  Karen is good to me.  A little bummed I have to travel to Miami the next day – that’ll curb my celebrations previously planned for Durango.  Sucks when work gets in the way of my personal life.  Still, it’s been epic.  Can’t wait to wind this puppy up next weekend.

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La Sportiva

21 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Tags

Colorado Trail, CT, East Boulder Trail, trail running shoes, White Rock Trail

New trail shoes.  My old ones died on the Colorado Trail.  I liked them so much though I bought the same pair again.  It was tempting to buy something different.  Something with some color.  But these La Sportivas have such good stability.  And the Gore-Tex really works to keep my feet dry – very important.  And for trail shoes, I don’t feel they are overly heavy.  I broke them in Saturday with a 13 mile run on the East Boulder/White Rock Trail.  I’m considering hanging the old ones on my office wall after I complete the CT in October.  A self-awarded trophy of sorts.  That’ll dress up the home office.

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CT Cronica: Mt. Elbert

21 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

Colorado Trail, Mt. Elbert, Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, Twin Lakes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Mountains Win Again

11 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Breckenridge, Colorado Trail, Durango, vacation

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

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

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

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The Fourth

29 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

10th Mountain Division, Colorado Trail, Copper Mountain, Kokomo Pass, Leadville, Searl Pass, Wheeler Flats

Are you as excited as I am for the upcoming 3 day weekend?  If not, you need to make some plans.  My ‘hood has two parties planned, one on the 3rd and another more elaborate bash on the 4th – complete with BBQ and live music.  But the biggie for me is two days of hiking on the Colorado Trail – segments 8 and 9 on Saturday and Sunday.

I’ll meet up with Tumbleweed at the Tennessee Pass on Hwy 24 near Leadville Friday night to drop off one of our cars at the trail head.  Google shows an extensive list of eateries in Leadville, but I’ve only eaten at the Pizza Hut in that town, so please send me recommendations for something with a little more Leadville flair.  Any reviews on the Golden Burro, the Quincy Steak & Spirits, the Grill Bar & Cafe or the Tennessee Pass Cafe?

We’ll camp out near Copper Mountain, likely in some back country spot off the Wheeler Flats Trail Head.  Saturday’s 25 mile hike starts out at 9800 feet and climbs  through the ski resort up to Searl Pass just short of 10 miles at over 12,000 feet.  The trail stays above treeline for about 3 miles along Elk Ridge until it reaches Kokomo Pass, also over 12,000 feet, then we’ll descend down to Tennessee Pass which sits around 10,000 feet.  Near there we will pass the 10th Mountain Division huts where soldiers trained for WWII.  Should be gorgeous views the entire route.  Wish I had a better camera than my 2.5 mega pixel iPhone, but the pics will be good enough for publishing to the web.

The next day we’ll hike 14 miles on segment 9 from Tennessee Pass to Timberline Lake.  This is where the trail turns south for good.  The cool thing is recent trail reports from the Colorado Trail Foundation Facebook page state the snow has melted from this segment.  Plus, while entirely above 10,000 feet, the trail is relatively flat.  Should be a good run.  Segment 8 will be mostly snow shoeing, possibly even using the ice axe, so Sunday will be nice.  Can’t wait!

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CT Gear

15 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Big Agnes, Colorado Trail, CT, one-man tent, post-holing, REI, trekking poles

As excited as I am to complete the second half of segment 6 of the Colorado Trail this coming weekend, I’m even more stoked about my new gear.  Never slept in a one-man tent before.  Look at this puppy.  I just practiced assembling it and can’t believe how cool it is.  The Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1 weighs under 3 pounds, has an aluminum pole system with all three branches attached which snap together with a flick of the wrist, and takes about 5 minutes to setup – including the waterproof fly.  It’s wide enough at my elbows and shoulders to roll around, but tapers toward the feet.  More importantly there’s enough room to situp.  I’ll christen it at the Gold Hill Trail Head Saturday.

Next new piece of gear is a set of REI trekking poles.  Not sure if I adequately expressed the danger I was in snowshoeing over the Georgia Pass in my last CT blog, but the use of Tumbleweed’s trekking pole provided me with a well-learned lesson.  The most critical use was as a tool to dig my snowshoe out from treacherous post-holes.  But I also can’t underestimate the strength it provided to my posture.  With only the single pole, my balance was an order of magnitude stronger.  This saved my core – both stomach as well as back muscles – from constantly twisting from unsure footing.  Now I’ll have two poles – a complete set – and won’t have to bum gear from Tumbleweed.  Hoping the snow has sufficiently melted so I don’t have to use my other awesome gear – my snowshoes.  Looking forward to being able to run at least half of this trail segment.  Tune in for the next edition of CT Cronica for the story, and feedback on the new gear.

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Bolder Boulder and Beyond

06 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bolder Boulder, Boulder Running Company, Colorado Trail, Folsom Stadium, garmin, plantar fasciitis, pronation, supination

The 2011 running of the Bolder Boulder could be it for me for awhile.  It’s the last road race on my schedule until perhaps an Aspen half marathon trail run in September.  I refrained from running the remainder of this week in order to recover from plantar fasciitus in my left foot caused from pronation and wearing the wrong shoes to correct it.  Worse, after buying a proper pair of shoes, my left knee began to hurt like a sonofagun.  And there’s simply no reason for me to run through the pain any longer than I already have.  I’m no Chronic Runner.  I’ve completed most of my goals for the year.  I suppose I’d have other goals but they’ve been usurped by my weekends hiking the Colorado Trail.  First, I’ll recount the 2011 Bolder Boulder, then I’ll relate future plans.

I initially set this run as the biggest target of the year.  It was my first serious road race after over 20 years and marked my re-entry into the sport last spring.  It would serve as the perfect measure of improvement in my fitness level.  I ran a marathon down in Austin and two halves (one in Moab and one here in Boulder) over the winter to prepare.  I had planned to then perform some speed training in order to teach my muscles how to run fast again.  My goal was to beat last year’s mile pace by a full minute.  I ran an 8:01 mile pace in 2010 and truly believed a 7 minute pace was possible.  A boy can dream.  But instead of speed work I began running the Colorado Trail on weekends with a good friend.  And I have no regrets, I’m having a blast.  I’ve hiked the first 5.5 segments and intend to spend the rest of the summer – and likely some of the fall – completing the full 28 trail segments.  Additionally, work has been too busy to afford me the time to increase my mileage during the week.  A half hour run is about all I have time for.  Actually, I might get more time now that the days are getting longer.  But still, I’ve only been running 3.5 miles during week days.  So I entered this year’s run with reset goals, hoping to only beat last year’s time by any measurable amount.  I thought maybe I could run a 7:30 mile pace at best.  I came close.

The official Boulder Boulder Timex had me at a 7:46 pace.  I prefer to reference my Garmin results which showed me run a 7:37 mile pace.  My belief is, starting further back in the pack results in running less of a straight line.  Having to go around slower runners causes you to zigzag across the street.  My Garmin measured my overall distance at 6.33 miles.  And this is accurate.  Both the Garmin and the BB Timex finish times are of course correct at 48:17, but I ran farther than a 10K.  Seems like a trivial point and it is since I’m pretty happy with both times.  But it is interesting how much harder you have to work back in the pack.

If there is a reason I’m a bit focused on my Garmin results it’s because the more I consider this phenomenon, the more I believe it’s possible I didn’t run faster than last year.  I wasn’t in a qualifying wave last year and started way, way in the back.  I remember being frustrated by how much passing and slowing down to pass I had to do last year.

By contrast, I started this year in the CC wave, only 10 minutes after the first wave.  If my Garmin had me run 6.33 miles this year with only 8 waves ahead of me and minimal passing, it’s conceivable I ran 6.5 miles last year.  For all I know, I ran the same true pace.  If there’s a useful point to this, it’s that it’s important to be in an early qualified wave if you hope to meet a goal time.  I expect to be able to enter in the C wave next year based on this year’s time, avoiding a few thousand more runners.  Theoretically, my allotment into a qualified wave has me in a self-propelling spiral of faster times each year whilst only truly running the same pace.  If you think I’m pulling your leg, I propose that if the gap between my Garmin time and the BB time is smaller next year, then there’s some possible truth to my bullshit.  In fact, I suspect I could measure this gap now with other Garmin wearing runners who started in various waves.  If you’re one of them, comment with your gap.  My gap is .13 miles and a 10 second mile pace.  I imagine there are diminishing negative returns, but I suspect this effect is measurable in the first 20 or so waves.

That’s really the biggest thing I got out of this year’s event – it made for some good discussion at the Gadget Girl’s post race Memorial Day BBQ.  Other than that, nice running weather – the light rain felt good.  Finishing in Folsom Stadium is always cool and I believe one of the key features that makes this event.  And I think the new start works out much better.  Parking is improved by an order of magnitude.  More importantly, the first mile is no longer downhill.  In past events, this would lead inexperienced runners to start too fast and then die on mile 2 which runs up Folsom.  It’s difficult enough to maintain early pace discipline with 56,000 runners breathing down your neck.  Now I believe, based on some of the times I’ve queried, many runners ran strong through the second mile and didn’t slow down until mile 3 – which is a tough one.

My personal race experience is best illustrated in the pace chart near the top of this blog.  It shows me running an extremely even pace – I didn’t just average 7:46 per mile, I ran within a few seconds of that time each mile.  You might think I’ve been running for so long that perhaps I don’t know a different pace.  There’s a little truth to that, but trust me when I tell you this is fast for me.  My training pace is closer to 8:30.  So I’m happy that I did in fact race this event by pushing myself.  I had two concerns toward this.  I was fairly certain I could run a 7:30 pace after warming up.  But I didn’t know if I could start off that fast.  And I was concerned I might start off too quickly by following the crowd.  I discovered however that many of the runners in my wave were experienced enough – God knows they looked a lot more athletic than me – to control their starting pace.  So being able to begin with a 7:45 mile and then maintain that pace has me quite pleased with my performance.  I had a smile on my face the rest of the day.  I can tell you though, while my legs felt strong the entire run, my weak-assed stomach got in my way when I wanted to turn on the jets in mile 5.  I’ve given up on trimming it down much more, but some situps are in order.  I could do that while I’m not running.

As I mentioned at the start, I’ve taken the rest of this week off from running.  My knee feels totally better already; that would be stupid to let a knee injury continue.  I don’t know that my plantar fasciitus will heal quite so quickly, but it should heal over time if I have the right shoes.  It does feel marginally better after a few days of rest.  I can tell by how sore my heel is when I wake in the morning.  I’m not exactly jumping out of bed like Cameron Diaz just yet.  Whatever, I’ll take a sore heel over a knee injury any day.

A little something about buying the wrong shoes.  I reviewed the Runner’s World review on shoes for stability – to correct the pronation in my left foot.  I clipped the picture of the ASICs Gel-Kayano and went to Dick’s Sports which is only 2 miles down the road.  They had a shoe that matched the picture, and to add confidence, the $140 suggested retail price matched.  But it didn’t have a label with the shoe name.  I bought it and it never seemed to help.  I then bought inserts, but it still always hurt and my plantar fasciitus has continued to progress.  A week before the Bolder Boulder I visited the renown Boulder Running Company to purchase new shoes.  Their help there consists of expert world class athletes.  I explained my issue.  The guy barely glanced at my shoes without a name and said, “Those aren’t the Kayano, those are the Nimbus.  They’re designed for supination.”  Dammit!  That explains my pain.  That helps to also explain why the Austin Marathon hurt like hell.  They got me on the tread mill to ensure the Kayano corrected my pronation.  This is why you go to the Boulder Running Company.  I’ll never go anywhere else again.  I picked up a pair of racing shoes too to reward myself for all my running and so I could stop racing in heavy trainers.

I might go a second week without running to heal.  I’m not worried about losing my conditioning, or more importantly, losing my discipline.  I’m comfortable that I’ll stay in shape.  Too much competition from the neighbors to let myself go entirely.  You live in Boulder County – you know what I mean.  The typical house wife is 5-11, world class at something, and can kick your ass while her spouse is out shopping at REI.  If I feel I’m no longer running sufficiently to blog a runner’s theme, I’ll change up the topics here.  Wouldn’t be the first time.  I’ll archive the blogs tagged with the “running” category into a menu item above like I’ve done with some of my other stories if I do end this theme.  Wait a second.  Just added the menu item.  Hot damn, my running category has 56 posts, over half my blog.  And this post makes 100 total stories.  Time to change up my content because I’m done with forking over copious coin for the digital downloads of these race pics.

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CT Cronica: slEd dog emerges

24 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bailey, Colorado Trail, Coney Island, Kenosha Pass, Long Gulch, post-holing, REI Gators, Sled Dog, tattoo, Tumbleweed, YakTrax

Saturday starts Friday.  As you print out maps of directions to the Long Gulch Trailhead and google nearby restaurants, your mind is on the trail early.  During drinks and brats later that evening, your neighbor friends ask you about the next morning’s hike and you detail the area around Hwy 285 and Kenosha Pass.  You return home after 9pm and assemble your gear.  You expect snow so you load up.  Saturday, you wake a bit earlier than for other hikes since you need to drive further than previous segments.  You’re out the door by 5:30 am – driving through falling snow.  Vics doesn’t open for another half hour so you figure you’ll grab a coffee in Aspen Park.

After turning off 470 onto Hwy 285, you call your mom at 6am.  You call her most Saturdays although not this early, but there won’t be any other opportunity today.  Besides, it’s 7am her time and old people get up early.  She’s crying.  She’s too weak to talk, but says enough.  She tells you her doctor setup a visit for her with a Pulmonary doctor for Wednesday.  The steroids aren’t working anymore and she has to stop them due to the side effects.  The doctor told her she needs to make plans.  You want to cry too but you don’t.  A few minutes after you hang up, with your mind wandering, you feel all four tires lose traction.

Your Honda Accord is no longer gripping the road, there’s no point in steering.  You remove your foot from the accelerator, and although you don’t move the steering wheel, you keep your hand on it with a light touch.  You’re drifting toward the median, which is a small ditch between your two lanes and the two oncoming lanes.  You feel the car spinning and figure it’s ok as long as it keeps sliding along on your side of the ditch.  You spin 180 degrees and are now sliding backwards, but still on the road.  Your speed has slowed marginally but you feel you are continuing to spin.  You turn the wheel a bit to reverse the spin but that doesn’t work.  You feel yourself drifting toward the ditch in the median, and the car is continuing to spin.  You nudge the car a bit in the direction of its spin thinking you might be able to handle the ditch if you’re facing forward down the hill.  The ditch is covered in snow and probably grass so you might gain traction.  You don’t really know but you just want to get turned around because driving backwards – whether in control or not – is never good.  The nudge works to accelerate the spin without over-correcting and you’ve now spun 360 degrees and are still in your lane.  But now you’re drifting towards the right side of the road which has a similarly sized ditch after the shoulder, and is bordered by a tall rocky cliff.   That’ll leave a mark.

Your car is slowing but still sliding and you need to decide whether to turn and accelerate out of the ditch, or let the car ride into the ditch.  Important decision but less critical now that you’re not facing a slide into on-coming traffic.  Turning against the slide didn’t work earlier, and accelerating out of a spin only works in the movies.  You don’t make an immediate decision; instead you watch as you slowly slide into the cliff wall.  You’re saved by the fact that the car is still spinning, and you give the wheel another nudge to accelerate the spin.  It works and you’re again facing backwards – a full 540 degrees of spin – with maybe 10 feet still remaining between your driver’s side door and the cliff.  This last spin slows the car and it comes to a near rest without you ever having touched the brakes – which you now apply for a full stop.  The car’s nose is pointed against traffic and slightly lower than its rear.  You first try backing out but the tires spin, so you leverage the weight of the car and drive forward out of the ditch.  As soon as you’re back on the road, you see the semi bearing down on you in your rear view mirror.  You punch the accelerator and risk losing traction again.  A mile later you pull into the King Soopers in Aspen Park for some coffee.  The car is fine, you’re a wreck.

The remaining drive to Kenosha Pass is slow and dangerous.  The plows are out and you hope the roads are safer when you drive home.  You see Tumbleweed in his car at the junction of Hwy 285 and Lost Park Road (forest road 56).  He asks if you’re still up for this given the weather.  Yes, you are.  You’re not you anymore.  Your trail spirit began a segment or two ago to take the shape of a trail dog and now you’re Sled Dog.  You can’t quite remember all the reasons this is your trail name, but you just know it’s the right trail spirit for you.  Your trail persona will fully emerge in today’s 16.6 mile slog through ice and snow.

You dressed well for the snowfall – or as you refer to such spring snow showers –  a Colorado slow rain.  You strap on Yaktrax over your La Sportiva trail shoes.  Above that you’ve already attached your REI Gators.  For leggings you have on Nike Dri-fit running shorts and a pair of Under Armour tights.  You layer two shirts – first a thin nylon type of Under Armour Heat Gear and second a thicker Under Armour All Weather Gear.  Gloves, fleece skull cap and a light jacket complete your ensemble.  You have extra dry clothes in your pack.  You start off running.  It’s a gradual uphill.  The video below captures the start of segment 4.

You rest after about a mile and a half and evaluate your clothing.  Tumbleweed removes a cotton sweatshirt and vents his snow pants.  After starting off a bit chilly, both of you have warmed up a great deal.  You tuck your jacket into your pack and keep everything else on.  For the rest of the run, all you’ll ever change are your hat and gloves – pulling them off and on again numerous times.  Once again, you demonstrate experience with a good call on gear.

But you credit a trail spirit with your best call of the day.  Your Yaktrax have been gathering clods of snow and intermittently scraping the snow balls from the soles of your feet is annoying.  You hear Gadget Girl tell you a story from another run where she developed an acute injury from running with clumps of snow under the arches of her shoes.  You listen and you remove the YakTrax.  You knock off the snow and ice against a metal sign on a tree.  To their credit, the treads are extremely light and fit easily into your pack.

Like last week, this trail seems to forever be climbing uphill.  Combined with the snow, which is fresh powder and seemingly deeper, running becomes difficult and you walk large portions.  When you’re finally running downhill, it surprises and hurts your quads.  You don’t know the terrain under the snow.  Rocks are dangerous and holes elicit grunts of unanticipated pain.  This is fairly slow downhill running by your normal standards.   Eventually, you gain momentum and begin to soar downhill, but it ends suddenly with a wipe-out where both of you lose your legs to the snow covered ice.

Slogging through deep snow wears on you and the day has become long.  It took several hours to pass through a 7 mile valley – or Long-assed Gulch as you’ll call it from now on.  You refer to the trek as the Nebraska Expedition because the blowing snow and your fatigue made scenery appear black and white and you were reminded of a Bruce Springsteen album.  As the trail begins to slope upward again, you put your YakTrax back on.  The timing of that gear change-up is perfect as the snow and ice are continuous and the trail mostly cuts across a steep slope with significant exposure to a downhill tumble. 

The sky might be clearing but there’s still not enough sun to know what time of day it is without looking at your iPhone clock.  You’ve been running for four hours and are on pace to finish in about six hours.  Man, two more hours of intermittent, soul-crushing post-holing.  You’re starving.  You stop and eat an uncelebrated power bar.  You want real food.  The final miles are entirely lead by Tumbleweed as you can’t see the trail; partly because your sunglasses are too dark and partly because you don’t have the experience to even see it covered in snow.

Because you’re walking much more of this trail than previous segments, you talk more with Tumbleweed.  You converse about Easter, your mom, your harrowing drive, and about how these are really just the foothills to the CT.  Tumbleweed considers the foothills to end on the western side of highway 285 – on segment 6 where you’ll cross the Continental Divide.  Segment 6 is over 30 miles.  You make that and you’re getting a tattoo.  Or something.

You’re fairly amazed with yourself for nearly completing 4 segments of the CT in April.  You say nearly because today’s hike isn’t yet finished.  Tumbleweed says most hikers don’t start until much later, some as late as June.  But those are hikers who take it straight through.  Five weeks of non-stop hiking.  His plan though is to run the segments on weekends.  And you hope to participate in as much of it as you can.  Your plans initially were to just do the first segment or two, but now you’re hooked.  You’re seriously considering running the entire CT now.  In fact, you can’t imagine not doing the segments along the Collegiate Peaks.  Of course there’s no visibility today from the snow, but you’re not even close to where the good views begin.

You’re on the final stretch to the Long Gulch Trailhead.  The trail is steep here and you serpentine downward.  The switchbacks are hard to see in the powder but Tumbleweed has the eyes of a hawk and has guided you through 16 miles of snow covered trail.  You shuffle into the trail head exhausted.  Once again, you agree to stop at the first place you see that appears open for lunch.

This turns out to be the Coney Island Hot Dog Stand in Bailey.  You’re hungry and nothing sounds better than a dog or burger.  You enter into a place out of time.  You’re suddenly in a ’50s or ’60s boardwalk style diner.

You order onion rings, an Elk Jalapeno Dog, a chili cheese burger and Diet Coke.  You eat the onion rings while the rest of your order is prepared.  The place is actually packed and the only free seating is outside – which is nice.  You attack the Elk Jalapeno Dog first.  When you are this starved for calories, the flavor of food is elevated to the extreme and you ravish your plate.  While eating you discuss plans for the remainder of the CT.  A lot remains – over 400 miles in 24 segments.

Tumbleweed would like to complete the trail in September.  This means you’ll need to double up the shorter segments and start camping the nights as Tumbleweed does now.  You determine to work out a schedule to make this happen.  You didn’t have summer plans a month ago, but now you’re committed to run as much of this trail as possible with Tumbleweed.  Each segment is such an intense experience.  Today will be remembered for trudging through the snow.  Many times you were knee deep in stale, crunchy powder.  It’s safe to expect more days like today as you’ll be chasing the snow melt.  You learned the value of wearing gators.  They not only keep snow out of your shoes, they keep your shins warm.  You’ve already learned a great deal about proper gear.  A small tent might be your next purchase.

Tumbleweed drives you to your car and you part ways.  Your next get together will be segment 5, and your last trek along the CT foothills of Hwy 285.  You call your sister driving home to talk about your mom.  Sandy just spoke with her and she’s feeling much better.

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Trail Runner

21 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

A Lo Hawk, Colorado Trail, Mr. Roboto, Sled Dog, Tumbleweed

The picture to the left is of a good friend, Rob Graham, and me heading out in the morning to complete our two day hike to the summit of Pikes Peak.  This was in 2009 and is the year Rob got me into hiking and ultimately trail running.  Partly because Rob got me back into shape with healthy recreation, and partly because he really is a master hiker in terms of experience, but mostly because Rob goes by various trail names and promotes his personal creed of health and fitness which lends him a spiritual quality – I oftentimes refer to him as my Guide (uppercase “G”).  It’s pretty cool to have a Guide and it costs me nothing.

Two years later, we’re running the Colorado Trail.  There’s of course some walking, but it’s mostly running.  And I can’t think of any hobby I enjoy more.  I fell in love with trail running on the Barton Creek Greenbelt in Austin over 20 years ago.  There are so many qualities that make trails stand out as exceptional environments for a run or workout.  For me, it’s the surface itself.  I love the focused footfalls that the trail, rocks, hills, cliffs, snow, and creeks require.  It’s almost impossible to day dream about work or fantasize about anything at all.  Maybe some people find this sort of escape doing puzzles or collecting stamps.  For me, the trail – especially when running versus walking – takes complete focus.  And such focus is the quintessential escape.

We’ll be running the 16.6 miles of segment 4 of the Colorado Trail this Saturday.  Snow and or rain is expected.  That’ll add a little something to the experience.  I feel extremely fortunate to be able to run these trails on weekends.  Grateful for my health and lucky to have Karen’s support to take off for the day.  This is shaping up to be an epic summer.

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CT Cronica: A Twofer

11 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bailey, Buffalo Creek Fire, Colorado Trail, puerco pibil, RedHeadWriting, Sled Dog, Tumbleweed, Zoka's Restaurant & bar

You just ran 24 miles this Saturday morning.  So far this winter, that makes 1 marathon, 2 half marathons, and 40 miles of the Colorado Trail – because where you come from it’s not spring ’till Easter.  You meet up with your ‘ole trail buddy A Lo Hawk about 8 miles east of Bailey.  Except he’s changed his trail moniker now to Tumbleweed.  You’re still working on your trail name while he’s on his 3rd.  New trail, new trail name.  To your knowledge, only Guides can change trail names like that, so Tumbleweed must be a Guide.  You’ll refer to him as Tumbleweed at times, and as Guide at others.  Before this hike got too far along, you collected the trail name, Sled Dog.

Like segment 1, you got up early and picked up a 20 oz coffee at Vics before heading down Hwy 287 at 6am.  90 minutes later you were at what would be the end of the hike, at the Rolling Creek trailhead ending segment 3.  You leave your car here and drive with Tumbleweed to the start of today’s hike/run at the South Platte River trailhead marking segment 2.  You stop half way though to drop off food and water at the Little Scraggy trailhead – hiding a cooler behind a tree.  This is a brilliant plan to avoid having to carry so much weight.  Today’s CT endeavor will consist of both the 11.3 mile segment 2, and the 12.7 mile segment 3 – two epic adventures in one.  A twofer.

Epic I begins with the climb.  The pic to the right of Tumbleweed standing on dramatically slanted ground is not a trick camera angle – that’s the slope.  You run when you can but you probably walk here as much as anywhere during the entire day.  Out of 24 miles, you might have walked 4 of them.  Probably less.  You come to learn that you have to run the inclines when possible because there isn’t much else and you’d like to finish before sundown.  You adapt your running form to the up-slope shuffle.

This climb is a marathon unto itself.  Seemingly endless, you feel your calves strain to a bursting point until saved by numbness.  You believe you might be nearing the top as the trees thin and the sun becomes bright.  You remove your top shirt – the blue Moab high-tech racing t-shirt.  You still wear your long-sleeve Under Armour all weather gear because the early morning air is chilly and there’s a slight breeze, although you roll up the sleeves.

The mix of cold air and searing sun is climate you strongly associate with the Colorado mountains.  One of your favorite dichotomies.  Dressing properly for it requires experience and a bit of luck.  You can’t control the weather, and you don’t know what temperature variances to expect as you rise in elevation.  Pockets of cold air drop on you as you rise up the trail and feel as thick as liquid.  But you have good gear and the single shirt serves as the perfect shield.

The never-ending climb appears to reach a summit.  This appears several times from what turn out to be false hopes.  You count these as humps.  After many humps, you ultimately summit the apex of this climb.  The view isn’t what you expect.  You’re overlooking the Buffalo Creek Fire of ’96.  The view could be depressing, but it’s not.  It’s eerie but interesting.  Even beautiful, but overwhelmingly dead.  You wonder if later you’ll encounter a cadaverous herd of animals slaughtered by the fire.

You survey the burned out valley below.  Treeless, you easily spot the trail as it drops into the valley before you and rises on the opposite side – crossing this deceased hollow.  You enjoy a good rest at this summit, replenishing food and water.  And you replace your long-sleeve shirt with the short-sleeve Moab jersey.  The blood is flowing strong enough through your veins now that you consider running shirtless – but the wind suggests otherwise.  Tumbleweed led the entire climb.  He’s simply so much stronger than you on trails and you appreciate his pace setting.  You lead as you start back down the other side into the Buffalo Creek Fire.

You’d been climbing for so long that your downhill muscles are atrophied and it takes awhile to warm-up.  You go slow on steep sections but speed up as the grade flattens.  The scenery is surreal.  You run through a huge swath of forest – miles of burned down tree stumps  enveloped in new grasses.  But the grass is dead too from the winter.  This would be something to see in the spring as the grasses turn green.

The occasional blooming cactus flower causes you to pause to admire and take a pic. Segment 2 of the CT has been as absent of fellow hikers and bikers as the first segment.  You finally encounter people as you near the Little Scraggy trailhead.  The first person is a lone woman biker.  Both athletic and attractive, she resembles Erika Nepolitano.  As far as you know, she might be the Redhead Writer herself as Erika is known for her local mountain climbing exploits.  Doubtful though as this lady doesn’t drop any F bombs.  You chat for a minute on the trail and continue onward – into a virtual thicket of human activity at the trailhead.  You’ve reached the end of segment 2 and search for your stash of food and drinks.

This is a much needed rest.  You sit down to eat and drink.  The 11 miles felt like a marathon and took 3 hours.  For the first time, you try protein drinks.  Probably smart.  You drink Muscle Milk – although it states it isn’t milk.  And if it contained a drop of lactose, you wouldn’t be drinking it.  It’s chocolate milk as far as you know and it goes down like dessert.  Yum.  Another drink you try for the first time is Venom Mojave Rattler.  You discover it’s lightly carbonated and don’t finish it.  You also leave it behind as the can is fairly hefty.

You start back up for the remaining 12.7 miles.  The trail is gorgeous and you understand why it’s popular for mountain bikers.  It’s nice to be in trees again after having traversed Buffalo Creek Fire.  You note the thick bark over-growing the old CT trail signs.  You expect to walk much of the second half – epic II.  But you start off running, shuffling really.  Segment 3 appears to contain more rolling hills than segment 2.  There’s some decent downhills where you gather momentum.

But there’s also as much uphill climbs.  Your uphill running form improves with repetition, although it’s a very short-stride shuffle.  You know you won’t ever finish if you don’t run the climbs along with the easy stuff.  It’s a relentless slog to the finish.

Epic II is continuous.  You’re surprised to find yourself running it with so little walking, but it’s a slow run.  The shuffle.  The trail is extremely well groomed and easy to follow. It’s this amazing splendor, knowing how fortunate you are to be in these woods, that keeps you from thinking of your aching calves and tender feet.  You have pain everywhere from your toes to your hips, but you’re mostly oblivious to it.  You are however thinking of lunch.  You’re tired of trail food and want something real.  After forever, Tumbleweed begins to recognize the trail from where he camped out the night before.  You’re nearing the end.  It’s downhill and you finish strong.  You pop off your backpack and stumble on your walking legs.  You’re done in more ways than one.

On the ride to pick up your cooler at Little Scraggy trailhead and Tumbleweed’s car at the South Platte trailhead, you think and talk a great deal about your hunger and where you’ll find a decent restaurant out here.  The run took you 6 hours and 45 minutes, so it’s no longer lunch – it’s dinner.  It makes sense to turn right at Buffalo Creek onto Hwy 126 toward Hwy 285.  There will be plenty of choices once you reach the larger highway.  But halfway there, nestled among one of the prettiest valleys in Colorado, you come upon Zoka’s Restaurant & Bar in Pine Grove.  Your rule is to stop at the first place that looks open, and here the parking lot is full.  And for good reason.  This place earns no less than 3 Puerco Pibil awards.  One for the beer.  The owner Kurt has blended Maharaja and Avery IPA for what he calls a Maharipa.  Other than a Black and Tan, who does that?  This beer is punchy and spirited.  Outstanding!  The second award goes for the salsa.  You don’t know what Kurt did for this but the tomatoes in this dish must be God’s tomatoes.  Actually, they might be black heirlooms.  The salsa isn’t hot, but it has the absolute best flavor imaginable.  The third award goes for your dinner, a Zoka burger.  OMG!  The Kobe beef was infused with a triple cream brie.  You ordered it rare with the flesh seared and it was cooked perfectly.  It came with sauteed onions that added a sweetness on top of the satisfying cheesiness.  This burger could compete with any in the world for the most delicious sandwich ever.  If you ever find yourself sporting around the Colorado trails of Buffalo Creek and Pine Grove again, you plan to stop by Zokas.  Shoot, this place is worth driving out of your way for.

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CT Cronica: Green Chili

08 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Colorado Trail, green chili, puerco pibil, Sprucewood Inn

“Really?  Thank God!”  You land at the trail head after a seriously steep serpentine and even though you knew you were nearing the end of the trail, it seems sudden nonetheless.  Finishing up a 16 miler requires adjustment.  You stretch on the rail leading to the bridge.  Others are standing on it taking pictures, so you drift down to the river itself.  The shallow torrent is as cold as it is clear, and you proceed to souse your head.  You feel the mountain water cleanse layers of sweat soaked sunscreen from your face and scalp.  This river bath is the ultimate cool down.

Refreshed, you join A Lo Hawk sitting on the river bank.  A Lo Hawk notes you completed the 16 mile trail in under three and a half hours.  You’re not quite completing full sentences yet and mumble a response.  You are ready now to eat your sandwich.  You take a couple of bites, but it’s stale so you decide to save your appetite for a more formal lunch.  The two of you reach consensus that you’ll stop at the first place you pass on the ride back that appears open.  You sit long enough for your heart rate to calm down, and you think about returning to this trail head in two weeks to begin the second segment of the CT.  You remove your socks and shoes, showing A Lo Hawk your splintered toe nail.  He’s impressed by this but then you admit it was already cracked before slamming it into that rock a few minutes earlier.  You’re both really hungry so you get in the car and leave without ceremony.  You chat during the drive about other occurrences  that drift back to memory.  Most notably, you’re both amazed you just completed 16 miles without running into a single hiker.  What are the odds of that?  Enchanted forest indeed.  The parking lot was fairly full at the ending trail head, so where is everyone?

Sprucewood Inn on Hwy 67 at the intersection of Pine Creek Road is the first place and there is no question about it being open.  A dozen vehicles are parked outside.  You enter with the expectation of it being the best restaurant ever because the sign said beer and you are thirsty.  There’s outdoor seating, a beer garden of sorts, and you decide that’s where you’ll sit given the bright sunshine and unseasonably warm weather.  The bartender says you’ll need to order from the bar as she is too busy to wait on patrons sitting outside.  That’s fine.  You order a bottled beer – there is no tap – water, and the green chili.  A Lo Hawk orders the same beer and a burrito.

You sit outside with your beer and water and appreciate what a fantastic trail run you just completed, what an incredible day it is, and how fortunate you are to have shared this experience with a good friend.  You recall the trail chat you had on tattoos.  A Lo Hawk commemorated his PCT and AT hikes with specific designs around his ankles.  For the first time ever, you could see yourself doing something similar if you were to complete the entire CT from Denver to Durango.  It’s not likely you’ll complete the entire trail, but it doesn’t hurt to think about it.

The bartender brings out your food and you dig in.  You’re reminded of the scene in Once Upon a Time in Mexico where Johnny Depp eats the best puerco pibil he’s ever had, and he’s compelled to go into the kitchen to shoot the chef dead.  Good movie.  This is absolutely the best green chili you ever ate.  Hands down the best, and you’ve eaten some good shit.  The neighborhood’s annual chili cook-off has produced some outrageous green chili.  Your friend Dave, raised in New Mexico, makes some tasty green chili with lamb and pork seasoned in bacon.  But this is the best in the world.  And it’s located 10 miles west of Sedalia.  The Sprucewood Inn is worth a return visit.  And so is the Colorado Trail.

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CT Cronica: Ultra

07 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Colorado Trail, imogene, IPR, la sportiva, South Platte River, trail running shoes, Ultra

You might have started off leading this final leg, you don’t remember.  If you did, A Lo Hawk passed you at some point.  He’s ahead of you with hopefully only a few miles remaining when your feet begin to hurt and you reconsider promoting your shoes with a blog link.  This run brings forth memories of the Imogene Pass Run last September.  The bad part of the IPR – miles 8 and 9 leading up to the peak.  The only thing that kept you running then was the pressure of not forcing the runner behind you, whom you knew was likely to be feeling as tired as you, to have to pass you.  That trail didn’t provide the ability for runners to easily pass, and so you felt obligated to maintain your position and pace.  The CT at this point actually widens to double track, so you run alongside A Lo Hawk.  But that is short lived, you mostly fall behind – even when walking although there isn’t much of that.  The first 4 quarters feel like they were yesterday – this is the ultra quarter.

At some point you carry on a conversation with A Lo Hawk.  Talking is much more rare now too.  One of your chats covers the topic of falling.  You’ve only taken a couple of spills your entire life – both on trails.  The conversation foreshadows a near fall.  You slam the big toe of your right foot into a trail rock so hard you nearly hit the ground.  You scream loud enough to cause A Lo Hawk to turn around.  You don’t know if you were injured, you keep running.  But it hurts.  Bad.  You imagine it as a bloody stub, but the pain gradually subsides and is replaced with the misery afflicted to the soles of your feet which have become tenderized flesh.

It once again occurs to you that you are wearing the right shoes.  The thing about trail running shoes is they have a glob of rubber on the front, not unlike a car bumper.  These shoes re-earned their way back onto honorable mention in your blog.  That bumper clearly saved your big toe from destruction.  Thank you, La Sportiva.  Once you sufficiently recover from the pain and fear of toe loss, you find it ironic, almost irritating, that like the two falls you’d related to A Lo Hawk, this occurred in the last mile of your run.  But that’s probably not coincidence.  No doubt, the end of any run is when you are weakest and most likely to stumble.  Good reason to slow for a cool down.  And A Lo Hawk certainly is shuffling along the trail much slower these last miles.  The final downhill leg resembles the IPR’s 7 mile drop into Telluride.  As was the case then, A Lo Hawk’s and your quads are too weak to push it in.

Upon seeing the trail head, marked by an iron and wood foot bridge crossing the South Platte River, you are ready to simply walk it in.  And A Lo Hawk feigningly slows to meet your expectations.  But then you hear him mumble something and with renewed vigor he kicks in the final stretch.  This is fairly impressive considering the steepness of the trail here, but you feel more like penalizing him for the pitcher’s balk.  Your mind was set for walking, and you almost did.  Instead, you finish the trail running, as you had done for 16 miles; but without any pretense of strength by kicking.  You finish up slow as if running a cool down.  Much like you did during the last half mile of your most recent half marathon.

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CT Cronica: Enchanted Forest

06 Wednesday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adidas, Colorado Trail, la sportiva

The 4th quarter is at least the start of the second half of the course distance-wise.  You’ve certainly gone over 10 miles by now.  A Lo Hawk begins slowly although a bit faster than you would have.  But you loosen up and begin to enjoy the look and feel of the trail.  You appreciate having discarded your second top shirt.  It’s almost odd how the air retains some iciness – you feel it in the ring of sweat around your head below your cap.  And yet you feel the warmth of the sun too.  Outstanding running conditions for both weather and scenery.

You enter into some heavier woods.  The sun continues to splash through the leaves as you enter but soon becomes hidden above the canopy.  You’ve warmed up and don’t need the sun but you experience a new level of fatigue.  Your running form is fine, but your mind is now wandering as much as it would if you were running alone.  You allow gaps between you and A Lo Hawk to develop larger than those in the 3rd quarter.  You even lose sight of him at times around bends.  The trees are thick enough to obscure A Lo Hawk at a distance, yet roomy enough to walk through.  The trail has changed.

You begin to imagine creatures.  Not squirrels or rabbits.  You’re brain is beginning to bake and you’re thinking about trolls and mystical leprechauns.  The setting really is magical and combined with your numb mind supports mild hallucinations.  If there were such things as  two foot tall creatures with size 12 hairy feet, this is where you’ll see them – miles deep in the forest of the Colorado Trail.  You scan the trees ahead, prepared for Hobbit-like characters or Charlie Sheen to appear from behind a tree and accost you for your tiger blood.  As you round a bend, you catch a glimpse of A Lo Hawk before he disappears again around the next curve in the trail.  Feeling alone, your thoughts are illusory.  You quicken your pace.

You’re running stronger now, or the hills have slowed A Lo Hawk, or perhaps he has even stopped to wait for you, and you are now running close behind him.  This has been a long quarter and you now expect this trail is headed to extra innings.  A Lo Hawk is still running the downhills strong, but your pace is close enough to his now that you leave behind the fantasies to begin thinking about finishing.  It occurs to you that you should eat some food.

You’re not interested in your sandwich at the next rest period.  Rob offers you something he calls a pancake.  You have yet to find any manufactured trail energy food that you find palatable, but you like this.  Yes, you’re super hungry but you suspect you like this anyway.  You make note of it as something you’ll provide a link to in your blog.  It’s earned honorable mention.  And so do your shoes.  Your La Sportiva trail shoes lead you up a glacier and have gripped this entire trail with confidence.  Likewise, A Lo Hawk is pleased with his Adidas trail shoes.  Smart gear and smart gear choices today.  You’ve got that going for you.

The rest spot was impressive – on a large boulder that you used your hands in order to climb up.  With a view that justified pictures and should have rationalized sitting for a good hour.  But knowing you’re nearing the end, you don’t hang out too long and you begin the last leg of this trail run.

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CT Cronica: The Warm-up is Over

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Colorado Trail, opuntia, tuna, Waterton Trail Head

After 6 miles, you reach the Colorado Trail.  “Really?  What was the trail we just ran?”  What you just did was the Indian Creek Trail Head.  It sits south of the CT at nearly the same distance as the Waterton Trail Head sits north of the CT.  Where those two trail head paths collide is the start of the Colorado Trail sans trail head – which is said to start in Denver and end in Durango.

10 miles remain, but according to runner’s math, it feels like halftime.  You’ve completed one trail and are starting another.  That’s half way regardless of distance.  A Lo Hawk leads the 3rd quarter and you notice a different feel to your body with your first steps.  The weight of lactic acid in your legs reminds you of the several hills you climbed over the last 6 miles.  You eventually fall into a comfortable pace as A Lo Hawk leads yet another march, another quarter in this epic run.  It occurs to you that you might run the entire course today.  So much for hiking.  But to be fair, you’ve yet to encounter hills you can’t handle, and the elevation isn’t out of your range.  A 16 mile run is starting to appear possible.

Like a dolly zoom, this quarter expands the further you run.  You realize you are beginning to tire.  A Lo hawk isn’t showing signs of fatigue as he runs downhill with the confidence and speed you demonstrated in the 2nd quarter.  And while he might walk a few steps of intensely steep uphill, he is quick to return to solid pace once the steps flatten out.  You surrender distance on even ground and struggle to close the gap during downhills.  Your pace is inconsistent while A Lo Hawk’s tempo is strong and even. You consider whether he is in that much better shape or if trail running skills are starting to show their impact.

The path meanders in and out of sun and shade.  You feel the heat in the sun and alternate the bill of your cap to forward from rear to counter the glare.  You feel grateful that A Lo Hawk is leading as following is the only thing that’s keeping you running.  If it were your lead you’d be walking – if not resting on a big rock in the shade.  You haven’t hit a wall exactly, but your body requires replenishment.  The end of the 3rd quarter brings relief and for the first time you eat.  You test the carrots – something you’ve never brought along for a run or hike before but seem like a good idea.  They are moist with water while still crunchy.  You’re happy with them and relate a story to A Lo Hawk on how they remind you of eating tunas in Mexico.

You finish the bottle of Gatorade you’ve been carrying in your hand – partly from thirst and partly because you’re tired of carrying it.  A Lo Hawk has been fueled by Cytomax.  Before you start up again, you remove your top shirt and stuff it in your pack along with the empty bottle.  It’s heavy with sweat and you feel smart for your selection of layers.  Up to now, you’ve been alternating lead with A Lo Hawk, but you let him lead the 4th quarter as well.  He’s still strong.

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CT Cronica: Trail Legs

04 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Colorado Trail, CT, glacier, trail run

A Lo Hawk shouts from the mountain top at you to take the lead for the second quarter of today’s CT run.  You jump into action.  The CT is headed downhill again so you try to control your pace.  But soon enough you’re flying.  You’ve rediscovered your trail legs and are artfully stepping past stones.  Any over-confidence that is building though is challenged by the first water crossing you encounter.  You slow down to consider either the thin boards to the left or the thick log to the right.  A Lo Hawk surges past your incompetence and skips across the rocks right down the middle of the path.  You’re learning and on the next water crossing – much later in the hike but where you are again leading – you perform gracefully without hesitation.  Although to be truthful, you ran upon that stream too quickly to slow down and had to commit.

Committing your footfall while in mid-step is what makes trail runs so damned fun.  Skill starts with having sufficient leg strength and grows with your swelling confidence.  The faster you run, the greater your sense of owning this trail.  It’s addictive and you know you’ll pay for the good time once the path reverses slope and begins to climb back up.

The upturn occurs gradually though, allowing you to maintain a decent pace.  You’re nearly halted however upon encountering the glacier.  The path is half creek bed and presents you with a tremendous mound of snow and ice.  Your body stops momentarily, but not your momentum.  After assessing the risk, you leap up the middle of the colossus – undaunted by nature and resolute in your commitment to lead this section of the trail.  Not doubting A Lo Hawk’s abilities, you fail to look back, certain he is right behind you; and imagining how impressed he must be right now at your deft trail running prowess.

Typical of running intervals, the second quarter is fast, and will probably be your quickest.  You take the hills strong with little walking.  You guess the wrong direction at a trail intersection, but that’s why you run with a master trail guide.  After a quick photo op, you surrender the lead to A Lo Hawk for the upcoming third quarter basking in the memory of this interval.

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CT Cronica: Downhill

03 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Colorado Trail, Indian Creek Trail Head, Vic's Too

You rise at 6 am to dress for hiking the first segment of the Colorado Trail.  You laid out your clothes the night before and selected a slew of shirts, extra socks and even multiple hats to make your final dress determination at the trail head.  You make a ham and cheese sandwich and grab a bag of baby carrots for trail food, and stuff it in your pack with clothes, sunscreen and two bottles of Gatorade Perform 02.  You’re out the door and at Vics by 6:30 am for a large cup of half decaf, half real deal for the drive to Sedalia.

You drive about 10 miles west of Sedalia on Hwy 67 to the Indian Creek Trail Head, where your trail guide A Lo Hawk is waiting for you after having camped the night out there.  You spend 45 minutes shuffling a car to the end of the hike, and launch at 3 minutes before 9 am.  A Lo Hawk, who in many ways is more of a spiritual guide than trail guide, takes the lead.  You follow more as if chasing the wind than anything corporeal.  Your expectation is to run as much as the first half of the 16 mile trail, and walk the rest.  But that plan is fluid and will be determined by the terrain and elevation.  You warm up and quickly fall into a fast pace because the trail is noticeably downhill.  Soon you’re flying effortlessly down the single track, and recalling how this trail reminds you of the time you spent regularly running an inner city greenbelt 23 years earlier.  You wonder if this trail will fall downward forever and know that you’ll complete it much earlier than planned if the drop continues.

All downhills end with a corresponding uphill, and this experience is no different.  A Lo Hawk gradually, smoothly shifts gears to maintain cadence as the slope increases and you near the crest.  He talks of trail ultras and the concept of continuum – the notion that each segment, the runs, the walks, and the sit down rests, all comprise equal experiences in your enjoyment of the CT.  As the rise steepens, you look forward to the walking component of the continuum.

A Lo Hawk eventually glides into a walk and you take his picture.  You’ve completed the first quarter of the first segment of the CT.  You don’t know that the quarter metaphor will add up mathematically in terms of today’s hike/run having 4 stops or 4 discrete segments; but you’re thinking more in terms of running an interval track workout of quarter miles.  Such workouts might consist of 6 or 8 quarters, and for whatever reason, you think today’s run might be something like an interval workout.  You’re flexible enough in your use of metaphors to apply the term to the notion of having just  completed a quarter of the trail.  Technically, your first stop came after only 2 or 3 memorable miles – so only an eighth of the trail.  And so far, your gear choice of two layers of thin, high tech shirts – one a red long-sleeve Under Armour jersey, and the second your new crimson red Boulder Spring Half Marathon top – has kept you comfortable.  The air is still chilly but the sun is bright and the wind nominal.  You think about taking the lead for the second quarter.

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