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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.

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Burning Trail

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Tags

CDT, CT, La Plata, West Fork Fire

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

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

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

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

40.137598 -105.107652

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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

≈ Leave a comment

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

≈ Leave a comment

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 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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CT Cronica: Foothills

15 Sunday May 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

CT, Fairplay, foothills, garmin, Kenosha Pass, Myoplex, puerco pibil, The North Face Sport Hiker

Between traveling to Austin to visit your mom for Mother’s Day and work, it’s been a long week.  You were up late Friday, and likely drank a bit more than you should have considering you have a 15 mile trail run today on segment 5 of the Colorado Trail.  But you’re up by 5am and out the door by 5:30 for the drive to Kenosha Pass on Hwy 285.  This drive is less eventful than your last journey this way.  You stop in the Aspen Park King Soopers again to stock up on trail food and drinks.  The drive from Aspen Grove to Conifer is in thick fog and you have to drive under the speed limit.  But the sun comes out and you figure the weather is shaping up to make for an awesome day.  You’re excited to finish this segment because it will mark the completion of the first section to the Colorado Trail – the foothills.

You pick up Tumbleweed at the Kenosha Pass Trail Head.  This is a convenient car shuffle to the Long Gulch Trail Head where you start segment 5.  As always, the first order of business is to determine how to gear up.  You both expect the snow will be minimal and that it might warm up significantly.  You both dress fairly light. You take further gear risks by leaving your gloves and YakTrax in the car, along with your gators.  You’re trying out a new hip pack on this run, the North Face Sport Hiker, and it won’t easily hold as many extra clothes as your pack.  You pull on a light pair of Under Armour running tights, two shirts, similar to last time with a thin nylon undershirt and cold weather gear top over that.  A runner’s hat and sunscreen complete your preparation and you launch off for the final segment east of Hwy 285.

This weekend was nearly cancelled due to a fire started the previous weekend.  Monday and Tuesday was bad news but then a cold front came in and dropped snow and freezing rain for two days in a row – squelching the fire.  You drove past fire fighters on the trail head road and you wonder if you’ll see any traces of damage on the trail.  The trail conditions are simply spectacular.  The dirt is soft with moisture and the trees make for a cozy feel to the trail.  After a slow start up a particularly steep beginning slope, Tumbleweed has warmed up and sets a strong pace.  The trail is ideal and looks like it should be run fast, but you falter.  You can’t believe how heavy your legs feel.  Last night’s drinks?  Perhaps.  More likely the long week.  You missed 3 days of running, the most in a row in over a year.  You did run yesterday and maybe you haven’t fully recovered.  Nope.  It’s your hip pack.  The weight is killing you.  You feel strapped to the ground, fighting to clear the rocks with each step.  You fall behind.

This new hip pack is a problem.  Your water bottle fell out and a second water also dropped that you didn’t hear and is now lost.  You’re not overly concerned about liquids because you don’t expect it to get hot, and you’re comfortable you still have enough water.  You determine the bottles are too big for the pack’s pockets and carry the bottle in your hand.  You resolve to drink it early to get rid of it.  You stop after 1.5 miles to adjust your gear, removing a shirt.  You take a slightly longer stop at 2 miles and remove your tights.  You finish the water and store the empty in your pack.  You take out an extremely heavy protein sports drink, EAS Myoplex, and carry that in your hand – with the plan to drink that as quickly as possible too.  You alternate holding it in each of your hands as it quickly tires your arm.  You don’t whine about it though, instead you think it’s nice that you’re getting an upper body workout in with this run.

But the hip pack continues to bog you down with weight.  You adjust it lower, then higher, then lower again.  You figure it’s still an awesome pack, and you just need to learn how to pack it and best position it on your hips.  Clearly, you will need small waters.  And this pack might not work on all segments.  It never feels comfortable the entire run, and you miss your old back pack.  While the pack is a gear failure, your GPS promises to not disappoint.  It calls you at programmed intervals – each mile – with a small vibration.  You have a new trail spirit seemingly running along with you.  You refer to this spirit as Garmin.  Garmin’s synchronous calls are comforting as they provide you with precise time and pace information.  Garmin’s only shortcoming is its inability to load waypoints, but this trail is so easy to read it’s not a biggie.  You look forward to reviewing Garmin’s digital trail tracks after the run.

These charts are great.  The top chart shows your pace and is aligned with the elevation chart immediately below it.  You can adjust the display so that both show time or distance, but it’s not really necessary given their alignment.  The charts show that you start off slowly with the trail’s initial steepness.  And you spot your rest periods at 1.5 miles, 2 miles, etc., as the pace falls dramatically and is noted by big dips in the chart.  Likewise, hills illustrated in the elevation chart correspond to a slower pace in the timing chart.  You expect further fun searching for correlations among the two chart’s patterns.

You encountered a hiker, which has been rare to date on the previous segments, within the first few miles.  And after 11 miles you discover the fire and numerous firefighters protecting against flareups.  You’ve never seen the effects of a forest fire so closeup immediately after the event before.  It’s evident how the firefighters either dug fire lines or leveraged the trail to stem the flames.  The dark ground in these pictures represent the burn between miles 11 and 13.  You can still feel heat rising from the scorched earth on the left side of the trail.  The lone hiker and firefighters were all you saw today.  Very soon now the trail is bound to become more crowded.

Despite your rough start today with the gear failure weighing you down, and possible hang over, you eventually loosen up and have a fast run on mile 7 – covering that segment in under 9 minutes.  The chart shows it to be mostly downhill.  Not surprising but even the downhills hurt today.  Your muscles don’t immediately transition from running uphill to downhill.  Your legs are becoming hard however.  These hills are getting you in shape.  Tumbleweed suggests running the Goldenleaf Half Marathon in Aspen in September as a way to celebrate your trail fitness.  Based on his performance today, he should be competitive in his 50-54 yr old age division.  He finishes today a couple of minutes in front of you on the wide gravel road that leads to Kenosha Pass Trail Head.

You struggled today with heavy gear, grogginess, tight muscles from a long week, and pain from pronation in your left foot.  You celebrate your relief for the finish with a couple of shots from a flask that magically appears from Tumbleweed’s car.  Camper’s provisions.  This completes not just segment 5, but the foothills section of the Colorado Trail.  About 70 plus miles.  Future segments will vary dramatically.  Segment 6, the longest at over 30 miles, will take you over the Continental Divide at Georgia Pass.  The rise in elevation and increase in steep grades will bring about much more walking.  Running will become less common.  In fact, you’ll likely wear hiking shorts, if not pants, rather than running shorts.  The pockets will be nice.  And you’ll carry your snow shoes, at least for the next segment which is buried in snow.

After picking up your car from the Long Gulch Trail Head, you drive into Fairplay with plans to lunch at the Brown Burro.  Tumbleweed has eaten there before and it comes with strong reviews.  You stop in front of the place and see that it is closed.  This is a few blocks off Hwy 285, on Hwy 9 that leads into Breckenridge.  So the decision is made to drive into Breck, there will be no shortage of open eateries there.  But after driving maybe a block, you sight a German Bakery – the Beary Beary Tastee Bakery – and you decide to give it a shot.  Good call.

In addition to award winning breads, they have a decent lunch menu.  Having just expended 1900 calories on the trail, you order both a bowl of red bean chili and a sirloin cheese burger with iced tea.  The servings are generous and flavor outstanding.  Since this is a bakery, you should try their dessert.  You order apple pie á la mode, Tumbleweed selects the blueberry pie.  These pies are to die for and you award this bakery with a puerco pibil award for their desserts.  The bonus to this great lunch is the owner who chats with you throughout the meal on her hiking and hunting exploits.  She’s a retired police officer and you sense she could tell you stories ’till the cows come home.  Fun place.

You plan segment 6 with Tumbleweed.  It could be done in two days but you are anxious to complete your first ultra distance event.  You believe you’ll be able to drop off provisions at a trail head somewhere part way to reduce your load, like you did on segments 2 and 3.  You plan for Memorial Day weekend.  It’s not even summer yet and you’re set to begin the second section of the Colorado Trail.

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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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