Hope Pass

29 Sunday Jun 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collegiates West Loop

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ran 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.

If 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.

We 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.