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Naked Pibil Run

07 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Tags

Antonios, Flaming Foliage Relay, Mesa Trail, puerco pibil

KristinaRan into Chris last night at Antonios.  We strategerized a bit for the Boulder Marathon that’s only two weeks away.  We plan to run together.  Well, start out together anyway.  I’m confident I can hang with him the first half.  My goal though is to hang with Chris through what I call the 3rd quarter.  I break up marathons into 4 quarters – 4 x 10Ks.  A 40K comes up a bit short but this metric works for me.  If I can maintain his pace, under 8 minutes per mile, for 20 miles, I’ll have a shot at qualifying for Boston.

AllisonI had the Chochinita Pibil for dinner.  Oh man!  Remember the scene in Once Upon a Time in Mexico where Johnny Depp excuses himself from the table to shoot the cook?  Because it’s the best puerco pibil he’s ever tasted?  This was like that.  Upon closer inspection, I determined what I really liked was the habanero salsa that came on the side.  I probably should have kept it on the side but instead smothered my meal despite being warned by the waitress.  This stuff was hot.  I’ve never had salsa with such intense flavor.  I’m certain, given the right circumstances, Depp would have shot the cook at this dinner over the habanero salsa.

JenThis pibil-fired dinner fueled today’s 9 mile run on Mesa Trail with my Naked relay team.  We run the Flaming Foliage Relay next weekend and this was a planning session of sorts.  I call them Naked for short – our relay team name is Naked and You’re Afraid.  This is a play on words to the Discovery Channel survivalist show, Naked and Afraid.  If you look for it, I think it’s already been cancelled.  Great show though.  Like Serenity for the space western TV show Firefly, I suspect a movie is in the making.  Look for our Twitter hashtag Friday and Saturday, #nakedFFR.  Or follow one of my Twitter handles @edmahoney1805 and @secintel.  Or follow Steve Wolfe @sgwolfe.  His tweets tend to be more clever than mine.

KeithAll of us except Brian and Kelly were able to run 9 miles on the Mesa Trail this morning.  That’s Kristina in the top pic.  She tore up the hills today.  Good sign because she is slated for a 4.2 mile climb up Guanella Pass, and with less than two hours rest after her first leg.  Kristina is pulling a double for Van1 in our first set of runs and will finish with 1600 feet net gain in elevation.  That’s Allison in the second pic.  She passed me this morning while running up one of the tougher hills.  Another good sign because she has the hardest leg running up Guanella Pass at 6.1 miles.  Her net elevation gain for the entire relay will be 2000 feet.

SteveJen is in the third pic with the pink running skirt.  Clicking on the photos will enlarge them to their full resolution.  Jen starts with a 10K trail run and will complete 19 miles by the end of the relay.  That’s Keith after Jen in the blue shirt.  Keith has to climb the final two miles over Guanella Pass and then descend a brutal 7 miles down the other side.  Assuming his legs recover, he’ll run a total 22 miles.  Steve is in this pic in a white shirt.  He’s our influential team captain with persuasive recruiting powers.  Steve will run a very hard 10K and hand the baton off to me on the Colorado Trail before I run over Georgia Pass.  Steve will also be our final runner in Buena Vista, having run 23 miles in all.

Naked TeamAs anyone would do after running Mesa Trail, we brunched at the Chautauqua Dining Hall.  We used this time to plan the number of coolers, capture beer requests and discuss all the other important details.  Jen is renting the two vans – she’ll pick those up Thursday so we can load them that night.  We’ll leave for Idaho Springs at 4:30am Friday.  I run the first leg at 6:20am.  Thirty hours later we’ll be partying at some cabins Steve arranged in BV.

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Mountain Buzz

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

CDT, Herman Gulch Trail, Herman Lake, puerco pibil

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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CT Cronica: Yale to Princeton

26 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Asian Palate, Bunny Lane, Chalk Creek, Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, puerco pibil, Saketini, Young Life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CT Cronica: Mt. Massive

19 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

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Tags

Blue Bird, Camping, Lopesuarez, Mt. Massive, puerco pibil, Tennessee Pass Cafe, Turquiose Lake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CT Cronica: Copper

04 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

aurora, Copper Mountain, Elk Ridge, garmin, Henke's beef, Kokomo Pass, Leadville, puerco pibil, Searle Pass, Tennessee Pass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CT Cronica: Frisco

18 Saturday Jun 2011

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Colorado Trail

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Big Agnes, Breckenridge CT, Frisco, Gold Hill, puerco pibil, REI, Stinger, Swan River, Ten Mile Range, Wheeler Flats

Up at 4am again and out the door 15 minutes later, because you packed the night before.  This means you didn’t forget any key gear, except your gloves which you couldn’t easily find and you were willing to gamble you wouldn’t need them.  You didn’t.  Same stop at the same McDonalds for a cup of coffee and two breakfast burritos.  And once again, you reach the Frisco Safeway as you finish the coffee and purchase some trail supplies – namely water and Gatorade – and use the facilities.

Tumbleweed, sitting in his car drinking trail java at the Gold Hill Trail Head on Hwy 9, is surprised to see you arrive by 6:30.  You’re early enough to have nearly disrupted his morning routine.  Today’s hike will be your earliest to date as the drive to the Middle Fork Swan River TH is close by.

You’re surprised the snow hasn’t sufficiently melted to allow you to drive all the way to the trail head, but you park within a mile.  Swan River is raging and you’re thankful you don’t need to cross it today like you did at the end of your last hike.  The background bush next to Tumbleweed’s head in this first picture is that very same bush whose branches you anxiously clasped to keep from falling backwards into the stream.  Had you fallen three weeks ago, only your backpack would have drowned.  This week the Swan River would swallow your body whole.  There’s been some serious snow melt since you been gone.

  The trail spirit of A Lo Hawk emerges to launch you off on an epic run with a high-pitched holler.  And run you do.  More than the painful snowshoeing over Georgia Pass, your memory of the first part of segment 6 is a bitter feeling from not being able to run.  The first 7 miles of that trail would have made for an excellent run.  So you make up for lost ground.  Tumbleweed is confident you can leave behind the snowshoes today.  The thought of this is liberating and you dress light, considering the falling rain and snow, geared up for running.  You’ve barely run since the Bolder Boulder.  You took off two weeks to recover from nagging injuries and fatigue and only squeezed in a couple of days this past week.  Your body is ready to let loose.  There is much more whooping and hollering on the trail today.

As the sun emerges, you shed more gear.  You’re running strong and feel awesome.  Something very different is the use of trekking poles.  You learned their value on the first part of segment 6 and purchased a pair at REI.  As much as borrowing one of Tumbleweed’s poles helped you last time, two poles provide more than twice the benefit.  And you’re not even in snow yet.  You experiment with various pole rhythms to match your stride and the trail.  Poles are hardly a crutch, they’re steroids.  At one point you even leverage them to launch off a rock on a downward slope.  You’re literally flying and having a blast.  Trekking poles are an absolute must have on the CT.  They serve as the perfect tool to extract yourself from post holes, but also keep you from post holing in the first place.  Even when you’re not skipping them across the trail, but rather holding them in a horizontal position, they help you maintain balance.  You’ll be using your poles long after the snow has melted.

Perhaps it’s the comparison with the painful first part of segment 6, but today’s hike is your best experience to date.  Garmin suggests you’ve maintained walking pace at 3 miles per hour.  You know you’ve run most of the trail, and skipping across the snow spots in your hiking shoes, while slow, is fairly successful in terms of avoiding post holes.  You gain considerable experience using the trekking poles and develop the habit of sliding down the 4 to 5 foot snow cliffs where the snow would meet back up with dry trail.  It is only along the couple of miles above 11,000 feet where the snow is that deep.  Below 11,000 feet, the trail becomes nearly crowded with bikers.  Considering how few other hikers and bikers you’ve shared the trail with on prior outings, today’s near traffic jam of fat tires is quite the sight.  Men and women seem to be out in equal numbers, although it’s the women’s smiles that reinforce the beauty of the great Colorado outdoors.  Which is not to say these two guys don’t look good sporting their mountain bikes. 

Today’s hike is a total gear win.  The trekking poles are of course the most satisfying gear win.  Traveling light without snowshoes was a key decision that resulted in some nice running.  Your new tent performs perfectly with a quick setup plus rain and condensation resistance.  But it doesn’t end there.  You’ve struggled in your efforts to find optimal trail food.  You finally acquiesce to Tumbleweed’s choice of the Honey Stinger Waffle.  This honey cake is light, conveniently packed, and pretty darned tasty.  And while it’s absolutely necessary to wash down most trail food with water, it’s not absolutely critical for these tasty cakes.  You award Stinger two Puerco Pibil awards for trail food and commit to packing Stinger on all future hikes.

The day has plenty left in it as you complete this 18 mile segment at the Gold Hill Trail Head.  Yet another gorgeous biker chic, Sara, takes a picture of you with Tumbleweed.  You have very few joint pictures on the trail as you seem to be leading the season trail blazing the CT this spring. This pic captures your camping site on the hill behind you.

After changing into some comfortable clothes and setting up your tent, you shuffle your car to the end of tomorrow’s planned hike of segment 7.  This is at the Wheeler Flats Trail Head across the road from the Copper Mountain ski resort.  It’s an easy drive back down I70 to Frisco where the locals seem to be throwing a street party in your honor.  Main Street is blocked off and a BBQ competition is in full force.  You try quite a few dishes.  The spicy German sausage was your favorite, although the Jambalaya was the biggest surprise.  You try to kick it down a notch with some roasted corn but you basically over eat on hot and spicy.  There’ll be hell to pay later, but for now there’s beer to add to the mix.  With Tumbleweed driving, you drink your share.  Nothin’ better than eating meat on a stick and drinking beer in the middle of the street.  More than full, you head back to the trail head, only a couple of miles down the road, to watch the sunset.

There don’t appear to be any other campers on your hill, although there’s plenty of room.  You open a bottle of Shiraz to wind down and recount the amazing day.  Everything went right.  There was supposed to be thunder storms but they never materialized.  The early morning rain and snow served to keep you cool on your run.  Your gear performed well and you felt great.  Plus you gained quite a bit of experience with your trekking poles and the snow.  The conversation slows as the wine combines with your 4am wake up call and you take in your pleasant surroundings.

It’s still fairly early, maybe 7:30.  Tumbleweed leads you down a short path from your tents to a bluff overlooking Breckenridge and the Ten Mile Range.  Watching the sun set over the mountains, you visually review tomorrow’s hike as you polish off the Shiraz.  A light rain begins to fall and you retire to your separate tents.  Your iPhone has a strong signal so you call Karen, catch up on email and post some updates to the Colorado Trail Organization on Facebook.  You fall asleep before darkness fully sets upon Gold Hill.

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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: 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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