Tag Archives: trail

Fisher Towers

18 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by in Colorado Trail

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The 2012 season’s first hike and camping began not in Colorado but near Moab, Utah off highway 128 at Fisher Towers.  I drove to Grand Junction Thursday night on my journey to run the Moab Half Marathon on Saturday.  Rob was still returning from Durango where he was getting some new ink to mark the Mayan Apocalypse.  Sue hosted me and we watched 11th seed CU win in the first round of the NCAA tourney over UNLV.  Rob returned in time to see the victory.  Afterward we watched some Comedy Central shows Rob had recently DVR’d.

Friday morning the three of us ate breakfast at The Egg & I, Sue warned me to look out for Rob, and then we drove out of Colorado west on I-70.  Moab is less than two hours away and we took the exit for Hwy128 rather than Hwy 191.  Most mapping apps might suggest highway 191, but Hwy 128 is infinitely more scenic.  Plus this is the route to the trail head where Rob planned for us to get in a short hike.

Fisher Towers is a series of sandstone pillars that emerge in a southwesterly direction from a mesa on its northeastern flank.  Wikipedia describes them as “fins”  – three primary clusters of multiple sandstone spires.  These rock formations are instantly familiar as everyone has seen them in the movies or most recently in the Citibank commercial where Katie Brown summits the Ancient Art tower and stands on top.

I had suggested we get in a 3 to 5 mile run today since I hadn’t run much during the week and Rob thought this hike would be as good as any run.  Boy was it.  We started off running in fact, and I rediscovered my trail legs.  The hike is a bit technical in places, such as when we had to climb down an iron ladder.  After scaling the ladder, we turned left and continued back uphill.  We didn’t take any water on this hike thinking it would be short enough, but the dry air was aggressive in its attack to our mouths and throats.  My lips felt as if they had three  years of dead skin caked on to them.  Not bringing water was a gear fail, otherwise our shorts and t-shirts were perfect for the weather.

We watched some climbers working the cork screw summit of the middle cluster termed Ancient Art.  This was mouth-open, awe-inspiring, scary stuff.  Sometimes you forget what it’s like to watch death-defying stunts in real-life.  We watched a guy stand on the top like Katie in the commercial. For reals.  If Charlie Sheen has tiger blood, these climbers must have Mayan DNA.  Incredible!

After roughly an hour for 2.5 miles, we made the trail end.  If I described the view as high altitude desert, you probably wouldn’t be very impressed.  You have to experience it.  Hiking over the slick rock and breathing the rock-filtered air.  This is an amazing part of the world and well worth driving across the state border to hike or mountain bike.

The trail wasn’t crowded exactly, but we had company.  The trail head was full of cars, but mostly for climbers.  As we turned to depart from the trail end we encountered 3 sirens.  They nearly talked us into staying before our thirst brought us to our senses and we continued back to the trail head.  We discovered this rock window on the return – not sure how we missed it on the way in.  I could picture Wilma serving up a rack of dinosaur ribs to Fred at this spot.

I can’t faithfully recount every sight on this most visual hike.  There was also a flock of teenage hikers strolling barefoot across the trail.  Natives.  Back at the car we drowned our thirst with bottled water.  We then headed toward Moab on Hwy 128 and stopped near Negro Bill Canyon to stake out a camping site.  After pitching our tents, we resumed the trek into Moab for lunch, our race bibs, and beer at the one state owned liquor store.  We spent the remainder of the day ensconced at our camp site drinking beer until it was time to meet up with friends for dinner at The Red Cliffs Lodge, where we continued drinking and generally prepping our bodies for the next day’s half marathon.

Mt Bierstadt Trail Run

28 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by in Running

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Getting ready for bed but I want to blog this while my knees still hurt.  I ran up and down a 7 mile trail this morning on 14K foot Mt Bierstadt to prep for the Imogene Pass trail run in September.  And to be honest, my knees don’t hurt that badly.  At least not in a manner I’d associate with real pain.  It’s more like they just won’t operate without coaxing.  I feel like the tin man in need of oil.  And indeed I did self-prescribe lubricants.  Two Avalanche Ales for lunch at the Motherload Tavern in Breckenridge.  And it was hard to count the glasses of wine tonight as I kept refreshing them.

I’m really happy I hiked this trail today.  It was Rob Graham’s idea for a training run and I am now much more confident that I’ll be able to make the cutoff times for the 10 mile run up Imogene Pass.  The 7 mile drop into Telluride should be doable as well but no doubt will be the source of most of the post race pain.  All I can do at this point is take comfort knowing that gravity will smash my frame against the rocks with less force at 170 lbs than the 187 I started the year out at.  Rob and I started out at the Guanella trail head which begins above tree line around 11,500 feet.  The route started off flat and we ran for nearly a mile before the incline moderated our pace to a power hike.  We figure we maintained about a 2.5 mile an hour pace – which might sound slow but not after you throw in the altitude, steep plane and rocky terrain.  The trail was packed with hikers, 100s of them.  It was difficult to find a free rock to sit on at the summit with the crowd.  It reminded me of those penguin videos with thousands of birds packed on a beach.

We waited to run on our descent until the hikers cleared and the loose gravel thinned to hard packed clay.  With free range and traction, we let loose our legs and soared downward until our muscles were exhausted.  I know I won’t be able to handle a downhill pace like that for 7 miles at Imogene, just another good reason for this practice run.  But I also don’t expect to have to serpentine down the 4×4 road into Telluride like we had to on these single track switchbacks.  I actually enjoy the challenge of committing my footfall among the rocks as the momentum forces quick and sure decisions.  But the friction takes its toll.  The heat begins in the soles of my shoes and rises up my thighs.  And when the pain begins to shoot into my hips, I ironically begin hoping for a short uphill for the relief it could offer.

A comment on my last running blog, I felt much stronger this past week.  After 2 years of my brother advising me to take supplements, I finally acquiesced and bought some protein mix to take after workouts to enhance recovery.  I was tentative because some labels I read on supplements warn against consumption if you have heart ailments.  I was diagnosed with tachycardia arrhythmia at 24 – which isn’t as serious as it sounds – but I have to be careful about drugs.  And quite frankly I find specious anything ingestible that isn’t regulated by the FDA.  So I mixed this protein powder with smoothies or Gatorade this past week and felt stronger between runs.  It didn’t hurt that the weather cooled off this week.

Heil Valley Ranch

21 Saturday Aug 2010

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Not quite recovered yet, but just ran a 10 mile trail at Heil Valley Ranch.  Second time this week since Dave turned me on to it.  He mountain bikes it regularly.  I don’t think I’m giving myself adequate time for my body to heal between runs.  This was brutal today.  Everything hurt from start to finish.  Starting at the Picture Rock Trail head, this trail steadily inclines for 5.5 miles.  I turn around at the 5 mile marker though.  And the grade isn’t overly steep, but the trail is fairly rocky in spots requiring high knee lifts.  This picture shows my legs covered in dirt starting at my ankle line.

I ran back down today like a banshee; not to say I was running fast, but because instead of breathing my body involuntarily grunted the entire retreat down the mountain.  And I howled forth several screams upon stumbling.  I pulled something in my left thigh after one of my stumbles to stop myself from falling over a small cliff.  And at one point a thorn pierced my right shoe into the ball of my foot.  I’ve been pushing myself hard this last week to prep for the Imogene Pass Run in September, but I may have to rethink my regimen because the intensity is taking its toll.  And to paraphrase Captain Mal, you can’t run if you’re dead.

The first time I ran this trail on Tuesday, I sprung back down in confidence.  But my legs were so weak today I had to let them move at the pace granted by my downward momentum because I was afraid any resistance would lead to collapsing.  My knees went from sore to numb and I wasn’t assured they would support my frame.  Descending downhill was more a matter of faith than actual control.

My playlist helped.  I borrowed Karen’s iPod and played a shuffle of her dance tunes she uses as an aerobics instructor.  I was near tears as my exhausted flesh exited the canyon with 1 mile remaining, and by then the music wasn’t enough to keep me from walking.  But a strong breeze came from nowhere and cooled me down.  And again, with only a half mile to go, I considered walking.  But the oddest thing; a Christmas song played – Winter Wonderland.  It created enough of a fantasy world for me to think it wasn’t so hot and I made it to the trail head in stride.  I’m going to keep my distance up next week, but I might back off from squeezing in so many mountain trail runs.  I need to live to run another day.