Training Log Archive: pfc

Long-O at Saylor Park. Iffy run with two booms - one 21 minute split. Lots of elevation change and plenty of marsh crossings. I was up to my knees in water before I got the first control :)

Embarassingly bad run at the Short-O in Woodland Park. Had to relocate myself twice.

Hiking around Florissant Fossil Beds NM. Not very impressive, except for the 35 MY old petrified sequoia stumps.

Rented a bike and took some of the singletrack trails around Crested Butte. The rental place actually had a pair of clipless shoes I borrowed. They were a half size too small and a little dirty, but I suppose it's not any worse than bowling shoes.

The trails up here are really rocky - they make Lebanon Hills look like a paved trail. Everyone runs their suspension very loose and puts no more than 40 psi in the tires to improve grip. I fell over (unclipping problem, of course) right at the start and had to walk a few times, but when I learned how to roll over the rock gardens it got better. Of course, there's a ton of screaming downhills around here, too.

Riding around town. Crested Buute has to be one of the most bike friendly towns - the speed limit is 15 mph and almost every business has a bike rack out front. People just leave their bikes unlocked, too.

Hiking up Oh-be-joyful creek and back down again.

Camped at South Elbert CG. Woke up about 2 AM to a completely clear sky - good sign. Got on the trail a little before 5 AM, went up the NE ridge and summited Elbert under a clear blue sky at 8 AM. Met a lot of people on the way down. Topo map and photos.

C • Congrats 4

Unplanned stop at the Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon. Well worth it. The lake itself is up a difficult 1.5 mile trail that's choked with people - but - it's spectacular. Will post photos later tonight.

Visited Sand Dunes National Park in the northeastern corner of the San Luis Valley. Hiked up to High Dune, then over to Great Star Dune and returned in an arc to the south. Not hot, but slow going and easy to get turned around, if not for the sun and the mountains surrounding the park on three sides. Topo map.

Camped at Kite Lake last night after a nighttime drive up a really bad dirt road (almost as bad as the one on Pine Ridge). Hit the trail shortly after 6 AM. Mt. Democrat at 7:30, Cameron at 8:30, Lincoln at 9 and Bross at 9:45. It still wasn't early enough to avoid the moisture - I was continually beset by low blowing clouds and wind-driven rain. Took a steep descent route off Bross (not the right one according to my guidebook), but it wasn't really dangerous - just gravel/scree and in many places it was in good condition to plunge. Two other groups took the same route too. Topo map. Photos to come later.

Another good run today. A little longer, and it was a different setter so the course felt a little different.

When I left it looked like 2-day combined place 6 of 17.

Rented a bike at the camp and went for a trail ride while they were setting out the Bike-O controls. Then I started the Bike-O, and got exactly two controls before a thunderstorm moved in. As I was trying to get out of the open ground (and there's a lot of open ground in Colorado), lightning struck less than half a mile to my east (2 seconds between flash and thunder.) I could have finished the Bike-O in the rain and mud, but didn't want to mess with lightning, so I pounded it back and gave up on the course. It turns out the storm only got worse - I could see it as a nasty black horizon as I drove towards Denver.

C • lightning 3

blue day 2 - Splits

One of my better runs so far this summer. Only bobbled about a minute on the 2nd to last control. Ran pretty hard the whole way and always stayed moving. Came in 8th place, just at the end of the lead pack. 4th through 8th were within 5 minutes.

This was Plamen's new "last minute" map. It was pretty good, sufficient detail in the rocky areas although some of the rocks and single trees in the flat areas weren't mapped. This was explained in the course notes, though, and the inconsistencies were consistent. It didn't affect my navigation and probably not anyone else's.

C • very nice run on a new map....... 2

Blue Day 1 - Splits

Event: 2007 USOF Convention and Colorado 5-Days
 

Morning walk along the Continental Divide from Loveland Pass to Grizzly Peak. Conditions were not good - low drizzly clouds moved in as I climbed Grizzly. Sat at the small stone windbreak on the summit with a guy from Boise and a guy from Chicago. Torrey's Peak was next along the ridge and the last 3 or 400 feet were obscured by clouds, although we could see hikers on the Gray's-Torrey's ridge. Sat for a while and we all decided not to climb up into the fog with worsening conditions. As I returned to the pass, even Grizzly was overtaken by clouds. Topo map and photos.

====================================================

I woke up around 7 AM with no bear incidents to report. Between the mountain air and the overnight rain, it was quite cold and gray. Since I had nothing to pack up, I immediately got going and turned on the heat. Last night I had thought about going up to Mt. Evans and read some about Evans and Bierstadt in the 14er book. Even though you can practically drive to the top of Evans, getting over to Bierstadt (another 14er) is a bit of a challenge due to the ridge they call the "Sawtooth". I think I'll attempt that later next week. Instead I got some breakfast in Idaho Springs and headed up to Loveland Pass.

My original thought was to walk the ridge southeast from the pass and see how far I make it - with luck and enough time, I could even make Torrey's Peak. I packed all my warm clothes, water, and some food into the Golite and headed up. The pass is just a hair over 12,000 ft, and is firmly in the alpine tundra zone which extends up another 1,000 ft. This zone is the area above treeline that is still carpeted with green (in the summer), before it finally gives way to bare rock and lichens. It's a beautiful area to hike. The trail east from the pass immediately climbs up to a three-way peak at about 13,100, and you can continue N to Mount Sniktau or SSE towards Grizzly Peak. The SSE ridge varies up and down a few hundred feet and there are areas of loose rock and talus to negotiate, but the trail is quite distinct and it's not a technical hike by any means.

As I was descending into the last saddle before the climb to Grizzly Peak, I noticed a group of about 25 mountain goats coming up the right-hand (west) slope from Arapahoe Basin. The group as a whole was constantly moving, but every now and then individuals would put their heads down to graze. They moved quite quickly up the 40-degree slope towards the spine of the ridge about halfway up the mountain ahead of me. I stopped to take some pictures, and as the herd saw me they picked up the pace and crossed the ridge from right to left, where I lost sight of them.

After that (well appreciated) rest, I started up Grizzly Peak. The footing was fairly good even though the slope was steep, and I used my hands, more to take some of the effort off my legs than to maintain balance. When climbing at altitude like that, one of the keys is keeping a slow-and-steady pace, rather than rushing ahead, then stopping to rest, over and over. That, and not looking too far up (thus seeing how far you have yet to go.) Before I knew it, the trail flattened out and I was on top of the peak at about 13,400. There was a small windbreak made of rocks, and another hiker resting there. I sat down and talked with him a little while. He was from Boise, Idaho and was visiting some friends out here. We were sitting with our backs to the wind, facing east and looking towards Torrey's and Gray's Peaks, the next mountains along the Continental Divide and two of the most popular 14ers in the state. By this time (shortly before 10 AM), the clouds were lowering and covered the last few hundred feet of Torrey's summit. They weren't quite low enough to obscure the ridge between Torrey's and Gray's though, and I could make out several groups of climbers silhouetted against the gray sky.

There was another hiker about 300 yards east along the next ridge, just standing there looking at Torrey's. There was quite a descent in front of him, which necessitated making at least a 1500 foot climb to Torrey's, probably more. Eventually he came back towards us, and announced his intention not to try the peak today, because of the (relatively) late hour and the iffy weather, and the time he expected he'd need to traverse the ridge. The clouds were low and drizzly, without any sign of development into thunderstorms, but they wouldn't have made the ridge walk a very pleasant experience. I found I had to agree with him. He started back down towards Loveland Pass, and I followed him a few minutes later. I caught up with him at the base of Grizzly Peak and we chatted for a while as we made our way back.

After changing into more suitable clothes, I continued down the back side of Loveland Pass, past the Arapahoe "A-Basin" ski resort. Just after the resort there's a small pulloff on the north side of the road with a water pipe, apparently from a spring or permanent stream. Nothing but pure mountain water. I filled up and parked the car in the shade while I took a short nap. I was awakened about 45 minutes later by a truck full of highway workers who pulled into the turnoff, grabbed a 10 gallon jug out of the back of the pickup, and proceeded to fill it for the day's needs. I guess everyone knows just where to go.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Got a morning start up to Lewis Lake and up the Medicine Bow Peak Trail. On the peak (12,013 ft) around 8:00, then continued south along the west side of the ridge, after losing the trail in a jumble of talus. Came down at the south side of Lake Marie. Then back along the Lookout Lake trail. Topo and photos.

====================================================

I was up before 6 AM today, and didn't feel like getting back to sleep. So I went for the early morning start up Medicine Bow Peak. I was the only person up at the trailhead, and was on the trail by 6:22 AM. The sun was up but obscured behind bands of clouds off to the east, but luckily the fog from last night had dissipated. The trail winds around the south end of Lewis Lake and then climbs around he north side of Sugarloaf Mountain to a saddle at about 11,000 feet. The trail splits and I went directly west up the ridge to the peak. It was slow going, and the wind started to get stronger the higher I went, but a steady pace brought me to the top of the ridge where I could see its flat, sloping, west side. The peak itself was really more of a big pile of rocks on the edge of the ridge just to my south, so I climbed over the boulders to the top and took a picture of what I think is the summit marker. At least, it was the highest point around, both by eye and by altimeter.

I had planned on continuing south and coming off the ridge by Lake Marie, so I tried to locate the trail in the jumble of rocks. I ended up following some of the trail markers, which were wooden posts about 4 feet high held in place by stacking a cairn around the base. As I started to switchback and descend, it became apparent I was actually on trail #294, heading steeply down towards Dipper Lake. So I climbed back up a bit to see if I had missed a trail junction, but finding nothing I had to strike out on my own towards the south. About 15 minutes later I was picking my way down a talus slope and met the only other hikers I saw all day on their way up - two women out with their dogs. The dogs had been requisitioned to carry all the supplies. We sat and talked for a little bit. I was wearing my PQ sahara hat, and one of them noticed and commented on it. It turns out she had done a little adventure racing and knew enough about the sport to have heard of that race. They were taking the same circuit as I was, just in the opposite direction, so we jokingly noted that we'd probably run into each other a couple hours later.

After the slope flattened out, I finally spotted some trail markers that were not from #294, and headed for them to minimize my impact on the tundra environment (I had been trying to hop from boulder to boulder rather than step on the low vegetation.) The trail immediately started to improve and brought me southwest toward the end of the ridge, where it switchbacked down a slope with several scree sections. Right as I descended to treeline, the sun started to come out and I picked my way down to Lake Marie.

It was a quick return hike, along the edge of Lake Marie and through the Mirror Lake picnic area to the Lookout Lake trail. As expected, I ran into the same two hikers about halfway up the trail, this time trail running (well, it was a downhill section!) I made it back to the car, said goodbye to the Snowies, and went for lunch in Laramie before heading for Colorado.

I took the U.S highway (287) south out of Laramie to Fort Collins. Now I remember why U.S. Highways aren't the greatest - lots of traffic including 18-wheelers, and bad road surface. Nevertheless, it was the quickest way there. In Fort Collins, I stopped for coffee and got online, and that's where I heard the news about the bridge collapse and finally saw all the messages and voice mails. It was mid-afternoon, so I called and talked to Annie for a while and got caught up. After that, just a lot of driving to make my way to Idaho Springs. In accordance with my plan to eat my way across the West, I planned for dinner at Beau Jo's and that's where I knew one was (turns out there was one in Fort Collins, too.) It also brought me to the area (immediately west of Denver) that I wanted to spend my time in before heading to Peaceful Valley.

After dinner, I drove up Mt. Evans Road to the West Chicago Creek campsite, another site I knew from prior trips. I grabbed the last available campsite and settled in for the night. The site was right across from the campground host, and she came over to warn me that there had been a bear visiting the campsite every couple of nights all summer, so she gave me the usual warnings. I assured her I was familiar with camping in bear country. Just as it started to get dark, a storm moved in from the west, just to our south over the ridge on the other side of the creek. All we got for rain was a few light drops, but there was quite a lightning show. I laid in the back of car with the hatchback up watching until it moved away, then fell asleep.