Just so I start with something, here's a few pics and stories from my summer's exploits:
My summer hiking started off with my first summit of Bergen Peak on foot (rather than on bike). I quite like the hike, enough that I probably repeated that climb another 8-10 times by the end of the summer. Starting from the Stagecoach side of things and going up the Bergen Peak Trail, coming down the Too Long Trail and finishing the loop around Elk Meadows was about a 11.5 mile loop with about 1,900 vertical feet with a summit right around 9,800' so you could escape the heat of the city. My last hike/run of it was October 8th and I managed to crack three hours, completing the loop in 2:56:08, shattering my PR of 3:17 earlier this summer.
That along with other weekend hikes prepared me (kind of) for the next big adventure, a three day backpacking hike along the Colorado Trail from Leadville to Copper Mountain. Day one started after work, arriving at the trailhead at about 5:45pm and only going in about three miles before fading light and concern about finding a better flat spot brought our progress to a close at a beautiful above treeline spot. Waking up next to the sun beaming through Chad's ultralight tent was quite cool.
Day two was a serious haul and probably the most physically demanding thing I've done since trying to solo the 24 hours of Moab in 2006 (the year of the rain). At the end of the day we made it to Janet's Cabin, out of light, out of energy, and pretty much out of the will to live. 25 miles with about a 20 pound pack (yep, ultralight backpacking is another love of mine) in roughly 12 hours. The final climb of the day from Camp Hale to Searle Pass was roughly 3,000' and damn near killed the Chadders, who was suffering from some serious gut issues.
Day three was a bail out to Copper Mountain, just nine miles of super fast downhill. While the original plan was to make it to Gold Hill, neither of us had it in us and I'd end up completing that leg the following weekend.
First Suzannah and I did this in June, the weekend after Chad and I did Leadville to Copper leg of the CT, but I loved it so much that Chad and I ended up doing the stretch again in mid-September. Just shy of 13 miles, just over 2,600' of climbing, the last trip took 4:52:06 with no running. I suspect that when I run pieces of it next year, it'll probably end up being about four hours even.
Probably the only other hike of significance was Echo Lake to Lincoln Lake, which is right about 13 miles, but I wasn't GPS'ing it and can't be certain on either distance or duration.
There were plenty of other shorter hikes this summer, but Copper to Gold Hill and Bergen Peak were among my favorites. In the last two months I've picked up the tempo from weekend warrior to about four hikes or runs a week. I still have yet to get the MTB out in anger and likely, it'll wait until spring. In the meantime, the goal is to keep the routine, re-establish a good base, and keep enjoying the trails that are open.
