Busy weekend with some other stuff

While Saturday started out pretty normal of late, driving up to Buffalo Creek and hammering out 14.3 miles with hiking up Sandy Wash to Miller Gulch to Gas House all the way around to 542 (1330' vertical, in 4:08:32 with an average pace of 17:19), Sunday was a different kind of animal.

Suz and I have been becoming more active with our local volunteer fire department and this weekend was our field day for wildland firefighting (S130/S190).  Thus, we got the chance to grub line and then run like our lives depended on it up a 45 degree slope with full packs on.  In the end, I beat the younger whippersnappers because all the running in the world isn't worth squat compared to running up steep climbs with a full pack on. ;)

Debriefing after deploying our shake and bakes.

Bergen Peak

Sunday I decided to put up some vertical feet and bag Bergen Peak.  After yesterday's speed with the trekking poles, I'm sold and guess I'll overlook my attitude I've developed about them over the years (they just seem so overkill for front range trails).  This time I needed them as much for stability in the snow and slush at the top as I needed them for speed and efficiency on the bottom.  The top mile or so was pretty solid slushy snow that made me wish I'd brought my Yak Traks.  Meh, in the end I didn't have any falls and managed to do the summit and loop in 3:13:54, 11.46 miles (started from Lewis Ridge TH), with an average pace of 16:55 min/mile covering just shy of 2,000' of climbing.

A little snowy...

More than a little snowy...

Mount Evans looks so much better than last year.  That's the best snowpack I've seen up there at this time of year in years.  Maybe the entire state won't burn down this year.

Buffalo Creek Mileage

I wanted to put up some good miles using my new trekking poles so headed back to Buffalo Creek and hit up my Nice Kitty, Buffalo Creek Trail, Colorado Trail, Shinglemill, Morrison Creek loop with a little diversion to do the Sandy Wash parallel.  A couple little squalls blew through causing me to don my rain gear once, but probably for only about 20 minutes or so.  Otherwise, the temperature was perfect for hiking in shorts and t-shirt and I put up 15.5 miles in 4:06 with 1,187' of climbing and an average pace of 15:51 min/mile.