Summer cold blues

Not that there's ever a good time to catch a cold, but when the weather's beautiful, the trails are all clearing off, and you just want to be out there, getting a cold that turns to a cough and takes you off the trail for a couple weeks just bites.  Fortunately, the suck lifted last weekend and I managed to zip out a quick summit of Bergen Peak.  I was tight on time, so needed to keep it to a straight up, straight down affair.  I was definitely in the mood for speed and did the round trip of 1800' in 2:36:32, for 9.22 miles and an average pace of 16:59.  That meant a very near personal best ascent with some running on the decent.

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.

Three days, four great hikes

The first real weekend of spring weather came and I was all too ready for it. Late April into early June has always been my favorite time of year in Colorado; while the high alpine trails aren't open just yet, the trails along the Front Range are shedding their snow and drying out and you don't have to time your hikes to avoid the hottest part of the day.  It doesn't hurt that my garden is starting to green up and I'm coming inside with the taste of fresh lovage in my mouth.  Damn, too many things not to be loving life right now.

Saturday Suz and I headed down to Salida to do a little hiking and exploring.  Sure, it is probably silly in most people's minds to spend four and a half hours in a car (round trip) for a three hour hike, but it's an area that I only just discovered last fall and at this point, I just can't get enough of it.  Combined with some great little shops in downtown (Suz loves the clothing consignment shop, I love Salida Mountain Sports) with Moonlight Pizza and what's not to love?

Oh, regarding the hike, it was a blast up Frontside to Lil Rattler to North Backbone to the northern trailhead, and then coming back via Backbone and Sand Dunes.  MapMyRun showed it as 10.98 miles, 968' of vertical, in 3:48:58, and an average pace of 20:18/mile.  Suz's Garmin showed it as 9.75, so it's just more evidence that phones aren't dedicated GPS units, but I guess I'm not that anal about my data (anymore).

Sunday my initial plan was to bang out some errands and maybe get in a quick hit of Sinitas, however, one of the shops I'd set as my destination was closed and the Boulder trails were packed, so I opted to head south.  On my way south from Boulder I came across the North Table Mountain trailhead and while it was busy, parking was available.  I've only been on NTM a couple times in my life, but really enjoyed it when I did.  Now that it's being developed as a major trail system after my first taste in over five years, I'm loving it.  The initial road climb up there is stupidly steep, but I was in the mood to make myself suffer, so I pegged it at the high end of what I could sustain.  The really cool part was on the eastern side where I dropped down the Cottonwood Canyon trail and went around to the south and East side to the Mesa Top trail, then climbed back up onto the mesa.  If I was doing this on an MTB, I'd definitely do the opposite, giving yourself the steepest drop off the mesa and smoothest ascent, but as a runner/hiker, I think I did it the best way.  Total mileage was 7.53, 981' of climbing, total time was 2:03:21, and my average pace was 16:23 (there was a little running going down Cottonwood Canyon, but otherwise, just hiking).

Just dropping off the mesa on the Cottonwood Canyon trail.

Monday Linda and I got together for a walk in Bear Lake Park.  The weather and trail conditions were perfect and we whipped out 4.41 miles with 154' of vert in 1:23:44, which meant an average pace of 18:58.

After lunch and getting the orthotics adjustment I wanted Sunday I wanted to try out my new orthotics and headed over to Chautauqua and absolutely hammered up to Royal Arch.  I've done very little hiking in Chautauqua before this and never this particular hike before.  Definitely worth it for the views, but it's also a fairly technical hike with some rocky little scrambles.  The trail was not built for speed.  Total mileage was 4.17 miles, 1,165' vertical(!), 1:40:09 for an average pace of 24:02 (which was hammering on the climb pretty hard, but not particularly fast on the descent).

Thawing out

I went into winter mode for a while.  That's not to say I wasn't getting out there at all, but it was mostly 2-3 mile dog walks with the occasional 1-2 hour hike, but nothing that really motivated me to post until this weekend.  After snow on Monday and Wednesday, the front range trails were still a mess, so I decided to venture the 120 miles south to Salida in search of some dry trails.  I started up Frontside with temperatures in the low 50s, some light wind, and a beautiful sunny day.  From Frontside I hooked into Lil Rattler, Backbone, and then went up Sand Dunes to CR173.  I dropped down the 4x4 road to Backbone and headed west this time until my phone advised me I'd hit 7 miles before turning around.  In the end, it was a 12.2 mile hike in 3:20 or an average pace of 16:18.

Salida Weekend with My Girls

Perhaps one of the highlights of the summer for me was rediscovering Salida.  So as our plans for a trip to go see Amy Schumer in Las Vegas went south (she cancelled her show), our plans to go to Salida for the weekend unfolded.  Rather than bringing in a house sitter for the girls or putting the girls up at a kennel, we opted to bring them with us for the weekend.

Of course the two and a half hour drive down to Salida was a bit tough on the dogs, so what better way to reward their patience than to get out of the car and bust it loose on the trail?

The light was fading by the end of the hike, but the girls were grateful for the leg stretching.

S-Mountain quick hit-3.4 miles, 1:17:31, 23:00 minute per mile pace, 213'.

Sunday got us out on the trail, despite some strong winds and cooler temperatures.  Still, the Rainbow Trail was a fun and rugged challenge.  Certainly not one for trail running due to the loose, rocky sections that can be quite steep.

Of course, if you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.

Ok, so that's not really true.

A great view of the Collegiate Peaks from the Rainbow Trail.

Eventually our limited time due to a previously scheduled couples massage put an end to our hike.  Given the challenging nature of the trail, our pups had probably had enough.  The rocks definitely took their toll on their pads.  Besides, not every day should be about epic long hikes.  Sometimes it should be a little challenge, a little relaxation and a little decadence.  4.87 miles, 1:53:38, 23:18 pace, 1269' of climbing.

Mmmmm, Moonlight Pizza.  Is there anything better on earth?  Maybe a glass of their homebrewed Hefferveisen beer...

So we wrapped up the weekend with a morning at the dog park.

Buffalo Creek: 543, Baldy, Miller Gulch, Sandy Wash

Great weather brings out a whole lotta people on the weekends.  Buffalo Creek was busy.  While I have no problems sharing the trails with mountain bikers, today was a bit of a pain because of a group of horses.  The problem is that they kept passing me, which would require me to stop so all six of them (and another half-dozen or so dogs) could pass me, they'd ride for a while, then stop to water their horses, talk or have lunch, then resume just in time to pass me again, requiring me to stop.  By the fourth and final time it was almost comical, but I don't do well with interruptions on the trail and it did disturb my mojo for the hike.  I just wanted to belt out miles and it seemed like there were too many pace-breaking stops to get a good flow.  That combined with running out of water about three hours in, which made me cut the hike a bit short of what I was hoping for today and I can just say that I've had better days on the trail.

A beautiful sky, but man, was it dry.  I don't think I can recall a November this dry here on the front range.  One of the fire departments had it signed as Extreme fire danger (likely one above reality, but still, very high is ridiculous for November).

The view north toward Long Scraggy.

14.24 miles on the day, 4:27:18, average pace was 18:46, 1,305' vertical.

Mt. Sanitas

Needing a bit of a change of scenery and also wanting to check out my favorite used outdoor clothing shop, I decided to park at the Pearl Street trailhead and hike Mt. Sanitas.  Nice crisp air, beautiful clear skies; it was a good day to climb, which is a good thing, because anyone who's done Sanitas knows that is exactly what it does.

4.71 miles, 1:45:00, 1,201' vert, average pace 22:32.  From the Sanitas Trailhead to the summit, 1.4 miles, 951 vertical, I managed a respectable 28:50.

Bergen Peak

Deciding that there was no better way to spend Thanksgiving, I got out for a hike of Bergen Peak.  I was far from the only one.  Actually, I had to go to a different trailhead it was so crowded.  That said, the slight change of scenery wasn't bad for me.  I had a very solid climb up and ran down until I hit the intersection, then went back to walking.  Temps were cold enough that I chose to run off the summit just to get warmed back up.

10.56 miles (from the Lewis Ridge Road TH), 2:59:34, 17:11 pace. 1991' vertical.

Buffalo Creek: Gashouse, Baldy, Tramway, CT, GM Loop

I got out with my former boss, Colleen, for a nice hike in Buffalo Creek.  Perfect weather, about 60F, very few folks on the trail for a Saturday.  Started at the Gashouse trailhead, headed north to Baldy, down Baldy to 543 to Tramway, up tramway to the Colorado Trail and caught the Green Mountain loop at the end.  Rather than doing the trail back, we hit the road, both agreeing that we had enough miles under our feet for the day.

13.42 miles, 1,250' vert, 4:22:48 with an average pace of 19:34m/m.

A great conversation along the trail catching up on other adventures in our lives and trail recommendations for future hikes.

Buffalo Creek Explorations

While I've been mountain biking in Buffalo Creek since 2000, it's only been in the last couple of weekends that I've started doing some hiking and running in the area.  Last weekend I saw a rare sight that begged to be explored, a new trail (or at least new to me).  Going up FDR 543, between where the singletrack portion of Sandy Wash takes off and where the gully trail where Sandy Wash dumps I saw a new piece of singletrack taking off to the south with a wooden bridge across the creek.

Today I decided it was time to explore this ribbon of trail goodness.  What I found was the lower portion of the trail looked new, like they were still working on it new, but the further up I went the more clear it was that this had been a project in the works for several years.  By the upper 2/3rds the trees removed from the corridor appeared to have been taken out several seasons ago and it appeared that it was following a corridor of a trail from before the burn (the Buffalo Creek area has been hit by two significant fires, the Buffalo Creek fire in 1996 and the High Meadow fire in 2000.  The Buffalo Creek fire led to numerous trails being closed that only gradually reopened with a lot of lobbying and hard work on behalf of volunteers).

The trail climbs up from 543 steeply at first and then flattens out toward the top, covering about 1,100' over the length of the climb (about 6.5 miles from the trailhead on 543 at the bottom) where it intersects the Buffalo Burn trail, which eventually runs into the Colorado Trail near Hwy 126 and FDR 550.  I continued along the CT to Shinglemill, which I descended back to 543.  While descending 543 a mountain biker stopped me to ask what I'd hiked today and I tried to explain and he referred to the new trail as Lil' Kitty.  Not sure if that's the name, but that's the best I've got for a name.

Part of the long climb up Lil' Kitty looking back

Looking up Lil Kitty

Finally heading downhill!

This was my first time actually going down Shinglemill, as we'd always come up Morrison Creek, gone across the CT then north through Miller Gulch until we intercepted Sandy Wash.  The view and the trail made me wonder why we climbed Morrison Creek instead of Shinglemill.

The only uncomfortable moment was about 3/4 of the was up the climb when I saw a very large gathering of ravens on the other side of the drainage.  One landed on a rock about 100 yards from me and dropped a 6"+ long strip of blood-red meat on the rock before flying away, harassed by other ravens.  As I left the area the ravens all landed on the same area, apparently fighting over a carcass.  Who knows what killed whatever it was, but in that kind of terrain one's mind quickly goes to mountain lions. There were a lot of deer in the area, mostly does in groups of 6-7, some with bucks.  I also saw several nice looking 4-point bucks in the area without harems.

Ending mileage was 15.7 miles, 4:26:12, and a 16:58 average pace.  It was all hiking this time.

Doubletime

Today started off taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep and hitting the trail early.  Valerie and I met in Morrison for a hike into Bear Lake Park and had a pretty good ramble, for me, discovering more trails that I never had a clue existed.  There's a lot of winter training potential in the park and I plan on taking advantage of the system a lot this year.

We scared up a buck and his harem just after the halfway point.  It's clear the rut for mule deer is here.  Final figures on the hike were 5.22 miles, 1:31:49, and a 17:36 pace.

As is quickly becoming my weekend habit, a single hike or run with someone else just doesn't seem to satisfy me, so after getting a quick lunch, I drove up to Buffalo Creek for a hike/trail run.  I walked pretty much the entire ascent going up FDR 543 along the river until I got to Baldy, then proceeding up the hill for about another mile before deciding I didn't have enough in my legs or light in the day to make the connector to Sandy Wash and turned around.  That left me with a 10.74 mile walk/run (about 65% walking, 35% running), which I covered in 2:42:57 which worked out to be a 15:10 pace.

Completing the day with 16 miles felt pretty solid.  Early on in the second hike I did have some tweakiness in my left foot (4th metatarsal) and right patellar tendon, but both seemed to fade with time and by the time I was on Baldy were gone entirely.  While my legs definitely need to continue to develop and my cardio is a long way from where I want it to be, between yesterday's run and today, it's clear that I'm well on my way to  returning to the fitness level I want.

Catching up... again

So last Saturday, October 27th was my last day of deer and elk season.  I really wanted to make the best of it since I failed to get anything during antelope season and the freezer is probably down to 25 pounds of deer from last year.  Mr. Murphy intervened when my hunting partner for the day failed to show up at 4am.  At 4:15 I called him, at 4:20 he called back and said he was running late and about to leave his place in Lakewood.  Not cool.  By the time we met up in Evergreen we were about 40 minutes behind schedule.  As a result, by the time we arrived in Summit County it was just starting to get light on the eastern horizon.

It was cold, 4-5" of snow on the ground, probably 22-24F outside and of course the hike in starts with a near vertical ascent (or so it feels) for about 1/2 mile.  That gets you nice and sweaty for the next stage in hunting, sitting down without moving for 90 minutes to two hours in the snow.  Did I mention it was cold?  Anyway, by the end I decided to really beat the bushes and give it my best shot, so we hiked in past Harrigan Creek and by 1:30pm we'd put up about 8.5 miles and based on the lack of any animals or good sign to work with, called it a day.  Probably the highlight of the day for me was this scene out of a Bev Doolittle drawing:

We also ran across a cleverly concealed hunting camp that was apparently empty, from the lack of tracks going in or out.

Sunday was my ticket to getting out of the doghouse for two weekends of hunting away from my wife.  We went for a great little run in Bear Lake Park.  Just random wanderings on various trails with no rhyme or reason for my trail selection.  3.9 miles, 48:37, 12:31 pace including some walking along the road.

Suz snapped this hopelessly posed picture, which never seem to turn out, do they?

Somehow that one run wasn't enough and after spending some time doing horse stuff with her, I left her to untack and did another quick hit, this time it was Green Mountain and very short.  Just 2.2 miles, 26:45 and a pace of 12:03, but it worked it out of my system.  I'm not a big fan of GM runs because, well, I'm not good at running up hill.  Hiking up hill, yes, running up them, not so much.

So other than a dog walk on Friday (1.47 miles, 29:55, 20:20 pace), it was a pretty weak week.

Today, Saturday the 3rd of November I drove over to Elk Meadows.  I hadn't run continuously in a few weeks so I wanted to put in a good effort on one of my favorite loops.  As usual, I struggled early on to warm up the mojo and get a good pace going, but by the high point in the loop, I was cruising.  In the end it was somewhere in the neighborhood of my PR for the loop, not that I'm absolutely certain what that is, but I recall it being around 1:04.  Today was 5.7 miles, 1:05:03, 11:24 pace.  I felt good the entire loop and even did alright on some of the flatter climbs.  The sub-11:30 pace makes me happy, as I've struggled with getting there on longer runs without feeling completely wasted.

I took several pictures, but unfortunately failed to notice I left my memory card in my computer when I grabbed the camera.  Opps.  Oh well, it's likely I'll be back soon enough.

Total mileage Sunday to Saturday on the week was 13.27, which is my lowest since the first week of September.  With hunting season behind me now, while some workouts are likely to move onto the stepper and into the gym (or fire department), I hope to get back into the 20-25 mile per week range for the next couple months before making any moves to build on more base.  Since this is just the beginning of getting back in shape, I want to be sure to make sure my joints, tendons and ligaments are getting the time they need to adapt, not just my heart and muscles.  Patience is the key to getting this 45 year old machine back into fighting shape.

Getting the ball rolling

This is actually my second attempt at getting a blog going, the first was abandoned about three years ago as it was part of a mountain biking forum that I rarely visit anymore.  My goals here are pretty simple:  I want to share, explore some community with like-minded folks, and have a feeling of needing to be accountable to someone (no one really, but just the feeling).  This is likely to evolve into being part training journal of my hiking, running, biking and backpacking, along with being a travel log of my adventures.  I like photography, but I hate being encumbered with equipment, so don't expect to see much more than point and shoot shots taken on the fly or posed with a self-timer.

 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.