Brainard Lake

Mom and I drove up through Gold Hill on our way to Brainard Lake. We stopped at the Sunshine school house (built in 1900) to take a look.

Up at Brainard, we walked the road until we couldn't any longer. We couldn't keep going because there were several feet of snow and the big tractors were trying to move it.

Fortunately, I found the little trail through the campground, so we took that. Mom was a trooper, though, because this alternate route was covered in snow. She did a great job in sneakers and with hiking poles and we made it all the way to the lake. There was no one else there, but when we started to head back we ran into many different parties. A fun day!

Bolder Boulder

Today was Bolder Boulder Day! Dan, Mom and I all finished the race! Dan ran an impressive 48:48, just 8 second slower than last year. I ran 54:03, a minute and a half faster than last year (yay triathlon training!). Dan and I grabbed our bikes and met mom back at home, and then walked the race with her. We finished in just under 1:50 and stayed in the stadium for the elite races and Memorial Day observance. It was perfect running weather and we all had a great time!

Mom's Visit

Mom arrived on Saturday! As soon as we got to Boulder, we hopped on our bikes and rode to the Farmer's Market. We got some yummy stuff for lunch and picked up some stuff for dinner. Then we went to get Mom's race packet and walked on Pearl St.

On Sunday we got up early and rode bikes to Vic's and Moe's for breakfast. Then we toured the Mapleton neighborhood and ended up at Mount Sanitas. Mom and I hiked the Valley Trail and then rode home. The skies were still cloudy, so we drove up to Nederland to check out the canyon and the shops. Amazingly, it was sunny there so we had lunch at Sundance with awesome views. On our way back to Boulder the skies cleared, so we picked up Dan and hiked the West Ridge of Green Mountain.

Triathlon Training

Run/hike/walk: 17.5 miles
Bike: 108 miles
Swim: 2 miles

Skyline traverse / Birthday run

For her birthday, Laurel wanted to run the skyline traverse. Today was the day for it. We biked to Chautauqua, ran up Flagstaff Mt., over to Green Mt., over to Bear Pk., over to South Boulder Pk., down the Shadow Canyon trail, and back to Chautauqua on the Mesa trail. It ended up being 14.2 miles of running that took us 5:37. We're both pretty sore now!


View Flag Green Bear South Mesa run in a larger map

Triathlon Training

Run/hike/walk: 38 miles
Bike: 70
Swim: 2

Donna & JJ's visit

Donna and JJ visited us for a week. The weather wasn't great (typical spring) but we still got out for some fun.

Donna and I did a bunch of biking (here and here) and some running (part of Cottonwood and some random route).

Laurel and I took JJ up Bear Peak on Saturday. The rain held off until the last 2 miles of the hike.

Triathalon Training

run/hike/walk: 33 miles
bike: 85 miles
swim: 1 mile

Jamestown run

We biked to Jamestown for a trail run today. The ride was about 17 miles and almost all uphill (some 1600'). The run/hike was on old forest roads, up to Nugget Hill for some spectacular views, then back down other forest roads.

Along the way we saw some old mining equipment (or something). There was a small pad with the letters "RWH" and "BONDHOLDER 1934" written in the concrete, and nearby was a sinkhole or old mine shaft or something that probably went down 20 feet.

Our run ended up being around 9 miles and took us almost up to 8800' (we started at around 6900'). Hard to believe we climbed more on foot than on bike -- that ride was tough! Luckily the ride home was almost all downhill, just some small ups on US-36.

View Jamestown bike/run/hike in a larger map

Triathlon Training

Running/hiking/walking: 29 miles
Biking: 68 miles
Swimming: 2 miles
Climbing: once in gym, once outside

Climbing North Table Mountain

Yesterday we went to Golden to set up some topropes on North Table Mountain with Sean and Justin. It was a beautiful, 80-degree day and we had a lot of fun. The climbs are very accessible and bolted, but most of the rock overlooks the not-so-beautiful Coors brewing plant. There were times the hops smelled really good, but mostly it was noisy and there were lots of cars and trains racing by.

We climbed (R-L):

• Thelma, Louise (5.7, 5.8)
• Kid's Climb (5.10a)
• ? Redrum (5.7)
• Ian and Pat Spy Yet Another Easy Line (5.7)

I think we climbed the beginning of Redrum then veered off to the left to the anchors, instead of going right like the website says. Dan led the last climb.

Super Sunday run

We joined some of the Boulder Trail Runners today for part of this Sunday's "Church of the Holy Trail" run. Their plan was to go all the way to Nederland (about 26 miles away), stop at a pub, then take the bus back to Boulder. Our plan was to run with them for two hours, then turn back.

Most of the way up Green Mountain we hiked. It really didn't take much longer than a few weeks ago when we tried to actually run up the trails. Once atop Green, it was mostly rolling hills for the rest of the day -- even for the folks going to Nederland, which is within a few hundred feet elevation of the summit of Green.

Laurel and I ran with the group until we were near Walker Ranch. At that point we decided it was time to turn back. A few people suggested since we had made it that far, we might as well run through Walker Ranch, over to Eldorado Springs State Park, then head back to Chautauqua on the Mesa trail.

Somehow that sounded like a good idea, even though they told us the loop was 20 miles total. Maybe our logic was: we had already run 8 miles, so we could go 8 miles back the same way (boring), or 12 miles around the long way, which is only 4 miles more, which isn't much. We got directions for a key shortcut and were on our way.

As we were getting to the Eldo connector trail it started to occur to me that we were running out of time, since we had invited friends over for 5pm. Worst case, we figured we could run through the park and call a cab when we got to the main road.

When we got into Eldorado Springs, we decided to check out the Old Mesa trail. It's somewhat complicated to find, as you have to navigate through a neighborhood and go halfway up a private driveway, but we managed. In the end we took that back to the S. Mesa Trailhead, where we discovered that

1. you can't order a taxi without providing a numbered street address,
2. Boulder's main taxi company doesn't service that area, and
3. other taxi companies wouldn't be able to get us for at least an hour.

So instead we hitchhiked with some folks that were heading back towards Boulder, picked up our bikes at Chautauqua, and rode home.

Despite not taking the Mesa trail back, we still managed to cover 18 miles! Took us about 5:40.

Tim, Jill, Ann, and Sean joined us for pizza -- great end to the weekend!