Gibraltar Lake

At the west end of the Camp Dick / Peaceful Valley campground, the Middle Saint Vrain Road turns to 4WD. We hoped to drive 4 miles to its end and start our hike towards Gibraltar Lake from there. Unfortunately, the entry to the 4WD part of the road was more than we were prepared for. We watched a couple of guys arrange rocks so their truck wouldn't bottom out. It looked treacherous so we decided to hike in from there. For the most part, the road wasn't too bad but there were a few dicey 4WD areas and some muddy flooding. The guys driving it weren't going much faster than we were on foot.

After 4 miles on the road we began the hike we intended to do. Blue sky day, Aspens turning yellow, lots of walking. We took the Buchanan Pass trail to the St. Vrain Glacier trail to a point where it wasn't clear where the trail continued on. It probably crossed the creek but there were some cairns on our side of the creek that led into a talus field.

The talus was rough going. We took a break for lunch on a bit of a plateau, then decided to head south and down off the talus, into the valley, to try to find the trail. Soon enough we hooked up with it, crossed the creek one or two times, and made it to a lake. Whether that was Gibraltar Lake or not, we're not sure -- some of the terrain didn't look as expected based on our map, so we may have been at one of the other nearby lakes.

The Elk Tooth was to our north. Its steep sides are loose and crumbly but it looked like the ridge could be a good scramble someday.

After a short while at the lake we turned and tried to take the correct trail back. It stayed on the south side of the creek for a while and then we lost it somehow. A bit of off-trail hiking, a bit of figuring out where to cross the creek safely, and we were back on trail, avoiding the nasty talus. It was a long day in the woods -- 16 miles total in 8 hours.

Mount Neva

Laurel and I wanted to do some kind of mountain run... we got that and more! We were considering South Arapaho but since we had hiked it before and there were other trails in that area to explore, we thought they could be fun. Before we left I discovered there was a 4th class scramble up Mount Neva's north ridge -- that became our objective.

From the 4th of July trailhead we ran up to Arapaho Pass, took a look at Lake Dorothy, then headed off trail to Neva's north ridge. From there the scrambling began -- mostly easy but a few tricky spots where you really needed some rock climbing moves. There were a few downclimbs along the way...

... and some fun places to horse around like the diving-board rock.

We got to a point where it seemed forward progress was blocked. To the left was a sheer vertical face. Ahead was chunkier but it seemed like it would get steeper the higher you'd go, plus it seemed like if we got to the top we'd have to then descend the other side. To the right were a few pillars and even further right was a drop-off. It seemed like we would be able to follow a ramp up and left for a ways, then cut right to go around or behind the pillar to a weakness in the rock that we hoped would take us to more passable terrain.

For the most part our plan worked. On the other side of this hump of rock there was a gentle rock gully. Just a few sketchy traverse moves and we were at the bottom of the gully, which took us up to the ridgeline. From there we could see the way to the summit.

The ridge continued a bit to a large flat rocky place. The sky was a bit hazy but to the southwest we could vaguely see the Winter Park basin and even see some of the ski slopes. To the northeast along the divide was Navaho and Apache, with Dickers Peck in between.

From the flat area we hiked up a gentle alpine slope to the summit of Neva, stopped for food and photos, then continued south to the saddle between Neva and Jasper Peak (which would have been a fun continuation if we had the time). From the saddle we headed east down a scree slope towards a few unnamed lakes.

The scree turned to larger talus with some intriguing colors, textures, and shapes -- white, black, pink, swirled, speckled.

After the talus field we came to a meadow that was swampish in some areas but we tried to find the high ground back to the trail. This took surprisingly longer than expected even though for the most part we avoided the willows. Finally we traversed and hiked up a steep bank to the trail.

The clouds were getting dark but we were OK for the run back down the trail to our car, and only arrived 10-15 minutes later than expected.

In the parking lot we met a girl named Yulia who had flown in from New York for the weekend to hike and camp up at Lake Dorothy. She had taken a bus from the airport to Nederland on Friday, then walked 8 or 9 miles to the trailhead to start her hike!! We gave her a ride back to Boulder so she could catch the red eye and be back at work the next day.

And then we got home in time for Donna and JJ to come over for the football game.

Colorado Mines Peak, Mount Flora

We drove over to Berthoud Pass to attempt to run and hike up Colorado Mines Peak and see which other peaks we could bag.

Colorado Mines Peak was a relatively short and easy hike. The summit has a bunch of radio towers and FAA radar equipment -- not the type of stuff we usually find on summits!

We descended from the peak a bit then continued on for an hour to Flora, whose summit was large, flat, and rocky. From there we had good views of Ethel Lake and the terrain ahead.

The north ridge of Flora descends gradually then turns NE and steep! We followed this route to the saddle between Flora and Witter, where the earth smelled of sulfur and a small snowfield was melting away.

The clouds were coming in so we decided to turn back, back up steep slopes nearly all the way back to Flora's summit. This was my first outing at any significant altitude in a few months and I was noticing it!

Beautiful Autumn colors in the alpine terrain

Pika!

Great singletrack running

US-40 winding towards Winter Park

Clouds really coming in now

By the end of the day we had covered 9 miles and 2500' vertical in about 3h50m, and didn't feel any rain until the moment we stepped foot in the parking lot!

St Vrain Run

On Saturday Laurel ran up St. Vrain Mountain.

Colorado Bliss

Mount Audubon Moose

For my last day of summer vacation I decided to run up Mount Audubon. To my surprise and absolute delight, I came across some moose on my drive to the trailhead. As I approached Brainard Lake I noticed a whole bunch of cars on the side of the road. Thinking it was odd, especially at 7:30 on a weekday morning, I slowed down to look a little closer. There they were... 3 HUGE, munching moose. They were just standing there eating the bushes. I parked the car, grabbed the camera, and jumped out to snap some pictures. Though there were two very brave photographers not 20 feet from bulls (and one on a ladder), I was not that brave. I got as close as I felt comfortable, took some more pictures and noticed a fourth moose even closer to the lake.

I finally drove up to the actual trailhead for the start of my run. Fortunately, there were no moose up there. The morning was gorgeous and the run fairly uneventful. I saw plenty of marmots, pikas, and even some ptarmigan. I ran up in 1:34 and down in 1:10. Then it was off to school for a leadership team meeting.

Blue Lake

This morning Heather and I drove up to Brainard Lake to hike to Blue Lake with her dog (small horse, is more like it!), Bayley. We started at the trailhead around 7:30 and enjoyed walking through the damp forest. We learned on our return that the Brainard Lake area had received inches of rain over the last few days. Rather than a subalpine forest, it felt more like a rainforest!

The morning was also very foggy. There were times we could see patches of blue sky, but the clouds never lifted enough for us to see the mountains around us---Pawnee, Toll, Paiute, and Audubon. We did see plenty of wildflowers, some marmots, and gorgeous waterfalls. I even found a lake with big ice chunks breaking off. We started hiking a bit past Blue Lake to Upper Blue Lake, but it got too rocky for Bayley. I think he also had a hidden agenda, as he hopped into the ice-cold lake twice!

We didn't see a soul until we got to the lake, but then on the way back we saw many folks out for a rocky walk. We were very glad we got out before most and got to enjoy the lake to ourselves. A fun morning!

Pawnee Peak

Yesterday I ran up Pawnee Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. I drove up to Brainard Lake and got to the trailhead at 7:15. The 4.8 miles to the pass were absolutely gorgeous -- wildflowers, waterfalls, rugged peaks in the distance -- picturesque Colorado summertime in the mountains.

The first two miles were very flat up to Lake Isabelle. As I started to climb up to the pass I could start feeling the gusty wind. There were a few snowfields to cross, but they were soft and well-trodden. I bumped into some other trail runners and a couple of hikers who had spent the night on the other side of the divide.

At the pass, the wind was blowing a steady 30mph, with gusts definitely at 40. I decided to push on to the summit which was only a 1/4 mile a way. There were times I was getting blown off balance. The shelter at the top was a welcome sight. I had a quick snack and then headed back down, as the wind felt cold when I wasn't moving.

As the morning got later and I got lower, I ran into a lot more people. In fact, by the time I got back to the parking lot at ten of eleven, it was jam-packed.

Stats: 9.6 miles on trail + summit excursion, 1:34 to pass, 1:50 to summit, 3:36 overall. 2400' gain.

Thanksgiving Vacation Week

On Monday Dan ran up around the Boulder Reservoir and I swam at the pool.

On Tuesday we rode our bikes to Flagstaff and ran up the mountain.

On Wednesday I rode my bike to Boulder Valley Ranch and ran the Lefthand trail. Donna cooked a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and then we drove up to Winter Park to stay at Donna and JJ's skihaus.

On Thursday we skied at Winter Park. There were a handful of runs open that were a lot of fun.

On Friday all four of us hiked up at the Roaring Fork Trail near Lake Granby. It was cool to hike on the "other" side of the Divide. There wasn't enough snow to warrant snowshoes, but it was very pretty. Dan and I drove home Friday night.

The roaring fork

Lake Granby

Niwot Ridge Ski

I drove up to the CU Research Center to try my first cross-country skiing of the year. The Niwot Ridge Road had enough snow down low for me to ski right from the parking lot.

As I climbed higher and higher up the trail, the snow got deeper and deeper. I didn't see anyone or anything until a ptarmigan caught my eye above the tree line.

I skied down a nice, deep bowl just south of the trail and then retraced my tracks down to the car. On the way down, I did see a few other skiers who thanked me for breaking trail and I ran into another teacher from my school. Pretty cool!

The snow on the road closer to the car was getting melty and slippery with the warm sun. Unfortunately, I took a turn too fast and fell on some small exposed rocks. I fell so hard that the rocks ripped through two pairs of pants and managed to skin my knee and give me a pretty good bruise (it took three weeks before I could kneel again). But, overall it was a gorgeous day of skiing!