Mount Sherman

Laurel wanted to hike Mount Sherman for her birthday -- the closest 14er she hasn't summited yet.

We got up at 4am, packed up the Xterra, and hit the road. By 7am we reached the trailhead at the end of the 4x4 road. Amazingly, there were only a handful of vehicles up there.

Every other 14er we've hiked has been a parade up an obvious trail. When we started up Sherman though, the trail was mostly buried in snow and there was only one other group of hikers who chose a different route.

Two Ptarmigan followed us at the start of the trail.

We decided to aim for the saddle between Sherman and White Ridge. Once atop that saddle, Gemini Peak to the north caught our attention. Instead of heading right up Sherman we adjusted course for Gemini.

The twin peaks of Gemini look similar from a distance, but each has its own character. The first we summited was not very steep-sided, and there were actually two smaller sub-peaks nearby that we also hiked up. The view was fantastic from these summits.

The main Gemini Peak is taller and fairly steep. We decided not to hike the steep southeast rock slope right in front of us or the equally steep south snow slope. Instead we hiked around to the east side of the peak and went up from there. On the topo it doesn't look any less steep, but it seemed to be in the field.

We took a short break on the summit of Gemini. At 13,951' elevation, it is almost a 14er itself. Our next stop was Mount Sherman.

The most remarkable thing about Mt. Sherman was that we were the only people on the summit for 20 minutes! That's a first for us on a 14er.

We hiked down the southwest ridge of Sherman. This was a nice part of the hike -- good exposure on either side of the ridge, but flat enough on the top that it was a hike and not a scramble. It was neat to look off to the distance and see a distinct line cutting across the Sawatch range.

As we were hiking down Sherman and towards Sheridan (another 13er), we crossed paths with two CMC folks hiking the other way. The girl had just finished WTS and the guy was an assistant this year to the instructor we had for WTS last spring. Small world in the mountains.

The summit of Sheridan was spectacular in its own way. From there you could see clear across the trough containing Leadville and the Arkansas Headwaters to the Sawatch 14ers.

We were getting tired, so after a short break atop our third real summit of the day, we headed down Sheridan's south ridge. This slippery slope of scree required careful footing. From the bottom of that slope we followed an old 4x4 road and some snow slopes back to the car. The snow was soft enough in the afternoon that we had to get out the snowshoes.

At the end of the day we had covered just over 7 miles. Since it was mostly off trail it took us 8.5 hours. We were above 13,000' elevation for over 6 hours.


View Mount Sherman in a larger map

May Hail

Denver got some weather today -- hail between golf-ball and baseball size!

Here in Boulder we just got a minute or two of very small hail. After it seemed to be over we went for a walk and took pictures of the clouds out East.

As giant as that cloud looks in the picture above, it was probably 50% taller when we first set out! We had to walk a ways to get a good look at it. You can see the same cloud deflated a bit more in the left side of this panorama:

Later in the evening I saw this monster outside our front door:

It was getting dark out but the cloud was high enough to still get lit up by the sun.

Sugarloaf MTB

This is Sugarloaf Mountain, as seen from the Betasso Preserve:

We put the bikes on the Xterra and drove up to the Sugarloaf Mountain trailhead. Laurel went for an hour-long run down Glacier Lake Road. I had run 7 miles the day before, so I hiked up Sugarloaf Mountain instead. The mountain is very visible from Boulder, and from its summit there are fantastic 360 degree views.

I took a bunch of pictures from the summit to make panoramas. The wind was intense! At least 50 MPH.

Laurel arrived back at the car about the same time I did. We took the bikes down and headed out the same road she had just run on. It's a pretty tame road for mountain bikes but it was a fun ride -- about 6 miles west to the Peak-to-Peak highway, then back.

The ride back home took us right by the turn off for the Betasso Preserve, so we parked there and hiked for a short while.

Fourth Flatiron

Today we climbed part of the Fourth Flatiron. The rock is split into three pieces separated by gullies. We climbed the first piece in 5 pitches (about 700' over 5 hours).

This was our first climb anywhere near the Fourth, so we weren't even sure where the rock was or what it looked like. Typically we waste a lot of time trying to find the right starting point, but this rock was easy to locate and identify -- right off the trail with a big cave 200' up.

The routefinding was surprisingly easy. The landmarks we were aiming for (cave, ledge, face, ridge) were all oversized and obvious, so there was no question we were on route. The climbing itself was enjoyable too -- mostly friction work (typical for east face routes) but there were occasional sections that were more vertical and definitely felt harder than 5.4.

The climb isn't far from the Royal Arch. It was neat seeing it from afar -- when you hike to it you don't get a good look until it's right in front of your face. To the north we could see the Third Flatiron and to the East was NCAR.

Once we get our climbing chops back we'll have to return to do the entire East Face of the Fourth. From the rock's summit it isn't a far hike to the summit of Green Mountain, which sounds like a very fun hike!

Snow in May

Bike, Hike, and Climb

It was another good weekend in Boulder. On Saturday, we biked 17 miles to the Hall Ranch in Lyons. We hiked 9 or 10 miles and then biked all the way back. The ride back is rough -- basically all the elevation gain (over 400') occurs over 3 miles.

Today we climbed a route on the First Flatironette. Lots of fun!

At the top of the climb there were huecos which had collected rainwater. Surprisingly there was something swimming around in there!

Bird Update

The damn bird is still flying into the window. Who needs an alarm clock, or a clock at all for that matter, when the bird wakes you up at 5:30am and flies into the window at dinner time.

Morning robin

Yesterday afternoon there was a nice robin cheeping outside our window. This is the robin:

This morning at 6am there was an aggressive robin thwocking into our window. This is the robin:



The robin apparently isn't afraid of the big owls that live across the street, so it's no surprise that it isn't afraid of the 8.5 x 11 owl I printed out and taped to the outside of the window either.

Teller Lake trail run

We were going to bike to Chautauqua today to run the Mesa trail, but once we got on our bikes and started heading West we noticed it was misting in the mountains. So instead we drove East and ran the trails around Teller Lake. Despite the advancing clouds it never rained, lucky us!

Boulder day

We stayed local today. First we headed out on our bikes to Wonderland Lake. We saw the hang glider from last week, but this time he was actually up in the air. After parking our bikes at the trailhead we hiked the Kiln loop trail. The kiln was kinda neat, there were some strange black and white rocks along the way, and we got to see a hummingbird very close up.

Next we biked down to the library and then the farmers' market for lunch. While downtown I got my new free Newton Running shoes. It's a neat store -- they let you take the shoes outside to test drive.

From there we headed home. I biked to the Bolder Boulder store to pick up my race packet. Back at home I tried out my new shoes on a 1-mile run. They'll take a little getting used to but I think I like them.

Later in the evening Laurel and I headed out for a walk and ended up at the Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. Good food. It was a bit chilly walking home.

New shoes!

Laurel and I went to a panel discussion at Alta Physical Therapy on the merits of barefoot or minimalistic running vs. shod running. There was a raffle and I won a new pair of sneaks! Need to go down to Newton Running to get fitted sometime.

M+D vacation, part 2

My parents returned from Colorado Springs last Tuesday evening. Wednesday was rainy, so it was a quiet rest day for them. We had dinner at Turley's (many gluten free options!). Thursday they went to Cheyenne to see the buffaloes and got soaked by a heavy rainstorm. That evening, Laurel went to a talk about swimming and triathlons. The three of us went to Neptune for a short movie about some climber who apparently didn't die when aid climbing in the Italian Dolomites. My parents stayed in Boulder on Friday, checking out Pearl Street and a new exhibit at the Boulder History Museum.

Saturday morning I went on the first long run I've done in a while (7.5 miles). Then the four of us headed downtown: We got bacon cupcakes at Tee & Cakes, had breakfast at Lucille's, and then walked the farmer's market. In the afternoon we did a hike around Wonderland Lake. That evening we heard Carmina Burana performed by the Boulder Philharmonic. It was fantastic, what an experience!

For Sunday, Dad and I had a big hike planned. We left the house at 7am and hiked Bear Peak. We were lucky to have great hiking weather the whole day, and only a few fresh inches of snow at the top. Mom and Laurel hiked the Eagle and Sage trails and then did a little shopping at Celestial, Pekoe, and Savory and Spice.

Monday I took my parents to NCAR, where Dad and I had started our hike the previous day. We followed the trail a bit to show Mom what we had hiked. After that we had lunch at The Med and walked around the Sturtz and Copeland greenhouses. Mom assembled a beautiful bouquet for us and I got some information about our "Christmas tree" (a Norfolk Pine we've had for years).

Tuesday was my parents last day in town and the first day that the weather was really nice. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and checked out the planes at the local Boulder airport before they took off for the big airport in Denver.

Weekend visitors

Mark (a friend from UConn) flew in Friday, a few days early for his GIS conference in Ft. Collins next week. We took him on a hike up to the top of the First Flatiron and then got dinner at Himalaya's. My parents are also visiting next week, so we lent Mark our Echo and some hiking gear for the weekend and made a few suggestions about where to go in RMNP.

When my parents arrived on Saturday they brought rain -- first we've seen around here since September! It didn't last long so after lunch we walked the Cottonwood Trail. We met a local farmer with a stand on Jay Rd. and got some fresh produce. It was sunnier in the afternoon.

Sunday we headed for the hills! We took the scenic route to Idaho Springs for a little shopping, lunch at Beau Jo's, and a gold mine tour. We drove up to Berthoud Pass for pictures and got to see some back country skiers making turns down a nearby slope. Then we got ice cream in Winter Park. On the way home we drove through Rollinsville and took Magnolia back to Boulder. Not a 4x4 road but it is mostly dirt, and very steep!

My parents took a side trip to Colorado Springs on Monday and Tuesday. They walked around Garden of the Gods, took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak, and visited the Cliff Dwellings. Back in Boulder, I went for a hike with Mark on Monday, where we saw tons of ladybugs!

Anne U. White trail-run

Today Laurel and I rode our bikes 45 minutes to the Anne U. White trailhead and did our first trail-run of the season (not counting Cottonwood, which is flat). We're going to be doing a lot of this in the coming months to prepare for the Pikes Peak Ascent -- a half marathon up a 14er with 7800' elevation gain. Fortunate for us we're just running up the mountain; for the full marathon, runners turn around at the top and run all the way back down too.

Compared to Pikes Peak's Barr Trail, our run today was more moderate in elevation gain -- around 500' gained over 1.6 miles going up -- but still quite strenuous! The winding, narrow trail requires 10-20 stream crossing each way. Most crossings have a few rocks to hop along. Doing this at speed without getting wet can be a challenge. Parts of the trail were still snowy too.

Longs Peak trail

We did some hiking and snowshoeing Saturday, starting from the Longs Peak trailhead. Weather was beautiful -- definitely starting to transition from Winter to Summer. Hopefully when there's less snow we can try running this trail.

Our new ride

This week in Boulder...

Daytime Owl.

Bloomin' orchid.

Laurel's new bike.

Bike ride to Niwot

Last weekend when we drove back from a dealership in Longmont we passed the tiny town of Niwot. Today we decided today to bike there and walk around the downtown area. Fun day until I hit a curb the wrong way and went over the handlebars.


View Niwot loop in a larger map or in gmap pedometer

Brainard Cabin and Audubon

Sunday afternoon we drove up to the Brainard Lake winter trailhead, luckily found a parking spot, and snowshoed a few miles out to the CMC cabin. We got there before the weekend day-host had left, so the cabin was already opened up with fires going.

We chilled out that evening and got an early start Monday morning to hike and snowshoe up Mt. Audubon.

It was supposed to be warm on Monday -- the temperature was 30 when we started out at 6:30 AM -- but two things kept us from feeling warm. First, we kept gaining elevation, which drops the temperature. Second, the wind got stronger as we got closer to and then above the treeline.

In the beginning there were tracks to follow from a snowshoer the day before. Once those veered off in the wrong direction, there was enough fresh snow that you couldn't tell there was a trail other than by the wider spacing between trees. We followed it as well as we could but eventually lost the trail and were on our own.

We continued up above treeline and eventually found the trail again. Above treeline there were pretty constant gusts of 30-40 MPH winds. It was a blue-sky day so we kept on going up. The sastrugi were beautiful along the way.

A few hundred vertical feet of the summit we turned around to ensure we would get back in time. The winds had really slowed us down. On the way down we were careful to stay away from the steeper slopes to avoid any possible avalanche danger. Back to the cabin to pick up a few things we left, then hiked out the road to the trailhead.

Spring in Colorado

Happy Spring! It has been a great week in Colorado despite the mixture of spring and winter weather. Last Saturday it was sunny and 50, so we were able to ride our bikes to the car dealerships in town. We got into many cars and test drove some. No decision yet, but we got a lot of research done! Saturday evening Tim and Jill came over, then we went to Ann and Sean's St. Patrick's Day party.

Sunday the weather was more winter-like. We had planned to head up to Estes Park to hike up Estes Cone (11,000), but we got a late start and 2/3 of the way there, Dan realized he forgot his boots. The day was not a total waste, as we stopped at the Foothill Trailhead and did some trailing running in the light snow.

The rest of the week was absolutely beautiful. On Tuesday, we went for a 2-hour mountain bike ride on the Eagle trail after work. Thursday we rode to Sanitas and did some bouldering.

Then, in true Colorado form, we got a foot of snow Friday. School wasn't canceled because the roads weren't too bad -- they were so warm from the rest of the week, it was just slushy. The powder accumulated everywhere else -- including the slopes at Eldora. The little Echo couldn't make it up the icy canyon road, so we took the bus and skied the awesome conditions all afternoon. I love spring skiing! It's so much warmer!

Today and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the fifties and sixties again. Now, if we could only get one more snow storm, since we both have one punch left on our ski passes!

Pike's Peak

Yesterday we did our fourth CMC trip (it's been a while...). We registered for the trip for a couple of reasons. First, we thought it would be fun. Second, we've never been on the east side of Pike's Peak, and third, we're hoping to run up this particular trail in the Pike's Peak Ascent Half Marathon in August.

So, we got up super early (5am!) and met the rest of the group just outside of Colorado Springs. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and by 8am we were stashing away layers at the trailhead. The Barr trail begins in historic Manitou Springs and climbs a total of 13 miles to the peak. Our objective today, though, was the infamous Barr Camp halfway up the mountain. We started at 6,800 and climbed to the camp at 10,200. There were beautiful views of Colorado Springs and the peak along the way. We were passed by dozens of trail runners on the bottom few miles of the icy/slushy trail.

At lunch time we made it to the camp. There are year-round caretakers, Teresa and Neal, who live in the main cabin and cook spaghetti dinners for their guests. There are also lean-to shelters and tent sites. Teresa and Neal were very hospitable and offered us hot drinks, a warm fire, and bird seed. The birds up there will actually eat out of your hands. It's something else!

We got back to the cars uneventfully, yet very tired after hiking 13 miles. We all went out to eat at Rosie's Diner in Monument afterward.

Colorado Fun

So, aside from all these great snowshoeing trips we've been taking, we have also enjoyed some other winter activities. Over the last few weeks, we have both managed to get to Eldora to take skiing lessons, on separate occasions. Because there aren't a lot of adults taking group lessons during the week, Dan and I both managed to get a two hour private lesson. Very coo!

Also on separate occasions, we have both managed to ride our bikes to Chautauqua, hike Green Mountain, and bike home. I went today and had a ton of fun. I think I broke my ascent record--today I got from the Amphitheatre parking lot to the summit in 1:23.

Last Sunday we got a good 8 inches of snow. I skied out the front door and up the Cottonwood Trail. It was a gorgeous afternoon with awesome snow!

Quandary in winter

Long day. Weather better than expected. Made it to plateau at 13,000' before turning around due to very high winds that literally knocked us to the ground.

Check out pics.


View Quandary 20-Feb-2010 in a larger map

Weather for today

Point Forecast: 4 Miles ENE Kokomo CO
39.4°N 106.1°W (Elev. 13674 ft)

Today: Snow. High near 12. Wind chill values as low as -16. Breezy, with a west southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Quandary, here we come!

Lookout Mtn Again

We did it! I can't believe it, but we did it! We parked at Wild Basin again, but this time we followed the Sandbeach Lake trail west for about 3 miles rather than heading north towards Meeker Park. We hiked and then snowshoed for about two and a quarter hours before heading off trail. There was a ton of snow -- up to two feet in parts. Despite the rough going, we got a lot of navigation practice here.

We followed a ridge and then headed north towards a gully. We headed up the gully (at times seeing the creek under the snow) following a northeasterly bearing, before circling around the back of Lookout Mountain. After 3½ hours off trail (plus 2¼ on trail) we finally got to the summit. There wasn't time to hang out long, as we were already at our turn back time. Fortunately, heading back downhill was much easier and much faster. We made it back to the car less than 2½ hours after leaving the summit.

The summit of Lookout Mountain

Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth

Fate was against us today. Our plan was to summit Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth by snowshoe. While we were up on the saddle we wanted to explore Meeker ridge a bit, then descend off trail and head back to the trailhead. But, as the saying goes, first, catch your hare.

How did things not go according to plan?

1. We got a late start this morning since I was up late last night.
2. We got our car stuck in a ditch on County Rd 113N a hundred yards from the trailhead.
3. Two hours into our trip, Laurel says, "Did I give the camera back to you?"
4. As we were retracing our steps to find the camera, Laurel says, "What happened to your other snowshoe?"

After a nice man in the neighborhood towed us out of our first crisis, we decided to park at the Sandbeach Lake TH instead and adjust our route accordingly. We lost and found the camera, and I found my missing snowshoe -- it had come right off my foot as we were hiking and I didn't even notice for 50 feet! We were spooked the rest of the day that items would start crawling out of our packs when we weren't looking.

We didn't get to summit anything today, but we got some good navigation practice and exercise (see our route). We also finally figured out that the tracks we have seen on recent hikes are indeed snowshoe hare -- we hadn't realized previously that their large hind feet land forward of their front feet as they hop, creating that characteristic pattern.

IPW and ROMO map

This map shows every hiking, snowshoe, and skiing trip we have made to the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Arapaho/Roosevelt National Forests, or Rocky Mountain National Park.

Had to do this to figure out where to go this weekend :)


View IPW + ROMO in a larger map