Storm Behind Capitol Peak

I stopped in Glenwood Springs at around 2:30 PM on the drive home from vacation Sunday, and with great weather and mountains all around, I dropped in at Summit Canyon to see if I could get a trail map and line up good nearby impulse trail run. Mount Sopris seemed like a good candidate, and with some input from an employee, I left with a map and headed to the Sopris summit trail (Dinkle Lake TH). The plan was to just run as high as I could, given the time.

After navigating several miles of rough road, I took the Thomas Lakes trail, ran up to the lakes and then took the Sopris summit trail. At about mile 5.5 when I peered over the ridge near tree line, I got this great view of Capitol Peak:


I paid a small price for this last-minute decision to add a three-hour run* to my long drive home, namely getting to bed at around 2 AM on a Sunday. However, it was worth it ;)

*Garmin Connect says 2:28 worth of "moving" time, which is about right considering the number of pictures I took. However, I've also come to the depressing conclusion that it also doesn't always consider what I do to be "running". LOL.

Vacation Running

Although it was a light week for blogging, it was a good week for running on vacation last week in Central/Southwest Colorado. The runs were weighted heavily towards elevation gain rather than distance, since I opted for high, scenic trails with limited bike traffic (except for Hartman Rocks, which was during the lively 24 Hours in the Sage, where I was visiting family). The figures are: time - mileage - gain/loss in feet.

• Hartman Rocks Run (Gunnison) - 1:18:20 - 6.9 mi - 681 ft
• Handies Peak Run (Lake City) - 3:05:25 - 7.99 mi - 3,620 ft
• Castle Rock Run (Durango) - 1:29:14 - 5.16 mi - 1,644 ft
• Coal Bank/Pass Trail Run (Durango) - 2:22:47 - 10.51 mi - 1,849 ft
• Crater Lake Trail Run (Durango) - 1:49:57 - 8.03 mi - 1,627 ft
• Engineer Mtn Trail Run (Durango) - 3:03:22 - 8.44 mi - 2,840 ft
• CO Trail Run (Durango) - 0:52:23 - 4.55 mi - 735 ft
• Thomas Lakes Run (Carbondale) - 3:09:12 - 10.6 mi - 2,457 ft

Plus one hike with my brother and a friend, with a bit of running in the middle:

• Pass/Engineer Trail Hike/Run - 4:04:57 - 9.57 mi - 1,958 ft

Total on the running for nine days was:

• 62 miles
• 17 hours
• 15,000 feet of gain\loss

A lot of it was between 10,000-12,000 feet, which was great; I don't usually get the opportunity to do that all week long! Awesome.

I have more photos than I know what to do with, but I'll get them sorted out and do some write-ups.

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is hosted by EGO. The Round Up features posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Enjoy!

A Mountain-ey Mountain

If you picture in your mind's eye what "a mountain" looks like, you might imagine something like Baldy Cinco, near Slumgullion Pass in Colorado. It's got that iconic pyramid shape, and at 13,383 feet (depending on what resource you consult) stands above everything else around it.


This peak is visible on the drive from Lake City to Creede, CO, a very scenic stretch of highway!

Handies Peak Run

Sunday I took the opportunity to tackle another San Juan fourteener while in southwestern Colorado, and ran Handies Peak from the Grizzly Gulch trailhead. Here is the GPS track:


Run length was 8 miles, time 3:05, and elevation gain/loss 3,600 feet. I summited in 1:50. This trail was very suitable for running, as the steep sections were grouped together, and connected by moderately-sloped singletrack. Although my uphill speed was not terribly fast, I was able to run as much as 70% of the uphill segment.

The drive from Lake City takes quite a while, even though it's only about 19 miles. It is mostly on a long, slow -- if driven legally -- dirt road that is scenic but gets rougher as it get closer to the trailhead. Here is the initial section heading into the valleys, which is the easy part:


The next photo was taken along the middle section, which is a rough, rocky one-lane shelf road with a few spots to pull over in case someone comes in the opposite direction. Check out that drop! Low-clearance passenger cars may have problems and scrape their undersides on this road. A car with decent (5"+) ground clearance should be fine:


This is the view from near the beginning of the trail:


The lower sections pass through some nice aspen and pine forest as the trail ascends gradually.


This is a nameless high point on the ridge with Handies, which frankly deserves a name. At 13,700 feet, only during the last push to the summit did the trail exceed its height.


This photo looks back down the trail towards the road, which is somewhere beyond the ridges in the middle ground.


Once you get above tree line, you can finally see Handies straight ahead up the valley. The trail meanders generally towards the peak, and then veers right before ascending the ridge to the right of the summit.


Some cool clouds along the high ridge:


The trail winds up and over some interesting colored rock. It reminded me a bit of Mount Belford.


This is the summit (back left) from the ridge. Although I walked some of the steeper parts, I was able to run sections of this trail even at this height, because the slope is so gradual. A rare treat... if you're itching to run.


In the next photo the summit is visible in the back, with several people standing on it. Run!


This is the view from the summit, looking back down the valley towards Redcloud and Sunshine peaks, which are in the middle. If you hike them, you start in the middle of the trees in the upper left and go away from Handies.


Some nice singletrack on the way back down:


At the end, I considered driving over Cinnamon Pass to Silverton, and even drove part of the way towards the American Basin trailhead (i.e. farther down the dirt road). It was quite rough, with ruts, big rocks, and a couple of climbs over small rock slabs, so some of it was slow going. The combination of unknown road conditions on the pass, and bad weather on the high ridges (imagine breaking down in a lightning storm) caused me to decline. I made the long drive back to Lake City instead. I didn't meet many vehicles on the narrow road, and followed a couple of Jeeps back down.

This photo is from below Wolf Creek Pass on US 160, at the scenic pull-off:


I've noticed on repeated visits to Wolf Creek Pass that it has the same lingering cloud cover among the peaks that I saw at Snowbird, UT. A couple of times now the Pass has been in the clouds when I drove through. I'm guessing this weather pattern tends to produce the large snowfall levels that both ski resorts experience.

I finally found Pagosa Brewing Company a little while later (after a couple of half-hearted attempts at trying to spot it on prior trips through town), and had dinner there. It's a nice place with a bright bar, some inside seating and a large beer garden/tent with cafe tables outside. The food was good, the beer was very good, and the service was friendly and attentive. There are also bike paths on the same street, so you can walk a bit before driving. Nice time.

Engineer Mountain

This is one of my favorite views of Engineer Mountain in the San Juans, which I took today from a particular point on the trail where it is framed by pine trees.


I took this photo on a run from Coal Bank Pass, and ended up taking a right at the base of Engineer and running north towards the Colorado Trail. Wow, that was some great high singletrack. More details to follow.

One of these days I need to climb Engineer again, since it was socked in with clouds last time I summited, and I couldn't see anything. It's a pretty rugged hike with a small amount of easy climbing, but the approach is lots of loose talus, and the rocks can be sharp and tough on the feet. Part of the ascent is on the sloped face that you can see on the left side of the peak, which is like hiking a steep, thousand-foot sweep of jagged stadium seats. I'll want to wear something other than running shoes.

Meadow, Elbert Creek Trail

This was taken on the way up Castle Rock north of Durango, CO on the Elbert Creek Trail. At the top of the initial wooded ascent there is a small cabin and a meadow, before the trail makes its final push to the cliffs above.


It's an HDR image, i.e. it is produced by combining lighter and darker exposures of the same view.

Run For Your Life!

The latter part of my outing Thursday at Mount Galbraith had a sense of urgency, but it didn't start out that way. There was a light wind, mixed sun and clouds; nothing more than I usually see after work in the summer.

I guess I didn't check the radar loop closely enough.

This photo shows the type of terrain that exists west of Golden, CO. It's semi-arid, open terrain, with grass, yucca, cactus, and scattered pine trees and woods, almost entirely on the north slopes. The southern slopes are dry and grassy.


I almost didn't find the name of the following plant, because Googling "blue berry colorado" returns results for a variety of marijuana, because of the booming medical pot trade here. I finally figured out it was "barberry" instead; specifically Creeping Barberry:


Although the grass appears grey-green, it is actually many shades from silvery blue-green and greens, to the approaching yellows and oranges of fall:


As I hiked up Mount Galbraith (rather than running, due to a very tight lower hamstring muscle from Wednesday's run), I saw the following distant showers, approximately 7 miles away. It was partly sunny where I was:


It sprinkled a bit, but there was nothing to suggest an imminent severe storm nearby. In retrospect it may look stormy, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen skies like this and it amounted to absolutely nothing. This time, I was wrong.

The following photos were taken no more than 17 minutes later, as it gradually dawned on me that a real storm was blowing in:




While my life was not actually in jeopardy, it certainly could have been, had I delayed my descent. Just the other day a teen was struck by lightning in her driveway in nearby Ken Caryl. As it was, I ran 7:00-8:00-minute miles down sometimes rugged terrain wet from raindrops. I felt the adrenaline as I got the heck out of there before the lightning started above me.

As I drove home, the most ferocious storm front I've seen all summer rolled in over the last foothills and into Denver, with lightning strikes on the high points such as Lookout Mountain. Even in my car, I felt exposed, as I drove along hills, power lines, and by trees. Wind whipped the rain across the highway, pushing my vehicle. I headed through driving rain to the lightest spot in the sky, which was east via CO 58.

The whole situation went from harmless to potentially fatal in 40 minutes.

I don't like to be exposed in the hills during a storm, and I am all about making the conservative choice to stay safe.

However, this time I chose incorrectly, and underestimated the potential of the storm. Thankfully, I was within a few minutes of the trailhead, but just imagine if you were one hour up a high peak above the trees! Even a sky that you think -- based on prior experience -- will not develop into a storm, can do so anyway. Lesson learned. Beware!

Objectivist Round Up

This week's Objectivist Round Up is hosted by The Crucible. The Round Up features posts by bloggers who advocate Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Some of the many topics covered include medical ethics, "personhood", life insurance, Cordoba House, a Mount Oxford outing from yours truly, and the rupee. Enjoy!

Mesa Trail Short Run

This is a short daily run, but it made clear to me what a difference a few days rest makes. Here is the GPS track, starting from the South Mesa trailhead.


The route was Mesa to North Shanahan to Bluestem and back. I don't run N. Shanahan much but it's a nice crushed gravel road through fairly open pine forest. Distance was 7 miles, time 1:15, and an elevation gain/loss of 1,300 feet. I ran this at a steady pace to warm up, then at a pace that increased gradually until the finish, once I found I could maintain speed. Best pace was 6:12, which for me is fast. I think that was just a short burst and most of the faster cruising was at 7:30.

I was surprised how strong I felt after 3 days off (including one day of hiking). My body is definitely not able to dish out the energy like this when I run every day, several days in a row, especially with a lot of vertical gain. Rest works. It must be the secret to that "tapering" thing I hear about ;)

I also noticed the effect of the lack of rain. I ran at 6:45-ish, and the 95-degree mid-day heat had apparently baked all the moisture out of the area. My throat was dry even carrying a water bottle. It's also possible that I've become used to the more humid Green Mountain area of the park, with its deciduous trees and lush vegetation at the lower elevations.

I couldn't resist taking some pictures. Heck, even when running flat bike paths in the Midwest, I took photos; there's always something worth shooting. Looking east from near Mesa trail:


Looking southwest:


Dotted Blazing Star:

Fiery Clouds Near Boulder

Monday while hiking Green Mountain in Boulder with my brother, who was visiting from out of town, we were treated to a show of pink sunset clouds in various directions. Nice timing. It was close to sunset and we had a 30-minute descent ahead, but it was worth it to stop and take some pictures.


He's is a thin-tire man who keeps in shape by cycling back in Chicago, so in spite of the altitude we kept a good hiking pace. This is just a great trail, and I enjoyed playing guide for the evening. Here is the GPS track:


Distance was 3.65 miles, time was 1:50, and elevation gain/loss was 1,600 feet.

At the end, we even walked through a group of deer grazing at dusk, with a nice buck silhouetted against the darkening sky. More good timing :)

Belford/Oxford Run

Victory! After intentionally choosing a cloudless day before trying to get to Mount Oxford for the 3rd time, I made it. I had been turned back due to bad conditions and/or weather on two other occasions. Here is the GPS track:


Total time for the round trip from the trailhead was almost exactly 5:00 hours, total gain/loss 5,800 feet, mileage 10.8 plus another 0.9 on the forest road (see below). I hiked steadily on the uphill, and ran the moderate slopes (my definition is pretty wimpy) and downhills. I ran probably 30% of the uphill/outbound segment on this rather steep trail. A bonus this time was a decent amount of running above 13,000 feet, which I rarely get to do because of rough terrain.

My favorite thing to see going into a weekend is a forecast like I saw yesterday. It means there probably won't be any afternoon thunderstorms, and you can spend all day wandering around on high ridges and peaks in wonderful sunshine. It means pure bliss. Here is a photo from near Buena Vista, with Mount Princeton in the background, and not a cloud to be seen:


At the end of Chaffee 390, a dirt road that leads partway to the trailhead, there were two small rockslides that had distributed large rocks onto the road, mainly on the uphill side. Somebody could have really wrecked their vehicle on them, so I parked up the road a bit, jogged back and cleared off the road. The biggest rocks were too heavy to lift, but I was able to roll them. So, don't let anyone tell you Ayn Rand fans don't ever help other people ;)

A little philosophical detour is in order here. The question is: why would an advocate of rational self-interest bother to stop to clear rocks off the road for others? The answer is that self-interest does not only involve material things and situations; that's a mistaken view of Objectivism. Self-interest involves moral and psychological values as well, such as the pride in seeing something that needed to be done and doing it, and the recognition that others deserve the same respect we give ourselves, resulting in a general attitude of goodwill. The truth is, in popular usage "self-interest" has both bad and good meanings mixed together. Objectivism's usage of the term is closer to that of the popular psychological self-help industry; that of nurturing and self-respect. Detour over.

This is peak season in the mountains, so the trail was crowded. Thankfully, there is room along the dirt forest road, at the price of getting a coat of dust on your vehicle:


Here is the initial section of trail, where my body wakes up and realizes I'm expecting it to do something significant. Usually it does not like this, and protests with discomfort and gasps for air :)


Below is the now-familiar view of Missouri Mountain ridge in the background as I exit the forest. It's not uncommon for the sky to still be clear at this point, yet produce rain after noon.


This is Mount Belford. The "peak" visible in the middle is actually a high point on the ridge leading to the actual summit, which is behind it. The trail zigzags right up the ridge on the front. It is steep and will test your conditioning.


I ran only a couple hundred yards of this because I was too busy stepping up over rocks in the thin air around 12,000 feet, which -- needless to say -- is tiring. I like to hike these sections nonstop at about the same tempo I would use on flat land, and stay just below my aerobic threshold, the objective being to go as fast as possible without stopping.


Here are some views back down into the valley:



Even with the cars in the parking lot, I was surprised how crowded it was on top. Wow! Belford's summit is a smooth, arched ridge with an elongated biscuit of orange rock smashed on top of it.


The rock is really interesting and provides shelter from the wind on the south side, which gets a nice dose of sun in the summer. I like to sit in this natural warming hut for a few minutes, out of the wind and admire the view. It was windy this trip (as usual on this ridge), and today I'm still a bit congested from my head being hit by wind for hours on end. This is Mount Oxford, my next objective, which is about 1.5 miles away by trail:


Looking back up at the summit area:


The next photo is the other direction. This is facing south (roughly), and the trail heads out for a quarter mile and then makes a sharp left turn towards Oxford.

The trail here is above 14,000 feet, and very runnable, although I quickly found I had to take it easy. Atmospheric density at that altitude is only 56% of that of sea level (and 22% less than my neighborhood), and you really feel it. I don't get to run up this high very often, and I had a huge smile on my face and was laughing. Woo-hoo!


The next picture is at the end of the quarter mile, looking east at Oxford. The trail makes a steep descent of about 600 feet before gradually ascending again to the summit. There were runnable sections here, particularly along the small ridges, which were a total blast.

A note about the surface. Although the descent here is steep, the dirt was strangely grippy compared to the front side of Belford, which was a slippery mess (I almost ate it once, having to do a reverse Road Runner to stay standing). Whereas the latter was brown dirt and little pea-like pebbles that caused your feet to slip, I stuck like Spiderman all the way down this slope, with my toes pointed straight down. It reminded me of the Mancos Shale in Durango.


Here is one of those crazy thistles. These look like they're going to open their eyes and bite you if you come too close.


This is the view looking back west at the descent from Belford (the summit is off-screen to the right).


In the other direction is the summit of Oxford. Look at that sky! This is at 1:00 PM.


Here is a wider view looking back at Belford. The summit is the little knob of rock on the right; note the yellowish color compared to the surrounding grey.


Fast-forwarding to the descent off of Belford, I thought this green hulk of a mountain was interesting. It was... big. And green.


Here's a nice vertigo-inducing shot down the descent. Yes, I was running this, but only when the path went strongly to the left or right, which allowed it to level off. This was slippery and I took a lot of it slowly. I could have used my spikes today.


This shows the entire hanging valley above treeline. The fifth photo from the top was taken from just this side of the trees at the end of the valley. The cabin ruins are just inside those trees.


At the end of the run I stowed my stuff in the car, filled up the bottle and started on a run down the forest road, with the aim of adding on a 10k or so for a total of ~17 miles, like my runs last week. I had in mind a nice quiet run on a forest road, lined by woods. Reality intruded rudely and quickly, when I realized I left my shades at the car, and when truck after truck came down the road, filling the air with dust and causing me to cough. OK, well, I guess not; I only added about a mile. I packed up and drove off.

Afterwards I recuperated and grabbed a bite in Salida, and walked a bit and enjoyed the amazing weather. The Arkansas River that flows through downtown is full of people swimming, tubing, fishing etc. this time of year. Here is a parting shot of the river from downtown, with a kayaker on the left, and a boy playing in the calm shallows in the right. Ah, summer.