The Rockies: Another Weekend…Another Fourteener…Mt. Bierstadt!

Of the Colorado’s fifty-three fourteeners listed in the Colorado Summit Criterion, Mt. Bierstadt is considered one of the fourteen easiest.  The standard route that begins at Guanella Pass, is ranked a class 2, just as Mt. Yale is, though I must say, it is much easier than Yale.  Mt. Bierstadt is also one of the most popular fourteeners to climb due to its closer proximity to Denver, being located in the Front Range.  The peak was named for Albert Beirstadt, a praised painter of the Colorado Rockies in the 19th Century.

The trail begins at 11,669 feet and descends through a valley of wildflowers, weaves through willows, and crosses Scott Gomer Creek before it starts its ascent up the mountain. In fact, the first mile of the trail is quite simple which resulted in 2,850 feet to gain in the upcoming 2.5 miles! The one thing that stumps me about this fourteener is the Colorado rule, that a hiker must gain 3,000 feet for a fourteener to “count”.  2,850 feet is a little short of 3,000, so I don’t know how this one makes the official list, but it does and I’m counting it!

The next mile began moderate switchbacks up the slope which were much easier than the hike to Bill Moore Lake Kelley that I did just a few days ago.  So far, this hike felt like a breeze.  As we were discussing how Mt. Beirstadt was one of the easier fourteeners, a bystander chimed in, “There is no such thing as an easy fourteener.”  She is probably right. Things change in thinner air!  We hadn’t reached the steep part of the trail yet, and we were probably only at 12,500 feet.

The next mile and half to the summit was tough as the trail continued relatively straight up.  Up until this point our group of nine: Forrest, Theresa, Brandon, Scott, Justin, Kristin, Kelley, Eric, and I, had somewhat hiked together, stopping every now and then to regroup.  In the thin air, everyone had to hike to their own ability.  I prefer to just slog along at a slow pace.  Others go…stop and rest…then go again.

We all spread out as we lunged over large rocks, dodged watery parts of the trail still wet with melted snow, and yielded to other hikers going up and down the trail.  Eventually, Scott, Brandon, and I led the way.  We reached the highest point before the bouldering area, and waited here for the rest of the group.  Unable to take cover from a relentless, cold wind, we finally carried on.

Mt. Bierstadt required a significant amount of bouldering.  I enjoy the bouldering.  It is fun to look for the cairns and to try to decide the best way up to the summit.  It requires some concentration, though it isn’t hard, and it gives the legs a rest from the ongoing incline.  I probably also love it because I’m minutes away from summitting and my adrenaline is pumping!

Today was so gorgeous that we shared the summit with several other happy hikers.  Brandon and I found the summit register, a waterproof tube attached to a rock with a cable. A register wasn’t included, but some hikers who had summitted a few weeks ago had left their sign in the tube, so we scrawled our name on it and snapped our photo before we backtracked fifty feet or so to find a warm spot, out of the wind.

As Brandon cracked open a beer and I pulled out my PB&J, our group slowly joined us over the next forty-five minutes.  We enjoyed the sunny weather on the summit for an hour before heading back down.  If we thought the wind was relentless earlier, I’m not sure how to explain it now.  It was nearly blowing me sideways at times.  I had to look straight down to keep my hat from blowing off…many others lost theirs.

Once we got a 1,000 to 1,500 feet below the summit we were blessed to see the rare shaggy, mountain goat grazing on the green tundra.  It was so exciting!  Our only other mammal spotting was a quick glimpse of a marmot.  We were surprised to see any animals with all the people around, though despite all the cars along Guanella Pass, the trail didn’t feel too crammed. Everyone was amazingly spread out over the 7 mile round-trip.

Our climb to the summit took 2:40 which included some wait time, and our hike down took about two hours which included stopping to watch the mountain goats.  With an hour on the summit, our overall hike was close to six hours which made for an awesome Sunday!

As with my Mt. Yale hike, the stats from the “Map My Hike” app don’t exactly match up with the stats from the 14ers.com website.  Map My Hike gives me far more credit in distance for hiking…perhaps I weave a lot at 14,000 feet!  Regardless of the distance, time, elevation, or ranking, each hike over 14,000 feet feels like an accomplishment, and it is becoming an addiction.  I’m wondering who I can talk into going with me on another.  I’m ready to bag another peak!!

The Rockies: Magnificent Wildflowers on the Way to Bill Moore Lake

July 17, 2013

Today Kelley and I joined a group taking an afternoon hike up to Bill Moore Lake.  The trail to get to Bill Moore Lake is part of the Continental Divide Trail and requires a bit of four wheeling up 274, a rocky dirt road off Fall River Road to get there.  In fact, many people go off roading on 274 on the weekends, so this hike is better suited during the week.

Just before the trailhead, is the remnants of an old building from the mining days.  As soon as we ducked into the trees, the trail gradually turned up the mountain slope and then it quickly turned into severe and steep switchbacks. The trail was actually built up on a retaining wall! I couldn’t help but wonder who felt like building a wall from 10,000 to 11,000 feet…it was hard enough to walk up it!  As we were trying to beat a storm rolling in, we hardly stopped to enjoy the magnificent views of the surrounding peaks, but we did catch a few glimpses.

Wildflowers were everywhere!  I have never seen so many different kinds and colors. Before we left the treeline red indian paint brush, purple aster, and blue columbine lined the trail.  As we emerged into the rocky, grassy slopes more and more flowers covered the hillside…bistort, purple fringe flowers, alpine phlox, fleabane, chiming bells, kings crown, and yarrow.  I’m certain I’m not even naming all of them, and I didn’t even come close to getting a picture of all them. I didn’t know there were bright pink and salmon colored indian paint brush!  If there weren’t 2,000 mosquitoes (no exaggeration) and a storm weren’t rolling in, I think I would have plopped down in a patch of these wildflowers for an hour.  I was just in awe of the flowers surrounded by green peaks still spotted with snow.

I couldn’t help but wonder as we were making our way to the lake if the wildflowers were nice on this trail every year, if we timed it perfectly, or if it was due to all the rain we’ve been having.  I most definitely will have to return to this trail again and make the steep 1,300 foot climb over a short 1.5 mile portion of the 7 mile roundtrip. As we got closer to the lake we dipped back down below the tree line and crossed a few small streams before the trail took us out onto a dirt road.  Here we turned right, passed by another old shelter, and stopped at the lake tucked beneath the rocky points and dark clouds above.

The menacing thunder turned us away within a few minutes.  No lightning was in sight and the rain hadn’t started, but we didn’t want to take any chances given a mile of the hike took us across open space.  We backtracked quickly as sprinkles began, though by the time we reached the treeline, the sun was shining!  The trail to Bill Moore Lake was one of the prettiest hikes I’ve been on in Colorado…glorious!!  ETB

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I think the “Map My Hike” app is a little generous with the mileage…the trail is 6 miles roundtrip, and we walked a portion of the road (about a mile) for a total of 7, not 7.87.

The Rockies: My First “Fourteener” – Mount Yale

About Colorado Fourteeners

Colorado is home to fifty-eight peaks that rise higher than 14,000 feet; however, only fifty-three qualify as “official” fourteeners under the Colorado Summit Criterion.  To be ranked, the 14,000 foot peak must have a prominence of 300 feet.  The summit’s prominence is its rise above the highest saddle connecting the summit to higher ground.

Prior to the Colorado Summit Criterion being introduced, most 14er lists included 54 peaks…counting El Diente and North Maroon Peaks while excluding Challenger Point which wasn’t named until 1987.  The 55 peak 14er list includes Challenger Point and the 58 14er list includes Mount Cameron, Conundrum Peak, and North Eolus.

Just as the number of 14,000 peaks seem to be slightly controversial in Colorado, how to “bag a peak” is also controversial.  The Colorado rule requires the climber to ascend at minimum 3,000 feet.  The climber may traverse between peaks and the climber must descend 3,000 feet.  Driving a car part way up and only climbing a few hundred feet or 1,000 feet doesn’t count!  Some purists don’t even think traversing between peaks count.

Fourteeners are ranked by difficulty as well…from Class 1 to Class 5, easy hiking to technical climbing.  Most fall in Class 2…more difficult hiking, some off trail that may require placing hands on the ground for balance.

BAG IT!

The Cultural Side of Denver

During my year and a half in Denver, I haven’t spent much of my spare time checking out the cultural scene as I always head to the mountains.  With Suellen in town, we visited museums and attended festivals all within a few miles of my house…some in walking distance!

We started at the Cherry Creek Art Festival that is held annually.  It is an outdoor festival, with tents set up over multiple blocks displaying art and jewelry.  In addition, bands play and several local restaurants serve their best fare at food tents.  We didn’t manage to get any pictures of the art, but we did get a picture of a T-shirt a patron was wearing.

After visiting the art show, we stopped in at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum.  The air and space museum, an airplane hangar, is located at the old Lowry Air Force Base that is now converted into condos, restaurants, green space and the like.  The museum is across from the gym I go to and has a giant RB-52B airplane in front of it. This plane is the most photographed plane in the state!  The RB designation means, the plane that is 48 feet high and 156 feet long, was used for reconnaissance.  It has a wingspan of 185 feet, carries six crew, and can reach a max speed of 630mph.  It can travel 3,600 miles at combat weight of 272,000 lbs and reach 47,000 feet.  It’s maximum take off weight is 420,000 lbs and empty it weighs 185,000 lbs.  The plane is definitely eye catching!  It is right next to the gym I go to, and it always catches my attention enough to make me think I need to visit that museum at some point…the time finally came with Suellen!  Personally, I think the plane outside the museum may have been the best part, and we could have saved our $11 entry fee.

The map provided to us, with the location of the of each plane in the hanger, was incorrect.  In addition, certain machines along the side of hangar weren’t labeled, so we didn’t know what they were…neither did the volunteers!  Inside the hangar, the Star Wars X Wing Fighter was pretty fun to see, since we grew up in the Star Wars age.

According to the information placards, the most famous plane in the museum’s collection is the Lockheed  F-104 Starfighter, a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor that served in the USAF from 1958-1969.

From the museum, we walked next door to the Lowry Beer Garden and enjoyed a burger and beer before we headed to Jazz in the Park.  Jazz in the Park is a free music series on Sunday night from 6-8 during the summer, in City Park, Denver’s largest park.  I live nine blocks away from the park, so I’ve been this event multiple times.

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Our tour in and around Denver continued the following day at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.  We went in the morning, but it was still very warm, so there wasn’t too much wildlife to see…one deer, some buffalo, lots of prairie dogs, and some pelicans is about all I can name.  There were a few flowers in bloom as well, but it was mostly prairie grasses.

After a morning driving and walking around the refuge, we visited 16th Street Mall downtown and stopped in at the pavilion to see an exhibit comparing Michelangelo and da Vinci.  I had no idea they were such inventors.  I thought of them as sculptors and artists. Da Vinci invented the universal screw mechanism as an effective and safer way to lift heavy objects.  This was one of many inventions.

The following day, we visited the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.  It is located in City Park, and it is absolutely fantastic.  We spent at least five hours there and didn’t even finish seeing all the exhibits, much less attend an IMAX movie or the planetarium.  I loved the space exhibit.  There were so many interactive parts to it.  I used a computer to create a star and watched it grow the size of the sun and explode.  The gem exhibit was also impressive, though I am a rock hound.  I actually became a member at the window before we even went in and it was a very good investment…I will be going back!

Mountains beneath the ocean.
Gemstone found in CO.

Anyway, Denver offers quite a bit of culture, and I feel like Suellen and I made a small dent in it during the few days she was here!

The Rockies: Hiking Tanglewood Trail to Roosevelt Lakes

Despite reading the description of the trail and having hiked parts of the Tanglewood trail before, I didn’t realize what I was signing up for today. I don’t know if my legs weren’t fully recovered from the MS150 ride last week or if starting out with a slight headache is what made this 11 mile route with 2,700 feet of elevation gain in four miles so hard. Usually we average about a 25 minute pace uphill…we averaged a 25 minute pace downhill today!!

The first part of the trail was fairly flat, though rocky, and crossed the creek several times. As I mentioned I’ve hiked this part a few times with some folks some Texas at a much slower pace, taking pictures, looking for geocaches, and dragging the ole mutts along. Today, we had more of a mission to make it to the lakes, though I did declare before we set out I wanted to take some photos so we’d be hiking at a slower pace today, but I don’t think I could have gone faster if I tried.

The wild flowers were out in force. They were glorious…wild rose, blue columbine, and all sorts I don’t know the names of, so I got several breathers on the flatter portion of the trail for photo taking. After about three miles, the trail crossed the creek a final time and started switch backing up the mountain beneath the pines. The switchbacks were quite steep and rather strenuous. We saw some brush and came out into an open area excited to be in what we thought was “the meadow” we read about. The problem was the trail continued straight up the side of the mountain with hardly any switchbacks.  This is where I really needed the breathers!!

I said to Justin and Kristin, my fellow hardcore hiking friends, “Since when is the definition of a meadow, a steep incline?” Then I realized we hadn’t reached the saddle yet and we weren’t to the meadow…we were still hiking the “so-called switchbacks”. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, or the top of the ridge…a flat meadow!! Here we crossed from the Pike National Forest to the Arapahoe National Forest which was marked by a wooden cairn.

We descended slightly for half a mile to Roosevelt Lakes, two alpine lakes above the tree line where we sat and enjoyed a leisurely lunch, keeping our eyes peeled for mountain goats and also watching the storm that was rolling in. As the wind picked up, we packed up, found the trail, and stayed just ahead of the rain all the way down the mountain. The views were amazing, the flowers beautiful, and the weather….well frankly a little humid for Colorado…haha! Actually, I’ve been wanting to do that full hike for a while now, so I’m glad we pulled it out. I do my first fourteener next week, so it was good practice!

Riding the Colorado Newmont MS150 presented by Point B

June 30, 2013

Another one bites the dust…another MS150 that is. Too bad MS hasn’t bit the dust yet, but everyone’s donations have helped with new and improved drugs. Now some with MS no longer have to take shots; they can take an oral medication assuming their insurance will help cover the $50,000 per year cost!

The weather this year for the ride was much cooler which made it much easier to ride. Thank goodness given my training seems to get worse every year…Eight rides of 10 miles or less, one 20 miler and one 40 miler, before I was faced with challenge of riding 75 miles two days in a row.

The event is so well run. We arrived at the Front Range Community College in Westminster bright and early in the morning. Utilizing our VIP parking, a perk from raising over $2,000 the previous year, we parked right next to the bag drop location, aired up our tires, and grabbed a bagel and peanut butter before crossing the start line at 6:15 am. I rode the first leg with the Steamboat portion of our team, Ain’t Too Proud Too SAG….Bart, Katie, Shannon, Wendy, Doug, and Mickel. At the first rest stop, we broke up….spreading out a bit. I rode a few miles with the fastest rider on our team, Mark, who caught up with us, but spent most of the next 35 miles until lunch on my own.

At lunch, I reconnected with Doug and Mickel and we rode from rest stop to rest stop preparing for the climbs, in particular Horsetooth Reservoir. After enjoying our snow cone, we took to the slow climb. I went into granny gear early on which concerned me, but kept it up. Doug and Mickel took a break before heading up the big climb so we separated here, not to mention, they planned on riding the century. They kept encouraging me to go on the century with them…yeah right…they trained…I didn’t! I knew how my knees would feel on day 2.

I was unfortunate to come down off the climb onto a very bad bicycle accident that had just happened. As I kept going multiple emergency vehicles passed me by…fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. It plays with your mind a bit. The course ended up being closed and the rider was care-flighted out. Hopefully, she will be OK.

I’m not sure if I was distracted by all the commotion or just exhausted from the climb on the 70th mile when I followed the left-hand turn toward the century ride instead of going straight! Thankfully, the rider next me asked if this was the century or the regular route? Then I looked up at the giant hill and promptly turned around! Whew…he was my savior!!! I didn’t remember that left-hand turn in previous years, but with the head wind, I had a difficult time hearing the volunteer directing us to the left…he was calling out, “Century left”.

Speaking of volunteers, they are awesome on this ride. They man every rest stop making PB&J’s, filling water bottles, and thanking us for riding. They sit on the side of the road with cow bells and cheer. They stand at every intersection and point us in the right direction. They couldn’t be more inspiring or make the ride any easier, especially for those of us that train improperly!

So thankfully, I did not add an extra 25 miles to my ride, crossed the finish line just after noon, dropped my bike off at the corral, picked up my overnight bag, and found our team tent. Food, drinks, a few team family members, one teammate, and massage therapists awaited. I got my massage first! After an afternoon at the tent, we took the shuttles to the hotels, went to a 5:30 dinner, and turned in for another early morning!

I started the morning with a 4:45 wake up call and Advil…yep, the knees were unhappy with me! Shuttle, aired up tires, water fill up, breakfast…day two start…6:45. Wow it’s tough to sit on that bicycle seat the first few miles!

This year at the MS150, two routes were offered. The regular 75 mile route over Horsetooth and a shorter base route that was designed last year during the Fort Collins fires when we could not ride the regular route. As such, we had to be more familiar with the turns. I planned on riding the Horsetooth route again, but missed the turn. I followed all the riders that went straight in front of me thinking everyone in Colorado is so hard core, they do the hard route, but this time they were not. Yesterday, I followed everyone in front of me, and they went on the century! I guess I shouldn’t follow and do a better job of reading the signs! I was looking for the poster sized cardboard signs that are posted at every turn. I didn’t bother reading the giant electronic boards that I thought were construction signs…ha! How could I have missed that?!? Well I did, and by the time I realized it, I wasn’t turning around! Though I did make up for it and ride the additional miles on Monday.

Given the tendons in my knees were snapping toward the end of the day, I’m certain my knees were thankful I missed Horsetooth. It sped up my ride a bit though, and I made it across the finish line before Mike got there, so he missed me crossing it…Oh well. My niece and nephew missed their mom and dad cross the finish line too. We all got across earlier because it was so much cooler. The good news was our team raised the most money in a one week time span, that we won a tent at the finish line, so we all got to hang out together for a while before the rain came in.

I’d like to say the ride is a lot of fun, but for those of us that don’t train it is more like grueling. But I don’t ride for fun. I ride for a cure. I ride for my sister-in-law. I ride for those who can’t. Thank you to all who donated. Every dollar makes a difference! I’ve already reached my goal. I’ve probably already made it into the top 100 fund raisers with your support. If I were to raise $5,000, I could ride any MS150 ride in the United States. Donations are accepted until September 1. http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/COCBikeEvents?px=4628235&pg=personal&fr_id=20901. If anyone has the chance to go to the event in their area, just stand at the finish line. It is so inspiring to see the riders, the families and their signs of support, MS sufferers in wheel chairs, MS riders, volunteers, and more. RIDE FOR A CURE!  ETB