Pikes

Took a few days off after Longs to recover.  The heavy pack and missed night of sleep had me pretty dazed the first part of the week.

Was off work on Friday though, and I used that time to make my first trip up Pikes in a while.  Went up via the Crags trailhead, 14 miles round trip with 4100+ feet of climbing.  Just over five hours.  Two 14ers in a week.

They are building a new mall at the top, and it should be open soon.  They also have the train running after a few year hiatus.

Longs!

Finally, after living in Colorado for over 13 years, was able to bag Longs Peak on Sunday.  The hike/climb was the final project for the alpine climbing school and I'm glad I signed up for that.

Went up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday afternoon for the 2.5 mile hike to the Battle Mountain campsite.  Ate supper and set up my bivy to turn in early.

Woke up at 12:45AM on Sunday, we were hiking soon after.  Easy miles over to Chasm Lake.  All these pics were taken by various others in the class.

Then, as the sun was starting to come up, we began the long climb up Lamb's Slide couloir.  For whatever reason I never got sketched out on the snow as I sometimes do on rock, and I enjoyed the climb.

Nice shot of the diamond from below.  Tommy Caldwell climbs here.

 

Once on top of the Notch we would do what I considered the crux of the entire course, and one of the scariest things I've ever done.  A 60 meter rappel off a rock into nothing but air.  I tried to fake it and look relaxed but I was about ready to shit my pants until I got to the ground.

After the rappel it was more snow and before I knew it we had reached the summit.

After a well deserved rest on the peak we began our descent down the Cables route.  Down climbing some snow, another (much more pleasant) rappel, a glissade, and we were down at the boulderfield, connecting up with the standard route most folks take to hike this mountain.

Uneventful down climb, but like most 14ers I think everyone just wanted to get finished.  We did see some elk on the way out to get the full Rocky Mountain National Park experience.

Just over 18 hours from the campsite to the car.  With the drive back home, I was up for over 24 hours.  Believe it was the first time doing that since my hundo days.

Such a fantastic day in the mountains.  Loved the course, it's given me some confidence to tackle some more mountaineering type routes, and I have some of those planned for this summer.

Longs attempt

Sun - a bit hungover but I still got a good pedal in.  Up to the Air Force Academy and back to Fossil.  30 miles.

Mon - 18 mile ride on the COVID loop and the Garden before working from home.  7.5 mile run after work, tagging Rocky Mountain via the Incline before running up Red Mountain.  Strava had me at 31 minutes up the Incline.  Manitou Brewing after the run.

Tues - bike commute 42.  Ten there, eleven home.  CityRock 62 at lunch.

Wed - run commute 37.  Five miles to work in 41 minutes.  I work very near Mash Mechanix.  And as I was getting ready to run home a friend texted me for beers there.  I met her there, then mooched a ride to Smiling Toad.  Walked home from the Toad at least.

Thurs - 10 mile ride on the Red Rock Canyon trails before work, seven mile run in the Garden after work.  I never lose sight of the fact that I live in such an incredible place.

Fri - bike commute 43.  Ten miles in 54 minutes to the office.

I will be missing the Garden ten miler for the first time in a long time on Sunday.  On Saturday afternoon I'll be hiking into Rocky Mountain National Park and getting to bed early.  On Sunday at 1AM I will start an ascent of Longs Peak.  Graduation climb for my alpine climbing school.  Not sure if we'll make the summit - the temps have exploded here and who knows what condition the snow will be in, but it should be a fun day nonetheless.

Michael Franti & Spearhead

Red Rocks is back, baby!

First Red Rocks show in way too long.  Headed up with Rocky Mountain Ride for some quality pre-show tailgating.  Got to watch a nice lightening storm while drinking some cold beers.  Show was awesome, though I wish he would have played more of his older stuff.  Capacity was 66%, by far the least crowded show I've been to there.

Canon six peaks loop

Tues - run commute 35.  5.1 there in 48 minutes, 5.4 back in 61 minutes.  Lunch climb.

Wed - bike commute 40.  Eleven there in 49 minutes.  CityRock lunch.  Finally got my ass over for a Cheyenne Mountain climb on the way home.  17 miles in two hours, speed ranging from 2mph to 29mph.

Thurs - run commute 36.  6.5 miles there in 57 minutes.  CityRock 60 at lunch.  Didn't feel like running after work so I took the bus home.  Lots of guitar today.

Fri - bike commute 41.  Eleven to work.  CityRock for lunch.

Sat - big run over in the Canon.  Six peaks in all - Cutler, Muscoco, Daniels, Kineo, Buckhorn, and Mays.  18 miles with just over 5000 feet of climbing.  Took five and a half hours.  Such a great loop.  King's Chef afterwards, the Bijou location is open again!

shooter's

We left Fruita pretty early on Monday and purposely skipped breakfast as there was a stop we wanted to make.  I put politics on the same level as professional wrestling nowadays and this place might be ground zero.

Yes, our waitress had a pistol holstered, and her shirt said "God, Guns, & Trump," but she was very friendly and did her job well 

Oddly, while not nearly as loud as their second amendment support, they give a thumbs up to bikes.

I'd never let politics get in the way of good grub, and the food here was solid.  I'd love to go back and try a burger.  We don't get to Rifle very much as we do our best to avoid I-70.

western slope

$100 and I had a long weekend and we decided to head west.

We took off Thursday after work and headed to Salida.  We had to hurry as the dog's favorite store, Gone To The Dogs, closes at 6PM.  But we made it, and she was able to pick out some treats for the trip.

We successfully pulled off our first stealth camp in downtown Salida.  Maybe three blocks from Benson's.  

Hit Moonlight first.  I overheard a gal who has been working there for years talking about her housing situation.  She rents a room in Pueblo, two hours away, and stays there a few nights a week.  The other nights she sleeps in her car in Salida.  I'm waiting for the mountain town way of life to come crashing down any day now.  If the nearest affordable housing is two hours away, you aren't going to be able to have restaurants and bars for very long.

After that it was more of our favorites - Tres Litros and Benson's.

Up early the next morning to hit the road.  Highway 50 is currently closed a little bit before Montrose, so we took the back way around Black Canyon into Hotchkiss and over to Delta.  Beautiful drive.  Even found a brewery in Delta, Stoik Brewing.

We hit Fruita for a late lunch at Hot Tomato and then headed out to Rabbit Valley.  It was a scorcher all weekend - temps in the mid 90s.  It's always hot out there, but as it's been a chilly and rainy spring in COS we were not ready.  Especially the dog.  So one of us stayed with her all weekend at the van, with the other out riding or running.  

I had a nice run down to the river and back through a canyon on Saturday morning, then $100 took the bike out.  Hung out for a bit, then headed out to 18 Road for a while.  Got in some good riding there on Saturday evening and found a nice place to camp.  On Sunday morning the dog and I got in a good hour hike before $100 and I started to tag team.  I ran for an hour, then she biked for an hour, then I biked for an hour, and she rode again.  Then we headed in to Copper Club Brewing for some tasty 18 Road IPA.  

After some beers, we drove over to the James M. Robb state park so $100 could get some fishing in.  She caught two fish!  Which brought her total number of fish ever caught to three.

At this point it had been a while since either of us had seen a shower.  Luckily we had a reservation at the Monument RV resort.  RV parks aren't my thing but the shower was worth it.  Had a few brews while chatting with our neighbors and then we turned in.

update

Mon - nice two hour/22 mile gravel ride in the AM.  After work I headed over to Manitou and ran up the Incline to the summit of Rocky Mountain, then down to Intemann and headed up Red Mountain.  8.9 miles, 2.5 hours, 3500 feet of climbing.  Earned my beers from Manitou Brewing for sure.  They have a new hazy on tap that's delicious.

Tues - bike commute 38.  Eleven there on the COVID loop.  13.3 back on the world's greatest commute through Bear Creek and Red Rock Canyon, ending at Fossil.  I am not in mountain bike shape for sure.

Wed - run commute 34.  Five miles there in 42 minutes.  6.3 miles back through Sondermann in an hour.  Good climb at lunch.

Thurs - bike commute 39.  Seven miles there, four miles home.  Busy morning as we packed the van up for the long weekend trip.

Leaving Thursday after work and headed west.  Fruita is the plan, but we could change that at any moment.  All we know is that we don't have to work until Tuesday morning.  

Citadel

Bolted after work on Friday to the Herman Gulch trailhead, not too far north of the Eisenhower tunnel.  In bed early as it was a definite alpine start on Saturday.  Did make a quick pit stop at Broken Compass on the way there though.

The objective was Snoopy's Backside couloir to get to the top of The Citadel.  There were some minor avalanche concerns, and some possible shitty weather moving in, but we ended up having a good day in the mountains.

Fairly straightforward three-ish mile hike to get to the couloir.  Here's a good shot, stolen from summitpost.org, that shows the climb.

The day ended up being eight miles and eight hours.  Lots of post holing on the way back.  Definitely a beginner climb and I had a blast.  There are quite a few climbs of this type on Pikes and I'll definitely be looking into those next year.

A few other pics from the day:

Couldn't stick around after the climb, I drove straight back to the Springs, grabbed the dog, and headed down to Canon City.  $100 and two of her friends had left Fossil Brewing on Friday night, slept on Gold Camp Road, then got up on Sat and rode up to Victor before dropping down Phantom Canyon and over to Red Canyon Park in Canon.  I met them with pizza and beer for night two.  The next day they got up and rode up Shelf Road and back to Fossil.  150 miles total on the weekend for them.

home

Sun - was up at 3AM (1AM Colorado time) to start the return journey from Florida, so not much working out.  Did get the dog out for a walk before heading over to Smiling Toad and then to Front Range for some live music.  Masks are basically not a thing here in the Springs anymore.

Mon - 15 mile ride in the AM on the COVID loop.  Incline right after work before heading over to Fossil for Alex's b-day throwdown.  Raining all day.

Tues - still tired from the travel, plus a hangover.  And it was pouring rain.  I drove to work since I had to pick $100 up from the airport.  Did get in a decent garage workout in the evening to keep the day from being a total zero.

Wed - solid run to work, 6.5 miles in 55 minutes.  CityRock 53 at lunch.  

Thurs - bike to work.  Ten there, eleven back.  CityRock 54 at lunch.  Guitar and Benny's after work.

Fri - run commute 33.  4.2 miles in 37 minutes.  Good bouldering session at lunch.

Doing my first couloir climb this weekend.  Was supposed to be the Dragon's Tail in Rocky Mountain National Park, but due to weather and conditions the climb was changed to Snoopy's Backside up near Loveland Pass.  $100 is doing a big bikepacking trip this weekend, so I'll hopefully be completing the climb quickly and safely before grabbing the dog and heading down to Canon City to meet up with her.  

Speaking of the dog, apparently yesterday was national rescue dog day.  Here's the last pic of my pup that was on my phone:

Florida

Boarded a plane for the first time since the Atlanta marathon trials back in early March of ‘20.  Off to visit the in-laws down in The Villages.

The Villages are not my cup of tea, but $100’s parents sure do love it down there.  We visited a watering hole called The Cove and then took a swamp tour on an air boat.  Good stuff.  The next day we went back to Silver Springs State Park for some kayaking.  No manatee this trip but we still had a blast.

Did get two easy five mile runs in.  Felt like I was swimming in the heat and humidity.  

Took a planned down week since I knew travel would mess things up.

run - 22 miles/4.5 hours

ride - 8.6 miles/one hour

hike - 12.3 miles/five hours

Winter Park

Had the day off on Friday, and I got in a good two hour run in Red Rock Canyon before leaving for Winter Park.  Solo trip for me as $100 got stuck with some work crap.

Good day up in WP.  The last training class for the alpine climbing school.  Some more self arrest practice and lots of snow anchor building.  Good stuff.  Two more trips for ACS.  A couloir climb set for May 22, and then a lesser known route up Longs Peak in June.  The two day trek will include snow, ice, and rock climbing.  

After the field day I headed over to Lyons to meet up with the annual brewery bike trip.  Long drive back home on Sunday afternoon as I visited Rocky Mountain National Park and quite a few breweries.  

Mon - more winter weather.  Which meant no incline reservation needed as the parks department wouldn't be leaving their fancy office.  So I got in all 2700+ steps straight up and straight down.

Tues - an inch of snow in the front yard this morning.  Bike commute 36 on the fatty.

trouser snake

 Forgot to post this guy, whom I saw on my long run on Sunday.  Snake season is here again.  Yay.

Mon - it rained pretty much 24 hours straight, very rare for us here in CO.  First time I bailed on an early morning dog hike for weather in a long time.  Got the pooch out later, and in the evening I ran an easy ten miler on the Garden roads.  Little bit of snow up high.

Tues - bike commute 34.  Eleven miles to work, four back home.  Had the last of the video lectures for my alpine climbing school.  This weekend I'll be in Winter Park practicing some snow movement.  We have two trips left with the class: a couloir climb, and the high peak grad climb.  The grad climb looks like it will be a two day difficult route up Longs.

Wed - run commute 30.  6.5 miles there in an hour.  6.3 miles back home through Sondermann, including 12 hill repeats.

clear creek canyon

                     

Early drive on Saturday to join my CMC ACS peeps for a crag day at the East Colfax area of Clear Creek Canyon, about 15 miles west of Golden.  Great place and loved climbing all day.  I'm getting much more comfortable on the rock, learning to trust the equipment and not freaking out about heights quite so much.  Not getting ahead of myself in thinking I'm an outdoor badass though, there were guys highlining the canyon while we were climbing.  Might have been 700+ feet above us.

Some other pics from the day:

Cannonball Creek Brewing for the apres.  Also hit Mountain Toad Brewing before heading back to the Springs.

                            

Good three hour long run on Sunday.  Red Rock Canyon, Section 16, Stephanie's, and back through RRC.  Just over 15 miles.  $100, James, Melissa, and I went back to RRC at noon to try to get some more climbing in, but it started pouring before we could get going.  So we bailed to Fossil instead.

For the week:

run - 47 miles/9 hours

ride - 78 miles/7.5 hours

hike - 18.5 miles/8 hours

castlewood

Sat/Sun - Castlewood Canyon State Park for the rock climbing portion of alpine climbing school.  More rapelling than climbing with lots of anchor building thrown in.  Great weekend, learned a ton.  

Mon - two hour ride in the AM.  Then in the evening I headed up the Incline to Rocky Mountain, my first summit of that hill in a while.  Back down Barr Trail.  8.3 miles in 2:17.  High Ground IPA at Manitou Brewing afterwards.

Tues - bike commute 32.  10.8 miles there.  Did the longer loop home, and got chased by a thunderstorm.  I took shelter at Marc and Amanda's (more importantly, Moose and Millie's) and after two minutes the sun was out.  18.4 miles in 100 minutes.  CityRock 48 at lunch.

Wed - run commute 28.  6.5 miles in an hour there, six flat in 67 minutes home, including eight hill repeats in Sondermann.

Thurs - run commute 29.  6.6 miles in an hour there.  Four miles easy back home.  Good gym climb at lunch.

bike commute 31

Wed - run commute 26.  5.2 there in 49:33.  Had to do some 15 second hill repeats on the way home, and there is a perfect hill for it in Sondermann.  Eight of them.  Can't remember the last time I did hill repeats.  6.2 miles in 68 minutes.  CityRock at lunch, I think I've now done enough of them to say I'm a legit 5.9 indoor climber.  Which would make me a legit 5.5 climber outdoors.

Thurs - Bit longer to work.  Eight miles in 75 minutes.  CityRock 46 at lunch.  Easy four miles back home so I could have some time to play guitar before my weekly lesson.

Fri - bike commute 31.  10.7 miles to work on the COVID loop.  Finally some decent weather.  Saw a pack of coyotes over at the new retention pond at the Garden.  Good bouldering session at lunch.

Spending the weekend at Castlewood Canyon, a state park located between COS and Denver.  Doing some climbing and working on anchors with the CMC.  More good weather on the way, I'm pretty psyched to get on some outdoor rock again.

canon/incline

Sunday - I had not run over in Cheyenne Canon in a long time.  I needed to find a hill that would take me 45 minutes to climb, and even with the recent snow I figured the Canon road climb to the top of High Drive would do the trick.  One mile warm up, then ran as hard as I could up the hill.  Struggled and suffered, but got to the top in 43:14.  4.2 miles and just over 1500 feet of elevation gain.  I used to break 40 for this run, but I also used to be a lot younger.  This was a heart rate test, and I averaged 158 beats per minute.  

Mon - an early work day messed up my schedule, but I got in bike commute 30.  3.7 miles there, eleven back home.  Manitou in the evening and I was planning on running up Barr to the top of the W's.  But when I got to the base of the Incline it was raining pretty good, and I knew the parks department employee wouldn't dare come out of his office in such weather.  So I did the Incline instead.  35 minutes up.  Straight up and straight down, followed by some High Ground IPA at Manitou Brewing.  I might start doing this on Monday evenings as there is a bail trail near the base that can get you around needing a stupid reservation.

Tues - I knew when I went to bed on Monday that I might need a rest day as it had been a while since my last incline.  Which made bailing when the temp was 18F on Tuesday very easy.  Short hike with the dog and then I jumped on the bus.  Did get in a good session at CityRock for lunch.

the week that was...

Still got out there even though the reappearance of winter sapped some motivation.  Good two hour/13.7 mile run on my COVID loop on Saturday to end the week.  

20 weeks until The Rut, going to start looking to get in shape for that.  I actually bought a plan from the guys at Uphill Athlete last year and never used it after the race was cancelled, but I’ll look to put some of those workouts into my week. 

Chilled around the house this weekend.  I think it’s the last weekend until June that I’ll be here.  Between the CMC class and a trip to The Villages to see the in-laws, lots of travel on the docket.  We are debating between Taos and Fruita for Memorial Day weekend.

For the week:

run - 37 miles/6.5 hours

ride - 55 miles/5.5 hours

hike - 22.7 miles/8.5 hours

ice ice baby

Mon - bike commute 28.  3.7 miles to work (had to work early), then twelve miles back home.  4.2 mile run on the Garden roads in the afternoon before heading to Fossil for the new year of mug club.

Tues - day off from work, got in a 17 mile ride.

Wed - run commute 24.  5.2 there in 49 minutes, shitty run home through Sondermann.  CityRock 42 at lunch.

Thurs - run commute 25.  5.4 miles there, 3.5 miles back.  My climbing partner Amber did the R2R2R over the weekend, so instead of CityRock we hit up the Skirted Heifer for burgers so I could hear about her run.  My weekly guitar lesson was moved to Thursday, luckily the bartender at Benny's works Wed and Thurs.  Currently working on Hide Your Love Away by the Beatles.  Lots of C and F chords.  Struggling, but I never thought I'd even try a song with those chords, so progress is being made.

Fri - bike commute 29.  The bike trails I take were a shitshow after our latest snowstorm.  Got about three inches in my yard, with zero on the streets/sidewalks, so I assumed the bike path would be fine.  I was wrong and I had to walk my bike about three of the ten miles this morning.

Not much going on this weekend.  I haven't spent a weekend at home in a while, and I won't again for a while, so I'll just be chilling around the house.  Probably have to do a long run on the COVID loop as the trails will be messy.  More snow scheduled for Monday.  Yay.