In attempt to give $100 a break from all the dogs I took the youngest two out to Leadville on Saturday. Early Sunday we headed up Mt. Elbert. 14 straight months of a 14er, first 14er summit for Mookie and Millie.
The week:
run - 38 miles, 11 hours
ride - 55 miles, six hours
hike - 35 miles, 15.5 hours
I've had the Pikes via Rumdoodle route on my to-do list for years now, and I finally took a crack at it on Monday. Did not go well. I was with Amber, and we went in from Elk Park, to Barr, to Bottomless Pit. The Pit trail wasn't in great shape, and we ended up getting off route and scrambling around for a while. We ended up having to bail as black clouds were looming. But it was great to explore back there and I will be returning for another shot soon. A good eight hours of running/hiking/scrambling for 18 miles.
In other news, Mookie passed NeoDog 2 with flying colors. He is going to take some time off before beginning med school.
A lot of our friends are riding RAGBRAI this week, and as we are only friends with dog people we currently have five dogs roaming our house. Here are three of them:
The drive back after Rainier was mostly a pub crawl as we slept in a lot of brewery parking lots. $100 put up with a lot of crap from me while I was getting ready for the climb, so I was on dog duty whenever she wanted to ride or fish. But that week was mostly a wash running and biking wise.
Started to get back at it this week.
Mon - eight mile run over in Red Rock Canyon. Then the COVID loop on the bike over to Red Leg for their ninth anniversary.
Tues - run commute 42. Four there, 3.5 back.
Wed - bike commute 43. Ten there, four back.
Thurs - run commute 43. Five there, four back. CityRock 75 at lunch.
Fri - bike commute 44. Straight there and back.
Sat - signed up for Doolie Day Out. The new cadets have gone through two weeks of basic training, and on Monday they march out to Jacks Valley to pretend they joined the Army. I was assigned a kid, but he tested positive for COVID Sat morning. So I ended up taking two other kids who got stood up. They chilled at the house for a while and then we took them to Front Range before dropping them back off. We are in the process of adopting another cadet for the next four years, a gal on the track team from Austin.
What a trip! Wasn't too excited about the chances of a summit as I got on the plane to Seattle. A late winter had been dumping snow on the mountain and hardly anyone was able to get to the summit. But summer arrived quickly, and the two days we spent slowly making our way up the lower parts of the mountain allowed the upper route to improve enough for a successful summit. Ended up doing the Ingraham Direct route, as the Disappointment Cleaver route was a mess of snow and ice. It was still cold and windy, but it could have been much worse.
Not a whole lot of pictures, it was cold enough that I didn't want to take off my gloves. Here's what I got.
Finally getting above the clouds on the slog up to Camp Muir. My pack was already approaching 60 pounds before I volunteered to carry the team rope. Day one was a five mile hike that gained 5,000 feet:
We then toured the Olympic peninsula before heading up to I-90 and coming back east through Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Missoula, then down to Alpine, WY, and then home. Lots of breweries.
Mon - Easy 7.4 miles on the Garden trails in the morning, 15 mile gravel ride at lunch, easy 4.7 miler in the evening. Still sore from the Garden ten miler.
Tues - bike commute 41. Ten there, 15 back. Went over 1500 bike miles on the year, halfway towards my goal.
Wed - run commute 40. Five there. CityRock 70 at lunch. 5.3 miles back home. Hollydog is now 13.5 years old and is slowing down, but we have started walking one mile around the 'hood each evening. Not taking the time I get to spend with her for granted.
Thurs - run commute 41. 4.7 there, 3.5 home. Mookie is crushing dog school and is slowly turning into a good pup.
Fri - bike commute 42. Straight there and back. King's Chef for lunch.
Fly to Seattle tomorrow afternoon. Start hiking up Sunday afternoon.
Earlier this week I had accepted that there would be no summit. It was snowing heavily and avalanche conditions were terrible. None of the paid expeditions were getting to the top.
But that has recently changed, and things look to be improving. Will they improve in time for me? Not sure, but I feel a lot better than I did a few days ago.
I've only used my inReach for texting $100 to let her know I was safe, but I'm gonna try the tracking feature. This link may or may not work as I'm not the most technologically gifted guy.
After the climb we're taking some time to explore the Olympic peninsula and then slowly heading back home on a route not fully decided yet.
I received a nice ass kicking at the Garden ten miler on Saturday. Solid race for me, I just had nothing in the tank over the last two miles. Officially finished in 1:16:00. I got what I deserved - I'm in good shape to hike uphill with a heavy pack on, but not really ready to run a good road race. But it was fun, I pushed as hard as I could, saw a ton of friends, and it was all basically in my backyard.
After that I headed down to help Elevation Brewing celebrate their ten year anniversary. I have drank quite a bit of First Cast IPA over the past decade for sure.
Slept in the van at the Poncha visitor center, then up early to tag Shavano. 13 straight months.
The weather is looking crazy for Rainier as they've had a ton of snow. Very few of the guided trips have had successful summits so far this year. Hope that changes soon.
For the week:
run - 44 miles, eleven hours (counted Shavano, which admittedly was more of a hike than a run)
ride - 57 miles, six hours
hike - 18 miles, seven hours
Mon - 5.8 mile run in Red Rock Canyon.
Tues - bike commute 39. Ten miles there, 18 back up and over Cheyenne Canon to High Drive, down Cap't Jacks. Need more of this in my life. So glad that road is open again.
Wed - run commute 39. 5.5 miles through Sonderman there, 4.8 miles back home. Guitar practice in the evening.
Thurs - took Mookie over to Red Rock Canyon for a 5.8 mile run. He loved it. Took him to Red Leg Brewing in the evening for Garden packet pick up and he loved that too.
Fri - bike commute 40. CityRock 68 at lunch.
Garden ten miler on Saturday, I expect to run 73-ish. Then down to Elevation for their 10th anniversary. Shavano on Sunday, making sure the 14er streak continues just in case Rainier is a bust.
The Tour Divide started today. I hope to be starting my ride from Antelope Wells to Banff in exactly one year.
Tues - bike commute 35. Ten there, eleven back. Four mile run with Mookie over in the Garden after work.
Wed - run commute 37. 5.5 there, four back home. Guitar in the evening. Working on the Wish You Were Here solo stuff.
Thurs - run commute 38. Five there, 3.5 back.
Fri - CityRock 65 at lunch. Drove the van to work and took off for Hoosier Pass to sleep up high. Enjoyed some Broken Compass beers up there.
Sat - final HAMS training on the ski slopes in Breck. Only thing left is the mountain herself.
Sun - big ride. Slogged up Rampart Range road to Mt. Herman road, down to Pikes Peak Brewing, then back to Fossil. 67 miles in seven hours.
Kircher and I met up down in Chaffee County on Saturday and successfully hiked Mt. Shavano. My 12th consecutive month of a 14er. Lots of fresh snow but nothing too heinous.
Mookie, though not quite ready for a 14er, had a blast and loves both the vanlife and Chaffee County.
Had to bolt home after a nice dog hike early Sunday morning, got to dogsit Moose and Millie and drink approximately 1000 local beers with Bob. Warning: there are middle fingers in the pic below, please look away if you are easily offended.
And yes I do realize Hamm's is not a local beer. I had 1000 local beers and one Wisconsin beer. And one can of Rainier.
On Monday early AM Bob and I got up and took Moose and Mookie over to the Bear Creek dog park for 90 minutes. After that we headed over to Red Leg for the memorial day 5k, probably the second biggest race within 90 minutes of me that day. Yet again I scored a cheap victory, running 20:50. Was on sub 20 pace for 2+ miles, but coming back up and over Gas Station hill crushed me. Obviously a small field, I won by over 90 seconds, but the $75 gift card to Red Leg that I got was the biggest running payday I've ever received.
Not the best workout month numbers wise. Lots of visits from friends, lots of travel, lots of time with the new dog, lots of time with the old dog, lots of time training with the HAMS crew. Definitely not complaining.
For the month:
run - 25 runs, 115 miles, 20 hours
ride - 25 rides, 225 miles, 22 hours
hike - 37 hikes, 142 miles, 58.5 hours
First off, congrats to Ryan for somehow making it through the Academy. She will do a one year assignment as a recruiter and then she's off to flight school.
Travel, weather, injury, Academy graduation - May sure has gotten away from me.
The Sunday I was in San Fran I somehow tweaked my lower back. Not a crushing injury like I've had there before, but I had to take things easier to make sure it didn't get worse. Then on Thursday, the temp hit 88F. And on Friday we got a good foot of snow at the house. So the week wasn't much to write home about. The back is better, and the big hiking week included a trek with a 40+ pound pack and heavy mountaineering boots through a ton of snow up to Barr Camp with the HAMS group on Sunday.
run - 17 miles, three hours
ride - 30 miles, three hours
hike - 42 miles, 18.5 hours
So much snow here. Which is great, but my monthly 14er streak is definitely in jeopardy. Going to try for Shavano on Saturday, but they got good snow down there as well. And Kircher is tagging along, so not only is there a good chance of not getting to the summit, but hospitalization and loss of a limb or two are probably in play as well.
Well holy shit that was fun!
Quick trip to San Fran, flying out on Saturday morning and returning Monday evening. Tons of pubs in between, including during the 12k race. Took $100 and I 3.5 hours to meander the course, and I ran up Hayes hill with a gin & tonic in hand.
Mon - easy lunch ride, 15 miles in 90 minutes, and a post-work 7.5 mile Garden trail run.
Tues - bike commute 29. Ten there, 18 back home.
Wed - run commute 32. 5.7 there, 4.2 home. Guitar practice in the evening, followed by a quick ride to check out a possible sighting of Amanda's stolen bike. Still haven't found it.
Thurs - run commute 33. 5.2 there. 5.5 back. Took Mookie over to PubDog in the evening, I drank beer and he ran approximately 400 miles in circles around their small dog park.
Fri - bike commute 30. Eleven there.
We had so many fires Thursday in COS it was hard to keep up. I have a bad feeling this is going to be a rough summer.
Off to San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers 12k this weekend. Won't be winning any awards unless there's one for most booze consumed during the race.
Busy lately. Lots of good stuff going on.
The Atlanta trip was incredible. So much good music. Big Something, Doom Flamingo, Oysterhead, Too Many Zooz, Sexbruise?, and Taz Niederauer were some of the highlights for me. Was excited for Umphrey's but their lead guitarist had to take some time off, and I thought the band was missing something. Hit up the Clermont, Elliot's, Sister Louisa's, and a slew of other bars. So much fun. Possible return trip next year.
Had a good seven mile run around the MLK national historical site and the Freedom trail. Also did a 5k on festival Saturday and did pretty well, winning the masters division in 19:59. Goose was doing their soundcheck at the finish line and ended up playing three songs for the runners.
Took a while to recover from that. I'm old and four straight days of partying left me pretty rough. Did recover in time to have a good race at the Take 5 in the Garden though. 4.4 miles on the Garden trails in 34 minutes. Then on Sunday the HAMS peeps and I went up to Loveland Pass to attempt Grizzly Peak. Crazy windy so we had to bail early, though we did manage to summit 13,117' Cupid Peak. Might have to go back there to get Grizzly and Torreys.
For the week of the festival:
run - 16 miles, 2.5 hours
ride - 38 miles, four hours
hike - 13.5 miles, five hours
For the previous week:
run - 31 miles, five hours
ride - 70 miles, 7.5 hours
hike - 25 miles, ten hours
Sat - big hike up in Palmer Lake with the HAMS crew. 16 miles in eight hours with a heavy pack, followed by a good lunch at O'Malley's.
Sun - got in 20 miles on the bike, then dropped by the new Trinity Brewing location, which is where the old Red Leg used to be. Great place. I never used to lock my bike at the old Red Leg, but for some reason I did today. Which was good, because while we were drinking, two dudes ran up, jumped on two unlocked bikes, and rode away. One of the bikes was Amanda's, and while I'm usually happy to watch bad things happen to her, nobody deserves to have a bike stolen. To add to the shitshow of an afternoon, I wrecked my bike on the way home and messed up my leg pretty bad.
For the week:
run - 37 miles, 13 hours
ride - 79 miles, eight hours
hike - 41 miles, 17.5 hours
Mon - 16 miles on the bike, out searching around local homeless camps for Amanda's bike. Too sore to run and could barely walk the dog.
Tues - bike commute 26. Ten there, eleven back. Leg is improving but still to sore to run. Did get over for an easy climbing session at lunch, my 50th trip to CityRock this year.
Wed - run commute 29. Still feels like I have a charley horse and probably should have taken one more rest day, but I'll be traveling tomorrow and won't have time to run.
Off to Atlanta for the Sweetwater 420 music festival. I was hoping to do well in the 5k but I think the leg injury put the kebash on that. Still hoping to go sub 20 though.
Mon - easy four miler on the Garden trails before watching the Boston Marathon. 15 mile ride after work.
Tues - bike commute 24. Eleven there, 14 back.
Wed - run commute 28. Five there, four back. Guitar lesson in the evening, I'm finally starting to improve on my barre chords.
Thurs - Pikes via Barr Trail. The upper two miles are a total shitshow of soft snow right now. Lots of post holing as deep as my waist. On the way down I found a lost hiker and got him safely down to the timberline shelter, where he said he knew his way back to town. Eleven hours on the day, a long slog with a fairly heavy pack. My eleventh straight month of a 14er summit.
Sat - had to take care of some other dogs, so early Sat morning me, $100, Mookie, and Millie headed up Mount Muscoco. It's now a seven mile hike as the Cheyenne Canon road is closed, but the dogs didn't mind. Later that day I got in a good 90 minute run in Ute Valley Park. Took a hard fall there and tweaked my back, but other than that it was a solid run.
Sun - 55 mile ride up to Palmer Lake and back.
For the week:
run - 36 miles in seven hours
ride - 115 miles in eleven hours
hike - 35 miles in 14 hours
Mookie has graduated his first dog training class!
