Feeling a bit under the weather – bronchitis from the recent fires – was looking for a relatively easy hike…no 3rd straight 14er weekend for me. A co-worker spoke highly of Ceran St. Vrain. Her dogs love water and this hike crosses the St. Vrain more than a few times. Named for an 1800’s fur trader, just past the trailhead in Jamestown walked through an all-pine forest. So FRESH – love the smell of pine!
Didn’t start this hike ‘til 10am so shared the trail with many many others. Easy 45-minute hike OUTDOORS, which lifted my spirits.
Lunch on the St. Vrain riverbank, then got inspired. Hey – why not hike back UP the river? Sole was cracked from last week’s Quandary summit…was gonna toss these shoes anyway. Weather was HOT, water cold – great combo for our first ‘river’ hike.
Met a few tree dilemmas – climb over or under? Surprisingly, not always so obvious. Under – you’re bending down in the water. Over – one wrong move, crunch and ouch. LOL> Then of course never expected to see snakes 🙁
Highly recommend taking the road less travelled – ROCKSTAR day!
protrails.com – Ceran St Vrain
Sounds a lot like the plot of James Michener’s Centennial – hmmm….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceran_St._Vrain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bent (first governor of NM territory & scalped alive by Pueblo Indians – ouch)
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- Jamestown trail named for 1800’s fur trader
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- free hat (notta product placement promo, honest)
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- smell of pine (LOVE IT!)
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- lunch break on St. Vrain
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- hey, hey…can we get in?
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- and so our 2 mile river hike begins…
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- was gonna toss these shoes anyway (cracked sole last weekend on Quandary)
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- tree dilemma: (climb) over or under
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- assume this wasn’t poisonous? (don’t know, don’t wanna know)
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- Highly recommend taking the road less travelled — ROCKSTAR day!
Feeling blue — 2 days with a scratchy sore throat (forest fire smoke-related), today’s company outing couldn’t have come at a better time. Rockies MLB game at Coors Field in Denver — and Flag Day no less — all the makings of a potential ‘best day ever’! LOL>
AND — I had a dream. Not a MLK dream but of the number ‘6’. So…today I fully expected to see the Rockies score ‘6’ runs. Sure we were behind 4-0 after 3 innings but I had faith. I shared ‘6’ with my co-workers — who may not have believed, but kept entertained watching a losing ball game.
A few more innings later, it’s 6-0 Oakland so I’ve come to conclude that ‘6’ was for the visiting team. Top of the 9th [inning], 7 runs then 8. Ugh. What happened to ‘6’? The stands are now emptying — folks wanting to beat traffic home from the stadium.
SMACK — a Rockies home run. Moments later, another run. Bottom of the 9th — I still had faith. HA!
Fly ball and it’s over…8-2 Oakland. Hmmm…they won by ‘6’ runs 🙂
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- company outing: day game at Coors Field
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- Rockies vs A’s
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- sports & brew (with Angie)
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- Monica & Christian (& baby Clara), Alex, Leslie
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- Mayoura’s crew
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- Alex, Catalina, Kelly
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- Paul, Scott, Jim & Debbie
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- flexing – ’cause I can 🙂
DIFFICULT climb today — our second 14er, Quandary Peak.
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- wrong trailhead sign
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- 2 miles thru dense forest to…
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- the ‘other’ REAL trailhead (off Blue Lakes NOT Blue River Rd, who knew?)
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- 12,000 ft – end of the trees
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- Rocky Mountain Goat – Ro went CRAZY!
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- ROCKY climb UP
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- bigger ROCK
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- and even bigger ROCK
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- last push to top thru loose shale (ROCK)
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- SUMMIT log
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- 14,265ft view!
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- SUMMIT Inukshuk (fell asleep here for 20 minutes)
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- ROCKSTAR climb!
