hiking

hike #9: Mount Sanitas (Boulder CO)

Published March 10, 2012

Spring weather is here and after three consecutive weekends of ROAD TRIP hikes, wanted to keep it close this week. Supposed to be outdoors – but supposed to stay FUN too!

Working in Boulder, several coworkers have talked of Mount Sanitas as a fun local hike. Being only 20 minutes away, Ro & I didn’t hit the trail ‘til 10am and BAM it was packed! Crazy, but everyone else seemed to know it was sunny, warm and SPRING too 🙂 Boulder (and Colorado in general) is a healthy, athletic community – old, young, women, men – don’t just see (U of Colorado) college students on local hikes. LOVE LOVE LOVE this place!

Warm sunshine and a panoramic view of scenic Boulder at Sanitas’ summit. Many folks joined us for summit pics this hike – tens of people make the trip up. Ended the day with a trail run down – 2 weekends in a row! Ro enjoyed the exercise and I enjoyed having part of our Saturday open for a late afternoon walk around Hecla – beautiful weather weekend.

protrails.com – Mt Sanitas

: first Spring hike of the season

: water (& burrito) break

: no ice – Ro’s streak ends

: nearing the top

: summit view

: let’s do it again

: finished hike w/ trail run (2nd straight week)

: back home in Louisville

hike #8: Curt Gowdy State Park (near Cheyenne WY)

Published March 4, 2012

Welcome March & Ro’s 1st out-of-strate road trip – Wyoming!

Honestly, Plan A was to find buffalo. Ever since I re-watched ‘Dances with Wolves’ a couple weeks back, I’ve had ‘tatanka’ on the brain. After research, I discovered buffalo don’t ‘free range’ during the winter months — so I settled on a buffalo ‘statue’ in Northern Co near the WY border. That statue turned out to be a wooden billboard with a buffalo painted on one side — not exactly what I was thinking 🙁

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/28546 (fake Buffalo statue)

Plan B – hike in Wyoming, the Cowboy State. Wyoming’s famous natural wonders — Grand Tetons & Yellowstone — are 8 hours away (the West is HUGE). Settled on Curt Gowdy State Park — 24 miles from Cheyenne, 24 miles from Laramie. On the drive west from Cheyenne, passed a large wind farm — LOVE these things. Not sure how much electricity is actually generated but LOVE these all-white spinning pinwheels in seemingly open, desolate places.

Arrive at Curt Gowdy and no one is there — crazy, huh? Park is open but no rangers, no hikers, no car/truck of any kind. Figured it out at Ro’s first potty break — 70 (yeah 70) MPH wind gusts. I couldn’t push open my car door so had to slide out the passenger side. Plan C — we drive to the other side of the mountain near Crystal Lake Reservoir. Windy but much more do-able…and no snow. It’s like we did 2 separate hikes this day — New Mexico-like rock formations & arid conditions in the sun, snowy hike and ice-covered lakes in the shade.

In typical ‘go big or go home’ style, Ro & I started on the park’s ‘Cliffhanger’ trail, traversed 3 or 4 intersecting trails, until we worked our way completely around the reservoir. 22 miles — by far our longest hike to date. Not my choice really. 2 map misreads on my part — oops, still learning 🙂 And because of those misreads, we trail ran 4 miles of our downhill return — no rangers, no bodies (except maybe the femur bone Ro found) and the sun read approx 1 or 2pm. [No cell phone since Feb 15th so taken up reading sun positions to avoid sunset ‘in the wild’ disasters.]

Longest day out to date — no buffalo and visited a state [where] I will never choose to live — but 22 miles? ROCKSTAR hike!

Curt Gowdy State Park

: Early morning prep – we share the burritos, orange & water. Pup-Peroni is all Ro.

: Road trip!

: Wind farm in mighty windy Wyoming

: I no longer text and drive – but I do shoot pictures

: Curt Gowdy State Park – 24 miles west of Cheyenne, 24 miles east of Laramie

: 22 mile hike from Violin Trailhead

: Gotta do it just ’cause it’s there, right?

: Ready to do this thing

: Wait, I have ice on my foot (hazards of being a dog)

: Doesn’t count; snow over rushing water is not ice

: I wanna rock climb too!

: Dog with a bone – whose bone we don’t know

: Other side of the mountain – SNOW

: SUCCESS! Week 9: Ro walking on Ice

: Still climbing

: near Summit

: We share the same heart – to the top!

: Go home Ro – all downhill now

: Don’t let the sun fool ya…mighty cold here

: Ro’s fancy water-bowl for hikes (easy to find in my backpack)

: Asleep with some dead animal’s femur – on my couch. Argh!

hike #7: Brainard & Long Lake (near Ward CO)

Published February 25, 2012

Decided it was finally time – Ro’s 1^st high altitude hike!

Did my online research and settled on Lake Isabelle – part of Indian Peaks Wilderness. Although our Colorado sun evaporated precip from all local roads, ice and patchy snow fast became the norm on the climb to Brainard. Elevation increased past 8,000 ft and the snow deepened. Enter ‘Ward Colorado’ – the town that time forgot…er, shanty town. One road through town – snowmobile traffic on all dirt road offshoots. Additionally, saw more abandoned (roadside) trucks and campers than could be counted on 2 hands.

All roads close shortly past Ward, who knew? 🙁

5 miles in to Brainard trailhead, we saw our first sign prohibiting dogs from Nov-April. Seriously…after a 5 mile hike? Who’s gonna patrol today? Hmmm… And lucky for me I left my snowshoes safely stored in the front hall closet. Argh! That said – what a beautiful Colorado day! Snow, sunshine and brisk low-oxygen air – can’t help but smile. LOVE LOVE LOVE this place! 🙂

Brainard Lake, then Long Lake, then Lake Isabelle. Lake Isabelle….hmmm. The trail to Brainard was arduous but not impossible, thanks to ski tracks left by previous travelers. Brainard Lake 10,300 ft – a WOW moment!

Brief lunch break, then Ro & I start the trek to Long Lake. Literally FEET of snow ahead – where are those snowshoes? Frozen pants, short breaks to clear ice-build up on puppy’s paws and snowscaped parking lots. Blue diamond markers now also snow-covered — ranger ski tracks through the woods become our only point of reference.

Wind, cold, stillness. Completely alone on this hike.

Our hike ended not far past the last ranger tracks at Long Lake. Quick pose at Brainard to commemorate Ash’s 22^nd birthday – then homeward bound and 11 hours of solid sleep. Who needs a dog park?

: No what allowed? Argh. Wasn’t spelled out on protrails.com so…Rowan is exempt. PLUS we already hiked 5.2 miles to this point. Protrails didn’t account for closed roads in winter. Double-argh.