A week in the office; a week in the woods [9/16-9/24]

I've been happily unemployed and homeless since June... and luckily still have some savings left in the bank account. Floating around amongst a few friends' couches in Denver has been nice but it's getting boring/lazy... Fortunately(?) my old employers needed a substitute dispatcher for 6 days, so I'm back into the workforce as a productive member of society or something like that. I'd be working in the courier office in Boulder, and what better place to live than the National Forest outside of Nederland for the week?

I found a fantastic campsite a few hundred yards off singletrack not far from town and settled in for the week. It's a great life- wake up to the sunrise every morning, ride about 25minutes of trails on my way into town for a coffee at Happy Trails (my fave coffeeshop in the world) and catching the bus down to Boulder for office duties. After work it's back up the canyon on the bus for about an hour of trail riding, returning to camp with the aid of bike lights. The daylight is short nowadays, so my riding is pretty limited but still super fun.

sunrise from camp

September in the Rockies is my favorite time of year here: the air is crisp, the temps moderate, the aspens and oaks burning with vibrant fall colors. Every year I get a spur of motivation to make the most of the last few delicious days in the hills- and living in the midst of it in a tent for a week is just perfect.

my new neighbors

4 day Mini Tour: Denver > Longs > Ned > Boulder > Denver

My last big push physically before my 3 month summer tour begins- and more importantly I think, a trial run with the 'new' bike and my gear setup. Set up the bike last weekend, packed up on Wed/Thurs and I took a 'vacation' day Friday and hit the road at 7am headed west.

My agenda for the long weekend: bike tour to Longs Peak, hike to the summit of Longs, ride to Nederland and then find my 'puter seat in the courier office on Monday morning.

I elected to climb via Golden Gate Canyon, the most direct route onto the Peak To Peak HW. It is a long, long climb... a few years ago when I was "training" for my first Utah Tour, I tried to climb this road, sans gear. I had to surrender to bowing my head over my bars near the top of the long ascent. Yet today I, smugly, crushed it. 50lbs of gear and I made a steady snail's pace up into the upper edge of the Foothills. Not to brag, but all my training has really paid off! I used to think that working as a courier counted as training. False. Very false. Since early January, you could say I've been sorta focused on training, 5-6 days/wk... running, swimming, weights, yoga, some spin classes, a few weights/spin/yoga (what the hell is that?) and of course many long rides in the mountains made possible by the unseasonably warm and dry winter we had.

So after 16mi of rolling flats and 18mi of of climbs, I finally gained the Peak To Peak HW

From here I headed north on the P2P for ~50mi, undulating between 8K and 9.4Kft  through Nederland, Ward, Allenspark. Shortly prior to the Longs trailhead/camp turnoff, I stopped by Olive Ridge campground and met Roland & Margaret, a retired Swiss couple halfway through their year long RV tour from Buenos Aires to Alaska to NYC! They shared a beer (american Budweiser) as we chatted about my euro tour and art museums near Basel, their hometown.

 
Despite threatening rain clouds all afternoon, I arrived dry at the Longs Peak campground, still closed for the winter, around dusk. Some overnight storms brought rain, lightening and sleet and I packed up camp still encased in ice at 5:30am Saturday morning. 82mi and 9900ft gained my first day out with full gear.

Hit the 7.5mi (each way) Longs trail at 7am on foot and climbed above a beautiful inversion

The weather was spotty; snow flurries w/o accumulation all day. A few times I considered turning back but each time I'd stop to regroup, the clouds would start to break before I was ready to turn tail. And so I kept pushing up and ahead. Until I got through the boulder field and saw a tent, I'd been the only person hiking up this high today.

the "trail" through the boulder field en route to The Keyhole

I pushed through 'The Keyhole' and things started to get far more intense in terms of climbing, altitude and weather. The signs had warned that this was "not a hike" rather a "climb" and I finally began to understand their advice. The backside of The Keyhole was no joke; one wrong slip would send you sliding down into dire consequences!

The Keyhole

The red/yellow bullseye paint marks the "easiest" route to scramble beyond The Keyhole.

Traversed the west ridge and caught up to two Tennessean brothers while ascending "The Trough." Now that I wasn't alone up here in the dicey conditions, all three of us pushed onward through "The Notch" and across "The Narrows." The snow was picking up and starting to accumulate, and the warmer rock faces were beginning to freeze over. Things were getting messy and dangerous. We made it to the very last steep pitch before the Summit Ridge when one of the brothers looked ahead and murmured, "This is stupid."

We all agreed. One slip, which was increasingly likely, would lead to instant death as you cascaded off the cliffs below. We turned back at 13,900ft, just 350ft below the summit. Wise decision... wiser yet would have had us heading down much sooner. There were no epic views, no grand ski lines, no majestic summit. We were just experiencing it for what it was, but that was perhaps better than running into a trail traffic jam on a bluebird day with people streaming onto the summit.

13,906ft

  The return back to the Keyhole was harder than the climb up because the continuing snow/wind was covering our tracks as well as the painted route markers. And shit was getting slick! We progressed very slowly and cautiously with only a few scares; when the Keyhole came into view all 3 of us let out a howl of relief. The risk had not abated entirely, but the worst was behind us. I made haste down the mountain towards my bike/gear so I could ride back down to the Natl Forest campground 6mi south. The sky was still dropping flakes when I returned to the trailhead at 9400ft, but the storm was breaking up and I let out for the other campground where I knew I'd have the next day for the 'dryer cycle' aka Colorado sunshine!

As I dried, organized and hashed out my gear, I had the realization that this stuff, give or take a few items, will be my only worldly possessions for the next three months halfway around the world. I think I'm comfortable with this prospect... certainly wish I didn't have an apartment full of crap to deal with.

In the afternoon I hit the road again and headed south on the P2P HW for 35mi to camp in the National Forest near where I often go mountain biking. Weather squalls missed me again; 2 out of 3 ain't bad. In the early morning I packed up and rolled into Nederland for a morning coffee before jamming down the canyon to work dispatch duties in the courier office.

After 9 hours in the office, it was back to the road to ride home to Denver through the 'burbs. A very successful 4 day trek! About 175mi on the bike and almost 15mi of high alpine hiking for the long weekend.

sunset mountain biking Nederland; 1700ft gained

I was covering dispatching duties in the Boulder office again today; brought the mountain bike along and hopped on the bus up to Nederland after work. I squeezed in about 2.5hrs of trails in the convenient West Magnolia / High School trail system. Actually found some new trails I'd not explored before, which was fun.

The high country aspens are just beginning to send out their buds:

And eventually I found some leftover snow around 8700ft:

Rolled back through the town of Ned around 8pm with plenty of daylight left. Bombed down Boulder Canyon under the full "Super Moon" and treated myself to a post ride dinner of burger n beers at the Mountain Sun brew pub. What a way to spend a Friday night, yes?!?

East Portal snow hike & Frozen Dead Guy Days

April & I decided months ago that it's time to forge our own paths in life for the foreseeable future. It's a mutually positive decision and we both want to move ahead individually. We've had a lot of good treks together; this was something of an encore before she moves into her new apartment next weekend. As they say, it's all good.

We drove up past Rollinsville to the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel for a snow hike into the woods. We packed snowshoes but the trail was sufficiently packed to hike with our boots alone. The 6.2mi long Moffat Tunnel was completed in 1928 and allowed trains to pass beneath the Continental Divide; the trip was shortened from 4-8 hours to just 20 minutes via the tunnel, thus allowing safe, reliable and speedy passage to the West through Colorado. Today it's still used frequently by freight trains and the AMTRAK California Zephyr line.

There is access to lots of backcountry skiing and hiking from this area, although we were short on time and only hiked up to the west for about an hour before we had to turn back. Always nice to be out in the mountainous woods regardless.

Not far away in the town of Nederland was the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, which we'd wanted to check out for the past several years but always somehow missed. The legend goes that there is an old Norweigan man who believed in cryogenics, and he is frozen in a shed awaiting the science to reanimate him when the time is right. Translation: a weird old man inspired a good ol' winter mountain party. They host a slew of events like Coffin Races, Frozen Turkey Bowling, a Hearse Parade and live music, beer garden, etc. The festival turned out to be less fun that we'd hoped, but at least we went.

Coffin Race course & spectators (and medical support)

heaving a frozen turkey towards snowy bowling pins

It was a good day, although in hind sight it would've been more rewarding to spend a full day hiking up somewhere more remote rather than milling around the festival. But alas, we went and experienced and that was good. Time to move on, anyway.

Mountain biking outside Boulder

My dispatcher had a couple of days off, which meant that I was on office duty up in Boulder. It being my favorite time of year in the Foothills and emboldened by my recent return to mt. biking, I brought the fatty tire bike up both days and took advantage of being next to some great riding.

On Thursday, I cut out of the office a bit early to catch the 4:40pm bus up to Nederland and got in 2hrs of really fun trails in the West Magnolia zone. My most recent trail day up here ended up with me in the hospital, so it was a victory of sorts to revisit my old trail haunt that I've ridden so many times since moving to Boulder--- 8 years ago. Sadly I forgot to pack the camera, and that's especially sad because it was perhaps the most electric and vibrant neon aspen colors that I've ever seen in my life! Sections of these trails duck through full canopies of young aspens, and it felt like a Disneyland ride to pedal through a fully encompassing tunnel of screaming neon yellow.

Friday I pedaled out from the office up to the Batasso Loop just a couple miles up Boulder Canyon, eager to check out the newly built Benjamin Loop addition. Got a late start, rode slow, and found the new spur to be longer than I'd expected. Luckily I had packed my lights and ended up pedaling the last hour in the darkness. This was my first proper singletrack in pitch black with only a headlight, and it was kinda fun. Kinda nerve wracking as well....


Started off well enough with a nice sunset ride outside of town....

But the last hour turned into this....  (Boulder city lights way down below in the distance!)
Made it home safe and sound, very very carefully.... ~4mi in the pitch black, a mile or two on technical singletrack.

Bliss, followed by Disaster

Made my first trek of the season up to my beloved Nederland mountain bike trails on Saturday. 7am bus from Denver to Boulder, then the 8am bus up to Ned. I couldn't believe my eyes when I spied my old friend, former co-worker, bike racer extraordinaire, current Crested Butte resident and all around amazing girl Eszter also waiting for the Ned bus. She and (equally great) Chris were back on the Front Range for the weekend, and she was heading up to handily dominate the Single Speed USA event. She went off to race, I went off to ride, but we crossed paths a few times throughout the day and I eventually made my way to the race finish to say congrats and interlope with the lovely, wacky world of single-speed mt. bikers. Good times, great riding, wonderful folks. I was finally getting my mountain skills back, riding well both up and down and having a blast. 4hrs, 4000 vert ft climbing.

Then the disaster- back down in Boulder, riding back to catch the bus home via the bikepath. Distractedly looking over my shoulder, a momentary bit of carelessness, and  WHAM!!  I was picking myself up off the ground before I'd even realized that my handlebar had clipped a handrail and made my intimate acquaintance with the concrete path. What I quickly realized next was that my left elbow was not what it had been a few seconds earlier. Immediate swelling, a really funky feeling when bending it, and no strength to support myself with it. Not good.

Pedaled myself to the Boulder Emergency Room for evaluation and x-rays. My heart sunk when the nurse eventually walked back in with a right-to-the-point, "You need surgery." I'd broken the end of the olecranon, which is the "cup" part of the ball-and-socket joint.

broken and displaced 2cm:  fracture is visible directly above "20.0mm (P)"  (click photo to enlarge)

They put me in a splint and released me to follow up with my Kaiser Permanente insurance provider. I rode back to catch the bus to Denver, rode from the bus home. Pain was never bad, just felt like a bad bruise even without painkillers. Maybe that's a good sign?

Dad taught me to ride without training wheels when I was only 3 years old... I've spent the following 29 years riding year round, my primary hobby and my passion. For the past 11 years I've earned a meager but comfortable living as a bike messenger, making deliveries day in, day out, in any and every weather condition imaginable. 29 years, countless crashes- some pretty scary and severe, most mild and dumb. Today was only the third time I've ever needed medical attention from a bike wreck (the first, coincidentally, was for stitches on my right elbow when I was about 13.)

So now it's time to wait for an appointment at my Orthopedic Fracture Clinic in Denver.....