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.

"powder" day at Loveland Ski Area

The weather forecast called for 50 degrees and rainy in Denver today, worse in the mountains. Not exactly a promising outlook for an epic bike ride. I still had one lift ticket to Loveland to use this season so I drove up for a day on the slopes. Despite our crazy warm winter/spring this season, today could've passed for January- 30 degrees and snowing, with about 6" of new snow last night. The fresh fall covered up the ice and a lot of the rocks; conditions were the best I've skied all season.

When I was here two weeks ago, it could've been June. Today was a whole different world.

top of Lift #9 at 12,700ft

skiing at Loveland Resort

Yet another beautiful bluebird day here in Colorado so I woke up early, threw my ski gear in the car and drove up to Loveland. I still have a couple of lift tickets to use up before the snow melts, and that might be sooner than later this lousy snow season. I was still pretty fatigued from yesterday's big ride and spent more time basking in the sun than ripping up the slopes.

Views up at the top of Lift #9 (12,700ft) were great, but the lack of snow is startling.

looking southeast- I70 below and twin 14er peaks of Torrey's (L) and Gray's (R) standing tall and barren

Snow looks a little better off to the northwest, but still nothing like we're used to for April Fools Day

Despite the low snow, the skiing was still fun and the goofball energy that comes with spring skiing is fantastically amusing. Unbeknownst to me, it happened to be 80's Retro Day and lots of fun loving riders broke out their best thrift store skiwear. There was an 80's cover band and a fashion contest. And lots of good cheer in the air.

"Best Dressed" fashion contestants vying for a brand new snowboard

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.

skiing at Arapahoe Basin

So far it's been a lousy year for snowfall in the high country, which has skiers (and ski resorts) bummed out. Last year set records, and I spent the summer getting motivated to get back into skiing and scrounging up cheap used ski gear. Everything I've bought so far is intended for skiing in the backcountry (avoiding the resorts and hiking/skiing uphill under my own power, then skiing back down in the uncrowded wilderness.) But I first have to get some practice before I venture out into the more challenging terrain and conditions of the backcountry so I hit A-Basin today for some fun turns and lazy rides up the ski lifts.

looking west over the Montezuma Bowl towards the Ten Mile Range

the East Wall- still closed to skiers due to lack of snow

Had a pretty fun day, although I'd definitely prefer to be out in the peace and quiet of the wilderness, ascending with my legs and lungs rather than buying a lift ticket with everyone else. But I got about 13,400ft of vertical in 6 hours... and you can't do that on your own!

Denver's big blizzard

Finally got a big storm down here in the city. We've had a number of smaller storms this winter, but nothing major until now. We ended up with almost 2ft of fluffy snow. It started on Thursday afternoon and luckily for me I was scheduled to substitute for my dispatcher in the Boulder office on Friday. (The downside was having to leave the house at 5:45am in order to catch the first bus up to Boulder, figuring it could be a long commute.) So I spent a few hours on the bus but avoided biking all day in the mess.

A few shots of my yard after clearing the snow:

It kept on lightly snowing until late Saturday night, but the roads were fairly cleared up by the time I had to ride for work on Monday morning. The city sure is pretty!

Georgetown ice racing & snowshoeing Naylor Lake

Every other weekend in the winter months, there is a group of dedicated motorheads who race their 4x4's on the thick ice of Georgetown Reservoir along I-70 at about 8500ft. I'd heard of these events but finally made it up to spectate. What what a crazy event it is! We made it just in time for the "Cheater" Class of racing, which is basically the all-out customized purebred element of these guys. Most of them use old Jeep chassis retrofitted with incredibly suped-up V-8 engines powering tires sporting 1.5 inch spikes for traction as they race around a course of roughly eight turns. It's loud, it's powerful, it's excessive, and it's American for better or worse. I loved it, naturally.

 
After getting our fill of guttural powersports, we drove (in my stock 95 Civic) a ways up Guanella Pass and strapped on the snowshoes for a late afternoon hike up to the solitude of Naylor Lake.

I like the dichotomy of this trip to the mountains: the gluttonous excess of horsepower and pollution from the racers and then the utter quiet isolation of watching the sun set from ice at 11,000ft. We were literally the last people on the trail; didn't encounter another soul on the way up or down, and did the last half of the hike out to the trailhead with our headlamps guiding the way. It was sublime.