Grays and Torreys

On Sunday, I drove over to the Continental Divide to cross two more 14ers off my list. Grays and Torreys Peak are supposedly some of the easier ones to climb, but they still presented plenty of a physical challenge.

Since the trail is not very technical, plenty of dogs accompanied their owners on their trek. I was surprised to see a beagle on the trail. This should give Boomer, my parent's lazy beagle, some motivation.

The trail ascended Grays Peak first. I wasn't sure how much snow might remain on the Divide from last week's storm, but it had pretty much melted away. You can see the snow lines from the switchbacks on the left side. The weather was fantastic.

Gray's PeakMe on top of Gray's Peak.

A well-traveled trail linked the two peaks. There were alot of folks on these trails....much more than I have ever seen on any alpine trail...including Long's Peak. The crowds were kind of annoying, however there did seem to be alot of young girls hiking so that was a plus.

Torrey's Peak

This dog was pretty excited to be on top of Torreys.

I guess I was. There were alot of folks up on top which was pretty annoying.

Since the hike was pretty tame, I was pleased that the road to the trailhead provided some excitement. Immediately after I exited I-70, I turned on a forest service road which had very little maintenance. I drove about 0.25 mile and begun seeing cars parked along side the road. "Crap," I thought, "there must be a ton of people hiking up here." It turned out part of the road had been washed away and only 4x4 vehicles were able to pass. Everyone else had to hoof it several miles to the trailhead.

So for the first time without snow, I was required to switch on my four-wheel drive to get to my destination. I crawled my way through the washed out area and up the remaining rocky road. My Explorer seemed to survive alright. The parking lot had only 4x4 vehicles except for one toyota camry. I would have paid money to see them go up that road.

Driving through some water like the ol' Duke boys. (Not the washed out area)

A Land Cruiser negotiating the washed out area. Notice all the cars lined up. They shall not pass!

As always, I take alot of pictures, so if you would like to pretend you are hiking a couple of 14ers while you're at work, this link should do the trick.

http://picasaweb.google.com/N.Marshall.80/GraysAndTorreys

Another fun week

Here is a synopsis of my week's afterwork activities.

Monday...Played coed softball in Golden. The games are not too thrilling, but still fun. We all hung out after the game and had a beer.

Tuesday...I rode over to Red Rocks on my road bike. Riding is getting better, but my legs still feel the burn on all the Colorado hills. When I rode into the actual amphitheater, I was surprised how many folks were in there. Many people were running up and down the steps for exercise, as well as an organized group doing similar exercises (like Dog Days.)

Also, as I rode down Dinosaur Ridge, I tried to break my previous biking speed record of 42 mph, but could only get up to 37. I am going to have find a steeper hill. I want 50. Heck, I would like to videotape it as I ride, but that may result in a drastic loss of skin on my face.


I saw 9 deer as I was riding through the park. I kept looking around to try to get into double digits, but didn't find any more.

I did not get back to my apartment until almost dark, but I caught a great sunset.

Wednesday...I went hiking in the Mathew-Winters Open Space on a trail referred to as the "Hogback." The trail traverses the ridge that separates the Red Rocks park from Green Mountain. I had heard this was a tough mountain biking trail and was astonished by the rough terrain. I could not believe what the riders were undertaking. After seeing those folks bouncing over the large rocks, I need a bike with full suspension.


The hike was pretty cool, but I was shocked I didn't see any wildlife. A concert was getting ready to start over at Red Rocks.

Thursday...I packed up by mountain biking gear in my car and drove to Evergreen right after work. The trail was located in Elk Meadows Open Space. The trail was very steep, but not ridicuously technical like the previous day's bikepath. I was surprised I only saw 4 deer as I rode. Towards the top of the hill, the forest really blocked the sun's rays. It was getting very dark as I finally made it to the top of the hill. On the thrilling decent, my bike's seat started loosening. I had to ride the rest of the trail with my seat awkwardly tipped up. Have I mentioned that I need a new bike?

Friday... I went to the Colorado Rockies game with some coworkers. We stopped by a sports bar before the game and grabbed a few beers before heading into the park. The Rockies lost 8-5, but the weather was perfect for a Friday night game.

Saturday...I finally pulled the trigger and went to Wheat Ridge Cycle and purchased a new mountain bike. They were having their 35th anniversary and had some good sales. They did not have the size in the model I wanted, so I am forced to wait a week to pick it up. Here is my new ride.

I figure spending money on a decent bike should prevent me from making medical deductables in the future.

Another day in the mountains

I continued my trend of hiking on Saturday and biking on Sunday. Since it had rained so much, I decided on the easier looking area of Aldefer/Three Sisters, another Jefferson County open space. The trails were alot of fun, and luckily the weather was very pleasant. The high was probably around 60F.

I am celebrating my 6th week of living in Colorado. I am enjoying my new life tremendously.

August Snowmen

The weather forecast for the weekend called for alot of rain. I abandoned my plan to climb a couple of 14ers, especially after the previous weekend's constant cloudiness. When I left Lakewood in pouring rain, I figured I would just do alot of driving around, but thankfully the rain parted and I got a great hike in within the Rollins Pass area. I had heard great things about the area, and it certainly did not disappoint.

As I was driving toward Rollinsville, I could see that the Continental Divide had received some snow the night before. I didn't realize at the time the extent that I would come to understand this.

As I hiked along, I began noticing small pockets of snow remnants. As I gained additional elevation, these pockets slowly spread over the ground...and then the trail...and then started dropping from the trees (onto me!) as they melted away.

After being engulfed in the trees the majority of the hike, I finally emerged from the trees and into a grand scene.

Crater Lakes were an amazing destination, especially in this surreal scene.

Some marmots kept me company as I explored the snowy scene. They were very inquisitive of my presence. It was like they were trying to tell me, "Hey buddy, don't you know that a snowstorm is coming."

I had noticed clouds were pouring over the Continental Divide, so I left my marmot friends behind and moved on down the trail. Then the unfathomable occurred.

With my feet totally soaked and snow pelting my face, I decided I needed to do something I had never done previously. I built a snowman from freshly fallen snow....in August.

Downtown

After spending so much time exploring the mountains out west, I figured I should go check out what downtown Denver has to offer. I drove down by the Capitol building and walked around the area from there.



I didn't think Colorado's capitol was quite as great as the one in Topeka. The surrounding buildings and parks were much neater however. The outside of the mint was pretty lame...just looked like a warehouse (you would think they would have the money to fix it up a bit. )


Next up was the new convention center where the DNC (dry heaving) will be held. The giant bear outside the building is very cool. The building was designed by M&M. I want to design a bear someday.

Roar!

I knew a Rockies game was starting so I walked down to Lodo (Lower Downtown) to check out the crowd. They have a ton of fun sports bars in the area. As I was walking along, an older lady asked if I wanted a free ticket. I thought, "What the heck" and grabbed it from her. So rather than just seeing the outside of Coors Field (another M&M project), I got to go watch a game.



My seats were not outstanding or anything (not bad for free, of course.) I did have the advantage of being seated under the canopy since it began raining for a few innings.

Although the Rockies ended up losing to Randy Johnson and the Diamondbacks, my first outing at Coors Field was pretty neat. I probably watched the storm clouds more than the actual game. The shadows from the mountains really made the clouds look amazing.


Downtown was pretty cool, but I would take the mountains any day.

Lair o' the Bear

After doing a bunch of hiking on Saturday, I thought I should take it relatively easy on Sunday. I visited Lair o' the Bear Park, a public open space within Jefferson County, to do some mountain biking. The start of the trail runs along Bear Creek. I thought this rickety suspension bridge was pretty cool.

The trail climbed for many miles through the woods. I was hoping to see a bear, but the deer were so thick I about had to kick them off the trail.

...and another one.

At least this one knew to stay off the trail.

I was hoping I would be able to see the Continental Divide, but I don't think the area is high enough. The wooded area was still very scenic.

Here is a portion of the trail going uphill. I don't think I could hold the camera very well on the downhill section, especially when you get going around 25 mph. I think riding down the hill over the undulating terrain through the woods is probably the coolest thing I have done out here.

Three 14ers

I woke up at 3:30am on Saturday and drove just south of Breckenridge, CO. Three 14ers, Mt. Democrat, Mt. Lincoln, and Mt. Bross, are all within close proximity to each other and can be climbed together relatively easy.

The hike began uneventfully in the dark, however as lightness spread, clouds soon began rolling in. Quickly, I was engulfed in low lying clouds and could not see any of the surroundings. The clouds made the moutainside very mysterious. I could hear voices in the distances, but could not see the other hikers until they were right in front of me. The dogs totally freaked me out because they walked so quietly and just appeared without warning. Bad Dog!

I reached the summit of Mt. Democrat with the clouds continuing to block any views. The summit's name seemed appropriate...people blinded to their surroundings and complaining about things they can't change...like the weather. (Haha...let's see if that will get some more comments on my blog)

I hiked down to the saddle separating Mt. Democrat and Mt. Cameron. I saw a bunch of idiot kids, some with shorts on, that were hogging the trail. That is one nice thing about Class 3 hikes...keeps the riffraff out. The clouds appeared to be lifting as I reached the saddle, however, I believe it was only do to reducing my elevation. Here is a video of the scene.

I made way upward to Mt. Cameron and across the saddle to Mt. Lincoln, the 8th highest peak in Colorado. The clouds maintained their stranglehold on the mountain, so no views to be had.

As a group of us traversed over to Mt. Bross, we saw an unexpected sight on the side of a mountain hillside...a car. Apparently, the driver didn't believe in the "man" deciding where he could drive his vehicle, so he (probably she, Haha) decided to drive down a hiking trail. The car precariously clung to the slope. I told the guys we should flip it over and see how far it would roll (I'm guessing a good 1,000 feet) but couldn't get any other takers. I went over to the car and wiggled it a bit and got lectured by one of the other hikers. "Hey, you better not do that." Shut up, Beaver.

We reached Mt. Bross while still in the clouds and slowly descended down the west slope to the aptly named Kite Lake.

As I reached the trailhead, the clouds began lifting off the summit of Mt. Democrat. I was excited to finally see the mountain I climbed for the first time, but was irritated by the timing of it all.

I would say my favorite part of the trip was the 6 mile drive down the rugged road from the highway to Kite Lake. I pretended like my Explorer was a rally car and bounded down the road. Yehaw!

Although not seeing the views from any of the peaks was disappointing, there was still plenty of beauty to be seen.

More pics for Mom and Dad

http://picasaweb.google.com/N.Marshall.80/MtDemocratLincolnBross

Wildfire!

While I was driving back to work after grabbing some T-Bell for lunch (M&M's proximity to fast food is probably not a good thing), I noticed a lightning bolt shoot straight down near my apartment. I thought to myself that something just got zapped. Turns out something did.

That afternoon a coworker told me about a wildfire spreading over Green Mountain, my nearby mountain biking area. The fire was reported to be caused by lightning (which I'm guessing I saw first hand.)

The fire spread over much of the northeast side of the mountain. The above picture was taken from my parking lot.


Below is a pre-fire picture of the valley I rode through last week. Notice the deer.

Below is a picture of the same valley after the fire. As I was riding through there, I did not notice the sweet aroma of smoked venison, so I am guessing the deer got out.

All of the biking trails could clearly be seen. It was nice not having the brush scratching my legs as I rode. I would have rode up to the top to get a good overall accessment of the damage, but I heard some rumbling in the distance. I didn't want to test that ol' saying about lightning.

This houseowner probably got a little nervous.

Here is a news report about the fire on Black...I mean...Green Mountain.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=97092&provider=top