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

Mt. Meeker

On Sunday, I was invited to climb Mt. Meeker with Rich Christy, a fellow KDOT alum and my second cousin. It was great to have a hiking partner. I was very excited to finally take on the 2nd highest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park at 13,911 feet. It is one of my favorite peaks with its horizontal stratification and pronounced glacier carvings.

We began the hike at 5am, which required a 2:45am wake-up call for me. The hike was pretty demanding, but the views were well worth the effort. We ascended the Loft route, a Class 3 climb.

After 4.5 hours of intense hiking, we reached our goal. The top of Mt. Meeker was very exposed. Both side of the ridge fell off rapidly. Luckily, the wind was not bad and we enjoyed lunch on top.

While sitting on Mt. Meeker, we could view people standing on top of Long's Peak. We debated ascending Long's Peak from the Loft, but decided against it since we didn't know the exact route...and we were pretty dang tired already.

The views looking down at Chasm Lake, roughly 1500 feet below were spectacular.

Looking at the north face of Mt. Meeker with the visible glacial carvings.

The awesomeness of the massive east face of Long's Peak from Chasm Lake just cannot be captured adequately by pictures.

As always, I took way too many pictures. I tried to consolidate them, but I still had plenty left over. Take a gander if you so desire.

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