Bear Peak on Fire

Fuck











Stole this one from Twitter - a very cool time exposure



I hope it will be good to run Green by the weekend

Bear Peak

3rd summit of Bear (a 4th in snow fell 40 yards short). Also getting more comfortable with exposure which is good for doing a few 14ers this summer. Comfortable being relative...

Leaving NCAR





A fox (looks like Hud in the first pic) that wasn't scared of me





Butterfly



Summit marker



View



"Wow Chris - that's great. 50 yards of Class 3. You doing these next?"


(Peter Bakwin somewhere in the Tenmile range)


(Anton Krupicka somewhere on Long's)

Blue Lakes

Maureen and I went to Blue Lakes in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Not as awesome as last October with the clouds covering the peaks and the lake still frozen - but still great

Canadian Bad Seed

My old teammate Mike Brewer was in Colorado so he came by for a visit - and apparently to raid all my booze



It seems like a visit from an elite athlete (see his career stats above) would only help my training - but no. The first night the whisky and beer flowed and I didn't get to bed until midnight

The next day we cruised around the mountain towns of Western Boulder County and did get in a short hike up Sugarloaf Mountain





This is Arkansas Mountain Road - hard to tell but one of the sketchiest roads in the area (steep and narrow)





A bird flew by just as I took this one (bottom right)



We also got in a great run after sunset to the Royal Arch - but by 10pm Mike wanted to drink so the whisky and beer and so on was flowing once again and once again I didn't get to bed until midnight

I was able to convince Mike to do a run Friday up Green Mountain...



...but Friday night began with a bluegrass band downtown and ended with us staggering around somewhat incoherently at 2am

We headed to Estes Park Saturday to visit the Stanley Cup Hotel and did a 5-mile round-trip run on Long's Peak



Here is Mike trying to hit me with a snowball (just leaving his hand). That's not nice





Here is a view from Long's of a major fire west of Fort Collins that had just started and at this time has exploded to over 20,000 acres and is still out of control



Saturday night was his worst yet - glasses (not shots) of whisky and all beer in the house was drank - and at 2am Mike was crouching behind the couch on the patio trying to find shelter from the wind to use the lighter

Mike left today so tomorrow I can get back to a healthy life. He did bring a basket of Canadian gifts - so I suppose I can tolerate having to drink with him again

Raccoon Reunion

We've had a mom and 4 baby raccoons living in our flue the past 5 or 6 weeks. Early Monday (4:30am) we heard lots of noise - mom was moving the babies to a new den. They could barely walk

She was having a hard time getting them off the roof - they couldn't climb down so she had to carry them down one at a time. I'm not sure if she saw us watching or if she was frustrated and the sun was coming up but she left with 3 - leaving one on the roof

We hoped she was coming back but realized that was unlikely until the evening. With temps heading up to 100+ in the sun as well as chance of thunderstorms, got up on the roof to bring the baby down

There were two



Got them down and set up a nice place for them to stay warm - but not too hot. Here they are







Mom came back that night so all ended well

Switzerland Trail & Pennsylvania Gulch

Read about a loop where I could go down the historic Switzerland Trail 3.7 miles to the historic "town" of Sunset, head SW for 1.9 miles up Pennsylvania Gulch about 1,500' and then 4.3 miles back to Sugarloaf. I was happy that there is a shooting ban right now and would have solitude

Heading up Pennsylvania Gulch. Best I can tell this trail exists from the mining days

An unexpected strand of aspens

A surprising strecth of smooth road near the end of Pennsylvania Gulch (also known as County Road 95J) - better than most County Roads in Colorado

Heading back on the South Switzerland Trail (also known as Country Road 120J)

Back to Indian Peaks

We went to Buchanan Pass today for the 5 month season (until we buy snowshoes at least). Worried we would still run into deep snow on the trail at some point but all was good - the Middle Saint Vrain Creek was flowing fast with snow melt

The trail was great - it wasn't wet either except in a few spots

Lots of trees to hop over or under from winter windstorms

Views as great as ever