Time for snowshoeing

We headed out to the Bear Lake Trailhead on Wednesday morning (as in, LAST Wednesday morning - I know, we're BEHIND) with mostly gray skies with brief peeks of blue, fiercely gusty winds (try gusts up to 50mph) and brisk temps buffeting us.  Our hope was that we would gain some shelter from the wind once we trekked into the trees.  So we threw on the snowshoes and warm clothes and left the Bear Lake parking area and headed into the trees hoping for respite from the howling wind.

Kathleen at the trailhead

The plan for the day was to trek out past Bear Lake, around Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and end at the basin below Hallet Peak and Flattop Mountain where Emerald Lake sits.  Base snowpack at Bear was 20", so we knew we would have reasonably good conditions the whole way.  Pretty amazing, considering that the Beaver Meadows entrance station into Rocky Mountain National Park was virtually snow-free.  You would not think that "extra" 1700' of elevation would make that big a difference, but combine that with the ring of peaks along that basin, and the snow holds pretty well.

Heading up the windblown area below Nymph Lake

Dream Lake - supposedly the most photographed spot in RMNP

So we made our way up past Nymph Lake and next was Dream Lake.  The view here was breathtaking and it is no wonder this shows up in so many of the summer photos from the park.   Even frozen and covered in wind-scorched snow, it was stunning.  

Looking back from the far end of Dream Lake

Some deep snow between Dream and Emerald Lakes

We made our way up to Emerald, basically the end of the "trail" unless you are into winter mountaineering.   We're not.   We did run into some hardcore backcountry snowboarders that hiked up one of the couloirs above Emerald Lake and were carving their way down to Bear Lake - gnarly!  It was a nice snowshoe trip - 6 miles and plenty of snow.

"Shoes" - Crescent Moon Silver

The Alluvial Fan - Horseshoe Park

On the way out of the park, we stopped to check out the Alluvial Fan - remnants of a huge flood in 1982 which you can read about here. 

Ubiquitous Elk

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Quiet walk in the park

Thursday morning, we headed back up toward Bear Lake but stopped this time at the Glacier Gorge trailhead in order to snowshoe out to Mills Lake - highly recommended by one of the park rangers.  This was a bit longer destination and was back in a ways from the trailhead.  Once again the temperature was in the upper 20's at the 9500' trailhead and winds were 35 to 50 mph.  Unlike the previous day, there were a couple stretches of completely wind parched trail in the middle, more exposed section of trail, where we came close to unhitching the snowshoes for a bit.  Really odd when other sections were knee deep with the shoes.  It would snow off and on for much of this trip.

Mills Lake - look cold?

Mountain grandeur

That's a lot of ice....

One last look before heading back down

Stopped by the falls on the way down

Wind twisted spruce tree

For whatever reason, the twisted spruce trees, shaped by the howling winds coming down the mountains, reminded us of the Cypress trees along the coast of Monterey, California - different climate, but a kindred weather  intensity that hones the landscape into surreal forms.  We had another great day on the snowshoes - 7 miles and lots of "dermabrasion therapy" compliments of the wind and snow!!!  Happy Trails!

 "Shoes" - Crescent Moon Silver

More of the Rockies ... then Back Home!

Thursday Run at Fort Collins

We have been wanting to check out the Blue Sky Half Marathon course near Fort Collins, Colorado to see if we would be interested in running it next year, so we took a little drive down Big Thompson Canyon from Estes Park Thursday morning - might as well run it since we were in that neck of the woods.  We have not done any exploring near Fort Collins but know that there are hundreds of miles of trail waiting for our feet to cross them!

The Blue Sky course starts in Horsetooth Mountain Open Space and follows the Inlet Bay trail down to the intersection with the Blue Sky trail.  Blue Sky marks the transition into Devil's Backbone Open Space, where most of the race course lies.  Kathleen is ascending the ridge up onto the Blue Sky trail.

  Wide open spaces on Blue Sky!

After dropping from the ridge on Blue Sky, there is a steep descent into and across a drainage.  From the rise on the other side of the drainage, the course peels off onto the Indian Summer trail - quite aptly named on today's November run in the low 60's!  Most of the course is more desert than mountain, however, the Indian Summer loop reminded us a lot of the Hartmans Rocks area in Gunnison, Colorado - sagebrush landscape and lots of embedded and loose fist-sized rocks.  Don't wear racing flats to this event unless you like bruised metatarsals!  Here Steve is ascending Indian Summer.  This is the longest climb on the half course.

Kathleen rolling out on the Indian Summer climb!

At the base of Indian Summer, we caught on to Blue Sky farther down the drainage from where we peeled off to start climbing.  The marathon course deviates to the south here, but we started the trek back to the north.  At the trail junction, we crossed over and up the steep rise to gain the ridge on Blue Sky again and then headed back the way we started.  Steve is happy to be starting the gradual descent back toward Horsetooth.  We had a great time and think this was a nice course.  The scenery is a bit on the "bleak" side but it is sweet, narrow singletrack of high quality.  We can tell why they limit the racer count - there are maybe two spots where passes can easily be made once you enter the Blue Sky trail.  The course measured out at 13.27 miles - pretty good for laying out a half on all trails.  There was about 2000' of accumulated vertical, mellow by Colorado standards.

Shoes - Nike Structure Triax ESC

Friday Run at RMNP

We headed out to the Lower Beaver Meadows trailhead on Friday morning to grab one last run at Rocky Mountain National Park before heading home.  We were aiming to loop Beaver Meadows and Moraine Park but were not sure what to expect.  After the short clip out to Lower Beaver Meadows, we started ascending the ridge up and over into Moraine Park.  Kathleen is climbing in the pines here - from what we saw, elk use this trail as much as humans!

From the ridge, looking out to the Cub Lake drainage, above Moraine Park.

Steve cruising the Moraine Park trail, above the campground area.  There were long stretches of tight singletrack as seen here, combined with technical sections with lots of embedded boulders.  The Moraine was formed from glacial movement which was the cause for the large dumps of rocks in certain areas.  Once again, stellar weather for November - jackpot!

Kathleen cresting the ridge between Moraine Park and Upper Beaver Meadows.

Several of the 12'ers and 13'ers just to the west of Long's Peak - the wind was howling on the peaks!

 

Upper Beaver Meadows.  It was interesting to learn some of the natural history of this section.  The beavers are almost nonexistent here now.  The elk have all but de-forested the aspen in this valley, leaving nothing for the beavers.  The parks service is now fencing off remaining aspen stands to keep the elk out and eventually bring the beaver activity back to this area.   The elk are at approximately 180% capacity for what the herd should be here - definite population problem.

 

 Upper Beaver Meadows trail.

 

Steep climb over the ridge to Moraine Park.

Back down from Moraine Park, we caught the Lower Beaver Meadows trail and headed in for the day.  We were able to run an awesome 10.5 mile loop in spectacular scenery and once again take advantage of premium weather conditions for our run.  We fueled up on some great burritos at Ed's Cantina in Estes Park, got some go-juice at Starbucks, and headed for home with some great memories of our visit.

Shoes - Asics Trabuco

Back Home - Some Comfy Trails Sunday at Ute Valley

We're always in a little lag coming back home after a trip - kind of that "back to reality" funk.  However, we have such great trails to comfort ourselves with, we'll be just fine!  We hit the trails at Ute Valley Park Sunday to stretch the legs out after the travel and some great runs.  With trails like this, how could one tire of such a great urban gem of a park?

 

Our old friend - Pikes Peak - making an appearance through the pines!

 

Cruising through the rocky trails and enjoying the emerging sunshine after a cloudy, gray morning.  We had a blast getting back on the local trails after a week away - it was also fun reminiscing of the week behind and all the great memories we stored.  We called it a day after 9.5 miles and kicked up the feet for most of the day.  Happy Trails this week!!!

Shoes - K Brooks Cascadia

S - Asics Trabuco

Rocky Mountain High

Dropped in to Estes Park mid-week for a little battery recharge at the eastern portal to Rocky Mountain National Park. We were not sure what we would find on the trails here after last week's storm, even though they received a bit less snow than the Denver foothills. Above 7500', there is always a good chance that snow in November will last until June. We were, however, continuing with our weather bonanza as the remainder of the week was forecast in the 60's with sun - unbelievable Indian Summer for this late in the fall.

The signature park wildlife - BIG Elk!

Another of the park's frequently seen residents - Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep.

We were eyeballing a couple routes that are a bit lower in the park - Lumpy Ridge Loop was our first pick. On the northeastern corner of RMNP, Lumpy Ridge sits at the base of the Mummy Range and is made up of a bunch off odd granite ridges, giving it a "lumpy" appearance. These granite walls are popular climbing routes and we saw several folks hiking in to climb. The loop is formed by the Black Canyon, Cow Creek, and Gem Lake trails. We headed out on Black Canyon trail to ascend the west rim of the loop.
The front side of Black Canyon is south-facing, so it was clear sailing (or running!). As we ascended the western saddle, snow became intermittent along and in the trail but was passable. With steep pitches of 15% and higher, you quickly find yourself 1500' above the canyon floor and the snow takes a more stubborn hold on the trails. I always enjoy climbing through the snow in shorts!
After gaining the western saddle and dropping into the Cow Creek drainage, it quickly became apparent that the northern side of Lumpy would have to wait for another day. Steep descending and shin deep snow with no traction devices put an end to the thought of doing the whole loop. We'll be back...
One good thing about the back-track - 2.2 mile descent with1500' drop - bomb those quads! Kathleen slaloms through the pines, rocks, and roots on the way down.

A little snow time.

Western end of Lumpy Ridge.

Running out through the Black Canyon trail, much of which passes through the MacGregor Ranch. These folks had the foresight to deed the ranch (or large portions of it) to RMNP to spare it from development. We are thankful for that as it would be a drag to run this 10 years from now, lined with condos! Kudos to the MacGregor family.

The Book Area - climbing hotspot.

Kathleen running under the Twin Owls, near the junction with the Gem Lake trail.

A relatively short run with high scenic value, we finished with 8 miles and big smiles! Running under brilliant sunshine in the late fall, we had a fantastic day on the trails. We can't wait to come back and run the entire loop.

Shoes - Asics Trabuco