Buffalo Creek

Our original weekend plans had been to head up to Twin Lakes Friday night after work, catch a few winks in the Pilot, head into Aspen for a lope on the Government Trail, do some window shopping in downtown Aspen for the afternoon, head back over Independence Pass in the evening, get our zzz's overnight in the Pilot, again, do a scenic cruise along the shores of Turquoise Lake on Sunday morning, then head home. The weather forecast didn't look real stellar in the mountains for the weekend, so we decided to save our time, miles, and money for another time. Consequently, a change of plans . . .
We decided to head up to one of our all time favorite mountain bike areas - Buffalo Creek. This awesome network of trails is about an 80 minute drive from our house and is a mountain biker's paradise. We have thought it could potentially be a trail runner's paradise, also. With well over 50 miles of trail, the centerpiece for this gem is the Colorado Trail. Today we avoided the Colorado Trail proper due to its tendency to be a literal bike freeway on the weekends and stayed on the connecting trails to the north. We have done many epic 30 mile mountain bike rides here over the years - I think we may have even eeked out a 40 miler or two - and have been anxious to get a new look at the fabulous trails on foot. Today was our start.

***A little history, as you will see in the photos - This area has been scarred by several horrendous forest fires. The first major one was in '96 and nearly 12000 acres were burned across an 11 mile path. That was followed by mudslides that almost destroyed one of Denver's major watersheds. The area was also subject to fire in 2000 and again in 2002, when it was affected by the Hayman Fire - the largest in Colorado history. That fire burned 138,000 acres and 133 homes were lost. While it was spooky coming back to the charred forest after the fires, we now have an appreciation for the sometimes "lunar" landscape in parts of this area. It continues to be a wonderfully beautiful area in spite of the burn spots.
The first few miles are on a non-motorized two-track dirt road. Kathleen is enjoying the sound of the rushing Buffalo Creek. Most of the start is through a lush canyon. Parralleling the creek, the trees give way to this view below - showing the effects of the 1996 fire.
From the same photo vantage point above, Steve turned to snap the below pic of Kathleen at the start of the Gashouse/Baldy trail intersection. We get to head up the trail into the trees.

Steve cruising along the pristine Baldy Trail.

A shot of Kathleen a little farther up Baldy. Another burn area - notice the burn line up the hillside behind her.

Still climbing and back into the forest.

Slickrock, Baldy style. It looks flat but it is a fairly steep pitch.

Did we mention there are miles and miles of sinuous, flowing ribbons of pristine singletrack???!!!

. . . and more of the same with gorgeously blooming wildflowers. Trail eye candy!

A meadow along the Sandy Wash Trail.

Some of the lunar landscape singletrack. Still awesome.

Driving home with a view of the backside of Pikes Peak.

We ended the day with an awesome 14.5 mile loop. We had expected this area to be good trail running and we certainly weren't disappointed! We have been fortunate to mountain bike many areas over the years and are now having tons of fun re-exploring some of those areas on foot. Old trails are new again! Plus, we will be on the hunt for some new stash as well. Happy trails this week!

Shoes: S - Asics Gel Trabuco
K - Montrail Odyssey

RUN HAPPY!

...or Don't Run At All!

After another week of, shall we say, "atypical" summer weather, we decided to run where it is normally too hot to run right now - Pueblo Reservoir. In the background above, you can see the wonderful fresh coat of snow on Pikes Peak from yesterday afternoon's storm! The reservoir was hopping today with jet skis, boaters, and water skiers. Surprisingly, it was not hot yet there was little trail traffic - in 13 miles of trail, we saw 2 mountain bikers, 2 hikers, and 1 dog. (Oh and one super tiny rabbit, but more on that later...) We started our run at the marina today, instead of up on the mesa, and headed down the South Shore trail to get things rolling. It has been so green at home, we forgot that even with lots of rain, desert still looks like ... desert! It was great because the trails were not super dusty and the traction was probably a bit better than when we last ran here in March.
Kathleen is climbing one of the first hills out on South Shore, with the trail winding along behind and to the left of her. It was a bit overcast with a few peeks of sunshine, but the cloud cover probably helped out as we were pretty warm by the time we finished.
We stopped out on Pedro's Point overlooking the water - the long horizontal stripe just above waterline is the top of the dam and the water is pretty high for this late into June. We hope it stays that way!

Kathleen cruising along the Outer Limits trail.

I scared this poor little guy half to death by almost running over him! This rabbit was no more than the size of my fist and his little heart was beating at high rev when I stopped, though he did not try to move. We encouraged him to leave the trail so he did not get run over by a bike - they would never get stopped in time!

Kathleen running Outer Limits ... or is it the Serengeti?

We took a little trip out to the first overlook on the Voodoo trail - never done the loop yet but that will be on the list for this Fall. From the bottom of Outer Limits, Voodoo is an additional 11.2 mile loop according to our maps. It appears to be sweet singletrack just like all the other trails we have run here - nice!
We were enjoying the trails so much, before we knew it we were back to the South Shore area and heading in toward the marina. We are a bit torn - this is such an awesome trail running area, yet not many runners come here. At the same time, it is nice to not always share the trail with 1000 of your "closest friends" on a weekend day. So come down and explore these trails but only tell a person or two...
Crossing the stream and heading for home - it was a nice warm day at Pueblo Reservoir and we followed the directions on Kathleen's new lid - Run Happy. Hope you do the same this week!

Shoes - K Montrail Odyssey
S - Asics Trabuco

If you want to see some of the fine weather we have been having, here is a link to a video of Lance Armstrong and friends training today outside of Aspen, Colorado. BRRRRR!

Special Guest Appearance

We had the privilege to meet up with Coleen for a quick evening run at Garden of the Gods. We were also happy to meet her dad, Bob, a long time ultra runner, whose website we frequent - Colorado Springs Trails. Small world - turns out Kathleen knows one of his running buddies! Coleen is in Colorado doing a training block for Leadville 100.
Kathleen and Coleen on the Palmer Trail - we were getting rained on at this point but still having fun on the trails.

The girls running past the Siamese Twins arch.

After about 20 minutes of rain, the clouds moved out and we were able to finish the run in sunshine - sweet!

...Capped off by a nice rainbow.

Pikes Peak shrouded by clouds after the storm - it turned out to be a beautiful sunset. It was great to meet up with our favorite Kansas blogger and get in a nice run. It was also cool to meet Bob after reading his website so many times - and to top it off, he only lives a few miles from us! So we'll for sure be running into him more often now that we know who we're watching for. Good luck to Coleen as she prepares for Leadville 100 - we'll look forward to seeing you in August!
Happy Trails!