Trailer Trash

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Rocky Mountain Way (Trip, not race report) (Read 25 times)

XtremeTaper


    Spent the last week Rocky Mountain Way....

     

    Outside of connecting flights in the Denver airport, I've been to Colorado once in my life and that was in my younger days, just under 18 years of age, when I was heading out to California from Ohio with a group of high school friends for the summer. Well, summer for some, permanent relocation for others like me. It was the first time I'd ever seen real mountains and the wow factor was huge. We spent just one day in the mountains, camping in some obscure place in the high country next to a roaring cold river. I remember being voted as the "oldest" looking in the group when we needed to procure some rocky mountain Coors and blasting through I-70 the next day listening to "Rocky Mountain Way". The rest is a bit obscure for various reasons that are now legal in that state. So sort of fitting and cool that one of my high school friends that I made that journey with is now living in that state and I had time to meet up with him. Anyway, I saw a lot more of the state on this trip.

     

    Initially I had thought about doing a fall ultra again this year but started to lose my desire to slog my way through another 100, race a 50 or 100k, or anything like that. As the summer wore on I was running well and good mileage but just not too excited about the hassles of racing. I tentatively targeted a race in KY in early October, requested some time off,  but never signed up for the race itself. My trail running friend Angus proposed the idea of a road trip to CO after finding some cheap flights and it was pretty much a no brainer after that to go to a destination not to race but to run just for the sake of running and exploring. Angus found a pretty cool cabin/2BR house up in the mountains outside of Evergreen CO that turned out to be a great location.. lots of trails close by, mountain views, and away from the hustle and bustle of front range towns.

     

    Day 0 - Well, this ended up being an entire travel day due to a delayed departure and storms in the Denver area on arrival. I had hope to get a run in when we arrived in Colorado to keep my streak going but really if the running streak had been that important I would have gotten a few miles in the morning before we left. There was quite a scene on the flight as a young dude sitting next to Angus was trying to impress some chick next to him with card tricks. I swore at one point he was going to pull her card out of his trousers. Due to the storms in Denver we circled the airport for a while and eventually diverted to Colorado Springs to refuel. That chick about lost it when this happened.. she called someone, dropped a bunch of F-bombs that anyone nearby could hear, and shouted "This is the worse day ever". Sort of weird an uncalled for. Worst days are when your plane crashes or a loved one or pet gets injured or dies. A delay is just an inconvenience. Anyway, in our case the delay meant trying to find the cabin up in the mountains on a crazy rutted dirt road in darkness and fog. It worked out but man it didn't look good for awhile!

     

    Day 1 - We woke up to an inch of snow up at the cabin but the day was bright and sunny with temps forecast in the 50's. We decided our first run would be at Elk Meadow park, with a climb up to Bergen Peak. The summit here was about 9,700 feet with starting elevation maybe 7,600 or so. The funny thing about this run was the frickin' meadows. Here we had a very flat groomed trail and the first few miles we were running into the wind huffing and puffing like a couple of out of shape amateurs. I joked to Angus that the lady walking with the dog and the kid in the stroller was sure to pass us. This run actually started to get better once we started the climb up the mountain as we decided to hike most of the climb. Ha. Views from the top were outstanding. You could see the high country to the west, Denver and the plains out to the east. The run down Bergen Peak switch-backed hundreds of times it seems and finally we felt like runners again. There was an off-leash dog trail in this park which of course was a highlight for me. Lots of happy leashless dogs!

     

    Day 2 - Again we woke up to a dusting of snow in the mountains with similar sunny cool weather on tap. We chose Alderfer Park/Three Sisters for our next run. Like Elk Meadow, this was just a 15 minute drive or less from our cabin. No huge mountain here, but still a substantial climb of maybe 1,000 feet up to the top of Mt Evergreen (8,500 feet). Once again we huffed and puffed our way through the opening miles but felt better as the day/run wore on. Similar views here of the high country. We met a mountain biker on the top of the mountain. It was sort of odd. He reached the top then looked to settle down to sitting on the rocks to make phone calls and conduct business. We sort of joked about working on Mountain time. This was an interesting park to wander as after coming down from the mountain we had some nice single track and different areas with old cabins, open space, and the Three Sisters which is another smaller peak with several interesting rock formations to climb around and explore. Afterwards we had plenty of daylight left so took a scenic loop drive up into the high country through Fairplay (which I kept calling Fourplay) and the ritzy ski town of Breckenridge.

     

    Day 3 - I had plans to meet up with my HS buddy in Fort Collins for dinner so we decided to take a road trip to Boulder on the way for our run. We started on the baseline trail at the Boulder Mountain Park near the Flat Irons and headed up and up and up then up some more. About a 2,600 foot climb starting at 5,500 feet or so. Very steep, rocky, rooty, technical, especially during the first half of the climb. Heck there was even a ladder to climb up. Here I thought Boulder was a place with hilly groomed trails but this was as hard of a trail as I had seen. This was the Saddle Creek trail. We paused for awhile on the summit as it was quite a scene. Hikers, kids, dogs, families... sort of crowded.  We looped down the mountain on the Ranger and Gregory Canyon trails and these were more what I expected from Boulder. Smoother and good for running, though it did get a bit rockier towards the bottom of the canyon.

     

    Day 4 - Angus had found a post on letsrun by forumite fat_pumpkin and we found out he had moved to near Evergreen where we were staying. We ended up with an FE day with him and his family. We planned to go up to Mount Bierstadt and make a go to the summit of the 14k+ mountain and he generously offered to drive us up there. Finally up in the real high country that we had been staring at all week. The trail head for the climb started at an elevation over 11,000 feet. There were conflicting posts about the distance to the summit but I believe it was 3.5-4 miles at most. Funny thing about this run as both of us agreed at the start that it was the best we felt. Even at the crazy high altitude! But the trail started out downhill to flat so that was part of it.  This was definitely the epic hike/run of the trip with the huge climb, the elevation, the big high country mountain views. I felt fine with the elevation for the most part but had a couple of short minor dizzy spells halfway up that might have been real or in my head. A short paused cleared the issue. It was sort of fun seeing the little tiny people ahead of us during the climb (we caught a lot of them) and the lake at the bottom near the trailhead getting smaller and smaller. The last few hundred feet of the climb was sort of a boulder scramble and being a bit exposed heights freaky I almost bailed but was so close just scrambled up low and tried not to look to the right in a few places. Made it to the top a few minutes behind Angus and had a big smile on my face. It was the perfect capper to our trip. After negotiating the rocky top we were able to run down the mountain for the most part which was way too much fun.

     

    So there you have it... Rocky Mountain Way.. couldn't get much higher. Well, maybe 400 or more feet higher somewhere in that state.

     

    Photos... mostly in order... the Bierstadt (14k'r) ones are near the end: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BYuGbdo1YtXRA

    In dog beers, I've only had one.

    mtwarden


    running under the BigSky

      Good stuff!  While I certainly enjoy racing and the fact it keeps me motivated training, my true joy is running w/ a friend(s) in the backcountry.  Looks if I'm ever kicked out of Montana, I could always move to CO  

       

       

      2023 goal 2023 miles  √

      2022 goal- 2022 miles √

      2021 goal- 2021 miles √

       

      runtraildc


        Thanks for sharing, XT.  Sounds like a fantastic trip.

        DigDug2


          Running vacations are awesome - sounds like a lot of fun.

          Daydreamer1


            Thanks for posting. Sounds like it was a good trip.

            AT-runner


            Tim

              Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

               

              Totally agree with the living the adventure vs. running a race.

               

              Now we just need mtwarden to plan a trip for all of us trail runners who are tired or racing but love running in the backcountry.  I think we could get a few just from this site.  

              “Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway! 

              Queen of Nothing


              Sue

                Great trip Dave...thanks for sharing...I'm getting jealous reading all these vacation post!

                 05/13/23 Traverse City Trail Festival 25K

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