A weekend with Alice and Arapaho

Mt. Alice reflected in Lyon Lake

With 100+ degree temperatures looming in Fort Collins this past weekend, the mountains were calling.  Saturday started with a 4:30 am departure to Wild Basin in Rocky Mountain National Park where Katie and I met up with three of my favorite Special Idiots, Rob, Chris and Misty, and later with Pete and Young Nick to run a 19 mile alpine loop that included Ouzel Falls, Lion Lake, Thunder Lake and the 13,310' summit of Mount Alice.  It was a great day in the mountains with some great trail running, rock hopping, snow climbing, swimming and shoe skiing with some good friends and lots of laughs.  Wild Basin is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful parts of RMNP.  Wild flowers bloomed in abundance, the tundra was green, creeks and water falls flowed freely and the alpine lakes were ice cold and crystal clear.  The wild breathtaking beauty of this run was all the reassurance I needed that life is good.  I am thankful for good friends and wonderful escapes in the mountains.

sitting on top of Mt. Alice

The weekend only got better from there with dinner with Nora at Maza Kabob, a new Afghan restaurant in Fort Collins.  They have a great story and delicious food.  I recommend the Burani, an eggplant dish, and the Aashak, vegetable dumplings that can be ordered with a veggie sauce in place of ground beef if you prefer.

Sunday began with another sunrise departure from Fort Collins and a drive through Boulder and up past Nederland in to the Indian Peaks Wilderness via the Rainbow Lakes Trailhead.  Nora and I hiked through the trees and out to the tundra above Arapaho Glacier and scrambled to the top of South Arapaho Peak. From the top we were able to look out and see Winter Park, Longs Peak, Mt. Audubon, Mt. Evans, and a wide stretch of the Continental Divide.  It was a beautiful day and an amazing hike.  A stop at Oskar Blues in Lyons on the way home for pizza and beer topped off one of the best days I've had in a very long time.

South Arapaho Peak

Nora says, "Sure I'd ski that."  

Standing on the summit

A reclining view of Arapaho Glacier

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Round Up

A view of the summit                                                           Photo by Eric Lee

13 FCTRs showed up for a dark, cold and windy 5:30 am start at the Round Mounting Trailhead this morning.  Many more joined as the day went on and by mid morning the sun was out, the wind had quieted down, the birds were singing, flowers were blooming and it was an all around perfect day to be on the mountain running trails.  I ran 30 minutes faster than last year and felt about a thousand times better.  The climbing was still tough of course and the final push to the summit on lap 5 was a beast, but I never felt completely wasted.  I ran strong and steady on the descents and with the help of Mike and Shannon, I pushed negative splits on the final miles to make my sub 7:30 goal by 4 seconds.

It really was an all around great day running with so many good friends.  I am so thankful to have a group of amazing people to talk, laugh, play and suffer with on and off the trails.

After the breakthrough on Towers on Thursday and feeling so good on such a tough run today I am glad to say that my running finally seems to be going in the right direction.  Collegiate Peaks 50 is three weeks from today.  These last few days have given me a lot of confidence about what I can do.  Another big PR would be awesome. 

Coming back down from the 3 mile mark                          Photo by Eddie Metro

The Summit                                                                           Photo by Eric Lee

5 progressively longer climbs that add up to 9200' of vertical in 29 miles

GPS data

Hope-full

Less than two weeks until what is turning out to be the biggest race of my life and I am feeling pretty optimistic. On Friday, Mike and I ran Hope Pass from Twin Lakes to Winfield and back.  This was my first and only run on the LT100 course and it is arguably the crux of the race.  Twin Lakes is at mile 39.5 of the course and Winfield is the turn around at mile 50.  Between these two aid stations, is the high point of the course at almost 12,600 feet, Hope Pass.  After meeting a couple other runners (Eric and Kate) out to do the same run and a talk with the Sheriff, we found a way across the river without getting our feet wet and headed up the hill.  It was 6 miles and some 3200 feet of climbing up to the pass.  I admired the view, caught my breath and then headed down the other side.
Eric and Kate passed me on the very steep trail that took us to the dirt road leading to Winfield.  I felt good and ran well in to Winfield meeting up with Eric and Kate again and talked with Eric some about the course and he pointed out where the aid station would be set up.

I ran into Mike on the way back down the road.  He had made a side trip from the pass up Quail Mountain and was now just a couple minutes behind me.  I had a good run down the road back to the turn off to the trail back up to the pass.  The climb back up to the pass is brutal.  It is very steep climbing 2300+ feet in 2.5 miles. I hiked almost all of it and stopped once to fill and treat water.  I averaged 30 min/mile back up to the pass.  This part is going to be tough on race day.  I'm glad Kyle will be with me to keep me moving.  I met up with J.P. and his pacers close to the top and Eric and Kate again.  Mike came running up to the pass looking strong just a few minutes later and we all had a nice chat before starting the run back down.

I struggled some running down and Mike gave me some good pointers that helped some (keep feet pointed forward, trust the traction of the shoes).  I wish I could work out m downhill running because this is an area I could make up some significant time.  Mike hung back with me and we had a nice run down the hill.  The running got easier as we continued down the trail and by the bottom mile, I felt like I was running fairly well.  The last couple miles back to the car got tough, because I was feeling pretty spent from the day.  Total for the day was 22 miles in six and a half hours including stops.  The Garmin recorded 7000 feet of climbing which is pretty remarkable since the whole race has about 14,000 feet of climbing.  So half of the total vertical of this course happens in these 20 miles over and back on Hope.  The other 7000 feet is spread out over the other 80 miles.  

It was a good day and I feel that knowing this part of the course will be very helpful on race day.  This was my last long run before the race and I am confident that with a couple weeks of tapering, I will show up on race morning feeling fresh and ready to run.  

Kenosha Pass to Breckenridge

Ean and I have been talking for a while about how fun it would be to have a Fort Collins Trail Runner camping trip and run and after my trip on the CT last summer, I thought running part of the trail would be a great group run adventure.  Last month, Ean and I looked at the calendar, found a good date, decided on Segment 6 of the CT and sent out an email to the group:

Kenosha Pass to Breckenridge Trail Run

Ean and I are planning to make this happen on July 26.  The plan is to drive to Kenosha Pass on Monday July 25 and camp at the trailhead that night.  On Tuesday July 26, we'll break camp and I, along with anyone that wants to join me, will run segment 6 of the Colorado Trail from Kenosha, over Georgia Pass and down to the Goldhill trailhead in Breckenridge.  This is a 33 mile stretch with about 4500 feet of elevation gain and a lot of beautiful trail.  Meanwhile, Ean will drive to Breckenridge with anyone who would like to join her, park at the trailhead and run back to meet us.  We'll all regroup at the trailhead Tueday afternoon, get something to eat, and then head home.  Let me know if you're interested in joining us for this trip and we can start to work out details.  Nothing like summer on the trails in Colorado.

I immediately got several replies from interested runners.  This is one of the things I love about the group of people I am so privileged to run with - there are always people ready for some great adventure big or small.  Last week a few more wonderful people signed on to join the fun and on Monday afternoon we headed out to Kenosha Pass.

When Ean, Mary, Brian S. and I got to the campground, Brian W. and family, Celeste (fresh off 150+ miles of the Courage Classic Bike Tour) and Mindy (straight from running, road riding and mtn. biking all weekend) were already there.  The campground was pretty quiet (a benefit of camping on a Monday), it was cool and cloudy (a great relief after a week of 95+ degree weather in Fort Collins) and the air was filled with the delicious piny smell of the mountains.  After setting up our tent, we all went out for a short pre dinner walk back along Segment 5 of the CT, admired the wild flowers and read some of the railroad and mining history of the area.

photo by Mindy

We all enjoyed a camp dinner of pasta, fajitas, beer and s'mores around the campfire then headed off to sleep. 

We started out the day Tuesday with coffee and a healthy breakfast and hit the trail,

Pop Tarts (actually I think Mary is eating a banana)

photo by Ean

The run was beautiful and challenging.  The trail was in great shape and the CT markers are frequent enough to prevent getting lost.  The weather really couldn't have been better.  There were high clouds all day and just a bit of light rain.  The temps probably stayed in the 60's and maybe dipped down to 50 on the top of Georgia Pass.  I felt pretty good on the 6 mile, 2000' vertical feet climb up to the pass and Brian S. (who was celebrating his 29th birthday) and I kept up a pretty steady pace.  We made it to the top (about 12 miles in and an altitude of nearly 12,000 feet) in under two and half hours and stopped for a bit to enjoy the view.

Brian S. on the final approach to Georgia Pas

Taking in the view

After the pass, we had nearly 5 miles of nice downhill on sweeping switchbacks down to the Swan River.  There was a minor trail reroute here due to some major beetle kill logging but it was not a problem.  At mile 20 we hit the second and final big climb of the day.  It was over 1000' in under two miles so Brian and I opted to hike most of it.  It rained a bit as we ran along the top of the ridge.  I stopped and ate half my PB&J and thought about the final 13 miles into Breckenridge, glad that it was mostly downhill.  The next few miles were more sweeping downhill switchbacks and we moved along here pretty well despite having tired legs.  Brian and I were both running pretty low on water at this point having skipped past the last stream at the bottom of the climb, but we figured we could make it another couple miles and hoped to where we hoped we would find some water.  Thank goodness the day remained cool.

By mile 24-25 I was hoping/expecting to run into Ean and Mindy who had taken down the camp at Kenosha and driven around to the trailhead in Breck. and were running back to meet up with the rest of us.  Right around mile 26 there was Ean, running, skipping, practically flying down the trail towards us with a big smile and Mindy right behind. They gave us some water and the good news that we only had 6 miles to go and they gave me a quiet heads up to look for a green bag in a tree a couple miles up.  

I kept my eyes peeled and sure enough, right at mile 29, there was a bag hanging in the tree left by trail fairies for the birthday boy.  There was a pinwheel (which Ean later told me that she and Mindy had taken turns carrying because "it was just so fun") a carrot cake Cliff Bar (Brian had said carrot when asked earlier what kind of cake he would like) and a whole load of Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies.  We each ate a cream pie, filled our water at the nearby creek (the first water we'd seen in 9 miles) and headed out on the final 3 miles.

The trail ends with another steep switch-backed downhill that drops in to the Tiger Run RV resort and then crosses CO-9 onto the bike path and then in to the Goldhill Trailhead.

Brian S. and I thought the run would take us about 6 hours and Mary, Celeste and Brian W. thought they would take about 8 hours.  The altitude and the climbing (nearly 5000 feet of vertical) not to mention the miles (33 of them) took its toll on all of us and Brian and I took just over 7 hours and the rest of the crew came in a bit over 9 hours.  

Ean and Mindy ran a bit over 20 miles making this Ean's longest run ever.  It was a tough day, but everyone had a great time enjoying the scenery, the trails and the good company.  After we all regrouped at the trailhead, we drove up the road to Frisco and sat down to a celebratory meal at the Backcountry Brewery for some good food, good beer and lots of laughs.  It was a perfect day and we are already talking about the next FCTR camping, running adventure.  Whose up for a trip to the Grand Canyon in October?  But first there's 24 HoT and Pb-ville.

Brian looking very much alive as he crosses Deadman Creek

Ean and Celeste singing/running down the trail

Mary, Celeste and Brian

Loving life on her longest run ever!

GPS data

Lawn Lake

On my first trip to Lumpy Ridge two years ago, Kemp and I listened carefully to the directions on how to make it around the loop.  Well, maybe we didn't really listen that carefully, but we did hear the part about "you don't want to go to the Cow Creek Trailhead".  So when we got to this sign

we went left.  We continued on far a couple miles, steadily uphill wondering when we'd hit the rolling valley and the climb to Gem Lake that we'd been told about.  One other piece of info I remembered being told by a Lumpy veteran was that the elevation of the trail topped out just a bit over 9000 feet.  I started to think we might have made a wrong turn as the elevation on my Garmin hit 10,000.  So, we decided to turn around and head back to the trailhead, because we knew the others that we had come with would be waiting.  Completing the Lumpy Loop would have to wait for another day, but I also was curious about the "wrong" trail we had taken and looked it up to see that it continued on to Lawn Lake at 11,000 feet in the heart of the Mummy Range.  This seemed like a great run with a nice bit of climbing and some good close to home elevation and I tucked it away as a good run for another day.
Well, yesterday was that day and I went up to the Lumpy Trailhead with my wife and mother-in-law to run to Lawn Lake.

We got a reasonably early start and were on the trail by 6:30 am.  I had decided to take this run pretty easy since I am running the Silver Rush 50 this weekend, but we also had limited time and I really wanted to get out to the lake so I pushed out from the trailhead at a conservative yet steady pace.  It was a cool morning with some slightly ominous clouds off to the west and I hoped I could get out and back before any severe weather came in.

The plan with Ean and Jill was that we'd be back to the car within 5 hours.  I figured I could make it to the lake in that time and I knew it would be a bit quicker coming back so even if I took a little longer on the way out I should be fine.  I headed into RMNP and up the long climb to the junction where Kemp and I had made the wrong turn before and got there in just under and hour.  The trail towards Lawn Lake dropped down along a creek for a ways and passed the McGregor Mountain trail then started to climb pretty seriously for a couple miles.  Mile 7 climbed nearly 800 feet and then the trail topped out at just over 11,000 about 8.5 miles in.  It was beautiful up there surrounded by rocky peaks with water running down the trail though green meadows dotted with wildflowers.  There were some patches of snow, but the trail was mostly clear.

The last mile out to the lake was amazing dropping down to a raging creek and opening into a stunning high mountain bowl inside the Mummy Range.  I took a few pictures, marveled at the scenery, had something to eat and turned around to head back.

The run back felt great and I soon realized that even though I didn't leave Lawn Lake until 2:45 minutes had passed on the clock, I would have no problem making it back to the car in under 5 hours.  I ran in to Marie who on the trail, just back from her crewing adventures at Hardrock.  I caught up to Ean and Jill about a mile from the trailhead, they had stopped to wait for me, and we hiked back to the car together.

5 hours of running and hiking, 19 miles, 4249 feet of elevation gain and all of it between 7776 and 11,031 feet and I felt great.  This was a nice confidence boost after feeling pretty tired for the last few weeks and feeling really weak on the 20 mile run at altitude with Dan in Leadville a week and a half ago.  I am now looking forward to the Silver Rush race this weekend and I feel that with a few easy days for the rest of this week, I should be able to have a good run - maybe even go sub 10:00.  We'll see.


GPS Data