My hammies were tight enough from the squats yesterday that I decided to skip doing those today … while tempted to crack at them for 2 days in row, I’d probably bust something. I’ll come back at them tomorrow I hope.
In the afternoon, Bob and I headed down to Waterton Canyon to meet Amber and Brad … and Sheba.
We ran up the Colorado Trail a bit with her. I ran with Jack.
She seems like a real sturdy and able donk. Bob was rather smitten.
Short version: success, 9 Scouts, 8 adults, made the successful and happy trek from Kenosha Pass to Breck -- on what was the first significant backpacking trip for many of them.
Longer version: (more a quick technical report than anything about the grander nature of our trip) we arrived at Kenosha around 8:30 AM after leaving Broomfield a little after 7. We met our older crew there as they had started the trail two days before to get in an additional 18 or so miles, and do the section on the trail that is before (or after) this one. We restocked these guys up with items they had packaged up for us and we brought up.
TZ and her Dad went with KK and I and we got his car from the Lost Gulch region, and brought it back. TZ and her parents would help us immensely by doing a shuttle of the vehicles around from Kenosha to Breck. The rest of the crew had about an hour start on us, and KK and I started down the path to catch them. We caught up to them at Deadman Creek, or about 2 hours into our walk. I think this part of the hike – that is from Kenosha to Jefferson Creek is probably the best of this segment. Huge wonderful views to the west of the mountains, great vistas of South Park.
Shortly after six miles we set up camp near Jefferson Creek, not far from the CO Trail, and the West Jefferson Trail. There was some question as to whether we could camp here as we could be in the Jefferson Lake Recreation Area. There was no signs saying we couldn’t, and there was plenty of evidence that camping had occurred in this area before, so it was up in the air. One of the adults in our party talked to a ranger and we got a green light of sorts.
It rained a touch in the afternoon, but not bad. I got a light jog up the trail with JS (kid is getting strong) and then we settled in for the night. (6 backpacking miles, 4 running miles on the day)
I was using the Appy Trails Mark III tent. Good lightweight tent (1 lb, 2 ounces) but they don’t breathe great and so with the overnight rain, and being in the grass, there was a fair amount of condensation on the inside. They are probably better on pine beds or dirt. For me alone, in a Mark III – not an issue. For 2 smaller boys in a Mark III – not an issue. For the two adults who shared one, they were a bit wet. I also found myself coveting JH MSR Reactor stove as he had water cranked at a boil in 3 minutes while I fuddled with my 20 plus year old Whisperlite.
The next day we started on the trail. We were not exactly sure where we would end up. It depended on availability of water, campsites, the strength of the boys, the weather, etc. We ended up pressing up to Georgia Pass, getting there just before noon. Clouds were present but nothing of significance. Nonetheless, we high tailed it down just before 1PM.
Once over the pass, we were thinking it would be about another five miles to water – and we were right. All the way down to the Middle Fork of Swan Creek … down, down, down. The boys who had already put in a pretty big climb began to realize that down was not always easy, and after a total of eight miles, some of the spirits were starting to break. Thankfully all the snow that Bob and I encountered three weeks ago was COMPLETELY gone. That was rather amazing.
While some of the kids were a bit broken when we got to camp for the night, they bounced back quick with the packs off their backs, some food, some water and some RnR. (10.5 miles backpacking on the day, another 2.4 of running back and forth on Georgia for me as I shuttled back and forth between the front and back of our crew that had really stretched out)
We decided to keep day 3 light. There were a couple of reasons for this. First it gave the boys an easy day after a tough one. Second, it put us near where I thought we’d be anyway in pretrip planning – and we had planned a surprise “drop in” from one of the boys parents. He brought a variety of treats. This was the good news.
The bad news was that in the bulk of the otherwise down day, I got out and ran to check out the conditions of the next day’s hike. We were concerned about availability of water and campsites in this next area, and I had not recon’ed them previously. I headed down Tiger Road, got a cell signal to dial our treat drop in, get a call to TZ out to let her know all was okay, and then headed up the Horseshoe Dredge. I ran up to the Red Trail intersection, and confirmed that between our current camp and along the CO Trail, there was no water for the 9.2 mile stretch.
I got back to camp and we discussed various options, landing on one that would take our older Scouts on the longer trail up and over the ridge, and our younger Scouts along the lower road. This would get them about 3 miles less than the older guys but skip the vertical that seemed to crush them two days before.
I was fine with this. One of my primary goals with this trip was to “set the hook” with backpacking. The kids had seen the challenge of it, and I did not feel the need to break them over and over again – lest they may choose “this sucks, I will never do that again.” Some might have that feeling anyway I guess. On the day, 2.4 backpacking, 12.9 of running.
We did the split group plan on day 4, and rendezvous’d with the crew as expected near the confluence of the Horsehoe Dredge and CO Trail. After some scouting around, we found a suitable site and set up for the night.
I jogged the trail out to Breck to get a recon on what was up for us the next day, and to tie off with TZ on our pick up spot. 7.4 miles hiking, 5 and halfish of running.
I decided that a sleep under the stars was in order for me. The clouds later decided that it was going to rain off and on most of the night. I had wrapped my bag and pad in a ground cloth (painter’s drop cloth) which kept most the rain off me. But again,the condensation was rich and by morning, I was laying in about a half inch of water anyway. Nonetheless, my 20 plus year old EMS bag did fine … wet on the outside but I was dry inside. So a night under the clouds, in a puddle, with a bug net on over the face … ah well.
Our last day out, everyone was a touch wet with the rains from the night before so we were slow to break camp, as we dried stuff out. Colorado though … put it out and it dries. Can’t do that back east. It was a nice short walk out (3.6 miles) to the Gold Hill Trailhead. Our older crew had got 50 miles, our younger crew 30.
TZ was there with the cars. We took the Scouts up to the Silverthorne Rec Center for some showers and a quick swim and then gorged ourselves at Beau Jo’s Pizza for home.
Tons more to say about the whole wonderful nature of the trip, how the kids performed, how it was good to get out with Dad of like mind, how wonderful the terrain was, but I am pretty beat tonight. More on that to come, and maybe some pix that people took with actual camera’s versus the junk I took with the iphone. Lots of stuff to say but at some level, I was happy to not be the guy that brought Scouts into the wilderness to end up a headline in the news. ;)
Bullets of sort …
- left Broomfield around 6:30, got going off the pass around 8:10. I got Bob to agree to come along even though he is in the midst of wrecking himself everyday with some sort of endurance adventure. TZ and JZ came along, agreeing to take a shorter hike down to Jefferson Creek to meet up with the in-laws, and then pick us up in Breck later in the day.
- I guestimated about an 8 hour trip initially but told TZ we ought to be to Breck at 3:30 (or about 7:20)
- the first section of this segment is wonderfully gorgeous. It was sun coming up, the big views of South Park that I love and fresh legs and slightly downhill. Heaven for sure.
- We stepped off the CO trail at the Jefferson Loop. I decided I wanted to eye ball this section as I am thinking it is the route I would take with the Scouts in a few weeks. I am thinking that I’d take this trail as it keeps us closer to a water source than the regular CO trail up to Georgia Pass. In fact, in some areas, on the lower sections of it, it might be too much water as the trail runs as a mini stream itself.
- At about 11k feet, we hit snow. Not huge snow, but enough to throw us from 5-6 mile an hour easy pace to 1.5 mile an hour pace, stepping over and post holing through 4 foot mounds and looking for the trail. I was hopeful that we’d only encounter this on the east side of the pass, but that was not going to be the case (more below). We went from being ahead of our desired schedule to dramatically behind.
- Just as we hit the trail connection (West Jefferson back into the CO trail), boom – it started snowing. Not super hard, but enough for us to jacket up, and look back in time to see an angry black cloud coming from the east. It gave us a loud boom and we rolled away from the pass quickly.
- For about a half mile, or the section before tree line we had a nice ribbon of single track and found a nice pace again. But once we hit the trees, it was done: big snow mounds over and over and over hundreds of times. The trail did no descent in elevation, so there what snow there was seemed destined to be there. All of it has left me wondering if this is a route I can take the Scouts on for their first big backpacking trip. I guess there could be a huge melt in a few weeks, and it would be gone, but it is hard to imagine that as we were getting spit on with snow and some rain. I don’t want this to be an experience that breaks the kids of enjoying backpacking and I can see how wearing a 30-40 lb pack, coming over that all day would sour you. I was less than stoked.
- We finally started a real drop and then got to the Tiger Run Road and Swan Creek. We water’ed up. As we were getting ready to depart to essentially put the second half of the run to bed, I noticed smoke from a campsite. A campfire of course. But no one there. In fact nothing there except a campfire. Really? WTF? It was not just a warm bed of coals but instead a gnarled log smoking decently with some hot embers underneath. Bob and I used our water bottles and water bladder to look to soak the thing. It was ridiculous – the damn thing was 50 yards from the stream. While I doubt it would have raged up, who the hell does this stupid crap?
- At this point we had lost a lot of time due to the snow up, and probably snow down, and messing around putting out the campfire. The sky yelled angrily. We figured we had about 15 miles to finish this and only about 2.5 hoursto meet TZ in Breck. Not really enough time at trail pace. I could have had her wait, but we decided that heading down Tiger Road would be fine to finish this out.
- As we started it started to rain. Then snow. And then hail. Hard. Summer time in the Rockies baby. Bikers came by us one way. 2 minutes later they were hell bound back to get out of the weather. Down the road we plodded. The weather broke and then the pace went from 10 minute miles to 9. Then 8. Then 7 and almost instantly after that into the sixes. The paved road came to us and we kept churning. Can’t say I would have done that without Bob, and it hurt for a bit but it was fun.
- We hit Rte 9, cross checked with TZ as to where she was and started a jog south to Breck to meet her, finishing with a marathon of distance over 6 and quarter hours. I felt fine from a nutrition, lung perspective but the snow crunching along with Bob’s faster antics at the tail of the run left me feeling the effort in the legs. Good.
- Long ride back as 70 is a freaking mess on Sunday afternoons. Pizza and brew to finish out the night.
-72.1 on the week.
- side note, I realized on the way home that the last solstice (December), I did a big run with Bob then as well. And was highly supported by TZ. Lucky days for me indeed.
-REALLY ON THE DAMN FIRE?!
KZ was conversing with me about some of her recent events and she mentioned how she was checking out this “awesome band.”
“… and there was this great mosh pit!”
Me, eyebrow going up just slightly. “Most pit? How was that? They can get a bit rough.”
“Don’t worry Dad. It was a Christian Mosh Pit.”
Easy day with David C and the burros for six miles. Got to run with Spike, the World Champ from 2003 (I think) with Hal Walter. He reminds me quite a bit of Jack in his coloring and his consistent temperament. We ran around trails in Louisville. Folks don’t see burros often I guess, and we got a lot of looks, people snapping camera-phone shots and folks that wanted to find out what it was all about. “You race them? But you don’t ride them?”
Planning on doing the segment 6 of the Colorado Trail tomorrow (Kenosha to Breck). Will take it pretty slow and easy to recon the route for the boy’s upcoming backpacking trip. Will probably stick to the trail except I expect to divert to the West Jefferson Trail for the portion east of Georgia Pass, west of the Aspen Campgrounds.
Some pics over the last couple of days.
Spike, former World Champ with Hal.
Dave and Elroy (future world champ)
JZ at camp
