A Few Shots from Costa Rica

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Last month Anna-Lisa and I spent a week and a half in Costa Rica. It’s become habit for us to get out of the valley in November and head somewhere warm as a sort of summer encore before the long winter. This time around the trip also marked our 15 year wedding anniversary so we decided to go a bit more all-out than we usually do and splurge on a pair of nice hotels in two very different areas of the country. When it’s just the two of us, even in a tropical climate we try to get outside every day for some physical activity to try to offset the big dinners and Mai Tais. Not to mention it’s just a fun way to explore new areas. This trip was no different and we did a pretty good job of checking out as many trails as we could in the ten days we were there. Read more…

California Dreamin’ after a Snowy Spring

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I reached the trailhead from Big Pine in early afternoon, stowed my extra food in one of the bear boxes, and made the hike on the trail from the backpacker lot. This trail is more scenic than hiking the road, but I can’t think that it is necessarily any faster, as you have to gain maybe a couple hundred feet as the path winds across the hillside, only to drop it all to reach the creek, where the trail splits. On my way out, I took the road. Read more…

Dragon’s Back and Neighbors

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For the past several years Steve and I have kept up the tradition of heading down to the San Juans in October and picking off a couple peaks before the snow files. This year we were short on time but managed to get down to Lake City for two days of hiking, hitting “Sundog” Sunday afternoon and then a fun string Monday on 12ers Dragon’s Back and Dolly Varden Mountain before finishing off with a pair of 13ers to the east. It was a short, sweet trip, made worth it by the prime fall colors in the area and the exciting scrambling offered up by Dragon’s Back.

 

Dragon’s Back is a striking rock pinnacle that sits south of Blackwall Mountain, just east of a small tarn feeding into Cow Creek. It’s notable as one of the more interesting Colorado 12ers, being a stiff class 4 scramble via its easiest route with many more difficult options on other flanks of the peak. Steve had already climbed Dragon’s Back several years prior but enjoyed it enough for a repeat. I was just happy to have a fun scrambling challenge to look forward to on what was otherwise a fairly pedestrian day of hiking. Keep Reading….

Muddy Pass Gravel

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With summer dwindling, the Colonol and I wanted to get in a solid gravel ride. Ben wanted to see what this whole gravel bike craze was all about, so I lent him my Trek Domane for his virgin drop bar ride – might as well start out with a 57 mile, 5200 foot outing right? A 30 second test ride around his neighborhood in sandles the evening before was all he needed apparently. “I know how to ride a bike” was his justification as he sped through the street in fading light. Read more…