Glacier Gorge is about as iconic as it gets in Colorado. This sweeping cirque contains enough high peaks, lakes, trails, and precipices to serve as a front range ‘home base’ for a lifetime. It’s little wonder that this was the spot chosen long ago to serve as the beating heart of Rocky Mountain National Park. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been here. Encompassing anything from thrilling rock climbs up The Sharkstooth to family walks around Bear Lake, there’s enough variety to easily justify coming back time and time again. But in spite of all those trips, I still had a bit of unfinished business along the divide. Keep Reading…
A couple weeks ago I took a day off work looking for a big hike/run that would get me a good amount of mileage and vert ahead of the Telluride Mountain Run coming up at the end of August. After looking at a few different ideas I took a step back and realized there was no need to look any further than my own backyard…
For a long time I’d had an inclination to revisit Mt. Jackson (first and only other time I’d hiked it was 7 years ago), but instead of via the standard route from Beaver Creek, I figured why not do it as the ultimate backyard jaunt straight from my house in Eagle-Vail. Well, no time like the present I suppose as I’m not getting any younger. One of the cool things about the valley is that many of its trails intersect and can be linked together from virtually any starting point. You can more or less get anywhere in the valley via some combination of trails, the question just becomes how big of a day are you up for? Keep Reading….
One consistent thing about my biking ‘career’ is that it has almost always felt like a massive struggle. Contrary to most other sports (particularly those involving mountains and/or endurance), biking has never really felt natural. Or easy. Or consistently enjoyable. Or that I was ever any good at it. Over the past 20+ years I’ve discovered all kinds of novel ways to realize that me and biking simply aren’t an instinctive fit. I mean, just the inherent challenges of going for the a casual ride are seemingly endless. Keep Reading…
Crooked Gravel is part of the Ride Collective, which includes the classic Copper Triangle, a few races out in Grand Junction and then a tour in New Mexico called Enchanted Circle (which got cancelled this year due to construction projects). It was close to Denver and looked intriguing so I signed up. The race was a hard start at 8am and roughly 350 riders were participating in the 67-mile course. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intimidated at the start with a bunch of people elbow to elbow, a good portion of whom looked like they were “in it to win it”. My unofficial goal was to finish in under 5 hours. Read more…
