Fall has officially arrived in the Colorado high country. Days are getting noticeably shorter now, nights are chilling down and we’re past peak for fall colors with dustings of snow in the high alpine across the state. It’s always nice to get out around this time for those last few dry-ish peaks of the season, not knowing when things will definitively be snowed in for good. Steve was up for getting out as well, and so we decided to head to the West Elk Wilderness northwest of Gunnison to hike its namesake high point, West Elk Peak. Keep reading…
I think the only reasonable way to make yourself sign up for a 100 mile race is to do it in a moment full of impulse, peer pressure, and some sort of other life high. A bold declaration of “f*ck it” helps too. Or at least, that was my experience. When I signed up for the Bear 100 back in late 2021, it took all of these things to make me finally pull the trigger.
I’ve been a runner and a climber for pretty much all of my adult life. Over the past few years I have discovered the joy of combining the two together. What began with an eye opening first 50k at the 2018 Dirty 30 quickly evolved into a slew of follow up races, long mountain running days, and many, many hours on the trails. By my count, I had run a marathon or longer 19 times before doing the Bear. So, in many ways, I definitely felt like I was ready. But 100 miles sure felt different. Because it is. Keep Reading….
I think Ben and I changed plans 4 times for this trip, because of the vagaries of mountain weather forecasting, and barely finalized our itinerary before it was time to start it. This was the right weekend to visit Crested Butte – after wildflower season, after Labor Day, and before Leaf Peepery. Riding with me from Denver to meet Ben in Crested Butte was my adopted son, Carmine, who had turned 16 in the last couple of weeks.
The approach began very easily, as we proceeded up the excellent Copper Creek trail. After an hour, however, we had to find the place to leave it and nothing looked great – we just found a way up the steep forested slopes that overhung there road to get up to Queen’s Basin. After the trees thinned, we followed a dry watercourse to the alpine grassland of upper Queen’s Basin. Here it is from Ben’s view looking back and then mine a bit further up, scanning the way to White Rock Mountain. Keep reading…
It took me 4 ultras and around 5 years to realize that running just isn’t for me anymore. So I spent the rest of the summer of 2021 searching for a road bike. Not the most ideal time in history to be browsing the used bike market, but I wasn’t really in much of a hurry. One day after casually scrolling through Craigslist, I found a fleet of Lemonds on sale up in Loveland. At first, I thought it was a scam given there were so many available under $1,000. But I decided to give it a shot and made the voyage up north to check out a few in my size. I’ve always rode Treks growing up so I figured Lemond would ride similar. Plus they are classics with some sex appeal. The outfitter was “I Know a Guy Bicycles” and he runs his refurbished bike shop out of his garage. I tested out a 2006 Lemond “Alpe d’huez” and it fit like a glove so to speak. To be honest, I didn’t have much to compare to at the time, as I had been riding a steel REI urban commuter I had bought 10 years before, so I didn’t have anywhere to go but up. Keep reading…
