Between spring skiing, the summer race season and spending a lot more time on the mountain bike this year, I had somehow not hit a single new thirteener dating all the way back to October of last year. So now being into late-August it was time to finally get down to the San Juans and hike a few peaks. As Steve needed to be in Durango the following evening, I drove down and met him for dinner in Ridgway before we motored over to the Thistledown Campground above Ouray. Keep reading…
With the High Lonesome finally in the rearview and to kick off the month of August, Anna-Lisa, Jax and I headed out for a route in the Gores that’s sort of evolved into a bit of a local classic in the Snow Pass loop. We’ve made it an unofficial goal of ours to visit every named lake in Eagle County that can be reached via a trail, and this loop happens to collect three of them in two completely different drainages. Keep reading…
The Skyline Traverse above Boulder, CO is about as iconic of a trial running route as they come. The route collects the five major peaks which sit above The People’s Republic: South Boulder Peak, Bear Peak, Green Mountain, Flagstaff Mountain, and Mt. Sanitas. These five mountains cover the entire breadth of the city and the route takes an obvious and natural course to link up the full set. When you combine the city-wide presence of these 5 peaks plus the A++ trail system in the county’s open space, it is an all-too natural link up for a complete tour-de-Boulder. Read more…
For the past several years I’ve been working through a progression of mountain races, from marathon distance up to 100K, with the long-term goal in mind of giving a 100-miler a shot. And I figured if I were to invest all the time and effort necessary to run a 100-miler, I might as well pick a really cool one, even if it meant having to wait a few years to get in. Turns out I didn’t have to look very far from home, nor was it all that difficult to land on the High Lonesome 100 in the southern-Sawatch range. Keep reading…
