A couple of weeks ago I had the best visitor in town….my sister! While we were planning her visit, she let me know she wanted to see more of Colorado and to see it the way I have been seeing it, by hiking. We only had 5 days to visit and hike, so like a crazy person I planned aggressively, 4 hikes in those 5 days. The day she landed I picked her up fed her and drove her right to the trailhead here for a quick acclimatizing hike.
Spruce Mountain Trail (hike details here) is one of those good an easy hikes to take flatlanders to first. A solid 5.5 miles with a little bit of elevation gain with amazing views all up and down the front range.
When we pulled up and started getting ready to hike I noticed these 2 school buses slowing down at the entrance to the parking lot, for a second I thought maybe it was just dropping off kids after school but it was noon on a Thursday. Sure enough both buses unloaded at the parking lot entrance for a hike….our hike …….. right then. And then they were moving right up the trail ahead of us. Hiking with 100-ish kids seemed like it would be…..crowded.
It was actually not that bad, we needed to move more slowly at first anyway plus we got to talk to some of the teachers. The kids were finishing up their week of outdoor education and this hike was like their graduation. It made me wish I had grown up in Colorado just so I could have outdoor education as part of my school curriculum. Eventually they stopped and had lunch, when we walked past them they all cheered ….. it was kinda cool, cute and encouraging. What a great way to start our week of hiking, with our own cheering section helping us ring in our first hike.
It. Was. Awesome!!!!!
Outside of our fabulous hiking buddies, the day was beautiful and with some wind – perfect. We could see a lot of trail damage from all the flooding the week before, I mean the trail was still in good shape but there were huge crevices all over the place. We had great views of Pikes Peak and the front range but Long’s peak was hard to see because of the brown cloud that tends to sit over the front range. We could sort of see it but not capture it in a picture.
Mary did awesome and we kicked the trail’s butt, finishing in just 2 hours, an hour less than I had planned. Better yet, she loved the trail, the whole time oooohhhiiiinnnngggg and aaaahhhhiiiinnnngggg. It made the hike even more special for me! There is something about getting to share my love of Colorado with the most important people in my life this way. Hiking Rocks!
Hiking is awesome and makes everything ok for me, but sometimes even hiking can’t make reality better.
It has been a REALLY bad couple of weeks for me in areas I will never talk about here, but needless to say I made it out hiking every weekend and I haven’t gained any weight (I haven’t lost any either). In fact I had a guest hiker here this past weekend and we did 4 hikes in 5 days. It was a wonderful distraction for my current reality but unfortunately her departure made my current reality harder to face…like couldn’t get out of bed for a day hard to take….. but I fighting back.
Every day is a new one with new possibilities and I have 4 hikes to write about…. now 3 are repeaters but were completely different than any of the other times I had the pleasure of hiking them. One was totally new and AMAZING!
I miss telling you about my hikes and so am going to work hard to get all the details out here as quickly as I can and then I have a hike ready to go for this weekend…. so you know I have a lot to catch up on!
I don’t know if you have heard about it or not, but there has been some flooding in our beautiful state. When the rain started on Tuesday/Wednesday, all I thought was “yay! It will finally cool off around here.” Then Wednesday night when I was coming home from work, I started thinking, hmmm this has been pretty intense for quite some time.
Thursday morning was crazy, I woke up late for work and while getting ready I learned about all that was destroyed during the night . It is devastating! So many of the hikes I have written about here are now inaccessible and who knows how long it will be before they can be reached again and then if they will be in any condition to hike….. maybe for years.
The Green Space at the end of my block normally there is no water visible ….EVER
As I headed to work that morning I was actually a little scared at how much rain was coming down, how much water was sitting on the streets and how much was raging through drainage ditches along streets and neighborhoods. I live and work in one of the areas hard hit, but was fortunately spared any real damage or flooding near my home. My heart is aching for all those that have lost everything, homes and neighborhoods we would admire as we drove to our next trailhead are now completely gone. It is staggering.
Needless to say, I was also thinking about my original planned hike this weekend. It seems like the town it is closest too has not been destroyed or at least did not see enough of the flooding to be mentioned, but I know there are other towns not being mentioned that have been completely leveled. I was also hopeful that the destruction would not carry over into the weekend and then that kept getting extended and extended. In fact, it is Monday and most of the front range still has flood and flash flood warnings in effect.
Friday night we talked about what was smart to do and what we wanted to do, even the smart option had me questioning if we should even walk outside our door Saturday morning.
We were up bright and early Saturday morning and made our way over to Waterton Canyon( hike details here), I had a friend who lives close tell me that it had been pretty quiet in her neighborhood and that she didn’t think there were any flooding problems over there. I had decided that we would go there and if the trail looked bad we would turn around and head back home.
The parking lot was mostly empty, which is very unusual at 7AM on a Saturday morning but it wasn’t closed. As we were walking along the path, at an excellent pace I might add, we saw some debris piles from obvious issues earlier in the week but otherwise it was in great condition. Before we knew it, we had gone past our furthest point previously hiked and so we decided to try for the Strontia Springs.
What I once thought was the big damReflection
This is when I learned that everything I knew about this hike was a little wrong…. I guess I thought the trail actually went to the springs and that it ended in this picturesque setting that was super beautiful with the Colorado trail a beacon of opportunity taunting you near the springs. What we found was that the Big Dam everyone asks if you made it to, is in fact at the end and is crazy big….like Hoover Dam big! Then it goes into some residential housing and up a little ways is the Colorado trial.
Seriously.Huge.Dam.
I honestly almost missed the super huge dam because I was looking at the trial map just before we turned around, trying to not be nosy (totally not succeeding) while 2 bikers were talking about how crazy the amount of water coming out of the Dam was. I was like, huh? Walked over to the construction area and there is was… ENORMOUS! I mean how did I not know it was that big and here of all places! One of the bikers pulled up next to me and said (clearly he didn’t notice me ease dropping a few minutes earlier) that normally the water is only flowing out towards the bottom in a small jet no big deal, he had never actually seen the top release ducts used like they were on Saturday.
The sign at the end
In the end we did the entire 12.6 miles up and back at Waterton canyon and even jogged a couple of miles down so we finished in just 3.5 h ours. The day was insanely beautiful, if a little humid and we had it mostly to ourselves on a perfectly normal-seeming day. I was so glad we chanced it and headed out when we could.
The view on the way back down
We got home just in time for the next wave of insanity to begin, which started out with an awesome hail storm that flooded our backyard in just 3 minutes as we watched with bated breath…. praying “please don’t go over the edge into the window well”….. We totally lucked out!
Hail starting at my house
Find out how to help those affected by floods in Colorado, including ways to donate, what to donate and locations of donation centers, through our local NBC affiliate : www.9news.com
I am once again thrilled with this weigh in….not because I lost a stellar amount of weight but because I got my monthly visitor on Thursday which means that despite the typical weight gain( usually 2+lbs) with my monthly visitor I still managed to drop a very little bit of weight. A great accomplishment for me.
I was so torn this week, I mean seriously it was super tough. Not only were we in one of the hard hit areas for flash flooding with biblical amounts of rain( weather persons assessment not mine), a lot of our favorite hikes and the routes to get to them were destroyed….. not to mention all the people lucky enough to live in those areas struggling to make it out of them.
I am glad to say we are safe and have lost nothing but I am so sad for what everyone in Boulder, the Northwest Front range and all those beautiful mountain towns for what they lost. Every time I saw a favorite spot destroyed I cried more.
I am lucky enough to live here in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, but it is also one of the most fragile parts and it is the front line of global warming.
I better get my butt in gear and start seeing as much as I can!
I am both surprised and thrilled with this loss… the week was surprisingly hard but I think that the extra hike on Monday really helped me balance all the weirdness that happened throughout the rest of the week. Tuesday Morning I couldn’t get up early and work out, not for lack of desire but I slept through my alarm and then on Wednesday our power went out in the middle of the night lasting most of the day so no workout in the morning again then I ate something bad for lunch which landed me in bed the rest of the evening. Finally Thursday, I had to get up super early for an appointment and so my elliptical waited until after work. I stayed on track with calories in and getting in my other workouts but I know the hike on Monday made all the difference! It makes me wish I lived just a little closer to some of my favorite hikes to do after work during the week. Ahh well maybe one day!
I can tell my love of hiking is not lessening but in fact growing into a lifetime of activity, it will be part of my future planning for sure! Plus look where I live, talk about inspiring!
When I have a long weekend ahead all I can think about is how I get to hike 2 times in the course of the weekend. A hike we haven’t visited forever was the Rawhide Trail ( Click the link for hike details) at White Ranch Park. It is now an easy hike for us but it is a favorite one and I wanted to test out my new activity of jogging part of the trail.
I will admit that the original plan had been to do this hike on Sunday, with Monday left as a day to clean the house, maybe get some Halloween decorations up ( yes Halloween…..I am a Halloween lovin super freak) and possibly veg out on some Netflix. However I over indulged on Saturday during our post James Peak Summit liquid celebration and I woke up Sunday with the worst hangover I have had in almost 18 months! Needless to say, I was not hiking anything on Sunday, but I was determined to get my second hike in and so bright and early Monday morning I hit the Rawhide trail.
It was great to see the trial again, the last time we had hiked was when my nieces were here 6 months ago. The pace we set was aggressive, we really pushed ourselves to move as fast as we could, in fact I was surprised when we got to almost halfway in just 45 minutes and that was with a lot of climbing up. Then we started jogging all the descents, it was a great way to challenge myself. Before I knew it we were back at the parking lot in just an hour and a half.
The first time I did this hike, it took me over 3 hours and I was a wreck at the end, thinking that harder hikes were so far out of reach. To be back here 18 months later crushing it the way we did on Monday….well it was pretty awesome!
These short weeks are usually torture but I have been feeling pretty awesome about how far I have come in my journey. I am so excited and nervous about our hike this weekend! We are getting up at 1:30 ish in hopes of getting to the summit by sunrise! Wish us luck!!
James Peak has been haunting me since we had to turn around with the summit in view because of lightning. I had figured doing a 14er over a long weekend would make more sense but I struggled a little bit at 12,550Ft last weekend so I decided to put it off one more week and worked this repeater/failed summit attempt into our schedule.
Here are the details of the first time we hiked James Peak.
We got a very early start ( 6:30AM) and so pretty much had the trail to ourselves. It was a perfect morning, cool with a slight breeze to keep me from sweating too much and almost no clouds in the sky. I just missed sunrise itself but the sky was coming alive with sun while it set the mountains on fire. It was awesome.
The shocking part for me was seeing how dramatically different the Glacier itself was, like a third of the size it was just 2 months ago. We ended up walking up most of the way on the glacier rubble and only had to do a short stretch on the remaining snow. Here are a couple of pictures
2 months ago the snow came up to where I was standing taking this pictureNo more glacier here just rubble and some running water from what is melting above
The other amazing part of nature here was how vast all the flowers were throughout the glacier rubble given that 2 months ago it was all under snow and now these were so robust!
This bush was covered in butterflies and bumble bees….also growing in Glacier Rubble
The glacier wasn’t the only part of the hike alive with flowers, the flats had these beauties everywhere and they stretched up to the summit climb.
I will admit I was not feeling so hot almost the whole climb up the glacier and once on the flats, I was pretty certain I was going to be sick. I slowed it down and tried to drink as much water as I could and as we moved along the flats I started to feel better, until we hit the summit climb. I can tell how bad I was feeling in that I completely flaked taking any pictures of it but we did keep going and little by little I started to get it under control.
We made it past our turnaround point from the last attempt with the skies looking beautiful and the wind stopping almost completely. There are some steep parts through the switchbacks up but really it wasn’t too bad and before we knew it we had crested the ridge to the summit.
me on the summitThe Summit views looking NorthSummit facing East and a little North
At the top we had it mostly to ourselves and one other couple, who were a wealth of hiking information. Before I knew it, we had been talking to them for almost an hour! We quickly got some pictures and then headed down as the summit started to get more crowded. On the way down we saw this gentleman come up with his Lamas or alpacas, who were clearly very well-loved, I think he was a continental divide trail through hiker. How cool to through hike with these companions!
This hike was amazing, getting to the summit and see for miles was the best part of my week! I also had great views of Grays and Torrey’s, which I think will be our next 14ers, we had amazing views of them throughout the hike.
As always, I hope if you find yourself out this way, you can check out the hike it is worth every step up! Now for some of our favorite pictures of the day.
to show how quickly things change weather wise…on the way to James peak beautiful blue skyLooking back on our way down from the same view-point we got to the car as it started to down pour
I guess after losing that weight I gained back, I can’t be too surprised by not losing anything this week. I am also not all that concerned, it was a crazy week at work and I am just glad I didn’t eat my stress which I normally would do. I kept to working out on my normal schedule and just dealt with it all. That in itself is a huge win and so I continue on.
More importantly we had a great hike today and with the long weekend I am planning a second hike…likely a repeater but there is something about being able to get out twice in the course of a weekend that always makes me feel good. We also met the nicest people at the summit, best part about starting early the huge hike lovers are always out and this couple had so many good suggestions! I was a huge dork putting everything they suggested into my iPhone for our future. Honestly, they have been doing what we are doing for almost 15 years and I completely decided I want to be where they are in 5 years. It was just exciting talking to them and learning about all they have done and how they have done it! Great people to meet as things start to cool off.
I am also starting to realize that I may not meet my goal of losing 90 lbs by my 40th birthday, at least not at the rate I am going. I know I could do a more drastic approach but the more I think about it, the more I realize I am ok with progress this far. It took me 10 years to put this weight on and while I would love to be a size 12 tomorrow, I am actually fine with how I am losing the weight. Right now the most important part is that this has really started feeling like a lifestyle and not a diet. I feel like I could live this way…..
Can’t wait to get all the hike details together to share with you all…. it was such a great day!!!!
Highest Elevation: 12,550 Feet ( total elevation gain approx. 2200 feet)
Trail Length: 9.2 miles, my pedometer said we got around 10.5 miles but we did venture around quite a bit, It took us about 5.5 hours total
Trail Uses: Hiker only
Degree of DIfficulty: Moderate difficult given distance & altitude
Bathrooms: At every parking lot in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area and beautifully taken care of…. Best Vault toilets we have used to date
Pets: Yes, dogs on leash only, there is a well posted $125 fine if your dog is not on a leash and lots of rangers around to enforce it. The first trail ever where all the dogs were actually leashed.
Fees: Yes – $10 for 3 days in a car, $1 for a person walking or biking in and $55 for Season pass ( May- Nov).
I have had this hike on my wish list for some time, its elevation is ideal for getting back up to 14K but with our snowy spring it was taken off my getting ready list in April. Since I have found myself in this readjusting phase in hopes of getting in one more 14er before the season is done, I figured it was the perfect weekend to check it out. I can tell you it did not disappoint.
We got to The Brainard Lake Recreation area right at 7AM and honestly it was almost too late to secure a parking spot, we got one of the last 2 in the parking lot at the trailhead. This park is unique in that you can only park in designated parking and so lots of people were hiking to the trailhead from other parking lots in the recreation area. Make sure when you go, you go early, as we were driving out at 1PM almost every parking lot was full except the last one by the entrance. There is so much more to the park then these set of trails and it made me want to plan a May- November where I get the annual pass and just explore every hike in the park.
Plus I saw my first moose! It was huge, I mean like gianormous, and like every other idiot that sees something for the first time I stopped right next to it so we could get a picture and then later realized how lucky I was that the moose was not too put off about it.
Moose out the back window
Getting on the path was easy, it was really well-marked throughout and we started moving through pretty quickly. I had read that it is worth it to take the .2 mile detour and see the views from Long Lake right at the beginning, great advice! It was stunning even with our overcast skies. If you find yourself on this hike, go over and see the view from Long Lake.
Start of the hike.2 miles on the Jean Lunning Trail to see the views from Long Lake
From here we got back on Pawnee Pass trail and enjoyed the lovely surroundings, which was thick with Pine, fir and Englemann Spruce it was so beautiful and serene. Some the of trees were so huge around, well the ones that were downed seemed like the largest ones I have seen outside the Redwood forest. I am also falling in love with old tree stumps, this part of the trail was like a gallery of tree stumps in their beautiful stages of decay or deterioration.
Get back on the Pawnee Pass TrailTrail Conditions along Long Lake to Isabelle Lake
At 2 miles in we came up to Lake Isabelle and the Isabelle Glacier Trail. The views from the trailhead of the Indian Peaks surrounding Lake Isabelle were, no surprise here, amazing! but the lake itself was disappointing. I didn’t find out the details, it did look like they were certainly doing some work on the lake and I don’t know if that meant they had to drain it or what so it was a little sad-looking when all the other lakes we passed looked pretty good.
We took the trail break up to the Pawnee Pass and the next 1.1 miles is probably the hardest of the whole hike as we climbed up a series of switchbacks to a natural Bench above Lake Isabelle. It was perfect… and windy. As we got to the last little climb the trail does get close to the rocky cliffs above Lake Isabelle so note to those who are uncomfortable heights, this is a tight spot.
There are a couple of water crossings on this partClimbing to the Bench
Next, is a little respite as we walked across the bench to the final climb up to the pass. It looked really tough but as we started the next series of switchbacks up, it was surprisingly easy and the actual grade was not that bad, the trail was beautifully planned out. Before we knew it we had made it to the pass….. and then our teeth started chattering. Even though it was in the 90’s in Denver, it felt like a very brisk and windy 40 at 12,550ft, we were freezing and were so glad we over prepare for every single hike with winter gear in our packs. I guess the mountains are moving to Fall even though we are still nice an toasty at 5600ft.
Looking up at the last climb to the pass
At the pass you can easily take the trail and summit Pawnee Peak ( 12,943Ft) but we didn’t. We were worried about the clouds coming up and the wind was REALLY strong, but walking North-Northwest from the pass sign gave us amazing views of everything on the side of the pass. It was hard to head back down after just 30 minutes but we did, I know that we will do this hike again and next time summit Pawnee peak.
The trail past the Pawnee Pass sign to Pawnee Peak and more
Pawnee PeakPeople on Pawnee PeakLooking back South East from the Pass signSeeing the trail from above
I am starting to look at trails differently because there is so much more we walk away from each time we head back. I can tell that the next logical step for me is backpacking to get days of views and see the total picture. Each hike ends too quickly and even though I know I can’t go further, I want too.
It was cool to see where we were going at Long Lake and then to be totally surprised when we got there at how different the top looked. I mean I know we do it all the time but this hike was different because it was so laid out in a series of steps that led to a beautiful surprise finish. I hope one day you check this hike out, like so many hikes in Colorado, it is pretty amazing! After the directions to the hike are my favorite pictures.
Directions: Take 36 through Boulder and from Broadway( north-end of Boulder) continue 4.8 miles to Left Hand Canyon Rd( 94) turn Left. At 5.2 miles you will need to turn left to stay on Left Hand Canyon Rd. Stay on this for 11.6 miles through the town of Ward to the Peak to Peak Highway ( Colorado 72). Turn right onto 72 and then Immediately left into the Brainard Lake Recreation Area.
Looking North towards Monarch LakeViews at the Bench above Lake IsabelleMore Bench views
It has been a weird and crazy couple of weeks, as a result I have been very neglectful to my blog so I am going to catch it up with this combined post.
I have been fighting really hard to not give in to my bad eating habits and it paid off….I managed to take off the weight I gained back and so I am at 57.4 Lbs lost, 32.6 left to go. Yay! I just focused on working out and staying within my daily calorie allotment.
My hike last weekend ended up being a repeater. I woke up at 4AM with every intention of doing a new hike but just felt really off , like I am pretty sure I cannot do a 5-7 hour hike off, adding in 3 hours of travel time ( round trip) seemed near impossible. After my weight gain I didn’t want to not do anything either and since I was already up, I headed off to Deer Creek Canyon. It is close to home and I knew that I could get a quick 8.6 miles in with a decent leg workout.
I will admit that I felt funky at the beginning of the hike but soon found my legs and really started moving. There is something about knowing your hike so intimately that makes it fly by and seem much easier than it used to feel. Before I knew it I was on the final mile, which is completely downhill, and so I decided to jog it. I have started noticing that smaller steps feel much better on my tired feet when the end of a hike is near and I am struggling with the downhill return, the only way to take smaller steps comfortably is to jog a little. Since I was feeling so good I thought I would test out how it would feel to jog for an extended period of time. It felt good and I was surprised at how far I made it. It kinda made me sit back and think hmmmm, I wonder what else I can do now that I could never even consider before. I ended up finishing the hike in under 3 hours, a personal best for me. Unfortunately the rest of the weekend was spent in bed feeling terrible. I am so glad I got out when I could and I think it actually helped me get back to working out faster. Monday morning’s workout was surprisingly good.
I did do a new hike this weekend and did some jogging again at the end, it felt great….I see a new me coming around the corner, one that might actually jog occasionally. Who knew someone who hates jogging with a passion could find a way to like it through hiking?
hiking to healthy 