How Far Can You Go Into The Woods?

Huntsman's Ridge is a playground often enjoyed in winter months by the shredders looking to get away from the busy lines and chair lifts of the local ski mountains. Three years ago I ventured up the ridge in June to the end-of-the-line at Huntsman's Mountain. A quick look at the register suggested that others typically didn't venture this way in the summer or simply didn't care to make their visitations known. Hitting the ridge in autumn at the peak of colors was a visual treat that my friends and I had all to ourselves.

A day of golden leaves and blue bird skies was followed the next with heavy cloud cover, cold temps and periods of rain. Embarking on a quest to traverse a ridge on the Lily Lake Trail, the route proved to be less about running and more about survival as Chris Keleher, Adam Flatt and I became lost in a forest of deadfall and cliffs. We found ourselves scrambling down a drainage as the weather quickly turned into a rapidly increasing torrent of rain with quickly decreasing temperatures. After 3 hours of trying to bushwhack down to the road, we were able to find a private drive that led us safely out. Arriving back at the car after over 5 hours in the rain, I was thankful we had made it back to the car intact. I was ready for a shower, a beer and another stab at the trail.

This two-day period of fall running in my backyard was a full-value experience of running with great friends.

 

 

Creede Mountain Run

There is a place in Colorado that is authentic west. This place is home to a rich mining culture, the "Immaculate Conception" mission, "Liquid Ambitions" liquor store and the CMR, a mountain run with 2, 12 and 22 mile options. This place is Creede, CO.

The CMR has been held every Labor Day weekend since 1987 and has been on my radar since I made the move to Colorado. I find myself in Creede this year, sitting in an upstairs bar with my fiancé Lyssa and Chris Westerman, the man that beat me in the 22 mile by a matter of seconds. Half way through the race, on top of the "ladders", a climb that ends at 12,500 feet, I looked back and saw him charging just a few minutes back. I held him off until four miles from the end, then after chatting with him until a mile from the end, we made an exciting race of it. Now we were drinking beers and taking turns weaving yarns.

"There is a mining competition here every Fourth of July." Chris continues, "A few years ago I see a fellow miner accidentally smash his partner's hands with a mallet. He didn't stop. Kept going and a few minutes later blood is pouring out of his gloves."

"Shit....That might be the most badass thing I've ever heard."

"That's Creede."

That's Creede. As Lyssa and head back to our campground, we chat about the impressions the town and it's folk have left on us. It's strong enough, perhaps we have the next several Labor Days booked.

Game faces for the CMR

Lyssa looking down on Creede the day after

Start of the climb up the pit

More early climbing on the course

Sharing the Mountains...Missouri, Oxford and Belford Loop Trip Report

The great Coloradan past time seems to be peak bagging. More specifically, peak bagging 14ers. Living in an area of CO plentiful with 14ers, I developed an early evasion to hiking/running 14ers. More interested in concocting routes through areas that were less traveled, it wasn't until 3 years ago that I finally gave in and ran my first 14er, Castle Peak, just down the road. As expected, there were armies of people from all walks of life and from all over the country out to 'bag the peak'. The 14er does not exist as the quiet place you go to get away from it all. It doesn't sit in secret. It can't because it's too tall. People are attracted to the idea of climbing the highest peak and so these mountains sit squarely in the radar of many. Taking this into consideration, I look at tackling 14ers as a way to share the mountain with others. Look at any 14er.com trip report and you will notice an account of both the route taken and the people encountered. And so here is my own trip report.

A few days ago, my buddy Casey Weaver and I decided to hit three 14ers in the Collegiate Peaks through a classic loop. The route would take us up Missouri Gulch to Missouri Mountain, and then back down and over to Elkshead Pass where we would then hit Mount Oxford and Belford. The route was steep from the beginning and made for some difficult running. The route had 8000'~ of climbing and took us around 4 hours and 20 minutes. All along the way people were awesome...until we began our descent down Missouri. As we neared the end of the descent, fully in the mellow only mountains can bring, we passed a guy who twisted his face into a grimace and shushed us. The grumpy pants mumbled to us to slow down and stop talking because he wanted peace and quiet. He had apparently been yelling at everyone on the trail as he went along. I understand his desire to escape to the solitude of nature, but he was so focused on the people he forgot that he was sitting in a rad place many will never see. Lesson: Stop, look around and appreciate what you got. And don't harsh other peoples' mellow.

Casey just above tree line

Casey heading toward Missouri

Rock field before steeper climbing up Missouri

On the ridge. Missouri just ahead

Going back down Missouri toward Belford and Oxford

Casey on top of Elkshead Pass

On top of Belford

View from the top of Belford, Oxford off to the left

Beer Cheerios

June 2012:
My buddy Morgan Williams and I were jonesing for a rad jaunt off the beaten path. It was still pretty early season but we wanted to get up high. Through the grapevine I got the scoop on a gnarly out-and-back route that climbed around 4,500 to 5,000 feet in 6 to 7 miles to the top of Elk Mountain outside of Redstone, CO. Only the first and last two-ish miles of the run are on actual established trail, making a good portion of the route a bit more primitive by traditional trail-running standards. Taking us nearly four hours, Morgan summed up the difficulty of the run by saying, "I'm ready for some Beer Cheerios..."


June 2013:
I was using my water bottle as an ice pick to climb the bullet proof wall of ice right below the summit of Elk Mountain as Morgan scaled a pine tree to get above the wall. Our friend Casey Weaver joined us this year when Morgan and I decided we wanted to make this run an annual outing. It was a bigger snow year and even though we were moving faster, the snow was frustrating and added a new level of difficulty as we continually punched through snow drifts. We came out of the woods in 3 hours and 34 minutes. I looked at Morgan and asked, "Ready for those Beer Cheerios?"


June 2014:
About two weeks ago Morgan, Casey and I decided it was time once again to tackle our annual Elk Mountain Run. In my mind this run sums up why I love mountain running in every way. In 3 hours and 28 minutes we were back at the car and ready for "Beer Cheerios". Enjoy pics from the day below.

Top of Placita Trail

Casey and Morgan getting some Gu

Morgan heading up

Morgan and Casey on the "trail"

Casey and I on the first ridge. Elk Mountain on the left

Preparing to summit Elk Mountain

The Ridgeline to Elk Mountain's Summit

Morgan and Casey chillin'

Be Cool

Be cool. Elmore Leonard's characters often tell each other this. In fact, it's the title of one of his books. As I head into the summer season of running I've already been in a few situations where I had to remind myself to be cool. As is typical, I can sometimes get a little too wrapped up in competition and races but at its core running's importance to me isn't very complex. I think it's fun. There isn't a complicated explanation or deeper reason other than I think it's a hoot and I like the way it makes me feel. I recently raced a pretty stacked field at the TIMP Trail Marathon and had to be reminded to 'be cool'. Despite running fairly hard early on, there was a group of 5 guys just ahead that I couldn't catch. I crossed the line with some frustration. A week later, still in recovery mode, I had a disheartening training run that left me slightly more frustrated.

Enter my girlfriend Lyssa. There is a story she sometimes references that often reminds me not to take things so seriously. Where she grew up, folks didn't necessarily have access to the latest and greatest for skiing, but they had the love and passion. On any given weekend she would be surrounded by incredible skiers "shredding the pow" in their jeans and in old gear. It was about the enjoyment and simple act of moving down the hill.

Following Lyssa's advice that reminded me to "be cool", I have been filling my days with rad runs with good friends. This weekend became a celebration of that at a Ragnar Relay trail event just up the road at Snowmass, CO. Surrounded by good friends for 24 hours of relay running, I couldn't have been happier than to share in the simple act of running with good company. As we celebrated early in the morning after finishing, a guy in a pink dress from a team that hadn't yet finished yelled at us, "Think you guys are cool! Why don't you sissies try an ultra!" 

"Did a guy in a dress just call us sissies?" I looked at my teammates. "That guy needs to 'be cool.'"

 

Alex T and the Lion

 

Carrie in front of the Elk Mountain Goat Tent

 

Vickers with the horns out

 

The Goat

 

Zeker with the...Goat Head

 

3 in the morning

 

...4 in the morning

 

the goat at sunrise.