Early Fall Adventures

A couple of weekends ago, Rocco and I decided to hit the road once more for another epic weekend of long mountain biking/tall mountain hiking. We decided Aspen would be a cool place to visit and experience. I got off work at 4 on Friday, went home, packed, and hit the road. We ended up camping in a cool secret spot I know about in the Gunnison National Forest close to Paonia Reservoir. We got in late, and I didn’t feel like pitching a tent, so we slept open air. It was chilly and crisp-a clear sky. It was also absolutely amazing looking up at the stars through ponderosa pines.

We finished the drive to Aspen early Saturday AM and hit up the farmers market where I said hi to a friend I know there. Unfortunately, I had left my biking shoes at home, but fortunately, I found a really cool shop there in town, The Hub, that let me borrow a pair that fit close enough and gave me some tips for a long ride.

I suited up and hit the trail, where upon I rode long and hard for 7 hours before returning to town. I met back up with my friend for coffee, then decided it was time to leave town and go find a campsite. I picked up a six pack of local brew, and the cashier recommended a cool camping spot up the road a ways. Rocco and I get to the turn off, and the sign says our camping area is 6 miles away. It is a forest road, and 4WD is recommended. There is also a paid campground only 1.4 miles down the road, so I get going thinking I might give that a try if the road gets too rough for my 2WD Mazda B2300.

It didn’t take long and sure enough that road started to get pretty rough, and had me questioning whether I should be on it. I reach the campground, and its full. Feeling the spirit of adventure, I decided to trudge on and and push the limits of my truck and off road handling capability. 4WD would have been really nice, but truly, all you needed was high clearance and skilz, both of which I had. We made it the 6 miles and found a really sweet dispersed site off the road and set up camp. I didn’t know how high we were, but I knew it was much higher than the night before, and it was much colder, I pitched a tent for me and the dog to cuddle in.

Sure enough in the morning, everything was frosted over. There was even some ice under my therma-rest. First freeze of the fall that I have experienced. I was a little unprepared for it to be that cold, and my hands and feet got quite numb as  I broke down camp and packed up. The morning sun revealed to me that we were only a few hundred feet below treeline (roughly 11,000′), so we were indeed pretty high up there.

The morning sun also revealed to us some pretty amazing changing Aspens.

So yes, we made it back to the highway just fine. It took us up to Independence Pass, 12, 096′.

From here, we dropped down to the town of Twin Lakes. I got some coffee at the general store, and inquired about the trailhead for the next big adventure, a hike up to Mount Elbert, the tallest peak in Colorado at 14, 433′. We drove out to it and began the 6 mile, 5,000′ 3.5 hour ascent to the top. The views at the top of Colorado are pretty nice.

While the summit was pretty awesome, I don’t feel like it was the most spectacular part of the hike. That came in the form of fall Aspens totally on fire with changing leaves:

After the hike up, a little of which Rocco and I ran, we decided to run down, the whole thing. What took 3 and a half hours to get up only took 1.5 hours to get down. We were blazing, and having a blast! After getting back to the truck, Rocco had some water while I had one of those Aspen beers I bought to celebrate cresting yet another 14er.
We got back on the road and chartered our course through Buena Vista, Monarch Crest, Gunnison, and Montrose. I had hopes of making it to Orvis Hot Springs in Ridgway to soak at least an hour. With the pedal to the metal, I got there in enough time for an hour and a half. Even sweeter, I got in for free using my charm and good looks.

After a nice hot soak, I didn’t feel like driving another hour and a half to Durango over crazy mountain passes at night, so we drive a few miles down to Ouray and found that same sweet camping spot from the weekend before. It was surprisingly warm for 11pm, so we went open air once again, and it was another awesome night of sleep before waking up at the crack of dawn to make it back home and start the work week. Another awesome adventure in the Caveman books…

 

When In Doubt, Go Higher

I am unabashedly stealing the mantra for the Mountain Gazette Magazine, but damn, what words of wisdom they are. I wrote another post titled “In Search of Mojo” but after letting it sit a couple of days, decided it was too personal to share. Let’s just say that booze, women, and work were getting the best of me and I was in desperate need of a reset button. This past labor day weekend, I found one. I was relieved of Saturday farmers market duty because they had more than enough people lined up, so I decided it was time to skip town and head for the high country.

I called my super duper good friend Laura up, whom I was dogsitting for almost two weeks while she was enjoying a badass trip to Alaska. I wanted to see if she would be back before Saturday morning so I could go up to Telluride and not have to worry about her dogs. Turns out, she was already heading back to Durango, and to make things better, was interested in going with me.

We loaded up her truck with dogs, bikes, gear, and hit the road Saturday morning. Our first stop was the Ice Lake trail head. This 7.5 mile round trip hike starts near Silverton at 9,810′ and ends up at Ice Lake at 12,257′. The alpine lake is known for its breathtaking vistas, bright blue color, and of course, very cold water.  A journey to such a unique place would not be complete with a dip to cool off, even if it only lasted 20 seconds…

Caveman Juevos Frios Ice Lake

So yeah, that was a bit chilly, but extremely refreshing. It actually left me wanting to get back in, but there were a few other hikers up there and I didn’t feel like they needed to see me in my birthday suit any longer, but I’ll definitely be back to this place for another swim.

After completing our hike, we drove up the road a bit and put it in4x4 to get up and over Ophir pass before heading into Telluride. We were hoping to nab a campsite in town park, but the Telluride Film Festival was going on and the place was packed. We decided to grab dinner and a brew at Smugglers before taking the advice of a local and trying to find a campsite up on Last Dollar road. It took a while, but we eventually did and hit the hay.

After an awesome breakfast at Baked in Telluride, we set out on our individual trips for the day. Laura went for a nice hike up to Blue Lake above Bridal Veil Falls, and a cool dude at a bike shop recommended a mountain bike loop that would take 3-4 hours and have some sweet singletrack.

It only took about 2 1/2 hours, and that was after meeting a pro on the trail who took me on some totally sick singletrack that wasn’t even on the map and added a little bit of distance, so I added in some extra mileage by taking a trail that climbed to Mountain Village, whereby I took the Gondola up and did one of the easier downhill runs that are part of the mountain bike park there (it’s all Free, and awesome). Well, mostly awesome. My hardtrail XC bike was able to handle it, but a downhill bike would have been a lot more fun….hmmm, more gear to add to the wish list…

Laura and I rendezvoused in town, and decided to take the scenic byway around to Ridgway, and then down to Orvis Hot Springs. Neither one of us had either been here. It is a clothing optional hot springs, and the outdoor pools are all set in rock-like natural pools ranging from 98°F to 110°F. We decided to go Au Natural, and although a little uncomfortable at first, mainly while you are de-robing and everyone is checking you out, it’s the only way to go once you hop in.  We soaked for about two hours then went 7 miles down the road to Ouray to setup camp in a secret free place just outside of town before having dinner. Following some good food, we went back up to the springs where we had another hour and a half to soak under starry skies.

After a good nights sleep and a pretty good breakfast at the Silver Nugget in Ouray, our game plan for Labor day was set: we were going to hike up to Sneffells, one of 54 fourteeners in Colorado. Furthermore, I was going to ride my bike up the forest road to the trail head. Laura would drive ahead of me with the dogs, do a short side hike, and we would meet up at the parking lot to do start the hike. The hope was that this would tire me out and slow me down for the hike since she wasn’t feeling 100% that day. Plus I would get some good training in. My total ascent for the day would total be somewhere around 6400′.

Everything went according to plan, except that the ride didn’t slow me down much. There comes a part on the trail where it pretty much dissipates and you have to scramble up a steep scree slope for a good 1,000 vertical feet. The trail sort of becomes whatever you feel is easiest for you to climb. I’d never done any mountain climbing at this difficulty, but I must say, I rather enjoyed it and killed it. Laura was a little nervous, understandably so, and took her time. It is not recommended that you take your dog on this climb, but Rocco is a pretty good climber, so he came anyways. He had the easiest time of all of us, having four limbs and big paws. The altitude never seems to bother him either.

The last 100 feet of climbing was very steep and required a lot of climbing, and we did have to shuttle Rocco up one part, but we all made it, and all was good.

Too bad I had to go back to work Tuesday, but at least I knocked off 4 items from my Summer to do list here (Ice Lake, Telluride, Orvis, Sneffells) and I feel pushing this reset button has empowered me to do a few more fun things for the remaining weekends of summer and even a few weekends into fall. It has gotten me back on a track that I really need to be on. Thanks to Laura for being an awesome travel buddy. Thanks to all of you for checking in! Happy trails!