the stormy blues, part 1

another early morning start. folks admire my discipline and drive. i figure, i’m already right in the middle of it so i may as well finish ‘er up. fifty-three boulder peaks now, as a matter of fact. many times that’s how i feel on the trail in the middle of a hike. i’ll be drained and wondering why i’m doing this, then i’ll just say that i may as well finish what i started. but i loathe waking in the morning. i’m not a morning person and love sleep, so much that if i lived forever, much of it would be done snoozing. bb started acting up while i was still in broomfield. she’s having trouble getting above 2.5k rpm’s. i’m hoping it’s just an oil change and not a new transmission. it’s both ironic and unfortunate that my old partner and i continue to have car troubles. nothing was open, so my options were to park at a car place and wait until they open, turn around and go back to bed, or keep going and pray for the best. needless to say…

i drove the buff highway through boulder and lyons, took 72 towards allenspark, and then a left at pine valley. it was a dirt road that gets rough, but not too rough. we parked on a saddle where it intersects with another 4wd road east. i was greeted by a beautiful colorado sunrise over a thin veil of clouds a couple thousand feet on the plains below.

this never gets old



i followed the road for a little while and eventually left it to head up the nw slope of taylor mountain (9,134’). it was a tough, albeit, short bushwhack. the views of the nearby snowcapped cd peaks would pop in and out of the trees once in a while, but for the most part this mountain lacked open vistas. a trail register greeted me and i was surprised to see folks on two occasions had climbed taylor this year. jennifer roach climbed it for the 2nd time in 2010. as i was putting the finishing touches on my own entry, i sensed i was not alone. i whizzed around and sure enough a furry, four-legged creature was within 20 feet of me. a curious red fox was looking for a handout, or just a friendly pat. he came closer and closer, ultimately coming with about 10 feet. i told the little guy that i had nothing for him. i’m not my uncle paul and have no pizza for you. sorry. you’ll have to move on. looking back i should have at least tried to pet him. goodbye my woodland compadre and thank you for the kind visit.



trailblazin'

hi friend! thank you for the visit.

this is for you

just for fun, i decided to keep going east to visit big john mountain (9,100'), in honor of my brother-in-law john. seriously, that’s pretty much the only reason i climbed it. it’s not ranked and was out of the way. it’s just an extra. like in gilpin county, only 22 mountains are ranked and count in my book, however i actually climbed 34. big j is just extra credit. the views were a little better and there was a faint trail i was on and off. the view to the eastern plains was hazy and to the east, partly cloudy. i signed the register, a notepad rolled up in a glass mason jar. 

big john mountain - 9,100'











i made it back down to bb and started back up, heading west now, for the toughest part of the day. olive peak (8,692’) was waay off. i went off trail for a way until meeting up with the taylor mountain trail. this took me down, down, down to rock gulch, where i turned left on the fox creek trail. the trail is awesome as it winds along rock creek below steep canyon walls. olive ended up being probably one of my most scenic hikes in boulder county. i came to confluence of fox and rock, and it was impressive!! fox was roaring through a mini royal gorge and there were steep towers all around. on one of those towers were 3 mountain goats checking me out and posing for pics.
 

fox creek and olive peak - 8,692'



rock creek



non-native mountain goat, not that i'm one to talk

i crossed fox creek on a wet log and started up olive’s slopes. olive has some fine slopes. but once you scale her backside, you find out that her peaks are actually pretty flat. i just found one little spot poking out and summited this biotch. i headed back down and somehow totally missed where i was supposed to go. i ended up going down an extremely steep and loose slope, and then following rock creek east for .6 miles along a faint, and i’m telling you very faint, trail. i had strayed way off course and it will probably cost me my life now. and along the way, as i followed this “trail”, i picked up dozens of deer ticks on my clothes and person. i had shorts on and no repellent and was being eaten alive! i flicked off maybe 30 or 40 ticks in a couple hours’ time. i backtracked and found my trail, making it back to bb without catching lyme disease – that i know of!

i did it my way

fox creek "trail"

you are not welcome here. and neither are you.

we drove on toward allenspark, stopping at the meadow mountain café for a delish grilled cheese con tomates y avocado, and a bagel con cream cheese for breakfast the next day. awesome little place, although always busy. i drove on to meeker park, just past allenspark (my future retirement community), and headed east on cabin creek road. there are lots of private property signs but luckily there’s also national forest access, i think. i drove up and down this road and back down the highway looking for a safe access point, but it was all to no avail. the best spot was going to be this small trailhead, labeled house rock road on the map. i parked at a small campsite before the road’s dead end. there were folks already parked up ahead, and all day, night, and into the next day, cars would drive up this short forest access road, pass me, then turn around to find another locale to camp. i kind of felt bad taking up a legit spot even though i’d be sleeping in my black beauty. and good thing because it rained and i believe snowed during the night. but there was no time to waste. i can’t climb olive without popeye (9,008’)! i backtracked along the road to find a place to cross cow creek and head sw toward popeye peak. for one of the first times ever, i had no other option but to pass a clearly marked sign telling me to stay the hell out. there were no homes around this wild area. the trip reports i’d read from previous peak baggers indicated the same predicament. so i speedily got out of sight of the road and started my ascent. there were some moose bones and after about a mile, i had a fine view of mt. meeker and twin sisters. my first hiking rains of the year started to come down. the return descent was uneventful.

to be continued…