the sacrifice & reward

it doesn’t take long to get the itch again to be back on the trail. envisioned in my mind early this week was to be a marathon of 6 boulder peaks. i didn’t anticipate how tired i’d be after bagging the first two on saturday. there was no pre-dawn rise today. “slept in” until 8:30 and decided in about 5 minutes that i wanted to strap into my boots and see what the natural world had to offer me on this cold (teens), party sunny day. the snow had accumulated some and it looked like it would be a day for snowshoes. it was so late in the morning and i didn’t even have a mountain yet to climb. i settled on a single peak on the eastern edge of the foothills, along 36 near lyons. not a lot of planning into this one. map and go is what i like to call it. and that's what i did. a stop off at el mirador for a $2 bfast burrito, and i was back on the same roads as yesterday headed to my sanctuary.

layers

i arrived at what appeared to be, according to maps and loj, the easiest way up 6,446'. it was "elk mountain" ranch. 1. there is no mountain around called elk mountain. 2. there were no elk in sight, only horses and fences. lots of fences. the busy highway put the quash on any ninja-hiker activity, so i'd have to find another way up this badboy. i flipped a couple u-ies and headed to heil valley ranch. i was here a couple of weeks ago to climb half nick and some unnamed peak. i quickly made use of the snowshoes and set off. the snow already has a broken trail from trail runners, hikers, snowshoers, snowshoe runners, coyotes, deer, elks, squirrels and possibly mountain lion. of course i never saw a single animal except for maybe a squirrel, although i'm pretty sure it was just a pinecone falling. there were a significant amount of tracks however, but those guys probably heard me a mile away tromping through the forest. my loud snowshoes screeching and clanking against the burnt orange rocks poking through the thin snowy trail. then there's the touristy camera around the neck bouncing against my pack strap and cell phone in my chest pocket. i'm a loud mess. i'm very thankful to the folks that happily cleared the trail before me. that can really sock the life out of you. i swapped out my snowshoes for microspikes over a segment of rocky path, then donned the shoes on once i made it to the old stone cabin. it just needs a little work and it could be our mountain retreat. i didn't see a for sale sign though. this is where the worn trail ended. at this point i took a compass bearing, since my gps is mia, and headed down toward a gully, then i'd have to climb to the saddle of red hill and 6,446', then north onto my summit. but it was nearly 1:00. it would take a couple more hours to climb and many hours to get back. you know i do have other things to do today (like write this). so i made the decision to turn back and try to meet up with the wapiti trail that i'd been on earlier. i plowed my way uphill through the trees and eventually started following a game trail that lead me back to the main trail. i wasn't on a huge time crunch, so i decided i could make my way around the entire loop, see if the overlook had anything to offer, and make it back in time to get my haircut.

wapiti means elk

prime real estate



this has a real fireplace, not one of those fake tv ones

i am, where, exactly?





6,446' - saving for another day

  

made it to an intersection just as i started to hear a strange huffing and puffing. it scared me because this is mountain lion country and i guess i don't know what sound a lion makes before it strikes. but it was just a lady trail runner. we stopped for a couple minutes to chat about the trail. we decided she'd go left and i right, and we'd meet in the middle. i pushed hard as views began to open to the eastern plains, blanketed in white gold. there were short segments where the snow was deep enough to warrant snowshoes, and sections of bare rock that you could almost mountain bike over. i thought about the give and take between us. she would have to suffer through small bouts of post holing while i'd have to scrape my crampons against some rocks here and there. but how cool was it when we met up finally, right in the middle of the loop, and thanked each other for breaking the other's trail. it made the few knicks and scrapes on the snowshoes a willing sacifice.

overlook view. longs and meeker are covered in clouds.

the view wasn't that great. normally from the overlook you can see mt. meeker, longs peak, and the rest of their buddies. it wasn't meant to be today. clouds socked anything above about 10'000'. i made my way around the loop feeling good. accomplished. i didn't climb my mountain but i got out there and enjoyed the gift that God has given us. colorado is such a wonder. my leg held up. it usually only hurts when i take a step on a bent leg. when it is fully extended and i follow through with it straight, then it is fine. for me this is not the natural way i hike on slopes or snowshoe. my go-go-gadget finger's auto-heater stopped working and it got very cold. i was thinking frostbite, but the other fingers felt fine. i made it back to the bench i'd sat in many a time. and i'm thinking, you'll have a bench someday. the inscription read:

the stillness in the air bade me notice

the distant hills that seemed to move,

as if to gently embrace her spirit,
now that her earthly form is gone. 

 

a bench, someday

there are so many spirits in these mountains. i would be only so lucky to join them someday. i plan to take katie on the wapiti/lichen trail this summer. she will love it. and 6,446' will be there for another day.

they make a liquior and it's called godiva. that's gotta be heaven. the server just came to ask me if i had a nissan because my alarm was going off. what is bb's problem? why does she gotta hate so?

i'm thrilled to be back in the game. there is so much i want to hike and climb. i have a lot of making up to do. who's with me?? churp..churp. oh well, i'm excited.