the volunteer hiker

(written a few months ago) how do i even start this (blog) again? where do i find the motivation? a few years ago i felt the spirit in me to write about my mountain adventures, although i never actually did it. the pictures did a well enough job doing the talking. now i’m laid up on couches and love seats and lazy-boyz and beds, always elevated. not high in the mountains but high on a pillow and my stuffed bear from grandma dorene. thank you grandma. as the world passes me by and i drown in radiohead, maybe i’ve got some words to say about our blue marble and its inhabitants. the stuff that goes on in the background that i’ve tried to limit any concern with over the years. working as an intern in the senate, i came to realize that there’s not a lot anyone can actually do to make a substantial change in the world, at least that goes for about 98% of the population. there are the obamas and mother theresas, and hell, i even know someone personally where this wouldn’t apply. but it applies to me. and maybe it’s just a lack of motivation. regardless, i gave up caring. maybe while i’m laid up and have zero to do, maybe i’ll care again for a few months.

i’m slated to travel to vermont later this year to hike the long trail; god willing. could i really climb mt ethan allen? i can’t imagine how wonderful that would be. i hear it’s a rough trail going up and down through forested mountains with lots of flies. how exciting!

i love this place

(written a few days ago) my company is so good to me. they are going to pay me to drive to the heil valley ranch open space in boulder to be in the woods with all kinds of wildlife and lawyers, reseeding areas where i’ve hiked off trail and huge machines rumbled through to cut and clear trees. it’s all about fire folks. fire suppression and mitigation has gone on too long and it’s turning what should be a natural cycle in forest ecology, into a juggernaut of destruction that can wipe out thousands of acres in just days. that’s not normal. global warming is not normal. so the machines do their thing, thinning the forest and inadvertently tearing up the soil with tires that over tower me. so about 25 folks from level 3 worked a day with boulder county parks and open space and the forest service to turn up the soil impacted by these machine (and my boots), then lay seed, then turn it up again. not the most backbreaking work but i was beat by day’s end, having hiked 5 or 6 miles before the work even began! i mean, why not? i didn’t have to show up to the office and i was planning to hike saturday and sunday, so i might as well get in a little more if i can. but there was no boulder county peak to summit. i had recently completed all of the 6-7 peaks in the vicinity. regardless, i had to find something to do because i arrived at the trailhead at 5:00 am and we weren’t to report to duty for another 4 hours. time to ramble.

typical EA & BB

i hit the wapiti trail and saw the first little hill i ever climbed in the area a few years ago, however approaching from the south this time around. quickly leaving the trail, i rambled south of the hill to its saddle, although first being stopped by a quiet turkey taking a morning stroll. i froze and started to take pictures, as it cautiously pecked the ground for breakfast and walked within 20 feet of me. turkeys have really bad eye sight.

gobble gobble gobble...i could have stood still, grabbed it and wrung its neck.
lucky for him i already had a sausage egg mcmuffin.

up on the saddle were cabin remains and a curious stone wall going north and south, about 4 feet tall, stretching as far south as my eyes could gaze, and north to where it starts to get rocky and exposed. i’d like to think the southern arapahos built this 300 years ago to corral the deer and elk into a trap and stock up on meat for the tough winters they must have faced.

someone built this. wasn't me.

i climbed over and followed the ridgeline to the summit i had stood on years past. it overlooked much of the ranch. there was no one to be seen and still lots of time to kill.

volunteer work in the area top left of the dirt road

i headed north into the willows and startled a little family of deer. they hung around to check me out and pose for pics. i think they know i wouldn’t hurt a fly. bushwhacked down the steep and pokey slope to the trail where i saw a runner turn and head toward the bench. turns out this guy was a level 3er who had the same idea as me. he’d make it much farther than i, however i like to think i went the roundabout way, which i totally did. i also had a 20 lb pack on and trekking poles, compared to his 5 lb pack and runner apparel. i hiked quickly along the oh-so-familiar wapiti, knowing that i’d have to haul if i were to make it to the scenic vista and back to the trailhead by 9:00. i pushed hard but knew when i got to the start of the loop that i’d be pushing it for time. instead i headed right, to the intersection of the ponderosa and wild turkey loops. took another right (south) at turkey until it switch-backed north, but instead kept going south into the woods. i turned on my gps and quickly saw how close i was to where i’d spotted the 2 bears only a month ago. however there was no time today to pay my new friends a visit. i met up with the trail and followed it back to the trailhead, with 40 minutes to spare. all in all, ~6 miles. now time to go to work.

mis amigos!

we signed our lives on the dotted line (i figure the fine print is all good since 99% of the group were from legal), strapped on backpacks, loaded the vans with boxes of jason’s deli, and hopped in for a short drive up to our staging area next to the stand of ponderosa we’d be working in. it would have taken me 15 minutes to hike to this spot. tools and seed were distributed. i carried a bag of seed in my pack and carried a fire line digger (these had a name though i’ve since forgotten). we got the skinny on the operation by two rather comedic forestry guys. i’d totally chill with these dudes.

forestry dude

we headed onto these “laterals” that were basically small berms on the mountain side where the machinery decided to roll over and use as a road. i’d mulch up any and every sign of human disturbance. i organized our team of 4 with two peeps tearing up the tire marks, one person laying seed (feeding the chickens), and the 4th bringing up the rear churning up soil and seed. we had it down and were designated the “a” team. we rolled through lateral after lateral, with 2 guys and a lady on churning and another girl seeding. the two ladies were youngin’s from legal. actually one was an intern from hr. everyone on this volunteer activity was from legal, except for two; myself, from planning (operations), and some chick from lame vail resorts. i guess the folks in legal do this every year. twice a year actually. i hope i can come back in the fall when they do this again. i’ll have to put it on the calendar and hopefully it won’t conflict with a 14er or janet. the 2 chicas were lacrosse players from du and sure looked it! didn’t get any numbers, nor am i sure i wanted any. i don’t think anyone will accept me for who i am. well, someone did. i’m straying.

the a-team

we stopped for lunch in the shade, then continued on; tearing up “roads” and tearing up more “roads”, while others seeded. i made sure to seed some. i like to think i’ll be back here (unlikely) and see and walk over the grass i planted. as i said, unlikely: 1. because i’ve climbed all the mountains in the area, 2. i’ve hiked this with katie, 3. they plan to burn the place as a stage in this unnatural process to get things natural again. i’m almost certain that my little seedlings will burn to ash in the near future. but i trust the ecology and forestry folks. i assume the research has been done and they know what they are doing. late in the day we found a rattler in a bush. abert’s squirrels ran log to log, pondy to pondy. the sun beat down his pleasant 70-something degree rays, while i churned the earth, raked the soil and duff, dabbing sweat from my brow every few minutes. good thing i’m burning so many calories since i ate 2, count ‘em, 2, egg mcmuffin sandwiches this morning. what can i say, it was buy one, get one.

and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die

lunch time!!

i talked with the young ladies in the group (all lawyers; how intimidating!) but no one came close to that mountain girl i once knew. it was pointless. either way, did some good team building, with legal for what it’s worth, got in a damn good workout, and helped out mother nature’s fight against mankind. anything i can do to help, even if that means the end of me. we finished up and i hiked down from our spot to my car. what a great day. and i got paid for it! in fact, i’m still getting paid! tomorrow, in the wee hours of the morn, i’ll head back into the hills to tackle 4 boulder peaks. life is swell.

nice work level 3ers!!

the uneventful hike

it was to be an epic marathon weekend of hiking. as i make my way north in boulder county, i find myself tackling a lot of peaks near jamestown and lyons, and soon i’ll be in nowhere land between lyons and estes park. saturday, 4:20 am, was the time to awake from my slumber and set off for the button rock preserve to climb coffintop mountain (8,060') and indian lookout mountain (6,533'), 3 miles apart as the goose flies. the approach takes me down the dam road but not quite to the ralph price dam and impressive spillway.

i veer left off the road onto the sleepy lion trail. it’s still early and i’m hoping all lions are feeling lazy and sleeping in, but sleeping somewhere i can take a couple pictures from. i do in fact want to see a cat in the wild but it scares me to death. i know they consider solo hikers a breakfast delicacy, so every few minutes i look over my shoulder, expecting to see a large shadowy figure stalking me. every crevasse in the rock outcrops i pass is scanned, expecting to see a round head with eyes affixed on my every move. they would blend in perfectly with the local rock. you’d have to be pretty good to spot them. i’m sure they’ve seen me on past hikes. i should whistle or talk to myself so i don’t sneak up and surprise one, but what i don’t want is for them to hear me ¼ mile away and run off. i must see them and take a photograph, so i’ll take my chances as a ninja hiker. makes me really wonder who’s the stalker and who’s the prey. didn’t see any mountain lion though. pretty uneventful along the trail.

i turn onto the buttonrock trail and into hall ranch. not far along the trail, i ditch the silly thing and head south into a steep gulch. the forest is rich and healthy, and hard to get a clear view of any surrounding area. some scrambling put me on a ridge where i could climb some rocks and see around. the summit of coffintop was just ahead! but it wasn’t. i climbed this “false summit” and realized i still had a few more hills to climb and descend before the actual summit. keep in mind that my gps is still out of commission, otherwise there’d obviously be no question of where i was. after finally reaching the actual ridgeline of coffintop, a relatively short jaunt up and the summit was mine.

the views and weather were good. there was nothing up here to signify the summit. just me. to the NE, waaaaayyyyy out there was indian lookout. and then after that i’d still have another 5 miles of backtracking to black beauty.

indian lookout, waaaaayyyyy out there

my bearing set and back into the woods i go. this time i skirted coffintop’s “false summits” and came upon a road. let me back up…i came upon a fence with signs that were facing the other way, meaning i was on the wrong side of the fence. the signs said stuff about the land being open space but not for public use. keep in mind that i never saw any signs or fences when i left the trail. but here’s a nice fence with maybe 5 of these signs i can see from one spot. maybe they should disperse the signs better so i’d know if i was on forbidden land or not. i’m sure boulder wouldn't miss one of these signs.

the road meets up with the nighthawk trail which i follow until i have a decision to make: continue on the trail for another 3+ miles until i’m at the foot of indian lookout, or go off trail for ½ mile until i’m at the foot of indian lookout. again, there were no signs or fencing. well, there was a sign but i was a few hundred feet away from it when i went off the trail and i was going away from it. that makes it better, right? when i’m out there i feel this entitlement for being such an awesome hiker. not very often does a person like me come along, so i feel like the plants and soil would want me to walk on them. the whole time on off a trail i’m very cognizant of lnt rules, always making an attempt to step around flowers, cacti, large plants, small plants, and i try not to break branches when i’m squeezing between trees. i could go on but the point is that i’m very careful and the few folks like me that would go off trail are so few that the impact on the environment is virtually nonexistent. the only thing i worry about is scaring off an animal and it runs onto a road right into a wrangler going 75 mph. then i’d feel pretty bad about being off trail. in this case i chose to go take the shortcut. i’m sure some will not agree with my actions. tough.

the shortcut took me through a prairie dawg colony and past the trail. i immediately started up and around indian lookout to try and approach him from the north. the south would have a fun class 4 scramble but i didn’t trust my tibia. the brush is thick and there are some mule deer hanging around. i’ll see these guys a few times in the day. they let me get pretty close. They must know i’m pretty nonthreatening guy. but can these guys tell the difference between a hiking pole and a rifle? i guess they know enough to be in a place where hunting is prohibited. smart deer living a chill life. i like it.

the face i climbed was steep and sits right over a good chunk of the trail. luckily most of its users were on bikes and bikers don’t typically turn their head ever to look around, which is why i prefer my feet. i still had to book it up because my back was facing the trail and all i need is some weekend ranger grilling me for being on “public” land that i shouldn’t be. didn’t i see the sign? well, no.

the route up

coffintop in the distance

it’s a tough climb but once on the ridge it’s a very short walk up to the summit. there were surprisingly great views in almost every direction, even though it’s not a very tall mountain. i could see lvlt, denver, boulder and maybe even pikes peak. there was nothing on the summit to welcome me except the world below my feet. i’ll take it! but down i must go.

the view north

down the slope that faces the trail, there is nothing for cover except a tree every 100 feet. i high tail it, trying to stay on the faint and narrow game trails, through the awful prickling bushes, stopping at each tree to take an end to end view of the trail and parking lot through my binoculars. no sign of the nature fuzz. i’m finally down to the last tree and all that’s left is a 20 second sprint to the trail. a biker just passed heading away from me but coming out of the trees on the trail is a walker. wasting no time, i “sprint” to the trail and jump on pretending like i’d been on it the whole time. there was a bend in the trail where i guess he didn’t see me running through the grasses and plants. as we got closer to each other i noticed he had a name tag on. i was listening to my mp3 player so i could avoid hearing anything he’d have to say, so long as i could walk by him without confrontation. sure enough, we made eye contact and the park’s volunteer was none the wiser; i think. after about 10 feet i was turning around to take his picture when i saw he was turning around to look me over. i casually took a picture of the mountain i had just climbed and then turned to put some more distance between us.

leave me be, volunteer ranger

the rest of the hike back was long and uneventful. there were a lot of hikers of all range. an overweight couple that was maybe 1.5 miles from the parking lot asked me if it was worth it to keep going to the overlook (another mile perhaps). hell yeah it’s worth it, i said. you should have seen the views i had 5 miles away. it’s worth it just to have come 1.5 miles from the parking lot. it will always be worth it.

you again?

my retirement

hawt!

the successful climb was topped off with grub from my second favorite mexi-joint. life is good.

the dillon detour

this was written many moons ago and never posted. consider it a deleted scene. enjoy.

i’m the man from the mountain, won’t you come on up. i made haste after work to ready and climb wetterhorn peak near lake city. the plan was to pack, leave that night, arrive at the trailhead around midnight, then immediately begin hiking. after some well-timed arbys in silverthron, i pushed on into the night and made leadville before breaking off on a sidetrack for the night. i’m so glad i did because i was questioning whether i’d make it to lake city that night. i was called back to summit county to watch ray johnny cash with my new hiking bud. it was a glorious start to something amazing.



tommyknocker town

the next morning i eventually hit lake city and drove west toward engineer pass. it’s a beautiful drive along a shelf built into the canyon, dotted with tons of mining activity from years past. there’s a junction and then the road becomes rough. my girl made it but it was definitely testing her limits. it’s maybe a mile of rough road. 

 

 

where's the damn water?



i got a late start but it was blue skies all day. the climb begins up the forest but it’s short lived. soon you are above tree line and wetterhorn comes into view for the rest of the hike. i crossed the basin going up and down hills and what looked to be mine tailings, but maybe not. up and down over a good trail. some folks must have done recent back-breaking labor on this trail.





pretty high tech TH data



few times in life do i remember being this happy. i had it all.

eventually you gain, gain, gain a saddle and it’s just a hop, skip, and jump to the summit. not really. the views are really starting to open up into the san juans. the king of this country, uncompahgre, stands tall to the east. two contrasting colored broad hills of scree start the ridgeline hike to the summit. more mining this high up?? the trail picks up winding through talus and alpine plants. the trail peters out and the trekking poles are stowed; time to scramble.

for the most part you can pick your route up. there are some obvious obstacles to contend with, like the long rib where you can take any number of gullies that run up along either side of the rib, some more difficult than others to access and climb. pick what looks fun and comfortable. there’s also the kissing rocks above the gully. one option i fancied was to head left through the notch, climbing over the rib and down. from there i’d traverse my way back up to the ridge. or the more fun way was to climb beneath the smootching rocks and chimney up a tight hole about 8 feet up. this was the route i chose.

smootchy smootch

walking the ridgeline unveils some incredible views. i came upon the “prow” and it was a sight to see. as large as a house it was. the summit was straight ahead up another hundred feet or so of kick ass scrambling. through the notch on the right (not left), and slightly around the summit block, i guess i should have made a right turn up the worn path, which probably could be kept to tough class 2, maybe light 3, but i kept going wanting to get this sick kodak moment shot along a narrow shelf. bagged the shot and from there i made my way up and encountered an awesome scramble to the top. i played leap frog to the top of wetterhorn peak as fast as i could.

i was jubilant and ecstatic. i was superman and leaped to the top of the mountain to find 3 texans chillin’ up top. they had rode in from wherever texas tech is. lubboch? doesn’t matter…it’s texas. one dude was sleeping or something. later on i’d pass them on the trail and the sleeping dude looked like a ghost. the altitude was surely getting to this lowland texan. best cure for that is to go back to texas. anyway, they left the summit and i had it all to myself until i left a half hour later. i took pics and rocked out. and i felt good. like i really accomplished something awesome, something worth celebrating, so i did. it is a beautiful summit with great views of some fine mountains. i signed a nice looking summit register. thanks cmc. got my which wich photo and was off the mountain. mind you, i had places to be.

which wich summit shot with unc. in the background

getting down was just about as fun as going up. from back on the saddle the mountain becomes so much more lively, but nothing where you are fearing for your life. it’s a fun and giant rock obstacle course, without the pitfalls of doom like some other mountains i’ve been around lately. this was just fun. and short too. it took no time at all to climb. five hours total maybe. i made good time back to my car, passing the cowpokes from texas, and made my way down the 4wd rode, onto the main jeep road, then proceeded to get stuck in a jeep traffic jam. to be fair it was so the ambulance could take away the dude that rolled his jeep 100’ into the creek canyon. shouldn’t have taken that turn so quick dude. lesson leared. 

 

wetterhorn peak - 14,016'

   

jeep took a wrong turn





purdy

it was off to gunnison to visit bre, who i haven’t seen in an eternity. she is a super genius scientist saving the world and taking names. it would be great to go see her and meet her dude but they are so freaking far out there. i think you can get to any state bordering colorado quicker than it would take me to get to that town. someday i’ll head out. it’s goota be soon before she tromps off to cali so she can apply her mad chem skillz to the art and science of brewing. that would be a pretty impressive title on a biz card: brewmaster. how fun. we caught up while she endured my nasty hiker stench. it was good seeing her but i was soon back on the road to see a different mountain girl. 

she's out there, but not for long