memorial day weekend. the unofficial start of summer and
prime hiking season. more importantly, the time to reflect on those resting
souls who served and fought for the right for me to sit here and type this in
public over chips and salsa. thank you uncle edward, for serving the army as an
mp in egypt during the second great war. thank you uncle fred for your navy
days on the pacific AND atlantic fronts during that same awful conflict. and thank
you grandpa ben, for your wartime efforts on the home front engineering
santa fe locomotives, delivering supplies from colton to the rest of southern california.
and thank you, aunt gin, aunt dortha, and grandma dorene (classic names), wives
to these fine men, for the support shown to your men. truly, the greatest
generation.
to honor them, my work even gives me a three day weekend. thank
you
lvlt. friday consisted of work, drinks with the fellas at
highland tap nburgers, and then to my bro’s to chill for the night. his other brother, jason
and his wife dropped in from north platte for the weekend. i ate some brownies
and fudged around on the internet before crashing on the couch.
early next morning i drove home and changed into my best
beach weather outfit. katie was asked how she wanted to celebrate her
kindergarten graduation and she said swimming with her dad. i picked her up and
we drove a few miles in broomfield to day #2 of
the bay’s 2013 season. the bay
is small, especially compared to its competition to the south. i’d call it a
community water park, with a kiddie pool, 3 kiddie slides, small waterfall,
water playground, larger pool with some slides into it, 2 half pipe slides, and
an inner tube slide. my worry about the busy first weekend was unfounded. when
we showed up there were probably 10 people in the whole park and when we left a
few hours later it wasn’t even to half capacity. we played, sunned, and went
down slides until we just couldn’t take any more water up the nose. she doesn’t
swim yet but has nice kicks while holding the wall and can go underwater like a
champ. the slides were either slow enough that i needed to paddle myself along,
or fast enough where i couldn’t stop when i tried. katie got a little nervous
on the fast slides but she held up. i had trouble holding her up though at the
bottom of each slide. a whirlpool of rapids would drag me underwater while i
held her body up and tried to stand on the horribly slippy ground. we survived.
she only had one episode where the water up the nose got to her when she was
playing with a couple of friends she made. we retreated back to the towel and
lounge chairs, sunned some more, then feasted on a delicious funnel cake. not a
bad morning. the rest of the day consisted of hanging with little buddy and katie
at their home.
sunday and monday would be hiking days; two mountains each
day. this would be the weekend that i almost, get really, really close, to
finishing up all the boulder foothills. there are two i’ve never attempted
(
7,922’ and
forsythe peak), one with a private archery range on top, one that
has a road where i was kicked off of during the last attempt, one that has no
good access point that i can find, and then 2 that will be totally “out there”,
leaving me free to worry squarely on the mountain cats and bears, rather than
crazy mountain folk who live in dem hills. i rolled through boulder and took
canyon blvd west (is there any other way to go?) and eventually made it to
sugarloaf road. the pavement runs out and turns to dirt road, into large open
meadows and ranch land, surrounded by mini boulder county peaks. there were
signage and fencing all about. through the violet and blue overcast sky, 7,922’
came into view as i drove on. i contemplated stopping on the road across from a
ranch but wisely drove on and found a small trailhead parking lot. i squeezed
into the last spot and headed back, opposite the main trail. there would be no
public land where my ventures took me today. i skirted a slope above a small
cabin that looked like it could have been occupied. everything looks occupied
this time of year. i jumped into an aspen stand to conceal myself from the dirt
road. there were some cabins on both sides of me so i squeezed between the
property line, as stealthly as i could. i figure if i’m exactly on the property
line, then i’m not on either of their land. that would (never) hold up. never
saw any signs to say stay off though. there were cars at both cabins but i
don’t think i roused suspicion, being how early it was. it opened up some and i
was in plain sight of the ranch i almost parked at earlier. i was worried folks
would be up making breakfast or getting ready for church. perhaps tending to
the horses. i moved forward and never looked back. the trees cleared out and
soon i was walking over rocky, fire scorched terrain. it was a simple walk up
to the summit, where the views were just amazing. the weather was perfect. i
could see the plains, james, sugarloaf, starr, the boulder group, audubon and
other indian peaks, and black beauty far below. the descent was quick and
thankfully, uneventful.
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| sunrise over 7,922' |
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| sugarloaf on right |
 |
| moon over james peak |
i drove out to magnolia road and headed to forsythe rock. this
also had numerous cabins, ranches and homes. we found a dead end on forsythe
trail road right between two homes. i parked and walked a tiny bit of private
road before jumping into the forest. it was dense and steep, and i had to be
silent until i passed both homes. every crack of a branch risked alerting their
guard dogs. i did hear dogs barking after about 20 minutes of hiking. i figured
the home owners saw me and brought their dogs out to follow my scent and stop
me. i’m usually a glass is half empty kinda guy though. there was nothing i
could do about dogs or whatever; all I could do was keep putting one foot in
front of another. eventually the boulders came out and the trekking poles went
in. a short scramble landed me on the north summit, where a very old wooden box
had been patiently waiting for my visit. inside was a register in a zip lock, a
scroll of papers in a film container, and a feather. i scribed my usual
notations (ethan chambers, date, northglenn, CO, from where i came, to where i’m
going, day’s description/event, #xx/87, . …. .. ……. .
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| forsythe pk |
 |
| my awesome trail up the peak |
 |
| with a present waiting on top |
the south summit looked
taller, but the register was on this peak and forsythe is labeled on my map as
being the north peak. regardless, i had lots of time and the south looked like
it could be a fun scramble, and i was right! i made it down to the saddle, then
saddled up to climb. i should have had my helmet because a fall would have
spelled at least a concussion. all good practice for the 14ers i’ll be on soon.
i circled counter-clockwise and did what i could with what i was given. i had
to go maybe 200° before finding a break in the wall. previously i had
tried some cracks and boulders here and there, but no luck getting to the top. i
did find the way up and it was so very worth it. the views were remarkable. i laid
on the rock slab for a few minutes and just soaked it all in. what a blessing
god has given me, to live near and be able to climb these mountains of colorado!
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| south forsythe |
 |
| the wonderfully better than the gore range, indian peaks wilderness |
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| beautiful boulder county |
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| don't let go, ooo, whoa, whoa |
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| bit of a scramble to reach the summit. maybe bring a helmet. |
the way down was fairly straightforward. my gps died so i
had to use my awesome skill alone to navigate between the cabins and back to
bb, and i was spot on.
there was still a lot of time in the day so i decided to get
some beta on lee hill, which has the archery range on top. previously i had
tried to climb it from the west but came upon the fence with archers on the
other side. today i came from the north and wasn’t able to find a place to park
or start the hike. i did get a phone number. we’ll start there on tuesday.
 |
| my ticket to lee hill |
for
now i’m going to finish my mexican dish and head over to my bro’s for a
memorial day steak. what are you doing for memorial day? hiking god’s great
country i hope.
