A High Lonesome Halloween

Last Sunday, I had planned to run the High Lonesome Loop. If you're from Boulder, you probably know what I'm talking about. Basically, it's a loop that, starting from 9000', goes up to the continental divide, traverses the divide for 2.5 miles, and then drops back down via another trail. I chose to go up Devil's Thumb, and down King Lake Trail. All told, it's somewhere around 15 miles, with 4000 feet or so of total elevation gain (it actually travels between about 9000' and about 12500'). It took me a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes today.

When I started out, it was a perfect day (and it remained so): 40 degrees, sunny, with little wind. I took off from the Hessie Trailhead just past Eldora, and, attempting to pace myself, went to town.



This image came about 20 minutes into the run. Probably not more than 9500'. Two weeks ago, this stream was snowy, but clear. Last week it was just clear. Apparently in the past week or so it has cooled down a lot.



At about an hour (1:05, actually) I hit Jasper Lake. Normally, in the summer, this lake is full up almost to where I was standing while taking this picture. In fact, it's a reservoir for a ranch a few miles east of here. It doesn't look quite so pretty when drained of most of it's water (elevation 10800). This is really where I got my first look at where I was headed (below).



I was a little daunted. I was aiming just to the right of the peak in this picture. But, to make things yet more interesting, a lot of the trail looked like this.




It made things interesting, but not worrisome yet. Within another twenty minutes, I was up at Devil's Thumb Lake. 11140'



As you can see, pretty well frozen over. Any thoughts as to why it's called Devil's Thumb?

At this point, though, I started getting a little nervous as to whether or not I'd even be able to finish the run. The trail was getting more and more choked with snow, and I knew what was coming. Most times, at the top of Devil's Thumb Pass, there's a snowfield that has to be climbed somehow in order to get up to the divide itself. I was not expecting to be able to do that, considering I chose not to bring my crampons or trekking poles (figuring they'd mostly weigh me down).



You can see where I'm heading in this one. There's a white snake of sorts climbing up the mountain. That's the trail. I follow that up, and around the mini peak in the foreground to the rockfield and the divide. I was thinking of turning around at this point.



I'm glad I decided to keep going. Otherwise I wouldn't have seen these three guys. Three Ptarmigans wearing their winter feathers, all nicely lined up as if they were waiting for some fool runner to come by and take their picture.



The trail I'm heading up. The Ptarmigan is still in the picture. At this point in my run, I was seriously considering turning around. But I still knew at this point that I could turn around and head down with no problems. The snow was windblown and had a good crust, so it gave good traction and was firmly in place.

I did finally make it up to the Pass. Lucky for me, the snowfield that usually is at the top was not there this time, so I could just climb up a rock field. Much more comforting when you're up there by yourself.



I finally made it up to the divide! From here it was a hop down to the High Lonesome Trail. It took a bit under two hours to get from the trailhead up to the divide. Half an hour along the divide, and a bit over an hour down (down snowfields this time, a little hairy sometimes, and I fell on my ass a couple times, but mostly ok).



They don't call it the "High Lonesome Trail" for nothing. I was running for almost four hours, and I saw six other people. Five of those were within a mile of the trailhead. The other was doing the same loop I was, only equipped with trekking poles and crampons, decidedly not running.

Now, it's eight o'clock on Halloween Night. And, as I planned, I am utterly wiped out (Between midterms this week and the run today) and ready to go to bed. I'll probably lose one of my toenails in the next few days. My feet hurt. My legs are tired. And I"m eating constantly.

In short: good run.

Tallies:
Mileage: 15-16
Elevation: 4000+ (total)
Time: 3 hr 45 min

Not Your Typical Run

I had a much more interesting run than I'd anticipated today. I intended to go for 1:15 to 1:25 or so, on the trails up Flagstaff and Chautauqua.

We got our first snow here in Boulder last night, and I woke up this morning to one of my favorite sights out here: the Snow-Frosted Flatirons. The Flatirons are impressive at any time, but there's something particularly amazing when the get either just a dusting of snow, as we got last night, or it gets so cold here that they literally frost. It's particularly forbidding, and beautiful.

In any case, by the time I got out for my run this afternoon, most, but not all, of the inch or so of snow had melted. The trace that remained was just enough to have made the trails muddy and treacherous.

Regardless, I made it through the first hour or so of my run without any trouble or excitement. Then, as I climbed the limb of Flagstaff again, retracing my previous route, a couple of hikers who I had passed before said "There are four bears on the trail back there. Two adults and two cubs."

Naturally, I chose to bypass that route. Anybody who knows much of anything about bears knows that, when cubs are involved, you'd best steer clear. So I took the road instead of the trail. And sure enough, to my right, downhill, near the path, were three bears. The other had, according to three people who had been driving up, taken off down Flagstaff towards the Hill area.

It's not every day, even around here, you see that much wildlife with that many teeth and claws on a run from your house. The rest of the run consisted of warning runners coming up Flagstaff about the bear activity.

All in all, a satisfying, and unexpectedly interesting, run. I just wish I'd had my camera with me today.

Breakthrough?

This past week has been rather interesting, to say the least. Aside from things in my everyday life outside of running (yes, I do have one), I've reached a new level with my running. I'm not sure yet whether I'm faster than I was this spring when I ran a 9:58 two mile, but I'm definitely faster than I've been since that run.

I pushed myself to a whole new level last weekend at the Golden Leaf, and after it. I put in some 27 miles or so over that weekend, which is more than I can ever remember running before in one weekend. And the fact of the matter is that I should not have been able to do so. At the end of the race, I was literally collapsing. The last two miles I had nothing left in the tank, and the one person I really did not want to pass me did . . .

And then three hours later we went for a 7-8 mile run/hike, just to keep loose. And we added an hour run the next day.

All told, I put in 45 miles last week, which is more weekly mileage than I've done in about 7 months. And I was sick from Monday on . . .

My legs are tired, but I still want to go out and run today. It's good to be back at it again.

Independence Pass

As I mentioned before, on the way home from Aspen and the Golden Leaf, I took the route over Independence Pass rather than the easier (driving wise) but significantly less scenic and less fun four-lane route. Suffice to say, it was breathtaking this time of year. So, without further ado, here are some of the pics of the pass.

The pic above is looking back at the road up from Aspen, which I believe is somewhere over that embankment on the right side. Any ideas on why the race is called the Golden Leaf?
Looking up the pass where I still have to go. I was surprised by how many rather large trucks were on the pass, especially since vehicles over 35' are prohibited (for some strange reason).
Looking down from the top of the pass to where I'm about to drive. Turns out Lance lives around Aspen now. I can see why. Not many better places to train for a triumphant return to the Tour.
Looking at the ridges from the top of the pass, 12,500' elevation.

On a side note, it looks like I will likely be returning to Aspen in early December for another race. Again, it starts up the side of a ski hill. But there are some added challenges. First, the whole thing is 2.5 miles up the ski hill. Second, obviously the hill will be covered with snow. Third, it's at night.

Should be fun!