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
2 comments:
hi, i like these pictures... where is this?
Jame,
I enjoyed reading your blog and seeing these pictures. This run is quite a trek.
D
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