Diamond Lake Trail

In a fit of nostalgia, I revisited the first real trail I hiked when I moved to Colorado yesterday: Diamond Lake. Last time I went up there, the second day I was in CO, I hiked up to the lake in early July with my dad. This time, I ran the trail, and it seemed remarkably easy for most of its length.

I was glad to have my little Subaru on the way up. Most of thee Fourth of July Road is easily passable by most passenger cars, but there are a few tricky bits where I was glad for the extra clearance. I'm not sure how my dad ever managed it with a fully-loaded minivans (my worldly possessions were still in the van last time). And I had completely forgotten how long the road seems in a car. But, with only mild abuse (and no bottoming out) I made it to the trailhead.


Diamond Lake is somewhere over this direction. The trail heads off to the northwest, and then crosses the North Fork Middle Boulder Creek, and heads back southeast to the lake. Much of the trail is basically a traverse.


Right where the trail crosses the creek, there's a rather pretty cascade. This is the best pic I got.


Despite it being almost July, there was still a lot of snow on the trail. So much snow, in fact, that I kept losing the trail. There were a wide variety of footprints heading off different directions, and I kept taking wrong turns and having to backtrack. It was so snowy, in fact, that I never actually found the lake. I wandered around the alpine meadows for a while (on the snowfields, really) and then decided to take a waterfall pic and head back.


I'm assuming this is a cascade that feeds into Diamond Lake . . .


The Diamond Lake trail is known for the streams that cross the trail along the traverse leading up the valley. Most, I could run across, but this one was a little precarious for that. It's always a little nerve wracking. I'm just glad my new trail shoes grip so well on even wet rocks.


And looking up at the same creek crossing.

This was a rare run for me, in that it took longer to drive to and from the trailhead than to actually run the trail. But, the driving is fun too, so it works out.

Right, it's kickoff time for the final of the Confederations Cup. Gotta go . . .

14ers done the right way

Last Saturday, I roused a few of my friends out of bed at an ungodly hour of the morning, and we took off in my little Subaru to Fairplay, there to tackle Mt Sherman. Granted, it's a relatively easy 14er as they go, but it was fun nonetheless.

There was a 12 mile dirt road on the approach to the mountain. The only bit that was at all tricky was in the last mile. But my little car handled it like a pro, without a dint. Gotta love her.



The first stretch of the trail was really a road up to the old mine. Not so tough. And the altitude (around 11,800' or so) wasn't affecting me at all. But I figured that couldn't last.



Looking up at the mine.



A little after that pic, the trail split up two different ways. My friend Jonathan and I opted to take the route that went straight up the gully. It was a little steep.



It was very steep. We ended up having to go on all fours much of the way up, and even then, we slid back half a step for every step we went forward. And it was more than a little muddy.



And the summit was a little bit snowy. The amazing part was, the altitude didn't seem to affect me at all. I was running along the summit ridge, singing, and not getting out of breath. It was fantastic, and it bodes well for the possibility of running the Leadville Heavy Half in July.

And then came the fun part: going down, via the snowfields. This time, we got video:



And yes, that odd sound is me trying not to laugh.

Like I said, 14ers done the right way: straight up the side, and straight down the snowfields. 2 hrs up, 30 minutes down.