Meadow Mountain Trail

Another Friday Mornin' Hike with the Vail Branch ladies . . . turns out my Monday Night Hikes have turned into Friday Morning Hikes because of the rain we get every afternoon.  It's kind of crazy - every morning looks just like this, and by late afternoon we have a thunderstorm roll through.  Definitely no complaining about it from our house - we need the water and the temperature usually drops a good 10+ degrees because of it, plus the thunder is AWESOME - it just makes our little FHE tradition a little more difficult ever since July rolled around.

Anyway . . . the hike this week was Meadow Mountain, which is just a few miles east of where we live, and actually used to be a ski hill before Vail Resorts bought it and shut it down (didn't want any cheap competition!).  Now it's used as a tubing hill in the winters.  And the trail is heavily mountain biked in the summer - we didn't see any other hikers but something like 20 bikers.  Also, a fun fact from my Vail Hiker book (thanks Ryan and Victoria for the gift card!): homesteaders in the Vail Valley area in the 1800s raised sheep, cattle, hay, and even "an abundance of crisp mountain lettuce".  Lettuce.  Huh.

The stats:

Date hiked: 20 July 2012

Start time: 7:20 am

Rest/eat/explore time: 30 minutes

Back time: 11:40 am

Total round trip time: 4 hours, 20 minutes

Total mileage: 7 miles (according to the book); 9.31 (according to my GPS) - I'm tempted to believe the GPS just because it sound more impressive

High point: 9795 feet

And the pics:

Lots of these old cabin ruins along the trail.

Just one of three pretty decent-sized bucks we saw up in the trees.

I know they're a noxious weed, but I still
am kind of in love with these flowers.

Looking South towards Minturn and beyond.

Almost to the top.

Chloe and Angie resting inside the little cabin that was our
destination for this hike.

Pretty ponds down the trail.

The group with the gore range behind.
Kim, Chloe, Aspen, Lara, Angie and Cherish

And another in front of the cabin.

A quick looksie inside - pretty sweet
accommodations for a little shack on the top
of a hill - it's used by snowmobilers
in the winter and is quite well equipped.

Yeah, I'd be okay with waking up to a view
like that!

The Gores.

A little locust.

I like it here.  Have I ever said that?

Friday Mornin' Hike

On Friday morning I got together with a few other ladies from the branch for a little hike.  It wasn't even on an "official" trail - though it did start at a trailhead - we just hiked along an old logging road overlooking Minturn (~5.5 miles round trip, 2 1/2 hours round trip, high point ~9200 feet).  It was a gorgeous day and a fun time spent outside with some friends.

Group shot - Kim, Angie, Lara and Cherish
(with really bad focus and framing of the photo by yours truly - ack!)

A lot of the forest around here has been afflicted with Bark Beetle
so we came across piles (many of them) of logs just waiting to be
taken away for firewood (which is tricky since fires are outlawed
around these parts right now).

Triple Bypass

On Saturday we woke up at 3:13 am  (yes! crazy!), quickly got dressed, and hopped in the Sube to head east a couple hours to Evergreen, where a bunch (3500!) riders gathered to begin a day's journey over three mountains . . . on their bikes.  Gregg was one of those 3500 crazies.  I was one of the crazy crew members (I got a bright yellow card to hang on my rearview to make it official) that got to meet up with my dishy rider at a few of the aid stations along the way.  I've definitely been more thorough in my photo documentation in the past, but below you'll see a few shots of our boy on his 120 mile adventure over three mountain passes with 11,000+ feet of climbing.  (Crazy!)  (P.S. If you're interested in seeing the map and/or elevation profile, you can check it out here.)

Here he is just after the Georgetown
aid station at mile 42.  He looked great
and was about a half hour ahead of his
estimated time at this point!

Off he goes - the end of this parking lot
turned into a bike path which took him
to the next stop . . . Loveland Ski Area.

It was a lovely day at Loveland.

Then, after Loveland and the pass with the same name, Gregg descended into Summit County and met rain.  Lots of rain.  Heavy rain.  And thanks to a weird glitch in the system at Nashbar, he was without the rain jacket that he had ordered (in plenty of time to receive it before the ride).  So he made it to the next aid station at the high school in Frisco and was able to find shelter under the overhang at that building until his wife got there (lots of traffic on that road to the high school and a little shopping in Silverthorne made her later than she intended) so he could warm up in the car for a while.  A longer wait than anticipated pushed his finish time back an hour, but I say better late than never.

This is at the Vail Pass aid station - still raining, though
luckily the heavy stuff that I sat through and photographed
was just ahead of Gregg on the bike, so he didn't get too
soaked.  I did feel bad for this poor fellow and many like
him as they crested into the rest area in this downpour.

A little artistic attempt while waiting
in the car.

At last we both made it to Avon (just 5ish miles from home) - still wet and cool out.  Turns out this storm wasn't just one of our short afternoon cloudbursts - it lasted most of the day!  And while we really can't complain about the water, I just don't think it can be that much fun to be out in it on a bike all day.

If you'll look closely, you'll see how
Gregg feels about being on the bike
for just over 8 hours (that was his moving
time - total time from start to finish was
10 hours).

Gregg was obviously tired so we made a quick getaway to our dry apartment where a nice hot shower was much enjoyed by our fearless rider.  Today he says that the only thing that is sore after all those miles is his right index finger.  Crazy!

Glenwood Adventures

Nate and Shelly invited us to join them on a hike to Hanging Lake on Saturday (7 July). We gladly accepted the offer and then made a day of it by having "lunner" at Moe's, hiking to Doc Holliday's grave (after we finally found the cemetery!), and visiting Sunlight Mountain Resort to check yet another ski resort off the "to visit" list.

First stop - Hanging Lake.

I was pretty bad at the stat keeping for this hike, so I'm just kind of guesstimating below:

Start time: ~1:15 pm (not my brightest idea ever, but it worked out okay despite the heat)

Rest/eat/explore time: ?? maybe a half hour ??

Back time: ~3:15 pm

Total round trip time: ~2 hours

Total mileage: ~3 miles (including the walk back to the car at the end of the parking lot - but at least it wasn't at the end of the off ramp on the freeway where I almost parked because the cars were backed up that far!)

High point: ~7100 feet

And the part you've all been waiting for (or at least you should have - because it's the best): the photos!

Words really are inadequate for the beauty of this place.
So I'll just stop typing now.

A little side trip to Sprouting Rock:

"I wonder why they call it Sprouting Rock?"
- Gregg, the funny one

A peek down on the lake (and the crowd) from above.

One of the little overlooks along the trail looking back into
Glenwood Canyon.

It was a steep hike.  Basically a mile straight
up rock stairs.  Also - it was packed.  I've
never ever seen so many people on a hike
in my entire life.  Felt like Disney Land!

After grabbing some grub, we attempted to find the burial site of Doc Holliday - after a few wrong locations given to us by the trusty iphones, we finally found the trailhead to the cemetery.  It's up about a half mile on a dirt trail (formerly road, I think) amid juniper trees and sagebrush.  Really pretty small, and quite old, it was a fun little adventure.

The small, flat headstone says,
"this memorial dedicated to Doc Holliday
who is buried someplace in this cemetery".

The view from Doc's headstone.

And the last leg of our journey turned into a "rainy day road trip" which took us on a beautiful scenic drive up to Sunlight Mountain Resort.  Below is the only photographic evidence of that stop, taken from the dry safety of the Sub since it was so wet outside.  We humans, however, did venture out for a few minutes since we are a little more waterproof than the camera.  Nice little mountain - we'll have to come back when it's white.