Moments in Dirt and Ink

White River National Forest Arapaho National Forest (orange line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 My perch up on an exposed hill let me watch the morning animals. The deer were up particularly early and high on a nearby hill, chomping away in the dawn light. Moose wandered by later to stare at me while I stared at them. It was good to enjoy the animals because I was seriously not enjoying my breakfast. I found these quinoa flakes in Dillon and decided to try them. It has a sour flavor and a poor texture. You might expect it to have more protein than couscous, but no, it has no nutritional advantage whatsoever. The couscous I could find was $8 for not even 2 pounds and I'm used to scooping it out for $1.60 a pound, so I was open to new ideas. Flaked quinoa is an all around fail. (Also in there: lots of cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, cranberries (other fruit infused ones are most excellent), raisins, big pour of parmesan and Romano cheese (Romano is funky a...

Arapaho National Forest White River National Forest (purple line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 It wasn't too cold in the campsite by the creek and I had a rather good sleep. I didn't think I needed to get up early since this day should be a shorter and therefore easier day. I was half right. It was shorter. There's sun further up where the trail goes, but not yet at my camp. It was already past 7PM when I stopped, so I really didn't want to continue on although there is water up there. It wasn't all that late when I got climbing for the pass, leaving the canyon part of the hike behind. No more muck! Also not a lot of water for quite a while, so I was sure to start filled up. There actually was some water in the first mile, but after that it wasn't just one pass but many as the trail traveled around the rim of the next canyon. The unvisited high end of the glacial canyon through which Bobtail Creek flows. Slender cinquefoil . The ...

Arapaho National Forest (red line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 The South Fork Trail is a loop trail of a little over 20 miles (according to the sign) that travels from the main Williams Fork to its South Fork with a ridge crossing in between. My backpacking plan was to start on the Williams Fork portion of this trail and follow it up and over to South Fork. Soon after reaching South Fork, I'd climb again on Ptarmigan Pass Trail to Ute Peak Trail and hike it all the way back. This route has a nice mix of environments and, it turns out, challenges. The final day is a long ridge walk, but the weather machine was promising some perfect weather for it. There was 0% chance of rain! The day before, which had some high stuff late in the day, was only about 10% chance and the first day was more like 40% chance. You can't have everything. I decided to put the short road walk at the start and parked at Ute Peak Trailhead to get started. The first thing to go ...

Arapaho National Forest (map link) I wanted to do a hike from the end of the road and my seed of an idea of a backpacking trip would be on the South Fork Trail, if it happened, which left Darling Creek. What I'd seen of Darling Creek from Ute Peak hadn't excited me much. It was burned. It was so very burned. It looked like it might be burned all the way up. But weighted against the prospect of hiking even more of the same trail twice, I went for it. Entering burned area. Sigh. Darling Creek Trail N18, says the sign, with 0.4 miles to South Fork Trail N21 and 5.2 miles to St. Louis Divide Trail N17. The trail starts at the power substation that presumably exists to power the 15 mile conveyor belt. That was thankfully silent for the weekend. Just past the substation is where it enters the mountain to get to the molybdenum on the other side. On the other side is industry of a different sort. The Williams Fork has been dammed up here and there by beavers. Nature takes o...

Arapaho National Forest White River National Forest (map link) The most common approach to Ute Peak is from Ute Pass, but I was camping closer to the Ute Peak Trailhead, so went for that one. While Ute Pass is higher up, the trail drops enough that it probably has about the same amount of climbing as well as an extra mile or so, so this route can be easier. I didn't have a local or recent weather report, so had no idea what to expect for the afternoon. When I did get high enough for some signal, the weather was mostly concerned with the record heat Denver was experiencing but also told me I should have gotten a much earlier start. The start of Ute Peak Trail N24. The sign says it is 1.5 miles to Ute Pass Trail N31, 8.6 miles to Acorn Creek Trail 71, and 13.6 miles to Ptarmigan Pass Trail N35. There's a small turnout that could fit at least four cars with a small sign at one end to tell you you're there and a trail at the other end to hike. I got to hiking. It mu...

Arapaho National Forest Click for map. I may have claimed a few hours before that I would not get to go up any peaks in the Rockies, but there was an accident ahead blocking the tunnel on I-70 and the four lanes that feed the two lanes were turning into a parking lot. I decided to show that I could read and take the alternate route suggested. I wasn't sure I was in good company after watching someone take the sharp corner to exit via the entrance, but so it goes. Once at 10 feet short of 12k on the Continental Divide, it was too much to pass up the chance for an evening stroll. Parking is marked 7AM to 7PM, at least on some of the signs, but I suspect no one will bug me while it is still light. The peaks to the east look quite impressive. (They should. There are a couple 14k peaks over there.) The peaks to the west look a little closer at hand so better with only a couple hours to dark. Loveland Pass got a little crowded with the other folks who could not pass up stoppi...