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 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...

San Isabel National Forest White River National Forest (map link) In my post about Galena Mountain , I mentioned there were two very lone geocaches in the area. The second, not signed since 2015, rested south of Buckeye Peak, another peak with 1000 feet of prominence rising above Leadville. It looks like the common route to bag this peak is also from the south. I didn't much like that route because of the 4x4 access road. I decided to come at it from the north from Ski Cooper, then a bit of roughly following the Continental Divide, which serves as county line and forest line along there. To get the geocache, I'd continue over the top, then finish with a little more cross country to find a road that connects back to Ski Cooper. Looking down on the buildings at the ski area from part way up one run. The peaks are part of the Holy Cross Wilderness. I parked off to the side and started up Cooper Hill. There were a couple rough roads (authorized vehicles only) to choose ...

White River National Forest We have Tuesday morning off, so I picked another mountain to climb. A little easier than Quandary this time. This one is a couple hundred feet short of 13k instead of a couple hundred feet taller than 14k. There is trail all the way up to facilitate that climb with a time limit, but it is only 2.6 miles long. I will not have to hit the trailhead at 6AM this time. I was aiming not all that much later at 7AM, but lost a half hour somewhere. I did a looping hike around it two years ago. Now I will climb it. First to find the trailhead. The roads are not straightforward, but I hit it on the second try. Actually, the trail off the end of Royal Buffalo Drive would probably have worked too, but the parking situation is not as clear. Signs and kiosk at the start of the Buffalo Cabin Trail. The start is familiar, past the clear cut of "defensible space" and into a rather dense and young forest. There are tents scattered in the trees ...

White River National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 I wake to find there is a mosquito inside my barrier and when I squish it it bleeds. Well, one is better than the multitude that undoubtedly tried. I look out on the meadow are more elk. Half seem to be hanging out by a small pool that is more mud than water. This group is different from the larger group yesterday. This group all have antlers. The mosquitoes are forgotten as I move quietly to the edge of the trees pulling on my coat. I hang back just a little bit and they do not seem to notice me. Elk on the meadow. The elk have gone again once I have eaten and slid everything back in the pack. I am not going to climb Turret Peak this trip, so the only climb left is about 80 feet to finish getting out of the creek below. It is all downhill from there. Every last step. One of them passing the only sign of bear for the trip, a...

White River National Forest Routt National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 Dawn breaks through a blanket of clouds after another mild night. There is no excuse that I am at a lower elevation this time, this is my highest camp of the trip. The ponds seem decidedly sterile and there have been no mosquitoes up here. It sure is nice. Enjoying breakfast wondering if the sun is high or not. Today should be an easy day, but it might be a little long. I want to get down to the last water shown on the map before the long dry section on the ridge to the trailhead. That should leave just six miles downhill for tomorrow so that it will be super easy to be out by noon. Just have to wander around the bit of rock and ponds and onto the good trail to follow it on down. At least until it is no longer good trail. A long way to go across the flat tops. Somewhere down there is Mosquito Lake...

Routt National Forest White River National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 The night was quite mild and I used the quilt alone, but the morning is cool enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay almost long enough to have breakfast. Just the elevation change is not enough to explain the warmer temperature. A number of lakes, including the Lost Lakes, lie ahead, and then a climb up to the slanted flats above and eventually to the intersection my proposed cutoff would have got me to quite a bit earlier. The map indicates that it is quite dry up there until the finish, but there have seemed to be lakes nearby so far. I am starting with a little more water than I have been just in case it is true. It certainly does start off passing lots of little ponds as indicated. When I get nearby, I will see how I feel about doing a benchmark and a peak. The ponds seem to have multiple geological origin...

White River National Forest Routt National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 There is the tiniest bit of frost around again and it does not seem to want to leave until the sun hits it. That will be a little longer than I want to wait. It sure is easy to get up before the mosquitoes when I already have my warm stuff on. The plan for today is to head up the high point of the mountain range, then suffer the indignity of shortening my trip because I just do not seem to be moving fast enough to do the whole loop. Sunrise in the shadow of the biggest flat top of them all. With the sun nearly upon me anyway, I head off away from the lake with its few fish and horse skeleton. (There is all too often a horse skeleton somewhere.) The trail seems good enough, but it actually leads to two routes to get to the lake. The map shows it heading south an unnecessary length before splitting and goin...

White River National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 The air is cold, but I am sweating as I wake. I made a new quilt that just barely tops a pound and am expecting it to be good maybe to 45°F on its own and hoping it will be warm enough in freezing temperatures when wearing the other things I might have along on such a trip. It has not been properly tested, but so far has been too warm on its own for a couple very mild nights. Whatever the temperature is now, it is not cold enough for quilt, puffy pants, and a jacket. I expect it is somewhere above freezing, but as I look around, bits of ice beg to differ. The top of the bear canister has a lovely layer of the stuff and once I leave the quilt, it ices over too. Actually, things seem to be quite actively freezing as I get my breakfast together and keep it up until the first rays of sun hit. The top of Shingle Peak starts to glow as t...

White River National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 For a third year in a row, I have an excuse to go out to Colorado with the opportunity to backpack. I decided to check out the Flat Tops Wilderness this time and found this Boy Scout oriented route suggestion . They can get a patch for doing a 50 mile trip and this one is designed to fit the bill. Of course, I cannot just let someone else plan my whole trip for me. Looking over my Trails Illustrated map, Flat Tops seems to have four main entries with good roads to them, one each for north, south, east, and west. There are quite a number more with rougher entries, but one for each cardinal direction seems quite convenient enough. The western entry (Trapper Lake) even has an opportunity to be the first to find a geocache, but was part of a large burn in 2002 and requires a long, slow approach. The eastern entry (Stillwater Reservoir), w...

White River National Forest The best way to get to Hanging Lake in the middle of the day is probably to pick one of the other parking areas and come in along the bike path, especially if you have your bike along. There is one two miles away and a couple four miles away. Getting to Hanging Lake well after lunch, there was no longer a line for parking spots nor the tan uniformed people enforcing a first come, first served policy. There were just enough spots for everyone as I come in until some twerp behind me decided to go against traffic and grab the last one. I had to circle back around and wait thirty seconds for a much closer and shadier spot instead. Still a twerp. Who gets a Nelson laugh. The Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon. The river is even bigger here as it is just upstream from a hydroelectric dam, but the waters still seem to churn powerfully waiting to suck down anyone foolish enough to go for a swim. This parking lot only gets me closer to the trailhe...

White River National Forest Glenwood Canyon... what a place. The "jewel of the interstate system", it says so right there on the signs. It is probably true, too. I was giddy approaching Hanging Lake. It might actually be early enough to get a parking spot! One of the dangers of being too lazy to reach over and give the clock one click to be set correctly just because it will take another eleven clicks to set it again in two weeks is that it is later than I think. Since I am listening to radio episodes of Lights Out, the speakers keep reminding me that it is later than I think, but the actual fact only sank in as I stacked up behind a line of cars that stretched almost to the entry. Never mind. I turned around and dealt with the most pleasant bit of being forced into one lane for construction in the nation before popping out again at Grizzly Creek. This is a huge rest area with more than enough parking. The Colorado River flows fat beside it and there is a pull...