Delightfully Exhausting Labor Day

As all long weekend should be, Labor Day weekend was thoroughly exhausting.  We left GJ fairly early Friday morning (and by fairly early I mean 10:30) and headed up and over to Snowmass Village for the JAS Festival.  More specifically we were there to see Wilco, a fabulous band lead by Jeff Tweedy.  Since the concert didn't start til 8 that evening, we had plenty of time to take a gondola ride up the Elk Camp lift with our bikes.  You know us--we don't go anywhere without the mountain bikes--especially not to a mountain without them!  We tackled the Government Trail which, even with the gondola ride, still involved some climbing, and then rode up a second time on the gondola to bomb down another trail--Snowmass Way.  It was dusty, dirty work but hey, someone had to do it.

Me with dirty legs after our Snowmass ride.

Of course the concert was fabulous.  We danced around for several hours to Wilco's crazy lyrics, fast beats and occasional purposeful discord.  The next morning we headed up to Aspen and over Independence Pass to Leadville and on to Frisco--one of our favorite towns to visit in the fall.  The views going up and over the pass were amazing!

Heading down Independence Pass

Frisco for us means visiting friends and biking some fabulous woodsy trails.  I love GJ biking with all its rocks and dust, but there is nothing quite like the smell of a great forest when you're biking.  I love the shadows, the trees towering over head and the thrill of whipping around switchbacks just barely wide enough for you to turn through without hitting your handlebars.  We biked our favorite Frisco trail--the Peninsula trail around Lake Dillon.

 and then the next day got up and biked a three hour lollipop with our friends that put us high on the Colorado Trail near Breckenridge.  Last year that ride almost did me in...this time I was much faster and was smiling almost the whole way!  (Except for the dreaded long slow ascent from the ranch...ugh.)  What I can tell you about this trail is that it starts off of Tiger Road by the Dredge.  Parts of it are called:  The Power line, Blair Witch, the Trench, and then there's of course the Colorado Trail itself.

all in all a fabulous weekend!  Oh right, as if all that biking wasn't enough, on Monday my friend Alice and I headed out for one last trail run before the BF and I headed home....4 days of fun...for some :)

Summer's almost gone!

I have to give credit to Richie who said, over here that she was eeking out the last bits of summer, for this post. Seriously where did it go? We were still getting snow on May 1 and now, on August 13, we're getting 51 degree morning temps. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful for biking and trail running and all that...but I could have used a little bit more heat. I love sitting on the balcony with the sun just drenching me in warmth. Still, it's been a great summer! Let's recap:

1. We started the summer with the fabulous bike trip down to Durango/Cortez...when it was still too cold to camp, but not too cold to enjoy some awesome biking:

2. That was followed in July by the annual backpacking trip. This year's trip took us into the Uncompahgre wilderness for 4 days and 3 nights of solitude.

3. Then we rounded out the summer with what is becoming our annual trip to Crested Butte...complete with 4 days of biking bliss!

And now...summer is coming to a close...it's time to prepare for half-marathons and Labor Day concerts; time to wax the skis and prep those quad muscles for long days on bump runs...time to start looking for a Halloween costume and time to pull out the soup recipes...I do believe Fall is on its way!

Which is better? Group training or solo training? This week's rant...

I tend to be a soloist when it comes to running. I like to go at my own pace, do my own thing, say my little mantras to myself and enjoy the peace that comes from focusing on nothing but my breathing and my next mile.

When it comes to biking I could go either way. Sometimes it's fun to bike with someone else. You can revel in each other's successes when you make it over hard ledges or drops, stop to catch your breath together while looking down on the Colorado River, and you've always got someone there in the unlikely event (or in my case, the likely event) that you crash. Although, in my defense, that hasn't happened this year. Excuse me while I go find some wood to knock on.

Here's why I bring all this up: At work right now we are currently all battling it out to win this "fitness challenge." We all have groups of 3 and we get points for every time we work out. (1 point per work out). If you work out with one of your team members, you each get 2 points. The whole idea being that, for most people, it is more motivating to work out with someone than alone. For many people, I'm sure this is true. Maybe I'm a sour puss.

Now, I had a great time biking with my friends this weekend in Crested Butte. That was a blast! And I have fun biking with my friends here too. Usually the majority of us can agree on a time and place and, if we can't, well, we just don't bike together. But this fitness challenge thing is throwing a wrench in the works.

Here's what I mean: Yesterday one of my running buddies (I call her that because we sometimes do run together and we are training for the same races and plan to go to them together.) was planning a run with our other friend, E. She says to me (the injured one) "You should come bike while we run so we can get double fitness challenge points." I figure sure, an after work bike ride on a mellow paved trail will be nice...I'll do like a time challenge... "Ok, sure." Then I ask, "What time are you guys going?" "Oh around 7." WHAT????

I mean, I know it's cooler then, but this is the point where I want to say, "Nope, nevermind." I like to work out after work. By 7 p.m. I've washed the dinner dishes, put on my comfy clothes, and am relaxing on the couch. That's NOT when I want to be loading up the bike. But since I'd already agreed to go, I stuck by that. When I got there, one friend had already run a few miles and was just raring to keep going as soon as E showed up. So before I could even get my bike off the roof, they were gone! WHA? Like I didn't expect us to all hang together for very long, but really? So of course I crank the bike up to its highest gear and leave them in the dust...I bike the entire 8 mile loop, the turn back in to find them and end up doing about 2 slower miles trying to half-way talk to them and encourage them as they finish their run. Then we all get in our cars and go home. So...i got in a very light work out at a time when i could have been home and I didn't even get any girl time or friend time or anything? Maybe I'm being petty.

Maybe it's just this particular group of people...even when we try to run together, we aren't running together...my legs are short and I'm slow and so I run by myself and they turn around once in a while to make sure a mountain lion hasn't grabbed me. Hence the reason I prefer to run alone.

Even with biking I have mixed emotions. If you have a good group and everyone gets there on time, then it works great. Mountain bikers spend a lot of time stopping to catch their breath, take pictures, talk...so everyone catches up and chats before moving on.

Still, with running, I often times like my solitude. I like moving at my own pace. I like not looking ahead and thinking, "Man...I wish I could catch up and be part of the conversation." Maybe, like I said earlier, I'm just a sour puss when it comes to group runs! I guess in the end all I'm saying is, "If you want to run together, then let's run together. If you want us to start at the same time and then finish somewhere in the same 15 minute stretch and perhaps see each other in the distance to wave...I'll just go it alone thanks."

So there you have my rant for the week. Swimming and biking this weekend! What do you have planned?

Lung busting climbs and jaw dropping views

The 401 Trail
It's amazing how one view can make you forget that awful lung-coming-out-of-your-mouth feeling. That's exactly what happens when you reach the summit of the famed 401 trail in Crested Butte. Driving out on the Gothic road you pass the tiny research "town" of Gothic and head higher up the rutted jeep road into the forest. Camp grounds and bikers dot the roadside. If you have the opportunity, running a shuttle is probably the best idea for your first 401 ride. Park a car at the end (located at the hard-to-miss sign indicating Rustler's Gulch or something like that) and then drive on up to a tiny patch of a somewhat flat parking area on the right side of the road. Even the view from here is enough to make you curious about the ride:


From here it's a bit of a climb on a jeep road up to Schofield Pass. If there is a bright side to this climb, it's that it's not technical and it does give you a bit of a chance to acclimate and warm up your legs. You can pedal slowly and concentrate on sucking in what little oxygen is available while also checking out some amazing views. Take a break at the pass before heading off on the single track on the right side of the road (appropriately labeled "401 trail"). I'm not gonna lie, the next part of the climb (which some books claim is only about a mile) is hellacious for us low landers. Literally I just have to try to make it to the next flat spot. Most of the trail is rideable, it's just a lot of climbing without much oxygen. Still, once you reach the meadow you get this view, and you're almost done!


The next time you take a break you get this view and you're really, I promise, almost at the top of the climb.


What comes next is a mix of mind blowing downhill fun mixed with a few terrifying moments of portages, steep exposed hillsides and narrow switchbacks. Oh, and more amazing views...the singletrack really isn't any more narrow than any other singletrack, but it does traverse a steep mountain hill. So while there aren't cliffs, per se, the right side does slope down pretty steeply and if the flowers aren't blooming on that side...well...it can be a little intimidating.

Still, soon enough you've reached lower ground and you can cruise around wooded switchbacks with ease, hands cramping from holding the brakes, back screaming from you standing for several miles...mouth in a wide grin the whole time! When you hit the double track you can continue even further down the 401 through some bogs and mosquito laden territories, or turn right, head down the hill and cross the creek. If you've shuttled, your car and beer will be waiting. If you haven't, bribe the strongest person into riding back up the road to get the car while you stand around saying, "Man that was awesome!" to anyone who will listen.


The Snodgrass Trail
If you're feeling especially spunky after your 401 ride, you can add the 3.5 mile Snodgrass trail later in the afternoon. Again, it's best to have a shuttle so you can park one car down on Washington Gulch road. Otherwise some poor soul is going to have to climb back up the paved road to get your car. However, if you're staying in condos out on that end of town, this isn't really an issue. The Snodgrass trail parking is right where the Gothic road turns from pavement at the edge of town to dirt. You'll see a parking area on the left with a gate, sign, and ladder thingy over the fence.

Here's the thing: The Snodgrass trail requires about another mile of climbing...so if you aren't ready for that after your 401 trek, save this for another day. After the initial climb, you come to another trail head and sign. Head down, not right. You'll climb a little more, cross a creek (if you're daring you'll do it on the bike), and finally come to a little lookout point before heading down for about 2.5 miles through the woods.


It's tight quarters in here, but man is it fun! Keep those hands at the edge of your handbars though...trees will snatch them if you aren't careful.

There are tons of other rides to do in the area including the Upper Loop, Strand Hill and Strand Hill bonus (formerly Farris Creek) and still others that I've never done like Reno/Flag Bear and Doctor's Park. Crested Butte is a mountain biker's dream...at least until 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. when the rains start!

We stayed about half an hour away, camping on the Taylor Reservoir road. If you're into camping, you really can't beat this area. You can take the Jack's Cabin cutoff road and save yourself some drive time each day. There are probably 10 different camp sites on this road, most of which take reservations at .

Check out the Brick Oven pizza place in town for some awesome pizza or the Wooden Nickel for dinner. Just remember to always always have a raincoat!

Update!

Just a quick update on the injuries...What I can only assume is some sort of peroneal tendonitis in my ankle is healing nicely. I have rested and iced since Thursday evening. I've also been keeping it elevated a lot of the time. All of this seems to have helped, even if it's made me a little stir crazy...I can walk almost pain free now!

In order to overcome the restlessness I did an ab/upper body work out on Saturday. This required no standing and therefore was not a danger to my hurt ankle. While not the most exciting activity, doing crunches in the living room, and lifting weights while sitting, it did at least give me something to do...

Then today my friend A and I went to the local pool to get in some sun and lap time. I haven't been swimming in years! It's harder work that you might think. We shared a lane and I got in 13 laps of various strokes...freestyle, back, side, you name it! I'm tired tired tired now. Still, it felt good to know I was still being active and not doing any damage to my ankle. That I know of.

A trip to Crested Butte soon will provide some much needed biking and after that I'll get back to training for the first half marathon. For next year I'm thinking...the Highline Hustle Triathlon sounds good!

Plagued by pain and frustration

First, let's get one thing straight: Mountain biking is my favorite sport. I love the challenge of it, I love how easy it is to see success and I love how, this year, I'm not crashing! Still...running has become my second favorite sport. I love to run alone on long runs, and I love running trails with Lynn and Elissa. There's something about just running and meeting each and every goal along the way that gets in your blood...the endorphins kick in, the adrenaline gets going, and you just feel so ecstatic...it's crazy and it feels wonderful.

It feels wonderful until, like me, you wake up the day after a long run with aching hips or shin splints...you get a sore knees 2/3 of the way through a run, or and this is the most bizarre, you wake up in the middle of the night with pain from a strained PELVIC JOINT. Yes. It's happened to me. Right now I'm dealing with some sort of tendonitis on the outside of my left ankle. It was getting better after 3 days of rest and then, like any runner, I went running. Let me stress that while running, my ankle did not hurt. I thought well great! It's getting better! Oh no. It was just toying with me. I woke up this morning and the pain was back, just as bad as Monday. Ibuprofen, ice, elevation...all seem to help a little, but MAN walking is painful. This is my foot, at my desk, in a slightly awkward position with a giant piece of ice under my ankle.



Look I understand that in running injuries are going to happen. I get that. It's a lot of pounding and blah blah blah. But do I have to get EVERY injury? Granted I only get them very briefly (the issue with my IT band lasted 2 runs), but still. It's frustrating when I want to train for the half-marathons and I can't.

On the other hand, it's a good excuse to go for some long bike rides! Maybe this weekend I'll bike here:


(Thanks for posing Tomas :))

I guess I just needed to rant. I've got a big bike trip coming up and more than anything I do not want this ankle to still be hurting. So I'll be good and I'll rest it and I'll sit at my desk in bizarre positions so I can ice it. Better to take a few days off now than a month off later.

Failes Creek Trail, Big Blue Trail and Falls Creek Trail--Uncompahgre Wilderness: 24 miles

4 day/3 Night Backpacking Trip in the Uncompahgre Wilderness

Day 1: Be prepared for a long one! Failes Creek to the Big Blue Trail
Standing here by the wilderness sign, I've no idea there are 3 more miles, on top of the 7 we've already done, in front of me...


Every adventure has some learning experiences, and this trip was no exception. It was still wonderful and beautiful and I'd do it again. But next time, I'd know a few more things that would help me and the BF out!

Day 1 started off great. We spent the night at the Little Cimmarron campground about 4 miles from the trail head. There were no other campers there and the place was well kept--even had an out house. We started from the Falls Creek area(despite what the sign at the end of the road says, it's 20 miles to here, not 14), heading north/northeast on the Failes Creek trail. Our destination was the Big Blue Trail, 5 miles and 1 ridge away. Failes Creek is a great little trail--mostly wooded with adequate water supplies in the first 2-3 miles. Make sure to have both a GPS and a map and if you are in any doubt about where to go, follow your map! Stay on a north/northeast route and on a trail and you'll be headed the right way.

Once you start climbing the top of the ridge is fairly easy and quick to reach. Coming down seems never ending, and there's no good water on this side, so make sure to load up before heading up the switchbacks. Once you start to hear dirt bikes, you'll know you've reached Big Blue Road and the Alpine Trail. Crossing the creek here is fun, but just aim for the trail marker on the other side and you'll be fine. Take your water shoes!

From here it's a short 1.5 (ish) miles to the Big Blue Trailhead. Our advice, in hindsight, is to camp right near the trail head. By this point you've gone 6.5 or 7 miles and you won't find another campsite for about 3 more. We hiked on in, not knowing any better, and did find a nice spot, but we would have been happier campers if our first day had not been 10 miles of hiking!
This was our campsite for night #1. Those trees across in the center are on the other side of a small ravine--the creek is down a steep trail, but is accessible.

Day Two: Big Blue Continued
Day Two dawned cloudy. We had slept (or at least been in the tent quietly resting in the middle of the night) for almost 12 hours. Coffee and tea were calling us! As we sat on some nice logs looking down at the river below, it started to rain. We dove into the tent just as it started to pour. This was our worst fear...Will this be the day we have to hike all day in the rain?

Karma was on our side however, and about an hour later the sky cleared up and was beautiful for the rest of the day. We made this a short day, considering the length we'd covered the day before, and decided that as soon as we passed Slide Lake, we'd start looking for a spot. Slide Lake is interesting...but the "slide" itself is way more intriguing.

Soon we found a great meadow, complete with easy water access and a waterfall. We had a home. As a bonus, this spot, about 6.5 miles in, had a perfect copse of pine trees for a kitchen. We could sit in this little space, leaned back against a sap-covered tree, and stay dry even in brief rain showers.



Me in the "kitchen" at our camp spot for night #2. There are others just past this and then on for the next 2 miles or so. Lots of great views, water and trees.

Day Three: Big Blue to the Falls Creek Trail

Day three was by far the best day for views on our trip. We left our lovely meadow campsite and headed further up the Big Blue for a day of what we knew would entail quite a bit of climbing. As we climbed, slowly but surely at first, the views opened up before us. We saw great camp sites all along the trail, on the east side of the creek, and wide open meadows and mountains all around us. Soon we turned the corner and there it was: Uncompahgre Peak.



We continued climbing, at some points moving 50 steps forward and stopping, as we got closer to 12,000 ft. The trail is in great shape and is easy to follow (again, it's still helpful to have a map and gps and know where you're going). As soon as we turned onto the Fall Creek Trail (Ridge Stock Driveway heads further south; we turned west) we could see the saddle we were headed for. We took off across the meadow, gaping at the views, for what seemed like forever. There was no reason to complain, the trail was easy to follow, it wasn't too steep, and the views were just incredible. The air was getting thin, however, so we did have to stop a lot. What we should have been doing was eating...

Here's just one of the many views from the summit of our hike on Day #3, at 12, 740 ft.


**A side note: Camp before the summit. Hike in to right below, near the old shack, and camp down there. There is NO good camping on Fall Creek from the junction with Little Cimarron until you're within 3 miles of the end of your trip. If you wait, you'll end up with an 8.5 mile trip and some questionable tent sites...think sliding to the bottom of your tent...digging rocks out of the ground...

We continued on past the summit, heading down to what we thought would be a perfect and soon-to-be-reached campsite. The trail is downhill and covered with rocks. It's pretty slow going just because you have to weave around so many loose rocky spots. We did stop for some snacks, but we pushed ourselves far too hard. This was mostly out of necessity as we couldn't find a spot to camp! Everything was either boggy or uneven or rock infested. We finally did find what turned out to be a great little knoll. It worked for us because we have a small tent and were desperate. After being held captive in our tent for an hour by mosquitoes we were able to come out and enjoy a nice meal of chili mac and camp margaritas before turning in. This campsite is about 1/2 a mile after you cross Fall Creek down in the valley for the first time. If you can hold out for another mile or so, until the next creek crossing, there are great meadows for camping.

Day 4: Fall Creek to the car!


Day #4 was the most beautiful day of all. There were no clouds in the sky and it was too cold for the mosquitoes to be up when we were. At 11,200 ft there were ice crystals in our water at 7 a.m. Still, it was a lovely morning perched on our tiny knoll. We weren't hungry, but we knew we needed to eat, so we ate sesame snaps, a pay day, and cheese. We had gone 50 hours without seeing another soul, but we knew that was all ending soon. We packed up and headed out.

The Fall Creek Trail is great for hiking from this point forward. It's easy to follow, and the views are great. There are some rocky sections with "baby head" rocks to watch for, but it's relatively easy hiking. We enjoyed seeing others along the trail and talked about our newest strategies for our next trip...

* Stop every hour to take OFF the pack, rest, and eat. This will keep you from getting completely hammered. It's better to stop often than to get completely "destination focused" and forget to eat.

* Remember that everything isn't going to go like you think--especially on new trails.

* Falls Creek is not the best trail for camping...a better plan for next time would be: Hike Failes to Big Blue and camp right at the wilderness boundary. Hike up about 7 or 8 miles towards the summit/ridgeline at junction of Big Blue and Fall Creek. Day 3 will be up and over and about 4 miles down Fall Creek past the Little Cimarron Junction...then you have a short hike out on the last day.

* We need another Ursack. Right now we have 1 Ursack (bear proof) and 1 dry bag that we hang with odor-proof bags inside it. We think 2 Ursacks would be better.

So we survived! I only cut myself once, ran into 1 tree limb, came back with 1 horrible pinky-toe blister. It was a great adventure and I'm sure by next year we'll be looking for another one.