The "Pfast" Pfiffner Traverse attempt.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
I first heard of this route years ago, when a friend mentioned it when I suggested something perhaps even a little bit crazier.  The Pfiffner Traverse, as I understand, was conceived by none other than Gerry Roach, and named as an ode to a friend who had inklings on, but (I think) never did a similar route. The idea is pretty simple- to connect Berthoud Pass and Milner Pass.  Gerry took several weeks to do this, and stayed on the continental divide as much as possible, bagging summits along the way and dropping down to lakes to camp and find water. The similar route is now known as L ..read more
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The Rawahs Part 6.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
Before I even really get into it, I am writing about this day and hike a year after it was done, so please forgive my possibly faulty memory.  One thing I do remember and can definitely see now looking back through the photos was the moody weather.  The prediction for the day wasn't great, I suppose I generally got lucky, yet still got quite precipitated on. I started dark and early from my home in Longmont, for the drive to get to the northwest part of Larimer County is not short.  I first found my way north to CO-14, and headed up the Poudre Canyon.  I went most of the wa ..read more
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Dunraven TH to Pingree Park (and back!).
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
Ah, August in Colorado.  A time of afternoon thunderstorms, warm weather, and lots of sunshine. I was gearing up for the Plain 100, and this would be my second and last of two longer days between it and Ouray.  I mapped this one, and got ~32 miles and ~7k gain, pretty perfect.  It wouldn't be a ton of new trail to me, but would include some confusing intersections, and also a little bit of road to make the connection between the Stormy Peaks trail and the Signal Mountain trail, both in the area of Pingree Park. And Pingree Park!  It's not a short drive from my home in Longm ..read more
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Ring of Never Summers.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
As I planned to do two difficult 100 mile races this year, both fairly close to each other (for me), I felt recovery from Ouray was important.  Two days after the race, I was back out there.  I decided to do my early recovery by bike, doing two shorter and lower intensity efforts back to back on the last days of July.  My thoughts were that mountain biking is definitely lower impact than running or maybe even hiking, but also very good cardio.  And getting that blood moving would help clear out my legs. Then a short bump up to some longer days before tapering for the Plain ..read more
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Apache Peak, Mount George, and Iroquois aka The Bicuspid Traverse.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
Though I like my work schedule, having three weekdays off isn't the best for meeting up with and seeing friends who also enjoy being outside, but have more traditional weekends.  It's an occasional pleasure to see them, though it often means them or me taking a day off to meet up. We got lucky on Labor Day- I happened to have off because it's Monday, one of my normal days off, and most normal people have off for the holiday.  The weather looked great, if anything a little warm for this time of year. After throwing a few suggestions back and forth, we decided on taking the east ledges ..read more
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2019 Ouray 100.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
I was around mile 39, on the second Ironton loop, when I saw the first flash of lightning.  Much to my surprise, the preceding day in the mountains had been relatively dry- there were a few times I got my rain jacket out and put it on, but the precipitation didn't last for long. Here I was, back at the Ouray 100.  Though satisfied with my time from the year before, I wanted to see if I could improve.  This involved a much more dedicated approach to training, but more on that later. It was just after sunset when the lightning occurred.  I had my headlamp on and hadn't used i ..read more
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Volunteer Trail Work (or how I learned to stop worrying and not be a lazy parasite).
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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2y ago
I made up my mind over the winter.  This would be the year I'd stop wondering when and if anyone was ever going to come cut the dead fall that had been blocking the Bright Extension Trail for years, and be the change I wanted to see in the world.  Though I doubt Gandhi was talking about cutting trees when he said that. This trail has been officially closed since the floods of 2013, now nearly six years in the past.  I know it's a pretty obscure one, in the middle of nowhere, and probably high on maybe, optimistically, the list of 5 people to hike.  And therefore, not much o ..read more
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The Rawahs Part 5.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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3y ago
Another fall week with good weather predicted, another early wake up and long drive to summit a few more peaks in the Rawahs.  Due to my earlier navigation error, I left myself with one higher summit in the group north of the Poudre, Cameron Peak.  Since that one wasn't enough for me to do that long of a drive, I also planned to visit Table Iron and Iron Mountain, on the south side of the Poudre and an extension to the part of the Never Summer Range that is in RMNP, as well as the three 10ers off of Long Draw Road. Now it's a few months later, cold, and I'm sitting at home with a sor ..read more
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The Rawahs Part 4.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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3y ago
As detailed in the previous post, I made a pretty dumb navigational/identification mistake and got pretty close to but did not summit Snowbank Peak in the Rawahs.  Hopefully I won't make a mistake like that again, or at least for awhile! I set out the next week to correct that error-it would've been a pretty mellow day otherwise.  Well, relatively speaking.  But having to kick back north added about 7 miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain to the day.   Then again, the area is awesome, and I was looking forward to the day ahead.  Like the previous week, the weather ..read more
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The Rawahs Part 2 & 3.
Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park
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3y ago
Back to the Rawahs, as if my arm had to be twisted at all.  My plan was to try to visit the areas farthest and most inaccessible from my house first, while the weather was still good.  And now, in wintery weather, visit the closer and easier to get to summits. Thus I set out with a partner to do a fun loop from the Link McIntrye trailhead, near Glendevey.  To get here, take CO-14 to 103.  Turn north on road 103, and continue on this dirt road until you get to road 190, where you'll take a left at a pretty obvious intersection.  The trailhead and parking are on your lef ..read more
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