Estes Cone

This weekend was our annual RMNP trip! This year we went with a couple friends, and it was a great time.

We found camping at East Portal, which was super ideal. The East Portal campground is not technically in the national park, but it may as well be, as the Wind River trail begins next to the campground.

I set out around 6:30 when the sun was rising.

The Wind River trail has several designated backcountry campsites along it.

I soon arrived at the junction with the Storm Pass trail. So far, the trail had been rolling, very gradually going uphill, but highly runnable. The Storm Pass trail was steeper, but still solidly runnable.

I got to see some classic Colorado scenery. 

I still felt pretty good with only 0.7 miles to go at the Estes Cone trail! This was to be the steepest part of the run today. Not exactly runnable, the last half mile took quite a bit longer than expected.

The summit views were worth it!

Mt. Meeker and Longs Peak from the summit of Estes Cone:

In summary, Estes Cone is a great little summit to enjoy, and the trail from the campground was almost fully runnable. I'm happy with this year's choice of trail in RMNP. I'm honestly hoping to go back before the end of the year. One trail per year is not enough!

Mount Kineo

I will admit that since the trail re-routing in Bear Creek Canyon, I've had to run the new trails several times to help adjust my mental map of our local mountains.

This weekend's long run task was also a Mount Kineo summit. I knew the shortest and most direct way was Seven Bridges, so I didn't go that way.

Instead I fabricated a pretty nice figure 8 loop by running up High Drive from Bear Creek Canyon to the saddle, then up Mount Buckhorn/667, continuing on 667 until the junction with 622A, upon which I turned up the Mount Kineo summit trail , returning by scrambling down the east face of Kineo (I am not a huge fan of scrambling but somehow I always end up doing it) until 667, then connecting the new 776 trail to where it joins 666 or the old Bear Creek Canyon trail. This gave me an 11.5 mile kinda-figure 8 loop.

Here is the view of Sentinel (left) and Specimen  (right) Rocks from High Drive near the start of my run.

Wildflowers! 

The view down into North Cheyenne Cañon from 667/ Buckhorn trail. 

Here is a summit photo from Mount Buckhorn, with St. Peter's Dome being in the distance in the very center, and Cookstove Mountain being the interesting summit in the midground of the right side. Of course, the long horizontal line along the valley is Gold Camp road  (closed to vehicles section). Basically the hiking/biking down below.

I love this rock outcropping along 667.

The trail to Mount Kineo was so easy to find. Basically, as I came from 667 to the junction with 622A, I turned around (facing east) and found a clear offshoot that was the Kineo summit trail.

The summit area of Mount Kineo has large flat areas with fantastic views.

Pikes Peak in the background.

There are several fire rings and campsites within the summit area. The open and flat nature of the summit is ideal for a local overnight backcountry trip. 

I intend to return to Kineo soon, a summit I thoroughly enjoyed. I underestimated it for far too long because it tops out not much more than 9k.

Here are a few more photos of Colorado's flora.

Next weekend is the Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent!! I am not racing, but I have many running friends who are. I wish you all so much the best. Crush your goals!

I will be in Rocky Mountain National park next weekend. I'll likely do Estes Cone for my long run, unless something changes.

I look forward to hearing all about the races this year!

Super excellent summit with Sharon!

I will admit that I was super lazy on getting this blog done. It's Thursday? And this run was last Sunday! Haha. Sharon and I made a quick summit on Sunday, my best so far this year. I'll copy the times I got:

37:58 - top of the Incline
53:10 - No Name
1:54:05 - Barr Camp
3:06:42 - A-frame
3:15:40 - Inestine B.
3:33:58 - 2 to go
3:56:24 - 1 to go
4:12:50 - 16 Golden Stairs
4:24:22 - summit

Here is Sharon and I at A-frame.

It's so green in the mountains this year. It's amazing! It's like lush green carpet above treeline. In many ways I think this may point to climate change.

Rain storms began to threaten as we got above treeline. I even put my long sleeve shirt on for a minute, but the 10 seconds of icy drizzle soon passed and I was too warm again.

Here is Sharon running near a mile to go. Take note of all the green patches. Seems like a lot for more than 13,000 feet elevation.

Rain clouds streaming in the east over the cirque.

I'm very pleased with our summit and our time.

I am beginning to contemplate my major goal for next year and it might have to be a fast Pikes Peak Ascent. It will require a lot of dedicated training though!

3 (almost) up top on Pikes Peak

It was time for some midweek altitude training. Because why not?

So Lindsay, Mike, Kristina and I set out early to drive up the summit of Pikes. We got stopped at Devils Playground due to the shuttle situation with ongoing construction atop the summit.

So we did the next best thing and jumped in the back of a pickup for the last few miles to the summit!

I've always wanted to drive up Pikes with an open top car, and today's adventure fulfilled that mission! When we reached the summit, we saw some mountain goats escaping the onslaught of tourists. 

My original plan was to only go down to the 2 miles to go sign and then back up to the summit. 

But I felt energetic and decided I'd feel like I got a more complete workout if I went a little further. I saw Mike coming up and asked how far the Inestine B Roberts memorial was. He said just around the corner. There it was! 

I knew I'd have a push if I wanted to make the summit by 10am, which was our set leaving time. I wasn't concerned about grabbing an alternative ride down, but I decided I'd give it a shot anyway.

I made it up to the summit at 10:08, so I grabbed a ride back to Manitou with some friendly tourists.

I was very pleased with this high altitude workout as I ended up with 45 mins down and 1:05 back up from the Intestine B Roberts memorial sign.

Can't wait for more cool adventures on the Peak!