Sitting in town, heating up at 70 degrees, and looking at the foothills can easily lead to the conclusion that the snow is mostly melted below treeline.
But somehow that's not the case at all.
My day began at North Cheyenne Cañon after Alex dropped me off.
I coasted up Seven Bridges for a while.
It was here that I ran into a friend I haven't seen in some time and spent a few minutes catching up. Once again, running in the mountains without seeing someone I know? Impossible. :)
The trails were clear. Clear I tell ya! At the junction of trails 667 and 668, there wasn't even a patch of snow.
I continued up 667 at a reasonable pace. I stopped briefly to admire the view of Bear Creek Canyon at my favorite clearing in the trail.
If you look in the middle of the photo, you can almost see the clearing near the patch of bare aspens below the central rocky summit. That's Jones Park, complete with the large rock and decommissioned trail. Yep, just a couple years ago the trail 666 used to run through here, but it has since been "suspended" for use for a minimum of 20 years while trout restoration is in progress.
Not far beyond the overlook, the problems began. The trail was absolutely clear - until it wasn't. About 9000 feet, the snow began. And it wasn't just any snow. It was snowfields that had been melted on top and refrozen, creating really tough, crunchy, icy snow...
Drifts in some areas were *still* several feet deep.
I kept post holing and crunching through nasty snow until the junction of 701 and 667.
Even though the whole trail is engulfed in snowdrifts by this point, I still didn't give up quite yet. But just past this intersection on trail 667, there was a part of the trail that was so eaten up by snow that I had to come to terms with the day.
That's the trail under there somewhere. And I knew that even if I made it around that bend, there would be another snowfield around the corner. And the post holing was time consuming, and there was basically no way I'd make it to Barr Camp today. My adventure would have to wait for another day.
I turned around and decided to head down 667 towards High Drive, knowing that I could add more mileage if I went down High Drive and towards Bear Creek Park. At least I could make a 15+ mile day out of my unsuccessful Barr Camp attempt.
I stopped for a minute to refuel in a clearing and take in the view of the Mt. Rosa saddle. The summit of Rosa itself is hidden behind the saddle.
Here's a view of Mt. Kineo poking through the trees. This is a favorite "short day" summit for me, as it is a quick 6 to 7 mile trip from Seven Bridges. Today, I skipped that summit and just headed down 667, wanting the mileage more than the views.
Next I wanted to share a neat view from coming down 667 just before the 776 junction. In this view, in the lower left corner you can make out the North Cheyenne Cañon dirt parking lot. In the upper right corner is the summit of St. Peter's Dome! I thought this was a super cool view of one of my favorite runs from last year. You can see the way Gold Camp Road (the non-motorized section) winds up towards the Dome. Beyond the Dome, Gold Camp comes to a junction with Old Stage Road (seen on the back side of Cheyenne Mountain in this photo). What a cool view!
Finally, a photo of the classic view from Mt. Buckhorn. A favorite view featuring the summits of St. Peter's Dome, Stove Mountain, Mt. Rosa, and a little bit of the road (FS 379A) below the Almagre summit.
The Buckhorn summit is just a bonus along the already gorgeous trail 667. After this, I was pretty tired, but I descended High Drive to the north and jogged along the road to the Bear Creek Nature Center, where I met Alex. A total of almost 16 miles, I'd gotten my fill of expansive views and fun trail running, despite my unsuccessful efforts to make a connection to Barr Camp.
The Lake Moraine trail will have to wait until the mountains melt off more. This is still a trail run that's on my list! But I certainly underestimated the snow levels in the foothills.
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