Mt. Herman loop trail with Sharon

This is a quickie update, as a lot of what I did last week was stay at home and pick up some weights.

I almost forgot that I did do the Section 16 Palmer Red Rock loop on Wednesday. It was just a quick morning loop. I love the views from the loop. If you haven't done it, the views include the lower parts of Bear Creek Canyon and the north side of High Drive as it winds up towards the saddle between Mays Peak and Mount Buckhorn. And then there is the cute little bridge by a small waterfall.

The whole loop is just about 6 miles, a good distance for a midweek short jog.

And then on Sunday, I met up with Sharon for our first run together since the Ascent. We did Mt. Herman loop trail.

It was so cool and refreshing in the hills! The first part of the trail is somewhat filled with switchbacks and unknown split offs, but once we reached the top of Limbaugh Canyon we knew we were on the right trail.

Then the trail took us through beautiful autumn meadows with the aspens just barely starting to change colors!

There is so much natural beauty to find right here in our own area! How lucky we are.

I'm looking forward to even more autumn adventures as the leaves continue to change colors and I continue to challenge myself with new and different runs.

Humbled by Humboldt Peak with Lindsay

On Friday, I summited my 6th 14er, Humboldt Peak! Lindsay and I had a long day - it took us 9 and half hours or so. I was so drained by the end, I slept forever that night.

Now that I'm actively collecting 14er summits, I wish I'd kept better track of the number of times I've summited Pikes Peak.

My first summit of Pikes was in 2008, and I've summited at least a few times each training season from 2014 on. I know I collected 6 summits of Pikes last year, and I'm at 5 for this year. If I had to guess, I'd probably say I've summited Pikes Peak  around 20 times.

But I suppose it doesn't matter too much; only unique summits count, right? :) If I'm counting by the "extended list," there are 58 14ers total, which means I'm at 6 down and 52 to go. But if I'm going to get a nice "overview" of the 14ers, I'd like to at least summit one peak in each sub-range or group.

Humboldt Peak was an excellent choice for the Crestone Group. It's mostly class 2, and not difficult - just really really long.

Lindsay and I started off right as the morning twilight was setting in, giving us just enough light to begin without a headlamp. We started hiking from the 2 wheel drive trailhead, as the road to the Colony Lakes is known as one of the worst in Colorado.

Lindsay kept pointing out how rough the road was, and I sure didn't blame her for not wanting to drive on it - there were a few places where it looked like even a 4 wheel drive car with a lift would get stuck.

We kept an active pace and it felt like we quickly got to the 4 wheel drive trailhead. (This road would feel much much longer on the way down.)

The trail wound gradually upward through the montaine forest. I found it interesting that where we parked down below at the 2 wheel drive trailhead was a completely different bio zone, as it was a high plains/desert area, lacking in trees but filled with tall yellow grasses and hardy shrubs.

Lindsay and I discussed "forest bathing," a concept that I'd brought up with Jill on our Barr trail run. Check here if you missed that post and would like to read it.

The whole idea of "forest bathing" is to take in the wilderness as it presents itself to you; to touch, smell, look, breathe in the forest in a way that it fuels your soul. To put it another way, it's an old meditative concept of being present. Forest bathing is just another way of taking in the outdoors and being a part of your surroundings.

I pointed out that part of my own experience of forest bathing includes using my body and pushing my limits a little, and that can be an integral part of the whole process.

In the midst of all this philosophising, we came to a clearing and had our first view of the Crestones ahead of us.

Soon the trail begins to ascend a bit more steeply. Not long after the view of the first lake, we reached treeline.

The Colony Lakes continue to be visible below as we ascended through the basin to the west. Crestone Needle was prominently visible the whole time, and as we made our way along the trail, Crestone Peak also came into view.

Soon we came to the Humboldt saddle, turned east, and began the climb to the summit. This part of the adventure was a little more rocky, as expected with 14ers. There were a few parts at the ridgeline that were very exposed - surprisingly so. If you fell off the ridge to the north, you'd fall a few thousand feet. I tried to get a photo that would show this, without also risking a fall.

And finally, after about 5 hours and 15 minutes, we made the summit. A couple on top the summit had brought their own sign, so we got to take our summit photo with it!

The view from the summit was fantastic. To the west, we could see the 14er summits of Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, and Kit Carson. We could make out the San Luis Valley down below. I think I could even see a small corner of the Great Sand Dunes.

To the south, the prominent Blanca Group was visible, as well as the Spanish Peaks.

To the east, Greenhorn Mountain and its surrounding area dominates the view.

And finally, to the north, looking along the horizon, the ultra prominent Pikes Peak comes into view. I find it interesting that every 14er I've attained so far has had a view of Pikes from the top; of course this means that you can also see these summits when you're atop Pikes. When you're as familiar with Pikes Peak as I am, its massif is super recognizable from every direction.

Sitting atop the summit of Humboldt, I took out the compact binoculars I'd brought with me, and I was able to see the south face of Pikes, along with the clear cut where the Cog train runs (or, rather, temporarily doesn't run, at least until they repair it). But it was tough to keep the binoculars still in the wind.

We basked in our success for about 15 minutes, but the winds were high and a fire burning to the west was blowing smoke in, so we began our descent. It was going to be a long day, but we stayed tough and stuck it out, finally finishing in around 9 and half hours. (I'm pretty terrible at descents.)

Thanks to Lindsay for going with me, and for hanging in there with me throughout our long trek! My GPS indicated we'd done 17 miles total, and 5500 feet of elevation gain.

I slept like a rock on Friday night.

On Sunday evening, I went for a short shakeout run at Palmer Park, watching the sunset from the western bluffs. I took a photo as nautical twilight began.

I reflected back on Humboldt Peak, and happily wrote another successful day into my memories. Despite it taking much longer than anticipated and being quite difficult due to fatigue on the downhill, I'm glad we were able to accomplish it. After all, it was just another chance to bathe in the forest.

Back on Barr trail with Jill! Plus, general off-season "training" update.

After last Monday's 14er loop with Dionne, I knew I'd need a few easy days as it took a lot out of me.

On Wednesday, I did a usual Palmer Park 5.5ish miler, taking to the trails.

Then on Thursday, I met up with Jill for a Barr trail adventure!

The weather was really perfect, truly an early autumn day on the Peak, with some afternoon cloud cover but no storms threatening.

I had brought my binoculars and wanted to get to a nice rocky top and see what I could see, so I tried to get to the big outcropping that I believe is called "Monte's View Rockpile," at least according to this SummitPost trip report.

However, the little trail to the rock pile drops down through a small meadow and is excessively overgrown. And then a crazy bee came up and stung Jill. I felt so bad for trying to drag her off trail to through the overgrown area! Instead, she and I climbed a small rock outcropping to the north side of Barr trail, right behind the metal sign that says 1/2 mile to Barr Camp.

This little outcropping is one of my favorites once you're on top of it, as it feels just like you're sitting in the middle of a picture frame with rocks on both sides of you.

I still feel bad about trying unsuccessfully to attempt the "Monte's" rock pile and causing Jill to get stung! But the day was such a success otherwise, and Barr trail was almost eerily empty - a sign of the unofficial "off season" after the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon.

Since we tallied almost 15 miles on Thursday, I took my next run on Saturday really easy. I went back to Palmer Park and did a brief 5 mile loop.

In the name of trying to be a little more sustainable, the majority of my solo runs are ones that I can access from my doorstep. No driving, saving gas, etc. And Palmer Park, just a mile from my house, is a great natural location for me to get some good climbing in. There are tons of trails, including some old social trails that have a lot of ascent and descent. Also great training for the times when I can meet up with friends and go on trail adventures!

Lots more to come soon! :)

Decalibron loop with Dionne!

It's officially the off-season for me now! I like it that way sometimes, because without a specific race goal in mind, I can actually do more fun things like adventure runs and long distance spur-of-the-moment runs. For some people, having a race helps motivate them to run. Personally, while I enjoy testing myself in races from time to time, the motivation to do fun runs and exploration runs stems from my inner desire to collect a variety of different trail experiences.

So with that in mind, my Labor day plan was to mark off four fourtneers from the bucket list! The Decalibron loop is a very popular peak bagger loop, and I was very happy to be invited on this adventure by Dionne! We opted to do the four peaks in the order of Bross > Lincoln > Cameron > Democrat.

Dionne and I set out from the trailhead just before 6am, while it was still pretty dark. We only needed our headlamps for a brief time as the sun began to rise quickly.

Soon the mountains all around us were illuminated in the sharp morning light! And it was not much longer before we were atop Bross already. I loved the steep climb up to Bross. I was glad we decided to do the peaks in this order.

One down, three to go! The long, flat saddle on the way to Lincoln was easy running. And there were these amazing little red succulents dotting the whole saddle! I am always amazed by the plants that are able to survive such a harsh, high altitude environment.

From part of the saddle, we could see Kite Lake and the parking area down below.

And very soon we were already on top of Lincoln!

That's the summit of Quandary Peak way off to the right! Quandary is a very popular 14er outside of Breckenridge. With my small compact binoculars, I was able to see a line of people headed up the trail to the summit!

The sign on top was dated the 1st, but we actually climbed on the 2nd! Still, we took photos with the sign anyway.

And quickly we were headed toward Cameron! The whole morning felt like it was flying by so quickly, and we were moving right along.

The view to the west along the ridgeline was superb.

And if you look back towards the east, you'll see in the center background of the photo, Pikes Peak making an appearance!

Once I found Pikes with its unique shape, I was excited to keep spotting mountains that I was familiar with. I just think it's so cool that you can see so many of the 14ers statewide from these central 14ers in the Decalibron loop.

Soon we topped Cameron's summit.

The longest part of the day for me felt like the connection from Cameron to Democrat. Perhaps this is because there is a very steep climb on the way to the Democrat saddle that I knew I'd have to go back down, which was going to be tricky for me (I'd rather do technical ascents than descents!)

But after about 4 hours total (including breaks) we made the final summit, that of Democrat.

I loved looking out west from the summit of Democrat, seeing the unique summit of Mount of the Holy Cross. It's the one with a weird little right-sided summit if you can spot it in the photo. From this angle, it's the tallest background mountain.

I took my time on the long rocky descent, and we reached the car 5 and half hours after we had left it, including the extra mileage as we parked a little below the top lot.

What a successful day! Four 14ers off my list, making it a total of five 14ers I've summited. And hoping to get plenty more in the upcoming month. Autumn is ideal 14er season in Colorado. Getting an early start usually means you'll avoid the bad weather.

I have to thank Dionne for taking me to this adventure, and being my guide. Looking forward to more autumn fun soon!