mullerb's musings

The girls both had friends sleeping over Friday night so Rach and I got up early (not really) and headed up 4 Mile Canyon to park near Salina. From there, up Wall Street to Sunset and counter clockwise up and around the Switzerland Trail to Gold Hill Road to the Peak to Peak and down and again via Sugarloaf. Lots of climbing, lots of descending on bumpy all rail road grade dirt. We took a leisurely 5 hours with lots of breaks to soak in the views and munch on bars.

Out to Kansas and back. Haven't been that way in a year or two. Quiet on the traffic and fast but lots of rough shoulders. The Bitches were pretty tame today.

Lunchtime ride up and around Lee Hill. Started off with Tony to do Old Stage but decided to head north and around. Haven't climbed much for squat this year but kept a good solid pace and felt strong. Funny, I'm learning new technique: sitting back on my haunches with a curved lower back, arms further back on the bars, and doing more upward leg pull seems to give me more power but with less effort. Yummmm, good ride with warm temps, no other bikes on the road and hardly any cars. What a life!

From 2009_08 Diamond Lake Hike Awesome 24 hours in the back country of Boulder County! Rach picked up a permit late Thursday. We left town Friday at 4:30 and started hiking in from the 4th of July trail head by 5:30 or so. Got to campsite #10 by 7:30, in time to make a nice dinner with the setting sun. From 2009_08 Diamond Lake Hike Packed up by 9 on Sat AM, stashed the packs and headed up the drainage for an off-trail adventure with the girls. Troopers! We climbed up steep steep scree and grass slopes to gain the ridge over to Upper Storm Lake, which was encased in ice and snow still, and then down the Jasper Lake drainage only to climb back up the ridge from the other side but further east. Serious elevation gain and loss. But with blue skies and warm temps, not a better time to be up above treeline. Heaven. From 2009_08 Diamond Lake Hike

Left the office on Wed PM at 3:30 and headed to the trailhead south of Nederland. I spent three and half hours heading west and up and around on all sorts of very cool trails. Some were sweet single track, lined with pine needles, other were push-em up loose rock in thick woods. All were sweet. I didn't bring a map so it was full on exploration and poking around fun. Ran into Heidi's neighbor on a dirt bike; he gave me some good tips. The lower trails, Hobbit I-III, WhoopDiDo, Root Canal, etc. are worth it for a shorter visit.

The Monday noon special squeezed between meetings. Solo. nice and col for a change, with a temp around 66F.

Rach and I got out at 8 this morning, leaving the girls to sleep in. We hit the base of the Regency slab by 9:30 or so and 4th classed up it to go give the Royal Arch a visit. Then a thrash down a fern-lined gully along the base of the 5th Flatiron to give a lightly roped go to the East Face North route. All in all lots of easy climbing up lightly protected slab for 4 pitches. Then 2 pitches of very scenic 4th class along a knife edge ridge to just shy of the top of the formation. Sat out a shower before heading up the final 100 feet to the very airy tippy top of the slap. The rappel, off one of those solidly set CMC eye bolts, is 75 feet, mostly free, down the west face. A very long round about way home via the Royal Arch trail to the Blue Bell Shelter and the Mesa Trail.

Hot with a dragon's breath breeze. A bit slow but took in the views to compensate.

From 2009_08 Deso/Gray Raft Trip A nice 7 days on the Green. Launched Aug 1 from Sand Wash at ~3000csf with: Kelly, Leah, Rachel, me, Varda, Seth, and Evan in the big red Blum boat plus Chris Wilcox, Kate, Emma, Vic, Hope, and Cortney in Chris' 14' Hyside. We had the 2 rafts plus 5 kayaks and 4 duckies for quite the flotilla. Great weather and good water mixed with good company makes for a relaxing and fun time. From 2009_08 Deso/Gray Raft Trip