Friday, September 27, 2013

Sep 13-22: Colorado with D&T

After a few weeks back in Chicago, it was time for a road trip. I headed to Louisville to meet with my partners for the trip, D & T. Passing the Big Banana Car was the highlight of the uneventful drive. We met at T's, loaded my Forester with all our gear and started the long drive around six. It was odd being a passenger in my own car, but I was glad other people were driving. Did you know there is a National Churchill Museum in Missouri? Neither did I until this drive.

Eventually, we made it to Denver and crawled the last couple of miles to our exit, since I-70 was closed for a non-flood-related construction project. We went to Snooze for breakfast, along with a good chunk of Denver, given the 90-minute wait. Afterward, we headed to Sloan's Lake Park to relax in our hammocks. Well, T and I did. D learned the straps are sold separately, so his hammock served as a blanket until we hit the REI later that night.

It rained on Sunday, so we got our climb on indoors before setting up camp at the KOA south of Colorado Springs. The nearby creek was much, much higher than it was when R and I were there in June, thanks to the once every hundred years rain the area had the previous week, and we were warned at checkin that there was a slight possibility we'd have to evacuate if the creek flooded. (It was ten feet below flood level at that point.) With the idea of maybe needing to leave quickly in mind, we decided to sleep in our hammocks, as our tent pad was was under a roof.

The creek near our campsite after a once every hundred years rain.
On Monday morning, we woke up to good news and bad news. The good news was the river didn't flood. The bad news was there was blowing misty rain all night that ended up getting our hammocks and the outside of sleeping bags wet.  Given that it was still raining, we opted to go out to eat instead of getting groceries to cook as originally planned. T took us to a truck stop café he used to go to when he lived in Colorado, then we drove to Shelf Road in search of dry rock. We found it and went to Cactus Cliff for a couple of climbs including an impressive lead by T on Black Slabbeth. We called it a day

Leading Alexi
early so we had time to verify where we needed to go to hike the Barr trail the next day, get a couple items that we realized we might need in case of wet/cold weather at the summit and buy groceries for dinner. We took advantage of the Kamper Kitchen to make rigatoni with chicken, broccoli and mozzarella. The challenge was my cookware is fine for one or two people, but not three. We got some aluminum baking pans at the store and those worked great. After polishing off our meal and cleaning up, it was off to bed, since we needed to be up early the next day.
Pre-hike dinner
We got up at 4:30 so we had time to get breakfast, drive to the trailhead and get on the Barr Trail by 6:30. We made it to the parking lot early after breakfasting at The Dunkin and were on the trail by 6:15, hiking by headlamp. Only 12.6 miles and roughly 8000 feet in elevation gain to go! We made pretty good time over the first half, arriving at Barr Camp  (6.5 miles, 10,200 feet elevation) within three hours. We took a break at the camp to eat some snacks and enjoy a cup of coffee brewed by the new camp caretakers Renee and Anthony. We were joined at the camp by a couple who decided they would hike Pike's Peak for their anniversary. After about a 45 minute rest, we continued up the mountain.
Somewhere between Barr Camp and treeline
It all went pretty decently for me, albeit not as quickly as T and D, until we hit the tree line (roughly 9 miles from the start and 12000 feet elevation). It was a beautiful sunny day, which was nice for pictures but not so nice for hiking in. The first part of the trail above tree line was this pebbly sandy mess that was not fun to climb in. I was just grateful that two steps forward, two steps back song by Paula Abdul and that dude didn't start going through my head, although that was a pretty accurate description of the hiking. Then we lost the trail for a bit (not my fault for a change, since I was bringing up the rear) but found it, and soon the sandy pebbly stuff ended. Not that this seemed to help my hiking, as I continued to move more slowly as I fantasized about a bottle of gatorade, since I really could have used one at that point. Having decided that it just wasn't going to get any easier (in fact, it was just going to get harder the higher we got) I slogged on with my water and snacks. Eventually, though, the altitude and heat got to me and I had to stop for a bit. Napping in what little shade there was helped with the heat and tiredness, but not with the nausea. Ugh! At this point, we were about 1.5miles (and over 1000 feet in elevation) from the top, so we decided to continue, figuring worse case T and D would carry me out. With about 1.1 miles (and 800 feet elevation) to go, I got my second wind after I puked. Unfortunately, the second wind only lasted about a quarter of a mile, and we resumed a shuffle to the summit, but at least it was nausea free! We finally made it to the top around 3:30. Yay! I had been looking forward to eating the famous Pike's Peak donuts, but could only manage to eat half of one :-( Boo to altitude sickness. Our next step was to figure out how we were going to get back down. We hoped to get on the last train, but if that failed, we were going to have to hitch a ride with someone who drove to the top. The anniversary couple made it to the top about a half hour after us and had cleverly purchased their tickets in advance, so they were good. The conductor squeezed us on and we made it down. The guy next to me on the train told me he once completed the Texas Water Safari, a 260 mile canoe race, which sounds both nuts and intriguing. We polished off a lot of pizza for dinner and enjoyed cannoli for dessert. Mmm.
We made it!
On Wednesday morning, we packed up and drove to our next destination. We took the scenic route, but not as scenic as planned, since some roads were closed. Our first stop was Paradise Cove. Although it was too cold to take advantage of the swimming hole, it was still a nice place to hang out for a bit.
Paradise Cove
We drove to Breckenridge for a late lunch and I was stoked that my burger was served with tater tots. Mmm. Our next stop was Golden Gate Canyon State Park, our campsite (at roughly 9000 feet) for the next couple of nights. The highlight of the evening was eating ice cream by the campfire. Brilliant! (The ice cream was Ben & Jerry's Cheesecake Brownie. Mmmm.)


It started raining around 6:30 in the morning, so no one rushed out of bed early. Eventually it stopped and we got up, made breakfast and headed toward Boulder to climb at Movement, since outdoor climbing in the Boulder area wasn't an option due to the flood. It was a bit of a challenge to get to there, because the most direct roads were still closed, but we eventually made it. As far as Movement goes - wow! After many climbs, we headed to Morrison to grab dinner before the the Furthur concert at Red Rocks, my first, T's 13th. Most amusing moment of the concert was seeing a guy that looked like a deadhead version of my brother.

D was the first one to get up on Friday and was kind enough to start a fire - now that's a nice greeting in the morning. We broke camp and headed into Golden for lunch then went to the High Wire crags at Clear Creek Canyon for an afternoon of climbing. After we climbed Nickels and Dimes, I seconded T on the 3-pitch People's Choice. Awesome lead by T, especially the third pitch. Once we did two raps back to the ground, we all went up the first pitch of People's Choice and then carefully hiked the class four trail back to the road via headlamp. After a filling dinner at Woody's, we set up our tents for our last night in Colorado and crashed out.
T near the end of the third pitch.
We didn't want to waste time on our last day, so we got up, packed our stuff, grabbed breakfast and got on the road to the Catslab crag. D put up the first route, thinking he was on the 5.9+ Mungajerry , but he was on the 5.10a Rumpleteaser. Given how most things rated 5.9+ climb, it probably wasn't that big of a difference. It was a fun route with great movement and I'm glad we got on it. (A slab I like? It happens on occasion.) Our second climb of the day, and last one of the trip, was the fun 5.7 Skimbleskanks. After a great week, it was time to get back in the car and make the long drive back to Louisville and Chicago.

Rumpleteaser
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Friday, September 6, 2013

August 9-15: RRG and NRG

In retrospect, it probably would have been just to stay with friends in Louisville instead of driving five hours to Chicago on Tuesday and then seven hours back to the Red on Friday, but then I wouldn't have had the opportunity to eat two Purvis burgers in one week. After a delicious stop for lunch in West Lafayette, I drove to Lago Linda Hideaway to meet friends for our weekend of working at the Johnny and Alex Trail Day and climbing. It was raining when I arrived, but fortunately there was a covered area where we could set up our tents. Since I had a roof over me, I decided this would be the perfect time to test my new hammock and see if I could get a good night's sleep in it. The hammock was fine, but the people yapping in the nearby pavilion with the lights blazing until 3am didn't make for a restful night.
Pierre enjoying the hammock
The rain stayed away and we were able to proceed with the trail day. My group built a new trail to the Purgatory Wall in the PMRP. We enjoyed good food and good music at the party afterward. On Sunday, we headed to The Shire for some climbing. The rock was a bit wet, but the leaders did a good job of getting the routes up. Unfortunately, our day was cut short by rain and I got to clean another route in the rain. On the plus side, A and I ended up getting an early start for our drive to the New River Gorge.

 After a fabulous night of sleep, A and I headed into Fayettesville for breakfast at the Cathedral Café. Mmm. Sufficiently fueled, we headed out to see some waterfalls and to hike at Nuttallburg, an old coal mining town and complex. It was a beautiful hike, and we got a bonus workout swatting at all the bugs. All that hiking and swatting made us hungry, so we grabbed a tasty dinner at DiOgi’s.

Nuttallburg
We started Tuesday off right with quiche and an outstanding cup of coffee at Musical Grounds. (Their motto “Without coffee, life would be a mistake.” Sounds about right to me.) After our relaxing morning, we got into a raft with other adventurous types and went down the Lower New for the Rapid Run trip. The water levels were much higher than normal for August, since it had rained a lot the previous couple of weeks, so the rapids were, well, rapid. I had an absolute blast, but the fun was tempered by the knowledge that someone on another raft drowned on his trip. The good meals in Fayetteville streak continued with dinner at Gumbos. Fried pickles – mmmm.

Wednesday was climbing day (yay!) so we headed to Summersville Lake to tackle the Orange Oswald Wall. The hike in took about a half hour and was absolutely gorgeous.

Summersville Lake
A absolutely rocked it as the rope gun, putting up several routes including her first 5.10a, Orange Oswald. A group in a boat applauded her effort when she got to the top. The wall is right on the lake, which makes for a convenient way to cool off on a hot day, which we mercifully did not have. That didn’t stop a guy in another group from floating around on the inflatable dragon he brought with him. We went to Secret Sandwich Society for dinner, and Hoover is a much better as a sandwich than he was as president. (The Hoover is a fried chicken with honey butter, pickles and green. Mmmmm.) It was a cool night at the campsite (I had to break out the puffy coat) but at least it didn’t rain.

A and I packed up Thursday morning and went our separate ways, DC for her and Chicago via my mother’s house for me. It was a great trip and I am looking forward to another hike/raft/climb adventure with A and others in the future.

A and graffiti
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