With so much happening in both our personal lives and the broader world, Skyler and I opted for a shorter hike on June 7th. Strawberry Lake, directly East of Granby and south of Lake Granby’s Arapaho Bay, would be about 3.7 miles round-trip according to online sources. The trailhead was easy to miss, as it […]
Read more "Strawberry Letter"In the quiet corner of Colorado where Skyler and I attended college, early fall is an exciting time of year. That’s because this region, the high-altitude Gunnison Valley, is home to vast forests of aspen trees, which change to a golden-leafed glory in the first few weeks of autumn. With weather still warm enough for […]
Read more "Storming The Castles"The morning air was brisk and the sounds…unusual. Typically, we want wilderness when we set out: going to great lengths to seek settings of solitude, pursuing peace and quiet. The unusual sounds? The thunder of cars and semis barreling along I-70. Never before had we started a hike so close to a major interstate, but […]
Read more "Fountain of Booth"August 24, 2019. Our goal for the day was to summit Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. It’s morning, and the day’s first rays are starting to brighten the sky over the cold valley we had camped in north of Crestone. In a matter of mere minutes we went from wrapped in sleeping bags to […]
Read more "Trip Report: Ad Astra"“An easy hike.” “A few hours max.” That was the plan, but at least one of us is pretty bad at making plans. The idea for the day was to reach a small summit in Pike National Forest: Raleigh Peak. This was to be achieved by following part of the Colorado Trail to a segment […]
Read more "Scorched Earth Saunter"In our last trip to the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Ty and I trekked alongside the roaring Cascade Creek to find the remote Mirror Lake and Crater Lake, two bodies of water nestled at the foot of the Continental Divide’s western flank. The trail had started near Lake Granby, a hotspot for recreation, and the third-largest […]
Read more "Hellfire and Brimstone"Back in March, when snow still blanketed the ground in the mountains, I set out into the Wild Basin of Rocky Mountain National Park in an effort to find the sub-alpine Bluebird Lake. I trudged over five miles through the snowy landscape on a bleak, overcast day. After surpassing 10,000 feet in elevation, I began […]
Read more "Bluebird is the Word"West Spanish Peak—the United States’s easternmost 4,000-meter peak—enjoys prominence in elevation and notoriety in history. Standing at an imposing 13,626 feet, the mountain’s apex may not rise as high as many of the other peaks in Colorado, but still takes the rank as the state’s twelfth-most topographically prominent summit. Rising nearly 7,000′ over its north […]
Read more "Conquistador-able"The grimy and over-labored workers of the small mining camp of Buckskin Joe took solace in few things. The miners drudged to find the hidden treasures beneath the granite, the prospectors scoured the land for the promise of riches… but at the end of a hard day these men knew they could reconcile their struggles […]
Read more "Beyond the Veil"A lazy weekend. My last day of classes. Encroaching finals week. These are the perfect ingredients for end-of-the-semester cabin fever. While there is no known cure for this cabin fever–medically speaking–adventuring seems to usually treat such an ailment. The Hermit’s Rest trail had been on my list for several years. Near the eastern terminus of […]
Read more "Bone Morrow Biopsy"
The Overcast Adventurers 