My calling to court did not arrive as a pink letter in the mail. Typically, jury duty might annoy me, but not this time. My summoning to the court occurred when I first laid eyes on the massive stone edifice, Courthouse Mountain—the most prominent peak in the Cimarron Range of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. I […]
Read more "Jury Summons"Unprompted excursions often give way to the most sincere adventure. Beset with staggering senioritis, I decided to trade a Saturday of homework on campus for a Saturday amidst the peaking fall colors in the Gunnison area. Despite only being two days into autumn, snow had already fallen in areas above 8,000 feet. Kebler Pass, a […]
Read more "Autumn’s Lost and Found"El Diente Peak. A high mountain summit within the San Juan Range named for its tooth-like visage (El Diente translates to “The Tooth” in Spanish). If this peak is the tooth of the San Juans, then these mountains have clearly forgotten their oral hygiene. El Diente Peak, and its neighboring summits of Mt. Wilson and […]
Read more "Tooth Decay"I vividly remember the first time I knowingly laid eyes on Mt. Ouray (pronounced ooo-ray). Last summer, the Overcast Adventurers had the opportunity to explore the vast reaches of Colorado on a biology class trip called Ecoregions (a blog for which can be found here). It was on the first day of that two-week journey […]
Read more "Labor Day Ouray Soirée"To the north of Lake Irwin, a popular recreation area near Crested Butte, a wall of cliffs acts as a gate to the pristine Raggeds Wilderness. These cliffs span roughly three miles and rise hundreds of feet above the basins that sculpt the Raggeds. It was over the course of millions of years that erosion […]
Read more "Blue Note"With the end of August comes cooler weather, gentler sun, windier skies, and, for one of the Overcast Adventurers, school! Skyler was back up in Gunnison for classes, and I briefly left my life of state park maintenance to join him for a hike. We departed Gunnison on August 27th for the Fossil Ridge Wilderness […]
Read more "Silence of the Lamphiers"East Slopes. 14.5 miles RT. 4,500′ gain. 6 hours. 20 minutes. High above the iconic Colorado mountain town of Leadville stands Mt. Massive—an aptly named wall of a mountain and several of its constituent sub-summits. It is the third highest peak in the contiguous United States, which is certainly not hard to believe when […]
Read more "Massive Aggressive"Summits always entice me, and Longs Peak is no exception. When I resumed my job in Denver, I became acutely aware of the fact that I could see Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker almost every day on my drive home. There it was, towering over Denver like a faithful guardian of the Front Range. Every […]
Read more "Longs Island Iced Peak"Every day was (and still is) the same routine: wake up, go to work, go home, check condition reports, and go to bed with slight summit fever. Fortunately, my wonderful manager has been scheduling my weekends on weekdays. I had requested this for more solitary 14er hiking and climbing. My “Friday” was a Monday and after […]
Read more "Trip Report: Bagels and BelOx"With snow still nested upon the areas in Colorado above timberline, I desperately searched for adventure in lower areas. Though Tyler, now working a sweet gig for Chatfield State Park, could not join, adventure was still to be had. Luckily, my friend Anica from high school decided to join me on a hike from the […]
Read more "Give ’em the Shaft"
The Overcast Adventurers 