Gore Hard or Gore Home

The day was young and I was less than a mile into my hike… but something was amiss. I had embarked on a hike in the Eagles Nest Wilderness and thought a perfect morning had been assured. The uphill was gentle but each step forward became more painful than the last. In the tunnel vision […]

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Pollen No Punches

The adventure started as so few do… with a Google Maps mishap! I’ve been to the Homestake Road corridor several times at this point (like for this post or this adventure with Tyler) and it’s one of my favorite places in Colorado. The directions to get there from Denver are simple: take I-70 west, exit […]

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Where The Buffalo Roam

We had never before traveled to the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness. In fact, up until the day of the hike, we had never even intended to travel to the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness. After planning a hike to a “Buffalo Peak” on the east side of the South Park Basin in Colorado though, we accidentally found ourselves […]

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Hellfire and Brimstone

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 […]

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Conquistador-able

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 […]

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Powder to the People

While much of the United States prepared to protest recent political affairs, I stared at the snow incessantly falling outside my apartment window. My thoughts drifted away from academia and to adventure-emia. West Elk Wilderness, one of Colorado’s largest and most immaculate wilderness areas, lies just fifteen minutes away from the campus of my university. […]

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A Penny for Our Thoughts

Deep in the heart of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness lie many peaks of epic renown, peaks which jut far and away into the azure skies. We didn’t climb any of those peaks on this hike. Rather, we decided to hike to Copper Lake, a body of water in the wilderness area just below East Maroon […]

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Autumn’s Lost and Found

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 […]

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Tooth Decay

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 […]

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Labor Day Ouray Soirée

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 […]

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