Catching Up - Three Days of Hiking

A good friend was visiting from out of town last week.  Given the week's terrible weather, we cancelled plans to head off into the mountains for a bit of early spring camping.  Instead, we hiked in the snow around the Front Range.


The week went like this:


Wednesday - Hiked 4.5 miles on the Chicago Lakes Trail from Echo Lake to the boundary of the Mt. Evans Wilderness. We broke trail in five inches of new snow while we where hammered by a full-on snowstorm.  

The weather and visibility were terrible, but a bad day in the woods is still a good day.

Thursday - Headed to Boulder and hiked up Green Mountain on the Gregory - Ranger - Green route from Chautauqua. Copious amounts of slush down low and five or so inches of wet stuff up higher. Two big trees down on Gregory. Ran into JV on the summit. Walked down the front side. This hike seemingly took forever. I've only run the mountain...never walked it. We did 6.2 miles in 3:28 (!). Conditions were terrible. Lunch at Sherpa's afterwards (had to wander the empty post-lunch restaurant to find someone to take our money).

Green Mountain from a lookout on the upper swtichbacks. The blue sky would not last.

RB on the summit of Green Mountain. What happened to the blue sky and the sun?

Friday - Headed over to the Lower Maxwell Falls trailhead up Brook Forest Road in Evergreen. Again, we broke trail in the heavy, wet snow. We were constantly on alert for slushbombs plummeting from the branches above us. Several near misses, but no direct hits. The loud "wooooomphs" when the big hunks of snow hit the slushy snow on the ground was pretty cool. Lots of water coming over the falls. Had a few tantalizing glimpses of the sun. The first in days. But, it was short-lived. Call it 4 miles.

Looking north from the highpoint on the Cliff Trail at Maxwell Falls

Really enjoyed the change of pace this week. Great company. Back to running tomorrow.