Bradley's View

Bradley's View

Friday, September 6, 2013

Two Summits

Mt Massive from Fish Hatchery: 09/01/13














Mt. Timponogos from Timponeke TH (Wasatch Mtns, Utah): 09/05/13


















Friday, August 30, 2013

Late Summer

     Life has been a whirlwind of joy lately.  I've found myself saying, "It sure feels like fall out here", quite frequently.  I guess it's about time I accepted that summer is winding down and breathe in the colors of the autumn in Colorado.  These are a few things that I've engaged in the past month:

I went to Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario (west of Lake Superior), with a wonderful group of people. 
Me, Anna, Matthew, Rachel, Bill, Drew, and Paul, my dad.

On the ten day trip, we spent a lot of time singing, paddling, and telling stories.

 

A lot of portaging and paddling requires a lot of eating, so we spent a lot of time cooking, too.


 And catching fish to eat, like this Walleye


We also swam regularly.  The weather was beautiful, though hot.  The mosquitos were relentless.  The memories aren't going anywhere anytime soon.


Back in Colorado, I picked up (except for the fitness level...) right where I left off last summer.  Below are a few pictures from an outing with Eric, Robin, Mike, Troy, and Guy up Mt. Yale.

Summit shot

Mike descending the ridge's talus.

Robin soaking up the summit.

Mike and I set out on the 50 mile Gore Range Trail.  We started up near Surprise Lake, about 30 minutes north of Silverthorne, and ran 30 miles back to Silverthorne, where we grabbed a bus back to Leadville.  This was Mike's final big shakeout run before toeing the line at the Leadville 100

Nothing but singletrack.


Black Lake and some of the Gore Range


Once an incredible homestead along Boulder Creek.
    Genevieve and I made a trip to one of my favorite areas in Colorado, the Dominguez Canyon.  We hiked in a few miles under the stars and spent the following day running along the dried rivers and climbing the canyon walls.
   

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     The weekend of the 100 came around in Leadville, things were booming around town and the air was thick with adventure and excitement.  I had the pleasure of pacing Mike from Winfield (mile 50) up over Hope Pass and into the Fish Hatchery (mile 77).   Mike had a hell of a day out there, finishing in 22:37.  Tough stuff; it's always great to be around people who are dreaming and doing.


Cruising into mile 60, mustaches and all.


    The next weekend rolled around, and amid all the excitement I wanted to celebrate with a long and beautiful run.  My uncle, Bill (pictured somewhere above...), shuttled me and Jamie up to Copper Mountain in order to get a midnight start southbound on the Colorado Trail.  We couldn't have had a more beautiful night for the outing.  Once we got above the trees, we ran the singletrack between Searle and Kokomo Pass with our headlamps off under the light of the moon.  It was an incredibly powerful experience.

Me and Jamie at the start

Jamie
     Jamie and I reached Camp Hale around 4:30am, at which point Jamie headed off to work and Genevieve joined me en route to Tennessee Pass.  The sun came up during this stretch, and I felt a little loopy from lack of sleep.  When we reached Tennessee Pass, we stumbled across some trail magic, which consisted of Little Debbie's and Dale's Pale Ale.

Genevieve
Jon
      We skirted around the slopes of Galena and then bombed down to the Timberline Lake trailhead, where Mike, Sal, and Meg were waiting to greet us with beers and birthday cake.  This is where the run ended, after about 38 miles, but the day had hardly begun.



     Later in the evening, I was lured into a surprise birthday party over at the pie shop.  Never before have I experienced such overwhelming feelings of love and friendship as I have in the past few months.  With the support and encouragement of these people, I was able to enjoy what just may be the most fun run of my life; with them I have come to find people and places that I can call home, and in which I can experience community.  I don't think there is a luckier guy anywhere.  






Monday, July 22, 2013

Ellingwood Ridge- La Plata Traverse

     We left the La Plata trailhead around 8:00 feeling quite giddy with the prospects of the excursion at hand (and under foot).  We jogged the jeep road .3 miles to the singletrack.  Trickiness ensued.  Hoping off rocks, swinging on branches, I even had the gumption to execute a front handspring, which I will probably never do again whilst wearing a hydration pack.  
      Upon crossing the second creek we stayed east on the faint trail that would take us to Ellingwood Ridge.  There were sporadic pink ribbons that kept us on course as the trail came and went.  We toiled through tedious talus once we breeched treeline.  It was a good warmup for both our legs and arms.
      Along the ridge, things were awesome.  Route finding was fairly simple; when deviating from the ridgecrest itself we would invariably stick to the east slopes.  Picking lines and executing downclimbs was a blast.  It's truly a joy to be growing comfortable with moving swiftly over class 3-4-5 terrain.  To get my heart racing on a 5-0 downclimb became addictive, so I elected to pursue more difficult options for the sake of increasing my climbing confidence and competence.  
      The route was truly sensational, despite being exhausting.  I don't really have a lot to say on it besides that.  I would encourage you to do it.  Word of warning, though, allow a little more time than you may think you'll need; we anticipated the traverse taking 3.5-4 hours and it ended up being closer to 4:40.  It's quite gratifying to gain 5,900 ft of elevation hand over foot over the course of only 5 miles.  We descended the standard route wrapping up the day after about 5 hours and 50 minutes out.  
     Enjoy the photos.  I lament to say that they do little to capture the magnitude of the beauty or the enjoyment we experienced.

Travis and Mike talusing.



Gaining the ridge

Mt Elbert looking stunning, per usual




Travis can climb

Me, enjoying a 13,xxx summit along Ellingwood Ridge.

Downclimb

Peep?




Mike scrAmbrose

Travis, soaking it all in

Moving along the last few pitches.

Eyeing the Nolan's route.

Mandatory summit shot