Vasque Golden Leaf Half Marathon

Becky and I, together with my sister Megan from Salt Lake City, ran the beautiful Golden Leaf Half Marathon yesterday. The course is a trail that runs through the mountains from Snowmass to Aspen. The trail was rough, but the leaves were AMAZING. Unfortunately though, I did NOT win.

So failure . . . I guess.

Autumn

The time to hang from trees in the woods

College Football Saturday

. . . much to Becky's chagrin.

gloves, headlamp, and a bear bell

Now that the cold autumn mornings have arrived, it is dark as night at 5:30 AM when we go out to train for the Vasque Golden Leaf Half Marathon. It's an interesting feeling; knowing there are bears lurking in the trees as you run. And then the sun comes up and along the trail you see fresh bear "shat" (rhymes with scat, and means the same thing). But with gloves, a headlamp, and a bear bell, all is well.

UPDATE: This morning (Friday 9/12/2008), I returned from a beautifully rainy early morning run, and at the bottom of the driveway was a bear with her cub. I clapped to shooo them away. The cub ran away, but the mother just stared at me. So I backed up while clapping at her. She just stared. Nothing like a "stare-down" from a black bear to wake you up in the morning.

Summer Slipping By

In the last few weeks, summer has been a whirlwind of travel. We skipped over to Salt Lake City for Labor Day, where we had so much fun that we only took this one photo of Sam enjoying the yogurt. Before that, Sam and Becky spent a few days in Chicago with Little Lou. Now, the mornings are colder, and summer is slipping away. Autumn is on its way.

Another Kitchen Window Brown Trout

I caught this nice 15 inch brown trout outside the kitchen window on a beat-up size 10 royal wulff . . . thus the name "Kitchen Window Brown Trout." Now, so as not to turn this into a fly-fishing blog, I promise that I won't post any more photos of Colorado's trout for the rest of the summer (unless I catch a real monster).

The hike from Aspen to Crested Butte

Becky and I began our "Credit-Card Fast Packing" trip Saturday morning, with the plan of hiking from Aspen, through the mountains, to Crested Butte. The drive alone takes 4 - 5 hours, but as the crow flies, Crested Butte is only 20(ish) miles from Aspen. It was dark and cold and rainy and ominous when we started. When we arrived at Crater Lake (below), the lightning and thunder was soooo bad that we decided to throw in the towel and head home.

We took cover in the pines as the hail pelted us (the lone figure is Matt) . . .

Notice the hail on the trail . . . but Becky is still smiling, although cold

The storm grew worse as we headed back down to Aspen. But it was all very "Alaska-like."

Finally the storm broke, and after losing several hours sitting under pines and hiking back to Aspen, we decided to carry on. Becky bravely made the first cold river crossing in 30 degree weather . . .

A few hours later, we were nearly to the top of West Maroon Pass. We were still freezing cold and soaked to the bone . . . (notice the trail cutting up to the ridge)




And finally on top of the pass . . . 12,500 feet . . . the view back toward Aspen.

The view over the pass toward the Crested Butte side . . .

And then the treacherous descent down the pass on slick rocks (that little speck on the trail is Becky) . . .

Down the mountain we went . . . past summertime glaciers . . .

And finally we descended into the high hills and alpine wild flowers at about 11,000 feet . . .

Close up of the wildflowers . . .

And then hours later we finally made into Crested Butte. We dried out, thawed out, and spent the evening on the town . . .

This has to be the greatest siding to a home that I have ever seen . . .

And then the next morning we were on the trail again back to Aspen, but this time under sunnier skies . . .

Becky preparing to go over the pass again . . . 12,500 feet . . .

And then, on top of the pass, the weather started rolling in again . . .

Becky heading back down the pass to the Aspen side . . .

The very cold wade through a glacier fed stream . . .

One last stop at Crater Lake high above Aspen, and one final "cleaning out of the shoes"

And look how thick the aspen forests are . . .

And two days later, we finally threw the bags back in the car and headed home . . . Aspen to Crested Butte, and then Crested Butte to Aspen!

We encourage all who can to someday do this hike, it was truly UNREAL!