Backpacking with Ryan-Day 2

Coffee courtesy of the most excellent Jet Boil camp stove. Ahhhhh. I slept pretty well last night but Ry, not so much. He’s still trying to catch up on sleep in the tent. He’ll be up shortly and I’ll have a cup for him too. 

About 8:15 last night after we turned in for the night we heard some brakes squealing on the trail above us but that was about it. I woke up to find a tent and two mountain bikes sharing our camp site. Turns out Brad and Matt are very stealthy campers and pitched camp in the dark with nary a sound. They started the Colorado Trail about 5 days ago and will ride through to the end in Durango.  Very nice guys and we wished them well. 

Either a bad ending for a backpacker with a very bad overbite or rather the end of the line for a good sized elk I’m guessing. . 

We met Grant and Steve on our long and hard climb up to Kokomo Pass. They hiked 13 miles from Copper yesterday and are headed to Turquoise Lake near Leadville.  Steve is the Chairman of the Board of the Colorado Trail Foundation. 

Lots of beautiful wild flowers today...

And more wild flowers as we close in on Kokomo Pass and look back towards the Holy Cross Wilderness area and mountain range to the west. 

 

We looked for Columbine flowers but found none. This was the closest I could find, still beautiful. 

Meet Ben, my new hero. He started hiking in Canada on June 3 and is headed to the Mexico border in New Mexico on the Continental Divide Trail. He averages THIRTY TWO miles a day with a 25 pound pack and a tarp to sleep under.  Around noon today he has just hiked 16 miles from Copper Mountain and will make it another 15 to 20 miles to Leadville.  We found him hiking while he was chomping on a tomato and block of cheese. A very chill and nice guy. Glad we got to meet him and wish him well. 

After about 4 miles and 2,000’ of elevation we reach Kokomo Pass but not quite our high point for the day. 

A little further on we top out at 12,400 ft. 

On our way down to lower elevations we catch up with our two buddies, the gentlemen from Wichita, Tim and Bob taking a rest and enjoying the view. 

At Searle Pass we stop for a little rest and lunch and realize we have intermittent cell service.  Ryan’s trying to see how Mattie did on her exam this morning. 

Hiking on down but still above 11.000’ we pass Janet’s Cabin, part of the mountain hut system that allows cross country skiers and snow shoe’ers to stay over night on back country mountain trips. 

Our plan was to camp somewhere around this valley, about 6 miles from Copper Mountain but Ry didn’t sleep well last night and all he could think about was the extra comfy queen size bed in the motel room that Angela was staying in. So being a supportive father I decided to support my son in making this a 13.5 mile hiking day. Later on, in the last miles before we reached his mom, Angela, I began to call this a death march and that he was in cahoots with Angela to kill me!!

But we both made it alive to the base facility at Copper Mountain by 6 where Angela rushed us off to a real food dinner at Dillon Dam Brewery, and to our room for showers and a comfy bed.  It was a great trip and when my feet and legs quit hurting I’ll have fond memories of it!!

Backpacking with Ryan-Day 1

I’ve wanted to go backpacking with my son Ryan for many years but he’s been busy getting to know Colorado with his wife Mattie since they moved out here in 2008. But with Mattie now focused on studying all weekend long since she’s back in school I thought I’d steal him for a 3 day trip in the Rockies. So here we are at Tennessee Pass getting on our hiking boots in the back of our magic minivan that brought us up here. 

Loaded up and ready to hike at 9:15 at the Colorado Trail at Tennessee Pass near Leadville and getting ready to head north towards Copper Mountain where Angela will pick us back up in 3 days. We’re at about 10,400’ elev. here which also marks the Continental Divide.  Angela hiked the first mile with us then headed back to the comfort of a motel room where she’ll do some road biking and hiking while we trample the Colorado Trail. 

About 7 miles into our hike we reach what I believe are ammo bunkers at the old Camp Hale, home of the WWII 10th Mountain Division.  This is where the GI’s were trained for mountain and snow survival and warfare. Many of the surviving soldiers returned here after the war and became pioneers in creating the skiing industry.

After lunch at Camp Hale we begin climbing up the valley towards Kokomo Pass. 

Kokomo Pass is 12,000’ elevation. We’ll find a place to camp before reaching Kokomo Pass today. 

Bob Kitchens and his longtime buddy Tim are from Wichita, KS. Their wives dropped them off at Tennessee Pass about the same time we were there so we’ve been seeing them off and on today. They’ve been hiking the Appalachian Trail and the Rockies together for over 30 years. They will hike one more day then us and meet their wives in Breckenridge.  Very nice guys. I hope we see them again. 

We had all stopped to rest after a long and steep climb here at Cataract Falls. 

We met these two Forest Service workers at the Falls too. They and about 5 volunteers are building a new and higher foot bridge across the creek.  The wire mesh will hold rock that will become the supports for a new log bridge.  The Colorado Trail Foundation does an excellent job of maintaining and improving the +500 mile long trail that runs from southwest of Denver to Durango, CO. 

Lots and lots of beautiful wild flowers today. 

The last of the steeper climbs today as Ryan heads through the flowers and into the shade of an Aspen grove. 

After about 9 miles and 3,400’ of total ascent Ryan puts on his ‘bug’ clothing as we begin to prepare our dehydrated Chilli Mac dinners at our camp for the night while the bugs prepare to eat us!  We had really large amounts of snow last winter and good rains throughout the summer so the bugs are especially bad. Maybe the bugs will be better above treeline tomorrow?  It was a very good first day!

Pacific Beach With Old Friends

I have a tradition with some old friends of mine to get together every year in San Diego, Pacific Beach more specifically. That’s James on the left and Brad in the middle after I got there on Monday. We like to start our trip off with beer and cheeseburgers on the deck of Lahaina’s. 

In 1985, our first year to spend time in San Diego, we spent a lot of time at the Pennant. So after lunch at Lahaina we rented scooters and headed down to Mission Beach to reconnect with our drinking ghosts of the past.  It was just okay at the Pennant but we didn’t care much at that point. 

Sometime later that night we ended up at the Tikki Bar. That white thingy is the drink I got  when I asked my server to bring whatever drink she thought best.  That was a delegated decision that I would regret later that night. 

The next day we headed up to Lahaina’s again for more beer. I think we got something to eat too but I forget now. 

Now we’re joined by 3 more of the PB crew. That’s Dave and Tony on the left and Jack on the right. They just drove in from Phoenix.  

 

A fairly new tradition is pedicures. We’re becoming more “metro-sexual” and so much cooler in our old age. 

That’s my leg getting massaged. Ahhhhhh. 

We celebrated our now beautiful toes at the Open Bar where Rachel, our favorite bartender for about the last 25 years, took good care of us. 

We drank things besides beer sometimes, like coffee or OJ at Kona’s on Wednesday morning.   Before we all sat down, Brad overheard some ‘old geezers’ probably 20 years older than us (so really old) talking about getting thrown out of Lahaina’s back in the day. They became our new hero’s. 

I’m surprised we haven’t been kicked out of Lahaina’s. Maybe there’s still time. 

Of course we didn’t drink all of the time. A few times we made it to the beach where it’s been illegal to drink since the July 4th melee at the beach about 25 years ago. Partying at the beach has never been the same. 

We had a good time, even a few unique and exciting moments but I will let sleeping dogs lie.   I hope you guys have a happy, healthy and safe year. I’ll see you again next August.