In August 2001 I made yet another pilgrimage to Colorado, this time to see friends, hike, climb a few 14ers, and run the Pikes Peak Marathon. I flew out from Dulles Airport in Virginia after work on a Friday, and spent that night in a Denver hotel.

Saturday I drove across South Park to Gunnison, then took a scenic loop to Crested Butte, over Kebler Pass, through Hotchkiss and down to Lake City. I checked in at the Quiet Moose Lodge and then went to dinner with some friends from Ohio that I hope to hike with someday. I stocked up on groceries and supplies after dinner.

On Sunday I got up at 4:15, had breakfast in the room, and drove south over Slumgullion Pass (site of Alferd Packer's cannibalism) to Creede. Seven miles south of Creede I turned left onto Pool Table Road, then drove another 10 miles in heavy fog to the end of the two-wheel-drive road. This is where you'll find the trailhead to the Wheeler Geologic Area, which consists of a bunch of rocks out in the middle of nowhere.

I wore my new trail-running shoes so that I could break them in before the Pikes marathon. I jogged two miles downhill to a stream crossing, where I slipped and soaked the shoes. Then I hiked about 4 miles uphill and across meadows as the sun came out and dried the air and my feet. I hit the 4WD road at this point and turned right (uphill), but after a few hundred yards I decided I should be going the other way, so I turned around and jogged about a mile to a campsite/parking lot at the entrance to the Wheeler Area.

At this spot there is an overlook with access to the Wheeler Loop Trail (about 3 miles round-trip). I hiked in toward the rock formations and took the right-hand side of the loop. This led to the base of the rock formations, and at some point I lost the trail and started hiking up into the rocks, and quickly ran into a dead-end. So I kept climbing up and to the right until eventually I was able to scramble out of the rocks and onto a steep wooded hillside. I kept going up and to the right looking for the trail, but I didn't find it until I reached the top of the ridge behind the formations.

From there the hike was easy going along the trail, and there were several overlooks where I could see different aspects of the lumps and spires. I completed the Loop Trail and hiked backed toward the car. It started to rain lightly at the bottom of the last hill but this didn't cause any problems.

I drove back to Lake City as the skies opened up and it poured. Back in town, I made plans to hike with my local friend Christi the next day and patched a couple of blisters on my feet.

The next morning I met Christi at 9 and we did a short muddy hike up to a pond high above Lake City. We discussed her engagement/wedding plans and talked about some ultra-races that she and her fiance had just done, and a few more that are in the works. I spent the rest of the day reading, shopping and eating as another thunderstorm blew through town.

On Tuesday I got up at 4 and had coffee and a banana in the room. Then I drove the Lake San Cristobal road up to where it becomes a shelf road, where I saw a family of deer and a couple of bunnies, then continued up the road to the Silver Gulch trailhead.

I started hiking at 5:30 through some really nice scenery and made it to the summit of Redcloud Peak (14,034') at 8:15. I spent a little time on top having pop-tarts and admiring the views and contemplating nearby Sunshine Peak (the lowest Fourteener at 14,001') before deciding to abandon the windy summit and head back down.

Back in Lake City, I packed up my gear for an attempt on Mt. Sneffels the following day and made the 2.5-hour drive to Ouray in some more heavy rain. While resting in my motel I heard sirens racing back and forth through town (a recurring theme on this trip...). My climbing buddies Mary & Laura arrived a little later, and we went to dinner at a Mexican place with hundreds of dollar bills stuck to the ceiling. The following morning we got together at 5:15 and headed for the Camp Bird Mine Road and started driving up in Laura's 4WD. We soon encountered problems - she crept over several mudslides and around a few washouts, and then we got hung up at a stream crossing (at a place where there hadn't been a stream the day before). We had to pull out a shovel and ice axe and do some creative roadwork but eventually got beyond the stream, only to find that a few hundred yards further up there was a humongous slide several feet deep across the road.

This proved to be impassable, so we decided to return to town for breakfast and sightseeing. Back in town we found out that the slides had occurred the previous afternoon, and the sirens I'd heard were rescue crews going up to extricate a jeep that had been broadsided by a mud-and-rockslide and the badly injured driver.

So we enjoyed a horribly fattening breakfast at Cecelia's and then took the walking tour of Box Canyon Falls. Then we drove our cars back over to Lake City for an early burger dinner at the Tic Toc. Back at the Quiet Moose I found a note from my Ohio friends saying that they wouldn't be joining us on the Wetterhorn on Thursday. Oh well, fewer people to wake up.

Thursday morning I got up at 4:30 and had some snacks in the room, then wandered out to meet Mary & Laura at 5:15. We drove up Henson Creek Road (in good shape), took the North Henson Creek fork (in bad shape), and turned right on the Wetterhorn trailhead road (only .6 mile, but REALLY bad).

We started hiking at 6:15 and hiked up into the basin between Wetterhorn and Matterhorn. As we started up the Wetterhorn ridge, Laura decided to take a nap for a while and I continued shuffling along behind Mary. The trail switchbacks steeply up to the top of the ridge, and shortly thereafter tries to lose you in a series of rocky gullies. We stayed as close to the top of the ridge as we could, mostly on the left-hand side, but finishing on loose rock on the right-hand side, which put us at the crux of the climb.

We slid (literally) through the large notch below the summit block onto the ledge at the bottom of the final 200' pitch. We tried several different approaches in 3 different gullies and eventually each found a scary route to the top (14,015'). There were a few clouds blowing up, so we only stayed long enough to snap a couple of pictures before we scrambled back down the main gully to the notch and headed back down the ridge, where we met Laura, who had moved up to about 13,600'.

We hiked slowly back to the car and drove back to town. Mary & Laura headed back home to the Colorado Springs area and I rejoined my Ohio friends for dinner and mountaineering stories. They had summitted Handies Peak and Uncompahgre while I'd been doing other things. The next morning they left for home, and I headed for Aspen.

I went back through Crested Butte and over Kebler Pass, then north to Carbondale where I did laundry. Then I drove to the Tyrolean Lodge in Aspen (alongside the new HOV lane!), unpacked and went to dinner at the Cantina. Afterwards I replenished my supplies at Carl's Pharmacy and plotted a strategy for the next few days. There was a violent thunderstorm from 8-8:30. Then I tried to sleep. At 11:38 p.m. a pizza delivery guy knocked on my door. He had the wrong room, which was too bad because I was still hungry.

Then it was Saturday 8/11, my 50th birthday! To celebrate, I got up at 4. My back was pretty sore, so I went back to bed. For 45 minutes. Then I got up and had coffee and drove to the Maroon Bells trailhead. At 5:45 I started hiking up the trail, along with several peak-baggers (most heading for South Maroon, but two each for Pyramid and North Maroon).

I hiked past Crater Lake below the Bells, and at the next big stream crossing all of the peak-baggers turned right while I continued straight up the valley. At some point I missed one of the other stream crossings and ended up too far to the left and too low down in the valley, so I had to bushwhack through wet and swampy stuff to regain the trail to West Maroon Pass. Once I was back on the trail it was an easy hike up to the red & rocky pass.

Here I met several people who were hiking in the opposite direction, and I hooked up with Linda from Aspen for the hike back to Maroon Lake. We went fairly fast, had a good time, and enjoyed the scenery. We drove back into town and I dropped her off at home. The total hike to the pass and back was about 12 miles with 3000' of vertical.

Later that evening Mary came into town with a surprise birthday cake for me! Thanks! We went to another Mexican place (La Cocina) and they gave me a birthday mousse.

The next morning I got up at 4:30 and at 4:45 jumped in my rental car (a poor Dodge Neon that I was abusing horribly) with Mary and we drove back up to the Maroon trailhead. A raccoon commandeered the car while we were putting our packs on - Mary had to chase it away.

We hiked up the tourist trail to the Pyramid cutoff just below Crater Lake. There are two cairns there (I built one of them) and one is marked with a "P" at the base. We scrambled left across the valley and then did the arduous bushwhacky ascent through trees for several hundred feet. Then the trail cuts left over a ridge into mobile rocky stuff, which we followed for another few hundred feet until we reached the amphitheater below Pyramid's crumbling bulk.

We stumbled across the wobbly boulderfield in the amphitheater to the base of a couloir on the left-hand ridge. We climbed another 1000' or so to the ridgetop (helmets are very useful here) and then struggled to find the correct route to the summit pyramid. It was getting a little late, a few clouds were moving in, I was exhausted and we still had a long climb so we took stock and decided to bag it for the day and try again some other time.

So we turned around and began the extremely arduous descent (we were slower going down than coming up). After a slip or two and a few bruises we got below the amphitheater where we ran into a mountain goat.

We continued our descent and reached the car at 2:30. A 9-hour, 6-mile, 4,000' day. We drove back to Aspen and had some cake, then washed up and hiked to The Red Onion for dinner. Then Mary drove off into the sunset.

On Monday morning (8/14) I slept until 9. Then I drove my poor little Neon most of the way up to Hagerman Pass (northeast of Aspen) until I reached some rocks I couldn't quite clear. I drove back to town and ordered pizza for dinner.

Tuesday I got up at 4 and promptly went back to sleep because it was pouring rain. At 5:40 I got up and drove downvalley toward the Mt. Sopris trailhead. Near the lot the car got stuck in deep mud but I managed to get it out with some vigorous rocking. I parked and hiked a few miles along "The Crown" (a ridge near Sopris) before giving in to the drizzle and deep mud. I drove back to Aspen and read a book as the rain continued to pour down.

On Wednesday I drove up to the Independence Pass parking lot, arriving at 7:45. There were two other cars there, one a truck that drove off and the other an empty car. I started hiking south along the Continental Divide, and about 1/2 hour later heard sirens coming up both sides of the pass. I kept hiking as two police cars and a larger emergency vehicle converged on the parking lot. I continued on to a point about two miles away and at 13,000'. I had breakfast and snapped some pictures, then returned down the trail.

When I got back to the overlook area I found that I was inside a roped-off crime scene. I talked to two of the police/rescue people and they said a guy had gone over the edge at the overlook. I found out the next day that a 50-year-old out-of-stater (like me) had shot himself and fallen below the overlook; the person who arrived in the parking lot after me found him.

I drove back to Aspen and had lunch at Little Annie's, then made a lot of phone calls to fix arrangements for the last leg of my trip.

On Thursday I drove up to the Lost Man Lake Trail just below Independence Pass at 6:30. I hiked in (north) almost to the pass just before the lake, then turned right and headed up to the ridgetop. I tried to climb a spiky summiy but hit a steep loose stretch and decided against it. So I climbed two lower summits (about 13,300') and had a windy lunch break. Then I headed back down.

Back in Aspen I did some laundry, had dinner at the Cantina, and packed. On Friday I drove back over Independence Pass and into Leadville where people were checking in for the next day's Leadville 100 (a 100-mile race with 30,000' of vertical). I decided not to register and instead had breakfast with my friends Dawn & Jason (from Ft. Collins) at the Golden Burro Cafe. They were on their way to climb Capitol Peak; follow the link on my homepage to Dawn's site for their trip report. We had plenty of time to talk as the service was slow.

After breakfast I drove on to Manitou Springs, where I picked up my race packet for the Pikes Peak Marathon. Then I checked into a tiny room at the Alpine Motel. After unpacking and stocking up with a few final pre-race snacks, I drove to my friend Liz's house near the Broadmoor. She fed me a wonderful dinner (corn soup, salad, & a tasty pizza) and I watched slides from some of her amazing trips to the Everest area.

On Saturday I slept through the start of the Pikes Peak Ascent (a half-marathon, up only), and when I finally woke up I had breakfast in Manitou Springs. Back at the motel I ran into Beth from the Disney Dead Running group (people who make the annual journey to Orlando to run the Disney Marathon or Half Marathon). We talked for a while, then I took a nap to rest up for the marathon. At 5 p.m. I met Mary in Monument for dinner at the Olive Garden and a look at her album of fourteener climb pictures. It was fun, I carbo-loaded, and went back to Manitou for early bedtime.

Sunday, the big day, Pikes Peak Marathon raceday, I got up at 5:15 and got dressed & loaded (camelbak & Gu mostly) for the run. At 6 I drove to Memorial Park and wandered around until the race started at 7. I jogged through town past all the spectators and up the dirt road that leads to the Barr Trail. When the spectators disappeared I slowed to a brisk hiking pace, but then spotted Mary perched on a rock with a camera, so I jogged and waved for about 50 yards before dropping back to the hiking pace of the back-of-pack group that I was in.

Thanks SO much, Mary, for all your support on this trip!

I managed a 20-minute-mile pace for the first 7 miles but at Barr Camp I began to lose steam and slowed my pace considerably. About 1.5 miles past the camp I could no longer lift my feet high enough to take another uphill step, so I stopped for a few minutes to regroup. I tried going up again but still couldn't do it. I walked downhill about 50 yards, then turned around and tried to go up again. Still no go.

So I took a last look up at the five remaining miles (and 4,000 vertical feet) to the summit, glanced up at the hot sun (it was 92 degrees back at the finish area), and decided this just wasn't a good day for a torturous finish. I was able to trot the 8 miles downhill at a fairly decent pace. I left the course before the finish line and hiked back to my car.

Stats: 3:15 to go up 8.5 miles and 4,000'; 1:45 to go back down 8 miles.

I went back to my room to roll around in agony for a while (actually, I was not feeling bad at all, just exhausted). I went to bed early and got up very early on Monday morning to catch a 7:00 flight back home from Denver.

I got home early enough to take Jan to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. ;)

Take me back to Gary's Base Camp.