Huron Peak Trip Report

Huron Peak Trip Report

June 23^rd, 2013
Hiking Party: Panda, Kels, and Henry  (Cockapoo extraordinaire)

I was a bit tired on Saturday from the early AM for the Triathlon, and then visiting with friends for a while on Saturday afternoon, and it was catching up with me. I caught about a 45 min nap and made my way to Kelsey’s to start the venture. Kels and I started the trip from the Highlands in Denver at 7:02 PM on Saturday night. After making the quick realization to travel 70-West, NOT East…we were on our way!  We stopped off in Idaho Springs to grab a wrap at Two Brothers Deli since I hadn’t had dinner yet…whoops!

The trip was pretty easy to start, I-70 then 91-S at Copper Mtn, then travel west on 24 until county road 390. We had to loop back since we passed it the first time (not paying attention) and started the 12ish miles back to the first trail head via dirt road. Once at the front TH, it was another 2.1 miles to the upper trailhead only accessible by 4-WD. 

We were rocking Kelsey’s Highlander, which seemed to be beastly enough.  As we got started though, we had many second guesses. It was dark, rocky, muddy sometimes, downright freaky on the road! We bottomed-out once, had to re-maneuver a few times…but eventually made it to the trailhead around 10:30 PM. Along the road there is free camping, and plenty were taking advantage of this. There were quite a few cars in the lot, as well, so we knew it was going to be a busy day on Sunday!

Henry enjoying the backseat

We opted for the literal car camping, rather than setting up a tent, so we climbed in the back with our watch dog, Henry, and settled in for the night. I got the white noise machine via my cell phone going, ‘fan’ style, set the alarm, and it was lights out! Except for the rather full moon that was quite bright. 30 minutes later, and no Z’s caught yet, a car pulls on each side of us. They proceeded to talk quite loudly while the rest of the parking lot was clearly trying to rest up for the next day. Let’s just say I was not a happy camper! 1 hour and 20 minutes later, the white noise shut off, and I was still wide awake. I turned on a second round. 

Sometime during this I fell asleep and 4:30 AM came before I knew it!  We snoozed the alarm twice, it was dark, and hadn’t heard any cars or other hikers going up yet. Right around 4:45 a car drove by and we started to move on the 3^rd alarm ringing. We had a light bfast, slowly got moving, and we were on the trail at 5:24 AM, just light enough so we didn’t need our headlamps. We also saw the noisy people heading back to their cars...we think they hiked it at night!

View as I was peeing in the AM

The first mile or so of the trail has lots and lots of switchbacks. The heavy breathing started immediately but I was happy my legs felt pretty good after the race the day before. The trail is shaded, through trees, and the trail is super well maintained. 

happy Kelsey!

Overly happy Panda

After about a mile of these switchbacks, the trail opens to a basin, the views are amazing, and incline eases a bit. As you hike through the basin you can see what you will be climbing straight ahead. There was still a little runoff so it was a tiny bit icy that early, but nothing you couldn’t walk around.

H-ey

Through Basin thing...

still in the shade in basin

After passing through this open area, you begin the steep climbing again. With about 1.2 miles left of the trail, it was slow moving steps from there. There are some steps, well packed dirt trails, and some rocks to climb over. It starts switch-backing again. 

View from the ridge of the steep stuff!

Right about this time, the sun peaked over the hills and I finally needed to take out my sunglasses. We had averaged about 42 minutes for the first 2 miles, so it was probably around 7:30 or 8 by this time. I stopped to get my glasses, popped an energy block, and worked my way back up to Kelsey.  Once the trail meets the ridge, it is all rock the rest of the way up. There is an easy to follow path though, but it is slow, slow going. 

We stopped once more in the middle for another energy block and kept it moving. It is hard to tell where the summit is, I was mentally telling myself to just get to the top of the rocks, and then I was allowed another break. 

Much to my surprise (since I was expecting 3.375 miles on my watch, I figured at least another ¼ mile), at the top of this rocky area, the summit was right there! I spotted a few other hikers about 20 feet away and pushed forward. Kelsey and I exchanged a smile and a high five! Hiking time to top: 2 hours 50 minutes.

made it!

Henry is the best hiker

the group! Huron Peak 14,003'

 We had been passed by a few groups throughout the hike, and shared the summit with 8 or so people as we munched on our food. It is always strange breaking out lunch at 8:40 AM! It was beautiful on top, and the morning haze was still there a little, but for the most part it was super clear. I had some of my sandwiches and trail mix, with real M&Ms. Another group snapped some pictures for us and we enjoyed the amazing view, and weather! This made 14er #10 for Kelsey and Henry, and #8 for me!

We stayed for around 20 minutes and headed back down. There were lots of hikers on the way up, and it is always nice to know you already finished. Everyone thought Henry was an all-star, too. It was uneventful on the way down. The first 1.2 miles you could really tell how steep it was, which is satisfying knowing you aren’t crazy on the way up.

Leaving the basin - so clear out now!

Beautiful day out!

Right after clearing the basin, we were approaching a couple with their golden(?) that was leashed up. Henry was off leash, and is usually fine, since he is harmless and always comes when you call for him.  If Kelsey sees the other dog on the leash, she usually puts Henry on. Kelsey called forward, twice, if she should put him on a leash. They didn’t respond. As we approached Henry was right next to us and went up to the dog. The dog snatched Henry by the face, and the only thing I saw was Henry hanging in the air, being shaken and Henry was yelping. The owner tried to control his dog, but not before he had gotten to Henry. Kelsey, more shocked than anything, ran to Henry. She inspected, and luckily there was no blood, but Henry was shaking and was quite scared. The woman apologized and asked if Henry was okay. Not much else was said as we consoled Henry, Kelsey unsure what to do. She apologized again, and Kelsey said she could have put him on a leash, but Henry still would have gone up to dog, regardless, since they didn’t say otherwise. We parted ways, it wasn’t a good part of the day. I wish the owners had warned us their dog was not friendly, or even put something over its mouth for the hike.

After that, the endless switchbacks seemed to go on forever!  It was starting to get hot so we were happy we had gotten in to the shade. We made it back to the car around 11:30, after a great hike! Total hiking time was 4 hours, 47 minutes. We headed back out for the adventure on the 4WD road and took 285 home this time through Buena Vista, which is about equidistant. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, my headed was bobbing up and down and I tried to fight sleep. Kelsey is a rockstar for driving!

It was such a great hike! I'm so sad Kelsey is moving back to NY but it was a great way to send her off on her farewell 14er! Even better it was her 10th :-) Here are some stats!

Satellite image of Huron Peak

Holy Elevation!

Website said 6.75 and 3,500'...pretty close!
Mile 3 heading to the summit definitely the steepest!

Loveland Lake Sprint Tri - Race Recap!

It was an early AM on Saturday when the alarm rang at 3:40 AM! I had solid sub 6 hours of sleep, but was feeling pretty good. Made some oats and coffee and AA and I were out the door by 4:40. The hour-ish drive to Loveland was uneventful, it started in the pitch black but the sun came up quickly and it looked like a great day!

AA dropped me at the high school and I went in to get my packet. They had run out of shirts so they are supposed to mail it to me, hopefully! We parked, and brought over my gear to the transition area. I realized my two reusable grocery bags probably aren’t the best, as I saw everyone with sweet tri bags. O well. There were 6 racks in the back designated for the Sprint Race, and the remainder were for the Olympic race. The transition quickly cleared out as the Olympic athletes started the waves at 6:30 AM. We took some more time and headed down to the beach to see some of them take off! My wave was scheduled to start at 7:19 AM.

Bike in transition area!

The lake was gorgeous. There was a sea of athletes in funny looking wet suits, pretty fun. The waves went off, and it was neat to see the washer machine begin and they made their way around the 1,500m course. In around 20 minutes, the elites were already out of the water – we went and cheered a few on as they ran and stripped off the top of the wet suit. I wasn’t too nervous, but was excited to get started.

Watching the Olympic waves take off

7:15 came before I knew it and then men’s wave was off! The women’s wave hopped in the water. It was a wide start, I opted for the middle near the back. We were off! 

Women's Sprint Wave in the water

There were two turns around buoys back to the shore, which all seemed to be about the same length. The first leg was pretty uneventful, my breathing was on and I wasn’t feeling panicked. I tried hard to spot, and kept my eye on the big orange buoys. Surprisingly, there wasn’t too much of a log jam at the first buoy and I easily spotted to the second. I tried to stay on course. 

As we neared the second buoy though, there was a traffic jam of swimmers and it started to get messy. There were swimmers on each side of me, both swimming towards me. I definitely had to fight my way for space. To make it harder, it was nearly impossible to sight the big orange buoy so I wasn’t exactly sure where my end point. I fought for my spot, and one time literally stopped and went behind some chick because she was totally swimming across the path for the buoy. Every time I came up for breaths there were swimmers around me, it kept my pace up. The space didn’t free up the whole time – I made it towards the beach and hopped up. I noticed a lot of swimmers were walking, but I jogged through the area and up to the beach. I spotted AA as he was snapping pictures, and it put an even bigger smile on my face.

Here I come!

750 m swim time: 15:42

Average for my AG: 16:18

Rank: 5 of 8

Note: AG is Female 25-29 with 8 athletes

It was a ¼ mile to the transition area. My spot was right near the entrance. I put on my helmet and tried to get my thoughts in place. I started my watch satellites and began drying my feet and putting on my socks. During this time I also put on my sunglasses, clipless shoes, and almost forgot my bib. I stalled a minute to see if I had forgotten anything and then grabbed my bike and jogged out of the transition area.

Transition time: 2:13

Average for AG: 2:16

Rank: 5 of 8

I clipped in my right pedal, hopped on the bike, and got my other pedal in fine, success! I was definitely breathing heavy from the swim and it took a mile or two to calm it down. We headed out of the high school and there were lots of volunteers directing us where to go. It was a big square-ish route of the route. On the first mile stretch about 3 bikes passed me. I got in to the grove, and I wasn’t passed until about mile 4 or 5, but it was someone in my AG unfortunately. 

Route around Loveland

The ride was really pretty, along  semi-busy roads, but it was all coned off with volunteers at every turn. I saw someone having to change a flat tire, and I spent most of the ride trying to avoid anything, praying I wouldn’t get a flat…since I had zero gear or knowledge to fix it! The course was really flat compared to the Evergreen course. There were some rolling hills, but I stayed in my middle ring the whole time. It was a gorgeous day out and I was really enjoying it. 

The sprint course met back up with the Olympic course during the last 4 or so miles, I could hear the tri bikes zooming by me. We made our way back in to the high school area – I was excited to have made it under an hour for the 15 miles!

15 mile bike time: 53:18

Average for AG: 51:03

Rank:  5 of 8

It is interesting looking at results – for the bike there is a clear division in times for top 4 and bottom 4

Average for top 4: 47:16

Average for bottom 4: 54:50

I unclipped and headed in to the transition area. I spotted AA near the back where my station was. I took off the shoes and put on my sneakers, grabbed my hat, a sip of water and I was off!

coming in to the transition, hi AA!

sneakers...on!

Transition time: 1:15

Average for AG: 1:24

Rank: 3 of 8

We headed down the field and made our way to the pavement.  I didn’t put in my iPod and just got to listen to my heavy breathing :-)

Ready to run!

It was sunny out, so I was very happy to have my hat on. I kept glancing down at my watch during the first mile and it was reading 9:20ish min/mile pace. I was wondering if I should slow it down, but it felt good! I thought maybe my watch was off. 

There was water and Gatorade at every mile, the support and volunteers for this race were great! The course went through some neighborhoods and eventually made its way around Lake Loveland.  I could tell a lot of the runners near me were the Olympic racers, and clearly really good ones! I cheered on what appeared to be the top 3 women and they made their way back from their run. 

Around Lake Loveland

I felt good pretty much the entire run. Since we split off from the Olympic distance after 3 miles, I wasn’t sure how much support their would be. The mile 3 was totally mismarked, my watch read 2.6 miles, but the rest seemed to be on point. There was another way station about 3ish miles, so the last 1.3ish would be without water. Around this time, a girl from my AG passed me and I was pretty bummed, but kept it going. 

We rounded the lake, in to this little park place, and looped around for the finish. There was great support coming in to the finish and I kept my eyes peeled for AA, spotted him! I made my way through as they announced my name. It felt great!!

Coming down the stretch!

Final haul

Run time: 41:32

Average for AG:  41:19

Rank:  6 of 8

Timing...but pace is off!

The girl that passed me ended up beating me only by 15 seconds overall! I had her on the first 2 events, but she ran about 45 seconds faster on the run! Darn it all! I had her by 6 minutes on the swim, but got back about 5 minutes of that on the bike. Officially I had a 9:40 pace, my watch said 9:25 so the distance must have been off. I am super happy with that pace!

As I am studying the results, I think the girl with the flat tire was in my age group. Her bike time was super high, 56:57, but the other 2 events were stellar. She had a 7:48 running pace, 2^nd in the swim and 2^nd in the run. Poor girl! If she were on pace with first place, she lost 10-13 minutes from that. I really need to learn how to change a flat!

So all in all, I was so happy with how the race went! It helped the bike wasn’t hilly. I am feeling okay for the Olympic, but am scared of the bike the most (and in turn how tired I’ll be for the run). I am doing the aquaman race tomorrow at Cherry Creek, and I’ll do the 1 mile swim then the 5K run. I think this will be good to see how the longer swim feels in a race setting. I’ll do it the following week, as well.

Looking at the results, I am pretty happy with the my swim time, always room for improvement though. As I mentioned on the bike portion, there was a divide between the top 4 and bottom 4. I definitely need to improve on the bike. The run, as always, is a bit slow, but I don’t ever see myself as a super fast runner, so I’ll just continue to train and improve on this!

All in all, a great day. It was great to have AA there to support me along the way!!!!

Tri Season to Begin Early!

I came off a good weekend of training (see below), so obviously I spent some of my Monday morning checking out what races are in the area (again). One that I had my eye on was the Loveland Lake to Lake this Saturday June 23^rd. Since it was an Olympic distance, I didn’t think I was ready for this yet, and I wanted the Boulder Peak to be my first Olympic! To my surprise Monday morning, the Loveland race added a Sprint distance!

Quickly my mind races…could I do this…what do I have planned? I shoot an email to Aaron with the thought and without hesitation he says go for it! I had already signed up by the time he responded :-) Sunday Kels and I are hiking a 14er but Sat AM was free, so why not! It’ll be a great brick work-out too! I am not too sure of the course yet, so I am interested in what it will be!

Now for a recap of the workouts this weekend:

Saturday

5 mile AM run at Wash Park. I had hoped do closer to 7 miles, but after the first loop, my body was not feeling it. I had to walk for about a tenth, and grabbed water. The second lap went pretty good, I should have pushed to keep going an extra mile. AA and I had plans to check out a bike auction though, so I figured 5 miles was torture enough!

Post run

Slower than I'd like...but happy I went

Love Wash Park

Sunday

1.2 mile open water swim at Grant Ranch! My longest to date! I did not realize until this morning that it was 1.2 miles, not the 1 mile that I had thought. It helps to know since it took me about 50 minutes and I was anticipating closer to 45 minutes. Swimming felt good, and I did not get as nervous as last time. Being in the water definitely takes its toll. My swim cap was coming off the last 5 minutes or so and I was so ready to be out of there! I hadn’t swam this full course yet, so I had a lot of sighting to do. Overall though, it felt great. I felt like I had the endurance to make it this far, and puts me to ease for the swim. I am not super fast – but I know most importantly, I can swim the distance!

After the swim, I changed and moved my car over to the high school. The plan was a 17 mile route that took me to Bear Creek Lake Park from Grant Ranch, around the park – and home. The way there went fairly well. I stopped about 1 tenth from the pull in to the park, not realizing it was straight ahead. Once I got to the park, it was so beautiful! It went around Fox Hollow golf course – but I made a wrong turn…or lack of a turn actually. I ended up going further east along another trail and did not loop back around the park. I am not surprised since I have a horrible sense of direction. It was not too big of a deal – but the way back to my car was kind of ugly. I had to ride on Wadsworth, and did so mostly on the sidewalks as it’s a very busy road. I really want to go back and make the loop at Bear Creek – it is so beautiful!

actually got this one!

Approaching Bear Creek Lake Park

Foothills outside Denver - I want to live here

The blue circle below is where I should have turned to make the loop, instead I headed in to Wadsworth Park – which is actually a great trail system. It turned out OK. I saw my first snake in CO though! I ran right over it, it made my skin crawl!

Bike - Grant Ranch to Bear Creek Lake Park and Lost...

Outlook

Monday – 4 mile run (check! – ran during lunch – slower, but felt good!)
Tuesday –  bike 2 work (check! - tired but fastest time!)
Wednesday— AM swim, 4-5 mile run
Thursday— bike 2 work
Friday – REST
Saturday – Sprint Tri!

Bike Addition

I scored myself a ‘rescued’ bike from the Denver County Bike Auction! It was super fun, never been to anything like it. Governor Hickenlooper was there, even spotted him incognito (before emcee acknowledged him!). Walked away with a great around town bike. Afterwards, got some lights, kickstand, new tired, and water bottle holder!

Governor Hickenlooper!

Auction! You can't see all the people! I'd say 150 ppl!

Right outta the gate!

It took its first spin to Jazz in the Park on Sunday evening, so I added another 11 miles to biking for this week! I need to get smaller city tires this week, but other than it – it is a keeper! I finally have a city bike after mine got stolen at the light rail last year. I got a U-lock which will hopefully hold against the thieves! Boo!

Course Outlook

Well I wasn’t able to post this Monday – and they have since posted the course!

• 750 yard swim
• 15 mile bike
• 4.3 mile run (around Lake Loveland)

Swim – 750m

Bike – 15 miles (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/229324951)

Run – 4.3 miles (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/229329383)

I am excited the run is a little longer than a normal sprint course (3.1 miles). I am most scared of the run, so this will be a great training exercise :-)