A couple weeks ago I took a day off work looking for a big hike/run that would get me a good amount of mileage and vert ahead of the Telluride Mountain Run coming up at the end of August. After looking at a few different ideas I took a step back and realized there was no need to look any further than my own backyard…
For a long time I’d had an inclination to revisit Mt. Jackson (first and only other time I’d hiked it was 7 years ago), but instead of via the standard route from Beaver Creek, I figured why not do it as the ultimate backyard jaunt straight from my house in Eagle-Vail. Well, no time like the present I suppose as I’m not getting any younger. One of the cool things about the valley is that many of its trails intersect and can be linked together from virtually any starting point. You can more or less get anywhere in the valley via some combination of trails, the question just becomes how big of a day are you up for? Keep Reading….
One consistent thing about my biking ‘career’ is that it has almost always felt like a massive struggle. Contrary to most other sports (particularly those involving mountains and/or endurance), biking has never really felt natural. Or easy. Or consistently enjoyable. Or that I was ever any good at it. Over the past 20+ years I’ve discovered all kinds of novel ways to realize that me and biking simply aren’t an instinctive fit. I mean, just the inherent challenges of going for the a casual ride are seemingly endless. Keep Reading…
With the Telluride Mountain Run at the end of August rapidly approaching it’s time to get out there for a few alpine training runs. This past Saturday I decided to check out a route I had earmarked awhile back while looking at a map of the Sawatch in search of long loops incorporating 14ers. I’d never seen any reports or Strava logs of anyone running this particular linkup before, although I’m sure it gets some traffic as the loop makes a lot of sense. Read more…
Several years back I got an invite to join on J, Brandon and Co’s annual “Hardman Hut Trip” (some years are harder than others but there are always plenty of men). From 10th Mountain to Uncle Bud’s to Skinner we went, covering around 30 miles between the three huts with a few good turns mixed in along the way. This same crew of long-time friends has continued with this style of trip every year for the past decade or so, and I was happy to join again for this year’s outing as soon as I got the invite. Read more…
