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….
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…
I think the only reasonable way to make yourself sign up for a 100 mile race is to do it in a moment full of impulse, peer pressure, and some sort of other life high. A bold declaration of “f*ck it” helps too. Or at least, that was my experience. When I signed up for the Bear 100 back in late 2021, it took all of these things to make me finally pull the trigger.
I’ve been a runner and a climber for pretty much all of my adult life. Over the past few years I have discovered the joy of combining the two together. What began with an eye opening first 50k at the 2018 Dirty 30 quickly evolved into a slew of follow up races, long mountain running days, and many, many hours on the trails. By my count, I had run a marathon or longer 19 times before doing the Bear. So, in many ways, I definitely felt like I was ready. But 100 miles sure felt different. Because it is. Keep Reading….
With the High Lonesome finally in the rearview and to kick off the month of August, Anna-Lisa, Jax and I headed out for a route in the Gores that’s sort of evolved into a bit of a local classic in the Snow Pass loop. We’ve made it an unofficial goal of ours to visit every named lake in Eagle County that can be reached via a trail, and this loop happens to collect three of them in two completely different drainages. Keep reading…
