cyberhobo

Category: Outings

  • Father’s Day on Bald Mountain

    When Dad chose Boreas Pass and Bald Mountain as the locale for a Father’s Day hike, I doubt he expected to enjoy long glissades on remnant snowfields, much less to participate in the wedding of two perfect strangers. He knows as well as I do, though, that you don’t visit the high places on the…

  • A little CDT stroll

    Hoping to encounter Sidewinder, we wander south for an hour along the Continental Divide Trail from Marshall Pass. Even here the trail is quiet, but not the total silence I recall from my 2004 hike through the Cochetopa Hills. My best guess is that he’ll be along later in the day, so we leave a…

  • Mount Ouray (13,971′) West Ridge Route

    Mount Ouray to a northbound Continental Divide Trail hiker is the welcoming guardian of the range of giant Sawatch mountains that follows nearly 80 miles of low-lying Cochetopa hills. The inspiring contrast stuck it in my memory, perhaps along with the fact that it marked the vicinity of Monarch Pass, the path to town food…

  • Camp near Buffalo Springs

    We take a nice drive up Clear Creek Canyon to I-70, then south on 9 from Frisco to Fairplay. South of Fairplay we pull off on Forest Road 431, and stop to watch this storm unfold on the high plains of the South Platte headwaters to the east. There’s a National Forest campground here, Buffalo…

  • Eldorado Canyon – Wind Tower

    We didn’t initially plan to do any climbing this weekend, but looking ahead we realized this might be our last chance for a while. Hoping for reduced crowds on this weekday, we head for Wind Ridge, 5.8-, on the Wind Tower in Eldorado Canyon. Our guidebook says these three pitches of red sandstone arete climbing…

  • Poudre Canyon – Crystal Wall

    Ann, Sean, and I decide to search the Poudre Canyon for some neighborhood sport climbing. We don’t have much to go on – a couple of trad routes in an old book, some beta from a web search, a hint from a local climber. Thus armed, we drive about 15 miles up the canyon to…

  • Blue Sky Trail Construction

    It’s National Trails Day, and I finally act on my resolution to do some volunteer trail work.Doug and I show up at 9 am at the Soderberg Trailhead, sign a waiver, catch a ride to the work area, and start hauling rocks.We’re working on the final section of the Blue Sky Trail, which will run…

  • Shelf Road – Cactus Cliff & Gem Wall

    Today there are some high clouds, so we optimistically head to the sunny Cactus Cliff area. Lisa & Dave go with some of their friends to the tougher Gem Wall, and we head for Cactus to see what we can hit before it gets too hot. Crynoid Corner, 5.7. Ann leads this again, and I…

  • Shelf Road – The Gallery

    After a pleasant night in our tent at the Cheese Head Ranch, a spread north of Canyon City owned by a climber from Wisconsin who hosts an annual Memorial day climber gathering, we set out with our friends Lisa, Dave, and Dyson (now a year and half old!) for the Menses Prow area, hoping for…

  • Buffalo Creek – The Big Butt

    Maybe the climbers who named these rocks hoped to keep the yuppies away by giving them impolite names or, more likely, got into a competition that included putting up the hardest climbs with the foulest names. The way I see it, the visions conjured up by the names here make the reality the most pleasant…