Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Crawling Along The CDT

Scott and I have been trying to sneak in a 40+ mile run along the Continental Divide Trail from the Indian Peaks down to I-70 for the better part of the past month. Monday finally saw a day in which both of our schedules and the weather lined up to go for it. It was just in time as there is almost 2 feet of new snow here in Nederland today. Basically we waited until the last possible day before The Divide is snowed in until sometime next summer!

I was feeling really worn out from a recent trip to California and a 3.5 hour run on Sunday in Marin, but it was still really great to get out on the most adventurous run I've ever done in Colorado. Everything I've done in Colorado to this point has been on very established trail and in much more gentle weather. This route was all along the Contintental Divide Trail but at times the route was completely a guess and well over half of the run was so rocky and rugged that you couldn't even tell there was actually a trail somewhere in there. The other thing that was unique for me on this run is that I've never done anything where I've been up so high for so long. We went over two 13,000 ft. peaks and spent at least half of the 9 hours that we were out over 12,000 ft.

In the end we cut our route a bit shorter than we had hoped and bailed out at Berthoud Pass on Highway 40. We thought for sure we could average 4 miles per hour throughout the day, but when it was said and done we struggled to cover 3 miles per hour for the entire outing! It wasn't quite as rugged and wild as the more rugged stuff I do in Juneau, but it was very close. Sure is a bummer that the Divide is now buried under a few feet of snow because I can't wait to get up there again.

Here's some photos from the day:















12 comments:

  1. looks like an awe-inspiring run... love the photos.

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  2. Great pictures! What pack is Scott wearing? I like the bottle configuration.

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  3. Awesome run, just in time.

    3mph? That's it? Damn you guys are slow.... ;).

    Digging Scott's circa 1986 Factory Pilots, in seafoam green no less (I had a pair way back when). Still might have them somewhere, have to start digging for them now that they are back in fashion.

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  4. scott's sunglasses are pretty sweet.

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  5. Epic. Always wondered what that stuff looked like south of Devils Thumb.

    If you're ever here in the summer -- big "if" -- I'd hit the loop over Buchanan/Pawnee passes (Scott/Tony did that), or Aspen Four-Pass. The CO trail west of Copper Mtn has some good high alpine stuff. etc. etc. :)

    But for now... I think it just became spike/snowshoe season in a hurry.

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  6. Sweet week of running. Those oakly shades on Scott are radical. Was he wearing his montrail belly shirt too?
    Look foreword to seeing you tearing up the north face course in San Fran!

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  7. Damn I thought I would e the first here to call out the old school LA Olympic specs (ala Steve Scott). Sweet stuff. Should have figured the other old dogs would call that out!

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  8. GZ, I'm with you. I guess I'm older than I realized (I thought I was one of the young ones). When I started running with my dad back in the 80s, that's what he wore (in yellow). Well those were the only sunglasses he ever wore and I thought they were ridiculous. Now I realize how AWESOME they are. Geoff, tell Scott he has to wear those to the Basic.

    Jay

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  9. Looks amazing out there. Also, sweet photos there, Geoff.

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  10. Thanks for posting this Geoff. What a fantastic run. Great to see Scott spotin' the Factory Pilots too. I have the exact same pair. :)

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  11. It always blows me away how close winter park is to Nederland/Boulder.

    Yeah, have to agree. Scott's glasses are hot shit.

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  12. Factory Pilots! I'm going to start wearing mine again now

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