Keystone Half-Marathon

Sun. 22 July 2013

This last weekend I ran the Keystone Half-Marathon. It’s a well-run, small race in a ski-town in the summer. This race is part of the Endurance Race Series in Colorado. It bills itself as Colorado’s Largest Trail Running Series.

I would argue that calling it a trail race is a little generous. About 9 to 10 of the 13 miles are on the bike path that goes along the Snake River. The one section of trail comes about two miles into the loop when you climb about 250 feet around the town golf course. The half-marathon is two loops of the 10k course plus a 0.7-mile loop tacked on at the end. The total elevation gain for the half-marathon is around 1,400 feet – hardly noteworthy by mountain racing standards, but significant enough to separate the climbers from the non-climbers. The entire race itself stays about 9,000 ft.

Elevation Profile

I left Boulder around 6:30 and made it to Keystone just a little after 8 am. Racers parked on the north side of the road and walk about a half-mile under the underpass to the eastern side of the Keystone Lake. The packet pick-up was easy and I was glad to see that they had a bag check spot so that I did not have to haul my gear back to the truck. There were three porta-potties there which was perfectly adequate for the number of runners. Lines were pretty manageable. I lathered up on sunscreen and did a quick five-minute warm-up.

The race start was relaxed – a quick explanation of the course and a ready, set, go. I surprisingly found myself in the lead. The course starts of going west and downstream which means downhill; so, in spite of my effort to go out easy, I ran the first mile in 5:50. A 10-k runner briefly caught up to me and was a little dismayed to see that I was running the half. I told him not to worry – I might not be pacing this right. But once we turned at the golf course and started going uphill he dropped back and I was all alone.

The single track portion of the course was lovely – if short. The course pacer warned me about the “hill”, but while not insignificant, a 250-ft climb over a mile is hardly bad. For that I have to thank Greg Nash and the Boulder Track Club’s Mountain, Ultra and Trail Running Team. After training on the Shadow Canyon loop, the ascent here was pretty tame.

Once I regained the bike path I headed back to the start and a gradual uphill climb. While I was alone as a runner, there was ample company from what appeared to be a large bike ride going on that weekend. While I would have preferred the solitude of running, the bikers were very courteous and friendly and we all seemed to share the trail rather well from my perspective.

Course

The second loop was a little slower than the first, but I maintained an average pace of 6:30 miles. While I have run a faster pace on road marathons, this one was at 9,000 feet and there was no one really pushing me so I felt okay with that. The last 0.7 mile loop was a bit of a ball buster. You climb for what feels like a while before returning to the bike path for a smooth finish. My watch had the whole thing at 12.7 miles, but I lost about two tenths of a mile each time through the single-track portion of the loop. Finishing time was 1:26:01 – not blazingly fast, but good enough for the win.

There was free Left Hand Sawtooth Ale at the end and the race organizers were pretty efficient at getting the results out. The spread of food was also pretty respectable for a small race. I got my award and was on my way home before noon. Another fun race in the books.

The Taste of Victory (which tastes like Lefthand Sawtooth)

A Very Colorado Day

Saturday, 22 June, 2013

This day was one of those days that embodies what living in Colorado is to me. One of my good friends from Maine, Bret, was in Keystone for a forestry conference and wanted to get together. This coincided with a Boulder friend of mine, John, trying to organize people to go on hikes with him. Alita graciously told me to have a good time. While she likes a good walk, the midwife advised us to keep the kiddo-to-be below 11,000 ft.

The three of us agreed upon hiking Bierstadt. It was a good middle choice for my friend in Keystone and John and me in Boulder. John and I had not hiked Bierstadt and it was an easier 14’er for a sea-level person like Bret to take on.

We met up at the Georgetown exit at 6:30 and were at the trailhead by 6:50. Bret brought along two other forestry friends of his from Quebec. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and this being a 14’er, there was already a good crowd at the parking area and starting up the mountain.

I had never checked out the website 14ers.com, but I would highly recommend it for anyone looking to hike one of these (or several 13,000 –ft. peaks). The pictures, maps, GPS points and trip reports were spot on and very helpful. The route was pretty clear from the ant-line of people already going up the trail. We walked through the bog section with its boardwalks and crossed the stream as a nice warm-up. The first mile-or-so of gain was a fairly nice path. The trail was clear except for a few snow cones near the top.

Snow Cones!

We made the summit by 9:20. We took the required touristy pictures; then, we retreated to the far side for a little space so that we could eat our lunch in peace. John had mooted the idea of picking up Mount Evans as well, but Bret and the Quebequa were starting to feel the effects of the altitude so we agreed that an out-and-back would round out the hiking day just fine.

The trip down was uneventful for us, although it appeared that someone was getting rescued as a helicopter circled overhead and an ambulance was waiting in the parking lot when we arrived. We were back to the cars by 12:30. John and our friends from Quebec went their separate ways while Bret and I decided to try some local fishing.

Our Quebecois Friends and the end of the hike

After some debate about driving times and various local options, Bret and I decided to check out a stretch of the Blue River above Silverthorne. It was a beautiful canyon stretch with nice little runs. Being downstream of the reservoir, it was not running too high either. I tried a dry-dropper out of principle, but eventually joined Bret with a double nymph rig. Bret hooked into what looked to be a nice rainbow  on a copper john but lost it after a few seconds of fighting.

It seemed that small was the order of the day so I switch to a size-18 midge and beatis nymph set-up. About a half-hour later this paid off with a nice 14-inch rainbow. We each had one more fish express interest, but the Blue did not give up any more fish for us that day – just spectacular and peaceful vistas.

We head back to the cars around five and went our separate ways. We had hiked a 14-er and fished a beautiful trout stream. I cannot think of too many better ways to spend a summer day in Colorado.

Boulder Happy Hour Hikes

My wife and I want to hike more. The problem with having friends who live in Boulder on Facebook is that they post a lot of pictures of hiking – and  not just in Boulder. Every week we have some friend post of hiking in Moab, Arches, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Sand Dunes National Park, etc. You start to feel like you’re letting Colorado and the American southwest go to waste. The problem is that we have just not had (okay, made) time to do some of the most fantastic hikes and we certainly cannot do them every weekend. So instead of going far and wide, my wife and I are exploring hikes that short (3 miles or less) and close (within 20-30 min) that we can do in the evening – even after work.

Anne U White Trail

Trailhead: 40° 3.564'N 105° 19.184'W

http://www.protrails.com/trail/boulder-denver-golden-fort-collins-lyons-anne-u-white-trail

This trail was a 20-minute drive from our house. We turned off of Broadway just before it got to Rt. 36 to Lyons. The parking area was small (4-6 cars) and we grabbed the last spot. The water was high due to some run-off from snow that we had received earlier in the week.

Apparently the trail closes in the afternoons during the summers due to the danger of flash flooding. The trail is certainly never far from the stream that it follows. In fact, in crosses it 22 times (by our count) on the way up. There is a nice picturesque falls partway up.

The end of the trail was a little anti-climactic. It could potentially connect to some other trails were it not for the pesky private land thing. We did have a fun moment at the end where we set up my camera to take a picture of us and a butterfly started trying to get nectar from my orange Nikon.

Bald Mountain Preserve

Trailhead: 40° 2.862'N 105° 20.478'W

Time from our house: 20 min

http://www.bouldercounty.org/os/parks/pages/baldmountain.aspx

This one had great views for a pretty low cost of hiking (not a lot of vertical). There are some nice picnic tables right near the parking area. The route is a lollipop, we got to the divide and went counter-clockwise along the fence. Around the corner are the remnants of a forest fire that went through the area a few years ago. When you come around the corner you find yourself on the top of the mountain. There is a bench there with a great view of Green Mountain. This would be a great picnic area for a Friday.

 

Sugarloaf Mountain

Trailhead: 40° 1.504'N 105° 25.490'W

Time from our house: 30 min

Distance: 0.7mi one-way, 500m elevation

Our guidebook that recommended this one cited the amazing sunrises and sunsets that can be seen from the summit. This was a bit long on our driving time limit, but it was well worth it. There are actually several ways that you can start this hike – but they all lead to the same place. We started up the trail with the two poles connected by a chain. About 0.4 miles up there was a park bench that would be perfect for watching the sunrise. I was a little surprised when at 0.7 miles we were at the top – just in time to catch the last of the sunset. There were some amazing views. I would love to do this one as a sunrise hike at some point.

Walden Ponds

Trailhead: 40° 2.635'N 105° 11.023'W

Drive Time: 20 min

This was a fun easy walk among some beautiful ponds. It kinda gives you hope about the damage we do to places to think that these used to be gravel pits. This walk also has great views of the flatirons.  The one downside is that there were some decently intense mosquitos. The trail was level gravel – it would be perfectly walkable for my mother who has Parkinson’s.

Brauerei Hermanski: Peachy Number Nine

Brauerei Hermanski has been silent for a long time. But I found a quiet Sunday afternoon this past week and finally got around to bottling a peach wheat beer that I have had on the fermenter for a while.

Backstory

This was batch number 43. Some in the homebrewing community recommend brewing the same batch until you get it right – I have never pulled this off. While I have occasionally re-brewed the same base recipe it is hard to fight the urge to experiment. In this case the base beer was the Original Pyramid Wheat recipe from Charlie Papazian’s Microbrewed Adventures (I have never brewed a recipe from this book that I did not like). The first time I used it as the base beer for a honey-wheat. This time a good friend of my wife gave us two one-quart bags of peaches and Aita and I agreed that they would do well in a beer.

Recipie

5.5 lbs.  (2.5 kg) wheat malt extract syrup (50/50 wheat/barley)

1 lb         (454 g) Crystal Malt ( 10-L)

1.25 oz. (35 g) Cascade hops 5% alpha (6.3 HBU/175 MBU 60 min.

¼ Oz.     (7 g) Perle hops 8% alpha (2 HBU/56 MBU)-15 min

½ oz.      ( 14 g) Perle hops- I minute boiling

1/4. tsp. (I g) Irish moss

Safebrew T-58 Dried Yeast

1/2 cup corn sugar (priming bottles)

I steeped the grains for 30 min at 155. The peaches I put into the secondary fermenter. I have used dried yeast for the last two beer and it always takes off fast but also seems to taper after about 24 hours. I left the peaches on the secondary for almost two months – this had nothing to do with how long I think the peach should have been left on the beer – I just did not have time to bottle. The OG was 1.045. This was the first time that I tried a hydrometer that my brother-in-law got me for Christmas. The hydrometer read 1.042. Not too bad.

Homebrewery

 I am still a stove-top extract brewer. We moved into a new house almost a year ago and gained a lot more kitchen space as well, but I have still found one of the best investments I made to be a collapsible table. This is where I stage most of my brewing equipment. The area by the stove is the queue for ingredients waiting to get into the wort. The area by the refrigerator is sanitizing buckets, tubes and used ingredients (hops & grains, etc.)

Bottling

I was expecting to see the yeast demolish the peaches and was a little surprised to see them mostly left in the beer. I had put them in sliced and if I did this again I might chop them up a little finer. The beer finished at 1.010 for around 4.5% ABV. I was pleasantly surprised that there was no harsh sourness in the beer – so I do not have to tell my friends that it is a lambic when I give it to them. Of course, the final word will come in two weeks.
  

Prost.