Goodbye and Thanks for the Trails: The Boulder Skyline Farewell

With my leave from the Boulder looming, I wanted to do a fitting last horah to the trails of Boulder. I wanted it to encapsulate something iconic and so I settled on the Boulder Skyline for my big goodbye. While I know of trail runners who do this on a weekly basis (or more), for me this seemed a fittingly epic way to say goodbye (at least temporarily) to these trails.

 

The Boulder Skyline from the South Campus

Route

As I am not an experienced ultra or trail runner, I opted to do a point-to-point course. I also decided to get the hardest part out of the way first by tackling South Boulder / Bear Peak. To do this south-to-north route, I would first go up Shadow Canyon and tackle South Boulder Peak and then pick up Bear. From there I would do the ridge between Bear and Green before going down and picking up Flagstaff. My plan also allowed for the possibility of picking up Sanitas if I had the gas (and time) left.

South to North Elevation Profile

Logistics

I had Alita drop my vehicle off at the northern terminus near the Sanitas Trailhead and bus me down to the South Mesa Trailhead.

A few primer runs up Green had taught me that I need a lot of water at this time of year and that a trip up Green was enough to drain my water bottle. So in staging vehicles I also stashed a jug of water on the Flagstaff Road at the base of the Ranger Trail between Green and Flagstaff.

South Boulder Peak / Bear Mountain

I got off at 7:30 am. I would have preferred to start earlier, but this worked just fine. While the floods have left the Mesa Trail with some deep ruts, it is still runnable for me up to the cabin at the base of Shadow Canyon.

Here I crossed Shadow Creek by the little shack and started the real climb. At this point I should point out that when I (and most people) say they run up Bear Peak. . . we really mean go up as quickly as we can with minimal stopping. I suspect there are maybe a half-dozen people in Boulder who can actually run up Shadow or Fern canyon, but I am not among that number.

Looking South from South Boulder Peak

After a good bit of hiking I made the saddle between South Boulder Peak and Bear. Towards the top you get into a burnt-out area. It took me about an hour but the views were worth it.

Testing out the panorama feature on South Boulder Peak 

While South Boulder Peak is not really visible on the Boulder Skyline, it is so close to Bear that it’s an easy double peak bag. The trip over to Bear was just a quick jaunt down and up the Saddle.

Looking north from Bear Peak at Green Mountain and Boulder

Green

With half the peaks done, it was time for my favorite part. The stretch between Bear and Green has great views and some nice running through the trees. The trail is not technical and you have already paid the elevation price to for the view and trees. I particularly like the Green Bear Trail from the Bear Canyon Trail to the summit of Green. It’s a nice and easy ascent through some nice woods with good-sized trees.

This is Bear Canyon, while I did not run this stretch, this is similar to the nice trails and trees of the Green Bear Trail

The Green Summit was where I saw my first other people for the day – and advantage of being able to run mid-week. Here I paused for a light snack before finish up the run.

Looking west at a trail intersection before the final push to Green

Green to Flagstaff

In comparison this one was barely an additional summit. However, my legs were getting tired at this point and my ankles, raised on pavement and dirt road trails, often have trouble on some of the loser sand / gravel of the trails down Green.

I stopped and filled up on some much-need water at the Flagstaff Road before going to the flagstaff on Flagstaff. While this is not technically the summit, it was close enough for my purposes.

Looking over Boulder from the Amphitheater near the Flagstaff Summit

Finishing

Coming down from Flagstaff I took a wrong turn near Crown Rock. As I was looking at a biker going up the road and thinking I should be crossing soon, I tripped on a rock. My hand hit a rock and I heard a rather odd sound. When I looked down my right middle finger was bent sideways about 45° at the first joint. Not really knowing what to do I re-set it and kept going. I had feeling in the tip and it could still bend, so I hoped it was not too bad. As of this writing a few weeks later, things seem to be healing well. It was a good reminder that of the catch-22 that I experience on trails – even though you have stunning views, its best to keep in the moment and not admire too much.

With my worries about my finger, I decided not to try for Sanitas and call it a day where I parked near the Centennial Trailhead. I went home pleased to live in such a beautiful area.

Stats

Peaks: South Boulder (8,520), Bear (8,460), Green (8,080), Flagstaff (6,915)

Total Distance: 15 mi

Total Vert: 4,650 ft

Time: 3:06:11 (3:49:32 with breaks)

Pace: 12:37

Labor Day (Ft) Bliss

Franklin Mountain State Park

Labor Day 2014

South and North Franklin Mountains

When I found out the my unit would be doing some training at Ft. Bliss I was a little disappointed because I did not have high hopes of the outdoor potential near Ft. Bliss. I was once again pleasantly surprised when my research found a nearby state park with mountains and trails – entirely within El Paso city limit.

My unit had a little time off over Labor Day and our commander let us go out and explore. My initial research on the park’s website was a little disappointing. Their map shows the general parking areas, but does not really give much information concerning the trails. On the other hand, the park does seem to be working towards a much grander vision. The website says they are working on a network which will eventually have over 100 miles of trails. This would be a pretty awesome Texas-sized Central Park.

One of the major things that struck me about hiking here was how underused the park was. Had this been Chataqua Park in Boulder on Labor Day Weekend I suspect we would have been hard pressed to find a site at 8 am (when we pulled in), but here there was still plenty of parking. On the hike up and at the summit, we had the mountain to ourselves. On the way down we saw about 15 people (which for a beautiful and sunny Labor Day seemed pretty light).

For our hike we chose North Franklin Mountain – the highest point in the park at around 7,180 ft (according to Google Earth). We started from what I will call the Agave Trailhead (this is what Google Maps lists it as if you plug in the GPS coordinates).

North Franklin Mountain Hike Stats

Agave Trailhead: 31.916750°, -106.509600°

One-way length: 3.8 miles

Vertical gain: 2,359 ft

North Franklin Mountain: 31.902800°, -106.493627°

Ascent time (with breaks): 2 hours

West Cottonwood Spring Trail

West Cottonwoods Springs Trail (left), Agave Trail (right)

Elevation profile starting at trailhead

West Cottonwood Springs Trail

Length: 0.5 miles

Gain: ~480 ft

The ankle-eating rocks of the West Cottonwood Springs Trail

For the first half-mile we took the West Cottonwood Spring Trail. This trail was all double-fist sized rocks that were less than pleasant. If I do this hike again I might try the Agave Trail. It’s about 0.25-0.3 miles longer, but it gets you to the same place and (from the ends at least) the footing looks easier.

Agave Trail to the top and West Cottonwood Springs Trail to the bottom

The branch up to the spring could be interesting as it appears to have one of the half-dozen trees in the entire park, but we opted to go for the summit.

Agave Trail

Length: 0.8 miles

Gain: ~535 ft

Intersection with West Cottonwood Springs Trail: 31.914777°, -106.501168°

Agave Trail Elevation profile (starting from trailhead)

Mundy’s Gap Trail

Looking over Mundy's Gap from the north

Length: 1.5 miles

Gain: 825 ft

Start: 31.914764°, -106.500702°

Start of Mundy Gap Trail

From here the footing got easier. From the start of this section you can see the summit and a good scrambler / climber could cut off a mile or two, although probably not that much time. We opted for the official route which follows a more gradual climb. From the information boards at the trailhead, North Franklin Mountain was apparently originally intended as the site of some towers and even had some initial grading done at the summit. But the El Pasans revolted and the land became a park instead. However, the initial work on the summit meant that this trail and the North Franklin Trail are old roads. As such, the hike is not overly technical beyond some loose footing.

Mundy's Gap Trail - just past the gap

The first section has some shade in the early morning sun as it is on the west side. Once you make the saddle (or Mundy’s Gap, I presume), you have great views of west and east El Paso. Once over the saddle there is a nice bit of down before you get to the split where you can chose the Tin Mine or the summit.

Enjoying some morning shade on the western slope

North Franklin Mountain Trail

Length: 1.8 miles

Gain: 1,440

Mundy Gap Intersection: 31.914548°, -106.492919°

Start of the North Franklin Mountain Trail

From here the trails gets steep. As compensation there are some amazing wildflowers – yellows, oranges, whites and blues.

There are a lot of switchbacks with great views of the rest of the mountain chain, El Paso and Ft.Bliss.

The summit is flat with great views of New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.

Looking north from the summit

Overall this is a great hike and an amazing resource to have in the middle of a city and right next to an Army base. While though footing is a little rough in spots, there are some great running  and hiking trails here.

Looking south from the summit

Rushing or Running and Fishing

Genesis

Changing hobbies

I see two main avenues to catching more fish. The best way, in the long term, is to become a better fisherman – learn to cast better, chose flies more wisely, etc. Another way is to find dumber fish. The first is a lifelong pursuit which can never be fully realized. The second is often a way to keep things fun in the pursuit of mastery.

The funnest way to find dumber fish is to go farther than most people are willing to go. The idea of running to fishing spots has been with me for a while since I went fishing along Big Creek in the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho. This beautiful stream has, in addition to a load of Bull trout, a dirt path that runs along its entire 35 mile course. My father and friends mainly fished the first five miles and had pretty decent success, but I have not been able to shake the suspicion that if I could incorporate a run into the day, that I could have had a chance at some big and less-fished-for bull trout.

The other day I decided to do a proof of concept experiment. While I had hoped to do this on some high alpine lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, I settled on running down to Boulder Creek early one morning.

Packing List

I settled on the following packing list. It is not perfect, but it is a workable start:

·         Day pack

·         7-piece rod

·         Reel

·         Chest pack

·         Handkerchief

·         GPS

·         Water bottle

·         Filter

·         Rain jacket

·         Sandals

Gear laid out

Gear packed up

Fishing Set-up

For the rod I settled on my 7-piece March Brown and reel. It seemed from my research that Tankara fishing would probably win in terms on weight or set-up, but I am not yet ready to give up my reel. For inexpensive but good travel rods, I have seen friends use the travel rods from Bass Pro Shop with good results.

The biggest area where I would like to improve my set-up in terms of weight is the chest pack. I am intrigued by the lanyards that I have seen. The biggest challenge to my current set-up is that I feel this would mean consolidating my flies into just one or two boxes (that I take with me). I feel this would be very doable since I have a short list of go-to flies that seem to work in most situations for me. Something along the lines of:

Dries

·         3-4 ea. Parachute adams (sizes 14, 16 and 18)

·         Hoppers

·         Stimulators

·         Elk Hair Caddis

Nymphs

·         Stoneflies

·         Pheasant tails

·         Copper Johns

·         Prince nymphs

Streamers

·         Wooly buggers

Rest of the Set-up

I envision the hankerchief being a substitute for a net. The idea is from Fly Fishing the Rock Mountain Backcountry. The idea is that it allows you to grip fish when needed.

The GPS is fairly straight-forward. As a runner I love looking at the distances and vertical that I have done as well as plotting my routes on Google Earth. On a practical side, it’s always a good idea to get a grid of the trailhead when going exploring.

The water bottle and filter set-up may change. Trail running friends like the purification straws. If you have time, iodine with viatamin C also makes a nice option.

The rain jacket could potential be lightened, but I think I will also stick with it for now.

While I could probably just wade and fish in my running shoes, the sandals are nice to keeping the shoes dry for the return run.

Weights

With the limits of our digital bathroom scale I decided to look at how things shook out. While 10.6 pounds is not light but any stretch, I think it can still make running an option. There are numerous ways that I could tackle this – and probably will as things go on.

Item	Weight (lbs)	Percent
Chest Pack	2.2	21%
Sandals	2	19%
Rod	1.4	13%
Day Pack	1.4	13%
Water	1.2	11%
Rain jacket	0.8	8%
Water purifier	0.8	8%
Reel	0.8	8%
Total	10.6

I took this set-up down to Boulder Creek. I found the chest strap kept things pretty secure and while not as free as running unencumbered, it was not too annoying. This should be a fun experiment.

Some fun urban fishing

Colorado: Pumphouse to Rancho Del Rio

Fishing just above a canyon section

My friend and I recently did a float trip from the Pump House to Racho Del Rio. These put-in and take-out locations were names that I had heard bantered about from other fishing friends for years but had never seen myself. Finally the opportunity came up to fish this stretch. It was good fishing, particularly for good Browns, and I would love to go back. The one drawback to this stretch is that it can get a little crowded with rafters.

A few of the many rafts that we saw

Total Float: 11.15 miles

Start Time: 1:30 PM

Take Out: 8:15 PM

Total Time (including breaks): 6h 45m

Approximate fishing speed: 1.65 mph

Approximate drift fishing speed: 2 mph

Costs:

Shuttle: $30

Parking at Pump House: $5 (free for America the Beautiful pass holders / military)

The day we went the flows were around 1175 cfs and the temps around 57 °F.

Pumphouse to Radium

Pumphouse: 39° 59.360'N 106° 30.536'W

Radium: 39° 56.944'N 106° 33.394'W

Distance 4.9 miles

Loss: 89 ft (0.34%)

The first section has a couple of decent rapids, but nothing that the Super Puma could not handle at 1175 cfs. We started with nymphs but eventually switched to a double hopper pattern. This produced a couple of nice browns. The fishing was solid but not spectacular. We did not stop in Radium but this would have made a good short float.

Nice brown landed on a hopper pattern

Radium to Rancho Del Rio

Radium: 39° 56.944'N 106° 33.394'W

Rancho Del Rio: 39° 53.695'N 106° 36.509'W

Distance: 6.25 miles

Loss: 67 ft (0.20%)

The 2^nd half of the float was a bit mellower. There was a set of rapids that we were told about, but at 1175 cfs they not that bad. The hoppers continued to produce but the light was starting to wane. Right at evening we started to get a nice spinner fall and the browns started rising. Unfortunately, daylight was waning and we had to get on back.

The hound overwatches Justin releasing a brown

If we had to do it over again I would have gotten closer to Rancho Del Rio so that we could have spent more time in the evening fishing for the risers. The stretch right about the canyon below Radium was also a good spot to slow down on.

Fading light as we headed towards Rancho

My $1 Burrito

I was chiding one of my co-workders for going out every day and arguing that they spent a lot of money. They asked me how I was really saving by bringing my own lunch and while I was sure it was cheaper, I could not really quantify the savings. However, my recent stay at Ft. Lee for an Army course, gave me the chance to do just that and the savings were pretty impressive.

The Finds

 On average, I spent $2.22 per meal (total money spent on food divided by the number of meals cooked). The next cheapest option would have been to eat at the Army’s dining facilities (DFACs) where the average cost for three meals per day would be $3.95 ($2.55 for breakfast and $4.65 for lunch and dinner). That’s 44% savings. For the 21 meals that I made in my room that means I saved a little over $36. Not huge change, but not bad for two weeks.

Those figures are also a conservative estimate. In this little experiment I bought some food that I never ate. Had I to shop over again I could have gotten to $1.79 a meal. And of course, the DFAC is the best eating out option – an Army subsidized (nearly) all-you-can eat smorgasbord. Many soldiers opt to spend more money for less food – probably $6-8 for lunch at one of the food courts or even food trucks that can be found on post.

A Chance to Experiment

 At home it is hard to calculate the cost of a meal. Even if I do the shopping, it’s hard to parse out the cost of any one lunch mostly because I do not have time to examine what percent of each line item on the grocery receipt goes to which meal.

2 burners, pots & refrigerator

When I got to Ft. Lee’s lodging though I found that the room was equipped with a refrigerator, microwave, two-burner stove, a 12” skillet, 2 and 4-quart pots, a serrated knife, and a two-dish set (plate, bowel, fork, knife and spoon). I realized this was the perfect opportunity to  try some simple dishes and see how much my meals really cost.

Modest selection of dishes

I settled for simplicity but stuck to fairly standard meals. For breakfast I did oatmeal and lunch burritos. For dinner I went for spaghetti and stir fry. I also got some apples for snacks and salad to add onto lunches or dinners. All told I spent just under $47.

I then parsed out the ingredients by meal to that I could further see the cost per meal. I also kept track of how many times I made each meal.

Costs per Meals

 Breakfast

Not surprisingly oatmeal wins by a lot. When I was deployed to Afghanistan and felt like eating break in my room, I discovered that plain oatmeal worked just fine for  me. While it was filling, it also did not sit heavy on my stomach. I can easily eat a cup of plain oatmeal and then go for an eight-mile run. At $2.16 oatmeal worked out to $0.27 per breakfast.

 Burrito

Next was the burrito. For mine I used:

Burrito Lunch
Black beans (2 cans)	$1.50
Tortillas (Large 8 count)	$2.26
Brown Rice (1 lb)	$0.75
1/2 Bell Pepper	$0.55
Salsa verde	$1.50
1/2 Onion	$0.28
Total	$6.83
No. Meals	7
Cost / Meal	$0.98

Start with the rice and green chile sauce

I threw in black beans, onions and peppers

I found mixing it up was a nice finishing touch

Stir Fry

My wife suggested this one and it was a great idea. Admittedly, a little research could probably improve this one immensely but what I did worked well enough. It had the added advantage of using rice which meant I could make a pot of rice every few days and use it for both the burrito and the stir fry.

I went with a pretty basic approach. I first browned the tofu in some hot oil. At the same time I defrosted some frozen vegetables (about 2 min in a bowl in the microwave, stirring halfway through). Then I put the vegetables on the oil. Then I added the tofu and cabbage back in.

Stir Fry
Brown Rice	$0.75
Peanuts	$1.45
Frozen vegetables	$1.99
Soy Sauce	$1.42
Olive oil	$1.00
Extra Firm Tofu	$1.22
Cabbage	$3.25
Total	$11.07
No Meals	4
Cost / Meal	$2.77

The ingredients assembled 

After browning the tofu I threw everything else in

Just a dap of sauce

Add a few peanuts for garnish

Spaghetti

For the spaghetti dinner, I tried mashing peeled tomatoes (to get less sugar and salt that traditional canned sauce). I neglected to use spices. I think next time I will just get one or two dollar spice packs of Italian seasoning. The cost of this per meal could have been lower but I ate out with friends a few nights and never got around to making a second meal.

Spaghetti Dinner
Bell Pepper	$0.55
Onion	$0.28
Tomatoes (for sauce)	$1.39
Mushrooms	$1.68
Olive oil	$1.00
Spaghetti	$0.89
Total	$5.78
No Meals	1
Cost / Meal	$5.78

Closing thoughts

The 1-quart zip-lock bags were great for covering the open cans and storing the vegetables, rice and leftovers. I almost did not get these but a friend asked me to pick up a few for his meals. I was really glad he did.

What was interesting was that I found that I was not hungry between meals. The food was filling as well as less expensive. Those that know me know that this is not a small feat. I was still running between six andnine miles per day this entire time. But with a burrito the size of two fists managed to keep me happy all afternoon.

I was also less stressed than others who had to drive around post, wait in lines and barely had time to make it back to class. I went back to my room, fixed up my lunch and then read for about 20 minutes before heading back to class. I am calling that another win.

Overall it was a fun and successful experiment that I will repeat next time I am at a hotel with a kitchenette. And I can now answer my colleagues with my $1 burrito.