For about a year before our most recent trip together, Jack and Jeff had been suggesting visiting Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Fest (GABF). Jack had been in Colorado off and on for about a year, visiting a ton of national forests and parks out west in the meantime. Jack is my friend, but he is also kind of my hero and he is just damn fun to watch. He has peaks and valleys like the rest of us, but man he lives.
After seeing all of the photos posted to Facebook and texts from Jack's excursions out west, when it was suggested we get together amongst the Rockies this year, I couldn't resist. We made the plans and another epic trip was on.
During Jack's time out there, he had been living mostly out of his truck. He had rigged his Jeep Grand Cherokee to house a mattress on a platform so he could store all the essentials under it allowing him to live out of it months on end. So when I told people my plans for this vacation was "to go be homeless in Colorado with my friend Jack for a week." Now, some might say I have had ambitions to live a hobo life for some time. That's not entirely far from the truth.
I caught a flight from Philly to Denver the weekend before the GABF. I was to meet Jack in Denver and we would spend a few days visiting many of the places I had seen in photos the last few months and some new places for us both. Jeff was to arrive later in the week and we were to converge on the GABF together. It ended up that Jack had to return to his home back east for an emergency, so I was on my own for the first day.
A coworker of mine had been in Denver a few weeks before my trip and gave me some tips on where to visit in Denver. Top of the list was a place called Epic Brewing. It was the first address I placed into the GPS once in my rental. In the end, it was kind of fitting that Epic was the name of my first stop. By the way, my rental was a Dodge Ram extended cab pickup truck. No compact cars were available and as I was wearing a cowboy hat at the counter, the clerk and I agreed it was only appropriate. Denver, Miki has landed.
Mah Whip
We were close enough to Red Rocks that Jack suggested we catch the sunrise their. He also mentioned that lots of runners hit the trails surrounding the complex. I was game. I donned my running gear and we headed out. We parked in top parking lot and heading there we saw headlamps bobbing on the surrounding trails. These are my people.
We got out of the Jeep and I started warming up in the parking lot and taking in the place. We headed out on the trails. It was just before dawn and not headlamps were needed for us. The first animal I spotted was a jackrabbit darting across the trail. It was a good short run and I got the feel for how my lungs were going to handle the higher altitude, I felt great. We got back to the Red Rocks complex just in time to catch the sunrise.
Iconic Red Rock
Red Rocks Sunrise
We headed back to the hotel for a quick breakfast and to pack up. It was Sunday and we had no plans other than being back in Denver by Wednesday to pick up Jeff. We headed back to the airport to drop off my rental and then headed for the Rockies. One cool thing about Colorado is it is full of National Forests and they have free campsites scattered throughout them. Another cool things is they surround or are in the Rocky Mountains. Another cool thing about the time of year we were there is that the Aspen trees were changing to their famous fiery yellow.
One of the things I wanted to do, being a trail runner, was to check out Leadville, CO. Leadville is home of the Leadville 100, one of the most brutal ultra trail runs in the world. Jack was very accommodating, and we hit a couple of cool vistas along the way. We arrived at the Leadville Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center. In the center of the building was a map that highlighted the Leadville 100 course. The gentleman manning the place, mentioned there was a NF campground on the other side of Turquoise Lake.
Leadville 10,200 Feet
We started driving to the camp. I was still in my running gear from the morning, you know, just in case. We got to the lake and I saw a trail that headed off into the woods. I recognized that the trail headed around the lake on the opposite side from the road, but they both ended up at the camp. I asked Jack to stop the truck and told him I wanted to run the trail and meet him at the camp. I am not so sure he was at ease with this choice of mine, but he let me go. The sun was setting and I took my chances without the headlamp, which was buried under some other things in the truck. Jack offered his lamp, but I passed. I jumped out, grabbed my hydration pack and headed down the trail. Though I knew I was short on daylight, I couldn't help but to snap some shots of the sunset from the lakeside.
Turquoise Lake Sunset
The trails went through some other backpacker campsites and then through a lakeside aspen grove. The trail was covered in slick, golden aspen leaves and they were still falling around me. Six miles later I exited the trail, just as it was getting dark, and Jack was at the campsite with his arms raised. He has spaghetti boiling and the dogs were roaming around the site. A couple of fisherman were packing up lakeside and I started hanging the hammock amongst a few small pines sturdy enough to hold me and block the wind pretty well. After a good meal and a celebratory brew, we headed in for the night.
We traversed the whole southwestern corner in the next few days, camping in the National Forests. We had hoped to do more climbing than driving for the visit, but the scenery we were taking in was awesome nonetheless. We probably packed in about a weeks worth of site seeing over the first few days. I was way okay with that.
Turquoise Lake Sunrise
Changing Aspens, Somewhere
We hit San Isabel National Forrest, San Juan National Forrest, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Arapaho National Forrest and Boulder in those days. Jack was kind enough to take me to Boulder where I met up with Steven Sashen and grabbed a replacement for my lucky water bottle from University Bikes. Jack was very accommodating to my whims.
After a long day we headed back toward Denver as we had to pick up Jeff from the airport the next day. After I declined a spot near Central City (something about the place had me spooked), which appeared to be an active mining spot, we started driving back toward Denver. Too close to the city now for national forest camping we settled on a Wal-Mart parking lot in Lakewood. We cruised the parking lot looking for a spot where I could string up the hammock. After the first pass there were some trees behind the store's dumpsters, but it was occupied by a sketchy dude who appeared to scratching himself to either torture or delight. After the second pass, that dude was gone and so I made the decision that this was the place. Now, the area where I decided to "camp" was also adjacent to a Motel 6. Some of you might be saying, "At this point, why didn't you just stay at the Motel 6?" My answer to that question is "Because we were camping dammit!"
After climbing into the hammock, and Jack into his accommodations (in the Motel 6 parking lot), I heard some obvious coughing. It was the sketchy dude and he had his eye on me. He was sitting on the steps of the loading dock. I peaked my head out of the hammock and looked over at him. I then lowered back into the hammock and thought, "Whatever dude. I am going to sleep." Meanwhile thinking that this dude was going to shank me in my sleep. I was too tired to care, or at least I thought I was. Then about 1:00 AM rolled around, when the sprinklers were scheduled to activate. I awoke to water pouring over the hammock and onto me. I jumped out and quickly took down my gear. Now, luckily since were closer to the city the temperatures were in the moderate 50's. The previous mornings we had awaken to frost.
I strung the gear over a fence in the Motel 6 parking lot and surveyed the scene. There was a kids' battery powered car that seemed to be pretty well dilapidated. Either out of frustration or instinct I started tearing the body apart and placing the pieces over the sprinkler heads. Once they were all covered I strung the hammock back up and climbed back in. I still had to deal with the pounding sounds of sprinklers hitting plastic fenders, but at least I was not getting pelted with the water.
I awoke to a visibly upset Jack. Gracie had run off and he had no idea where she went. We spent some time looking for her and inquiring with the security guard patrolling the parking lot. There was no sign and Jeff was going to be arriving in a few hours. We made our way toward the airport and Jack was able to contact the local animal shelter for Lakewood, and they had Gracie.
We picked up Jeff and made our plans for the next couple of days. This included frequent visits to the animal shelter and they were not very cooperative as Gracie appeared to be ill. Remember, we weren't sure she was going to make the trip. Jack was visibly shaken, but maintained to be a gracious host. Since the trip, Jack and Spencer have been reunited with Gracie and both are happy. Gracie keeps on keepin' on.
The three of us headed back toward Boulder to hit up Bear Peak as a warmup. Getting a late start to the day we headed up to the ridge and turned around to get back to Denver for we had a GABF to attend. As it turned out we ended up hitting the GABF specials at the local bars in lieu of the Beer Fest itself. We discussed our options with some locals and they agreed this was the best way to handle it. What was the other part of this option? Oh, just seeing Steve Winwood and Tom Petty at Red Rocks! It rained on us during the show, but it was still pretty awesome!
We ended up hitting some specials for the GABF the next night and were transported via Uber and Curb to and fro. We got to spend some time with the brewers and reps from Stone Brewing Co. who were showcasing some things only available for GABF. The rep is from West Chester and used work for Yards, here in Philly. The bartender also attended Bryn Mawr College. What a small world it is.
The next day we headed for the Rockies to get one climb in before the trip ended. We headed for Mt. Democrat. There are four 14er (over 14,000 foot elevation) peaks along a ridge here; Democrat, Lincoln, Cameron and Bross. We arrived at a very windy Kite Lake trail head and met some others that were turned around on their attempts after hitting a couple of the peaks. We decided to give it a go anyway.
Jeff on the trail up to Democrat from Kite Lake
Jack was not feeling well at all. Remember, the GABF activities were the night before. Jack ended up turning around and headed back for the Jeep for a rest. Jeff and I climbed up to the ridge where we were met with whipping winds, but some spectacular views.
Jeff on the ridge
West view from the ridge
After feeling the winds at that elevation I was not sure a summit was possible. Jeff was willing to push on and I told him I would make a very slow descent so he could catch me on the way down. I kept an eye on him as I slowly made my way back down the trail. After the third or fourth check I noticed he was also headed back down. We met back up and headed back to Kite Lake together. Even back at the base it was windy and hard to keep gear from blowing away. We decided to find a better place to camp out of the wind. We drove to the south side of the range and it was only slightly better, but this is where we would camp for the night. This night I would share a tent with Jeff as it was a little windy for the hammock.
The following day was my departure for Philly. It was another awesome time with two awesome friends. It is hard to imagine we fit as much in as we did and not all of it could be captured in this post. There is one word that adequately describes it though, Epic.
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