Pitkin Lake

Sarah here. So the Kev mister flew out this weekend for a painfully long 48 hours. Turns out Brian noticed he had some unused tickets he purchased last year to visit me in Austin but instead he stayed in Albuquerque to play soccer and I have no idea why they never got used. So I guess he conveniently noticed they expired exactly one week before we had to use them. Not just book the flight, but actually fly. So with three days notice, Kevin graciously volunteered to entertain us for the upcoming weekend. So we picked Kevin up from the airport on Saturday morning and drove straight out to the Silverthorne condo. We got in around 11:00am, and the elaborate weekend plan was to do an easy hike that afternoon, and then summit a 14er on Sunday before heading back to the house in Denver. Conversation at the condo:

Me: “So babe, did you look up a short hike for us to do this afternoon?”
Brian: “Um, yeah, here’s one in Vail we can do. It’s 8 miles though. Kev, you up for 8 miles?”
Kevin: “Yeah, whatever.”

Oh, to be a nieve flatlander again. Well, 10 miles, 3,000 feet of elevation gain, and 6 hours later, we finished the "easy" hike. And, well, Kevin wasn’t feeling too well. I think he fell victim to altitude sickness. So, anyone else want to go hiking with the Bishops? Anyone? Anyone? 

Nonetheless, it was actually a gorgeous day and a very beautiful hike. Well, at least Brian and I thought so. When we got back to Silverthorne we got something to eat, and Kevin got some food to go. We took it easy that evening at the condo and, needless to say, Kevin wasn’t quite up for a 14er on Sunday. So we bummed around Frisco and Breckenridge Sunday morning, and then headed back to Denver that afternoon.

  Hopefully one day Kevin will forgive us, but probably not anytime soon. The mountains can be very unforgiving at times, but that’s nothing compared to us Bishops!

Flickr!

Buffalo Mountain

To celebrate 27 years of Sarah, we packed up the car and (surprise!) headed to the condo for the weekend. On Saturday we got up at the crack of 9 an decided to try and bag Buffalo Mountain. The trail head is about one mile up the road from the house, so after a short drive we were on our way.

The trail to the peak turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. A local volunteer group maintains the trail every year and it was well marked and easy to navigate. Up until two years ago the trail ended at the treeline and hikers were left to scramble through miles of scree in order to reach the peak. Now there is a well marked trail through the rocks with large cairns which makes this a wonderful trail. The view from the top of Buffalo was amazing. To the south and east are the towns of Frisco, Silverthorne, and Dillon, and of course the large Dillon Reservoir. Directly to the south is the 10 Mile Rage and to the north is the Gore Range. What I was really amazed at is how thin Buffalo Mt is. From town the mountain is this big, round giant, but once you get to the top, you realize it's only about 3 yards wide all through the center of the mountain. Looking down the mountain to the east is a beautiful hanging valley with a high alpine lake that I'd like to climb up to and camp next to later this year.

This next weekend we're looking forward to some more hiking, especially since Kevin is flying out for the weekend.

Flickr

Grey's Peak

This past weekend was another wonderful weekend in the mountains. Sarah's college friend Danielle came to visit from Mississippi so on Friday we headed up to Summit County again. After stopping by the realtor's office to pick up our keys, we headed up to the condo for the first stay. After we got into the condo we starting doing some more exploring that we didn't do before. We knew that the condo came fully furnished but we weren't sure what all was in the kitchen. I was fully prepared to make a trip to Walmart to pick up cooking utensils and cheap pans. Turns out, the kitchen was fully stocked as well, including blender, crock pot, and enough dishes to feed an army. And the best part was a half bottle of Jaegermeister in the freezer. Perfect drink for celebratory shots!

On Saturday morning we decided to introduce Danielle to Colorado 14ers. We pack the car nice and early and drove up to the Grizzly Gulch Trail head. We got onto the trail around 0730 and the four of us headed out with full intentions of bagging both Grey's peak as well as Torrey's Peak since they are right next to each other. After the trail gets about half way up Grey's peak, there is a turn off to traverse across the face of Grey's up to the saddle in order to get to Torrey's peak. Most of the people ahead of us were taking this route because they were all going to ski down the main face. We decided, (wisely as it turns out) to head to the left and do Grey's peak first. The winter route is different from the summer route in that instead of switch-backing up the face, it heads to the south and you then walk directly up the eastern ridge to the peak. After a few hours, we all made it up safely, but due to the cold and 60 mph winds, we decided to not do Torrey's and to head back to the car. We descended towards the saddle and then turned back south to start the traverse down the face. That's where things got scary. The trail across the face was about 1.5 boots wide, was not flat, was icy, and the wind was whipping through at about 60 mph. All of the other people on this route had crampons, ice axes, helmets, you know, that safety stuff. We had nothing, and Danielle didn't even have hiking boots. I ended up clinging to the mountain, jamming my frozen hands into any ice axe hole I could find, and praying I didn't slip. One slip and we would have slid all the way to the bottom of the mountain, to great detriment to our heath. Needless to say it was the most scared I've ever been on a mountain, by far. Somehow we made it through though, and for the rest of the weekend we had to endure accusations that we attempted to kill Danielle.

Sunday was much more laid back, as we headed to Vail for the Teva Mountain Games. The Mountain Games had mountain biking, road bike races, kayaking, rafting, dog competitions and all sorts of vendors. We'll definitely head back next year because it was a blast. Flickr!

Spruce Creek Basin

Two weekends ago, Sarah and I decided to try out her new 13er book that I got her for Christmas. We'd been itching to get out and hike since she got back from Texas and we thought Pacific Peak looked to be a perfect one. We headed up to Frisco on Friday after work and set up camp at one of the local campgrounds. While we had signed for our condo that day, the money wire didn't go through until Wednesday, so no condo... The campground facilities were nice enough, but they've cut down 90% of the trees because of the Pine Beetle, so it was pretty barren. The up side, free fire wood.

Saturday morning we got up early and headed south of Breckenridge to the Spruce Creek Trail head. Upon arriving, we threw on our gear and headed up the trail on some hard packed snow. After about 1/4 of a mile, the snow ended however, so we ditched our snowshoes in the trees and continued on foot (not that we don't use our feet with snowshoes, maybe I should have said we continued on Boot.)

The hike was an easy one and wound up the basin through some mining ruins and sparse trees. After we got above the treeline we started having some issues. The snow became splotchy and since it was such a warm day, it was getting soft. We'd be walking on top of the snow and then all of a sudden you fall in three feet deep. Slightly irritating doesn't even begin to describe how we felt. If only we had carried our snow shoes instead of throwing them into the trees a few miles back. Not to be deterred, we continued on another mile or so through the hit and miss snow. After a while, the going got even slower as we fell through more and more. Eventually I fell through up to my waist and found out there was a river beneath me and water poured in over the tops of my boots (rule #1 of hiking, always wear wool socks.) At this point we ran into another couple going the other way and they said it only gets mushier, so dejectedly, we turned back.

Spruce Creek Basin is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've hiked in Colorado. You pass at least 6 different lakes on the way up and at the very west end of the basin is the highest lake in Colorado. We're planning on trying this hike later in the year as a backpacking trip so we can bag all three peaks in the area, Pacific, Atlantic, and Capital.

As aways, there are lots more pictures on Flickr