Where: Front Range, Colorado
When: July 2008
Partners: DB
Route: SW Ridge & Traverse to "Cupid" (Class 2)
Mileage/Gain: 5/2,000
Camping next to a small lake just below Loveland Pass, DB and I got up one morning for a hike up Mount Sniktau and "Cupid", Sniktau's locally-named neighbor to the south.
Soon hitting the top of Sniktau and enjoying the views with 15 others, we dropped back down and over Sniktau's false summit and returned to Point 12,915 (just above the Sniktau-Cupid saddle). From there, we crossed quickly over to Cupid, a finer and more relaxed summit.
But alas, all this high mountain hiking had been too much for little DB. Mid-sentence in some rant about all the people over on popular Sniktau, I turned to her and saw that she'd dropped off to sleep...
Coming to silence, I let DB snooze. When she finally woke, I harassed her a bit, shot a final picture, and we headed back down to the truck.
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Mount Sniktau & "Cupid" (Peak 13,117)
A Rest Day Loop From Mount Evans of Mount Spalding & Gray Wolf Mountain
When: July 2008
Partners: Solo
Route: Loop from Mount Evans of Mount Spalding and Gray Wolf Mountain and down to Summit Lake (Class 2-3)
Mileage/Gain: 4/1,000
Having been up Mount Evans back in 2005, while DB and I were in the area I felt it prudent to drive her up the highest paved road in North America and give her a quick view from the cloudy, thunderheaded summit before all hell broke loose. 'Course, once there plans have a way of altering...
So after showing DB the lovely, boulder-strewn summit of Mount Evans, I set out alone for a run across to Mount Spalding (one of Colorado's 100 highest peaks) and its kinda-next door neighbor, Gray Wolf Mountain. Instantly chewed up by biting gnats, I quickly passed across the rugged west ridge of Mount Evans and dropped down and across to Mount Spalding. From there, I snapped a picture of Mount Evans and then continued down to the Spalding-Gray Wolf saddle.
Attaining the Gray Wolf summit, I returned toward Spalding and gained its east ridge as low as I could manage and then dropped down to Summit Lake to collect DB.
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A Stop in Central City
Ever since I'd first read Jack Kerouac's account of his evening of partying and pleasure with Neal Cassady in Central City, Colorado (way back about 1947) in his classic, legendary and highly influential book On the Road, I'd been curious about the place. Apparently an old mining town that still held onto its traditional Victorian look, I'd tried to get there in 2005 and didn't make it. But passing nearby in 2008, I found the time to check it out. 
Sporting old Victorian homes, an Opera House that's still in use, half a dozen casinos (just to trash it up a bit), a couple museums, four empty stores for every occupied one, and more than an ounce of charm, Central City demonstrated itself to be quaint and well worth visiting.
Pikes Peak (14,100 feet)
When: August 2005
Partners: JD
My grandpa always talked about the view he had from the 40 acres he and grandma once owned outside of Canon City, Colorado. You could see Pikes Peak, they said.
Finally, I got to see Pikes Peak myself...albeit not the distant view from Canon City and granny's old high desert acreage. Naah, I found myself one day wandering my way up the mountain and strolling amidst the dozen, nay, hundreds of tourists up there. Amazing, kinda.
With clouds swirling around the summit, I played around for awhile, exploring the crags and cliffs just below the top. Then, I headed back down.
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Torreys Peak, Grays Peak and Kelso Mountain (13,164 feet)
When: August 2006
Partners: Donnie B and the Atlanta boys
Route: Kelso Ridge (Class 3) and traverse
Mileage:Gain 9/4,500
Heading back up toward I-70 from the playground that was Capitol Peak, Donnie B and I met up with the Atlanta boys I'd met for a run up Torrey Peaks semi-classic Kelso Ridge via the Stevens Gulch Trailhead.
Climbing the fun ridge to the summit of Torreys, we dropped down and over to Grays Peak. There, enjoying the summit with at least forty others, we were twice buzzed by low-flying aircraft. Then, just as we were feeling manly for efforts, a young guy with rotting teeth comes running up to the summit. He looks fit, so I ask him how long it took him. He said something like "...an hour...from I-70." Geesh!
Eventually, we headed back down toward the trailhead. As those who know me well might imagine, I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to bag "The Rascal," a funky crag one passes on the Grays Peak Trail.
On the final hike out, I set off alone to bag Kelso Peak, a nice peak in its own right, finishing five days in Colorado in style!
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Mount Evans & Mount Bierstadt, A Double Crossing of the Sawtooth Ridge
When: August 2005
Partners: Solo
Route: The Sawtooth (Class 3)
Mileage/Gain: 4/1,500
A few years ago, I made my first trip to Colorado. Hearing all of the wonderful things people are always saying about the high mountains of the state, I was eager to check it all out. And the 14ers seemed like a good place to start!
I drove out for a week of playing around and touring the state. Initially hitting Mount Evans early one morning, I made the fun and easy traverse across the connecting ridge to Mount Bierstadt, then returned the way I came. Terrific.
Flowers were in bloom, the weather was cool, calm and clear, and I was completely alone. Never saw a soul. Not one. 'Course, that's what a 4 a.m. start will do for ya!
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