Anniversary Hike

One year ago tomorrow Hike Club met for the first time. It was a disaster. Being the first hike i planned, i learned a lot. I trusted a hiking site that was just wrong. Much like Wikipedia, it's driven by users and someone added a GPS track from a hike that was vastly different than the one that was described. I had no idea how wrong it could be. The description said 3 miles. However the route we followed was about 7 miles. Thinking it would only take us about an hour i planned to start at 1 pm, which became almost 2 pm in reality. We were hiking up the hog back two miles from the cars and seeing the sun set, then climbing more and watching the sun set again.

Today six brave souls, intended to recreate the original Hike Club hike. Of the 6, two were on their first Hike Club hike, and one on her second. Since i've learned from my mistakes and have been planning hikes for a year now, we started at 10 am. The beginning of the trail was muddy and slushy but we made our way across a ton of packed snow up the Morrison Slide trail to some amazing vistas. As we left the Matthew Winters park into Red Rocks we came across a friend. Bryce is part of Hike Club, but showed up 40 minutes late and based on where we parked he picked the wrong way round the track i posted on facebook. Again a logical fallacy based on that bad intel from the dreaded incorrect hiking site from a year ago. He was making good time trying to catch up with us, but we were going the other direction. Bryce did the 7 miles in about two hours and meet us for drinks and food after.  Maybe next time we'll hike together. Bryce also told us about a trail detour on our planned route.
I had a suspicion that the road bridge we were going to cross was the obstacle that had prompted closing the trails. But being a bad ass i decided that we should take the closed trail and see what we can make of the probable water crossing. As we reached the road and could see the construction site where there used to be a bridge that we needed to cross, which i'm sure was damaged in the flooding this summer, Evan burst out laughing. Saying it was a typical Hike Club blunder, I'm sure he was thinking we were going to have to turn around and take the detour I had opted against. He also said we were really recreating the original hike by completely underestimating the time necessary to complete the hike. I reasurred everyone and suggesteed we go take a look. Once I entered the construction site, i knew i was right, the stream was only a few inches deep. And the crew had built a small foot bridge, it was not a serious obstacle. I'm sure they set up the detour to keep hikers out of the construction zone, we were just to bold/stupid for that.

Then we climbed the hog back, we took your time, we admired the scenery, we looked back on the trail we had taken to get there. The last time we hiked this route, It was our first hike in months and Karen was gassed. The route we took over the top of the hog back is the literal definition of false summits. Last year 5+ miles into a 3 mile hike Karen was exceedingly more vocal about the difficulty of the task we had set out on. One nameless hiker had been trying to lift her spirits by saying "it's all down hill from here." When in fact it was not and he had no idea what he was talking about, ever. Which only angered poor Karen. Since then we have always joked on hikes using that blatantly incorrect statement to lighten spirits when the going was tough. If you drive south on C-470 from I-70 and look to the west you'll see the ridge we were following to the north. You may notice that there is a saddle or low spot in the ridge. Last year when we could see the saddle and had realized how much climb was left in the hike Karen broke down. She looked at me and said "I can't do that." I gave her a sympathetic look and said to the love of my life "Baby, you don;t have a choice." She took it like a champ, climbed the hill and we made it back to the cars. One of the newbies on this hike Ange, is a hardcore rock star! She was a literal analog of Karen one year earlier but she beat all those stupid false summits and finished like a champ! We got back to the cars just under five hours later at 6.8 miles. This was no beginner hike, and our newbies did awesome.
All things considered it was a great hike. I've been thinking about doing this hike for Hike Club's anniversary for months and it came off like gang busters. Today i am very proud of my accomplishments and everyone who has hiked with us.
I had a thought on one hike last year about taking a series of pictures and turning them into a Gif as people move through the shot. Here are two from today:
https://imgflip.com/gif/6ypab#BBl3Kwx1MbAUVPa6.01
https://imgflip.com/gif/6yph9#PfHj3dpLBxdtSrp2.01
As always there are a ton more pics of the Hike Club Facebook group. If you're not in Hike Club let me know we'll get you signed up.
Nate

I've set myself a goal.

18 months ago Karen and I made a major life change. We started following the south beach diet, if you don't know its no simple carbohydrates (beer, bread, sugar pasta, doughnuts, all the really good stuff), smart about fats and as many veggies as you can stuff into your mouth. In combination with Hike Club activities and camping we lost some major weight over the summer. Weight loss waned as the weather changed and then there was December or Carb-cember as we started calling it. We have been able the stay on the diet, or continue to live this new life by not punishing ourselves when we have cheat meals, or evenings, or weekends. In Carb-cember we were really bad. We didn't abandon the diet completely but there were way too many opportunities to cheat: Karen's annual cookie party, Holidays and travel, Dinner parties where i'm making Pizza ( no, you cannot have Pizza without beer). Which inevitably leads to a new years resolution to re-double our dieting efforts. Now it's February and were doing good. We had a dinner party last night where I made Beef Cheek tacos and we drank all the wine. Tortillas are off plan, but as our only major cheat so far this year were on track. I still have a great deal of weight to lose which brings me to the subject of this post.

At Hike Club we mock others on the trail. Trail runners get the most harsh criticism because if the obvious stupidity of their chosen activity. Were up there hiking and its tough, we do many miles and thousands of feet and feel it the next day. Then this ass-hat goes running by showing us all up. Mocking ensues once they are out of ear-shot. Back in October i realized i could go hiking by myself.  Which means not only do i go whenever i'm ready, i can go as fast as i want and get some good exercise. I was on top of Red Rocks on the Morrison Slide trail, half the little loop goes across a small table top; I was trying to walk fast enough to keep my heart rate up, but across this flat section i couldn't walk fast enough. Then coming down the other side a woman my age was running up the other direction. I thought to my self, if she can run up this hill, I can certainly run down it. I quickly learned i had the wrong gear for this activity, my backpack was bouncing all over. I rearranged it and strapped it all down as best i could and kept running. Slowly at first and only down hill after trying to run up a hill and almost dying (side note: how die turns into dying is why i hate writing English). I finished the last 1.5 miles running as much as i thought i could. It was actually fun. moving that fast on the trail was great, choosing my foot placement was a challenge enough to keep me from thinking about how shitty is to run. As I reached the trail head, the woman who inspired me was at the end of the trail where it narrowed to meet the road, She saw me bounding down the trail and politely waited for me to pass and cheered me on. I took that as a sign i had made the right decision.

I've been running Jeffco trails as often as i can since then. I'm still nowhere near able to run up the major hills but i keep a pace that keeps me breathing heavy. I've acquired new gear too. I got a small hydration pack for Christmas and it's very nice. It carries my water, coat, keys, and wallet very nicely; and has enough straps to keep it from bouncing. We had a pretty good snow the last few days and the gear that allowed me to run today are Yak Traxs. The weather was great. Not a cloud in the sky and no wind to speak of. 95% of the trail was packed snow, perfect for these guys. Didn't slip even once. On the steep parts i could see foot prints where people had slid, I'd put my foot right on the slip-print and run on. I'm curious to see how long they last. but for $25 they are already worth it. I also started using Run Keeper to track my exercise. The first time i finished a run it wanted me to set a goal. I've got big plans for this summer, our first 14er, more zip-lining, backpack camping. All of which are easier if i'm lighter. The zip-lining we did in Alaska last summer was simply amazing, and was a weight loss goal already that was really easy to meet. My father had hinted that my Christmas present would require me to be under 250 pounds. I told him that wasn't happening, mostly because of the short notice, cold weather and Carb-cember. But thinking about that, my birthday would be a good time frame to set that goal. So it's on. 250 lbs by April 27th. It's official, I've promised my phone that I will lose the weight, and if i disappoint my phone it may never let me google again. Better not mess this up.
Some pics from the run today:

Mt Falcon beginner hike 1-25-14

We had a great beginner hike! Julia and Matt came up from C Springs to hike with us, and did a great job especially considering Julia was hiking for two. My sister Jenna, Evan, Gilbert, Lindsey, also joined Karen and I on a beautiful January morning.
We were all prepared for cold but quickly shed those layers as we started up the Turkey Trot trail. This 1.7 mile first leg climbs 1100 feet up to meet the Castle trail about half way to the top of the park. Turkey trot is a hiker only trail that is less steep than the Castle trail which we followed back down to the cars. All told we did just under three and a half miles in about two hours. A very reasonable hike, perfect for beginners.
The Mt falcon site has maps and directions to the trail head.
 Mt Falcon is just south of Red Rocks and has great views of the front rage and Hogback.

While coming down there is a section of trail that has been widening itself and has some wooden road blocks to keep hikers on one side so that the unused half of the trail can be reclaimed by nature. They were the perfect opportunity to have a little fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RohKkYe6GdQ


 Some of Hike Club's regulars can be on the young side, with youth comes exuberance and energy, sometimes they bounce. Us old farts try to keep the kids down through wit and sarcasm. Typically we mock them by jumping off rocks and yelling Parkour! It's more like that episode of The Office than the rest of the YouTube videos with the same name. I know its really stupid but you can't go viral if you don't try.


The Mt Falcon park was originally owned by  John Walker who had grand plans of building a Summer White House in the early 1900s. That plan never happened but he did build a huge house. After hiking the lower loop we drove to the upper parking lot and hiked out to see the remains of the stone foundation of his house. The trail form the upper lot to the Walker Home Ruins is about 1 miles round trip with very little elevation change. It's very worth the trip, I highly suggest it.