Jesper PERL » Dogs

Sawtooth Mountain

Jesper — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:46:44 +0000

This past Sunday we decided to try and summit one of the prominent mountain features you see when gazing west towards the Indian Peaks: Sawtooth Mountain. At 12,304 ft Sawtooth Mountain isn’t the tallest mountain in the Indian Peaks, but it is one impressive looking mountain with its 600 ft tall steep cliff face, its pointy and narrowing summit, and its generally striking profile from the plains. It also happens to be the easternmost point of the Continental Divide in all of North America. More importantly, it is in an area we have yet to explore further, and the hike and climb – on paper – seemed like it would be a good fit for bringing Strelka.

Sawtooth Mountain as seen from Coney Flats

The general route was to simply follow Buchanan Pass Trail up to Buchanan Pass and then climb the spine of the mountain up to the summit. For the most part it was no problem following the trail. We didn’t encounter snow until we started the climb to the pass in earnest, and at that point, we just hiked directly towards the lowest point of the pass. As the pass was coming into sight, though, I started worrying about how we would get Strelka over the cornice that we now could see extending across the entire pass. Jen didn’t seem quite as worried, and she was right. It definitely wasn’t easy getting Strelka up and over the cornice, but Strelka was a trooper and partly because of her being very obedient following all our commands and partly because she just naturally follows our path, we managed to get her through a couple of exposed and tricky spot and all the way up to the pass.

Buchanan Pass. We climbed up through the rocks in the upper right corner of this picture.

We were met with fierce winds once we got up onto the pass. The contrast from being just a couple of feet below the snow cornice to now standing on top of the pass was incredible. Holding on to hats, glasses and gloves we started making our way south up the spine of Sawtooth Mountain towards the summit. Strelka was a trooper, bracing the wind, and carefully placing her paws one at a time making her way towards the summit; well aware of the sharp, rocking, unpredictable rocks hiding just under snow, and whenever possible seeking out uncovered, preferably grassy, sections to avoid the unknown discomfort and danger hiding under the snow.

Strelka carefully placing her paws as we make our way up a chunky rocky scree field halfway covered in snow

The weather had started building up all around us, and we knew that we might only have a small window for getting to the summit and back, so we hustled, and found ourselves relatively quickly on the summit after having passed one or two false summits. It was a special experience getting all the way out to the tip of mountain, feeling the narrowing and related exposure of the mountain from both sides as we got closer and closer to the summit. Strelka is not afraid of heights, and she likes to get close to edges to look down. Because of that, the exposure up on the summit, and the strong winds we decided to put her on a leash for the last bit – just to make sure she wouldn’t get too close to the edge and get blown over!

Happy Jen on the summit of Sawtooth Mountain

We were super happy to have reached our goal, and that Strelka had made it with us. We didn’t celebrate for long, though, seeing that weather still was rolling in both from the west and the north. Longs Peak was already getting engulfed in clouds and some form of precipitation, so we hightailed it down to Buchanan Pass at which we had scouted a new and different route for our descent which looked quite a bit easier than the way we had chosen on the way up. It was much easier, but it still had its fair share of exposure, but Strelka was moving fast and clearly motivated to get back to the car; back to a place for her to rest. We had already hiked about 8 miles or so and climbed 4000 ft, and while she was looking strong, she was clearly also getting tired. We still had another 7 miles or so back to the car, but it went fairly quick and what a joy it was to see Strelka’s excitement when we got back to it! I think she used her last bit of energy to wiggle her butt and do a little happy dance. Shortly thereafter she crashed hard in the car.

What a great day in the mountains!

Check out all of the photos here.

South Arapaho Peak

Jesper — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:37:21 +0000

Summer has finally given away to fall, and when it is fall in Colorado, old man winter often knocks on the door up in the mountains. We decided to make a visit with winter, and we were successful!

You can find all the photos here.

Winter Fun

Import — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:17:14 +0000

We have had lots of fun this winter. Much more fun than posts reveal on this website. Cat-skiing, resort skiing, winter hikes with Strelka. Its been a great winter so far, albeit with the snow pack in the mountains being a little delayed and frighteningly unstable in the back country, so we’ve stuck to the resorts so far for skiing.

James Peak Wilderness

Import — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:54:29 +0000

This past weekend, Jen and I took Strelka up to James Peak Wilderness for a little snowshoe jaunt. It was a beautiful day with plentiful remnants from the latest snow storm. The low angled sun towards the afternoon made for fun photo playing with sunlight and shadows in the trees.

More photos here.

Change of Seasons

Import — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:17:28 +0000

Summer ended. Fall is taking over. The leaves are changing colour and temperatures are dropping. A lot. This past weekend seemed more like winter than fall with several inches of snow on the ground. Jen and I decided to see how the high country was taking in the change of season. Our destination was Mt Audubon, Strelka in tow, or more correctly, towing us up the mountain. That is, until it got so bitterly cold that she tucked her tail way in between her legs and made it clear to us that she wasn’t having too much fun post holing snow drifts 3-4 times higher than herself. At that time we turned around, and we quickly warmed up as we descended and found more shelter lower on the mountain and finally in between the trees again. It may be fall, but it sure feels like winter in the mountains.

More photos here.

Camping Weekend

Import — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:29:27 +0000

This past long weekend in celebration of Independence Day brought Jen and I to Wyoming with tent, bikes and dog in tow. We drove up to Wyoming Thursday afternoon right after work in order to find a good campsite in the Vedauwoo area; an area that is world renown for its great climbing, but also has great hiking and mountain biking trails. Upon picking out a campsite, we quickly got the tent up and got a fire going in order to prepare a most excellent dinner.

After dinner it was time for a little fire-side reading while we were waiting for our good friends Don and Jodi to join us for the weekend.

Don and Jodi arrived after dark, and we sat around for a while by the fire; enjoying an adult beverage and catching up. Don and Jodi also brought a playmate for Strelka: Their wonderful retriever Milo. The next morning all 6 of us headed out for a mountain bike ride. At the first waterhole Strelka and Milo jumped into the water, and an exuberant wet Strelka ran straight into an exposed rigid tree root: BOOM. Head first. And as a result, she burst open her left eye browse. She was quite surprised by her own actions, but shook it off pretty quickly. Checking up on her, we were very happy to see that she hadn’t hurt her actual eye. Silly puppy.

Unfortunately, Strelka’s little accident was not the only accident this weekend. A little further down the trail, Jodi went over the handle bar. A moment of paying more attention to Milo than the trail in front of her caused her front tire to get stuck and send her flying, head first into a cluster of extruding rocks. Don quickly checked up on Jodi and decided that we needed to get back to camp as soon as possible. Don, Jodi and Milo started hiking back the way we came. Jen, Strelka and I hightailed it back to camp through the rest of the trail. Back at camp we quickly gathered some ice out of a cooler and raced back out to Jodi to ease the visibly bruised and swelling upper lip.

By the time we got back to the camp, Jodi’s headache had abated a bit, and her eyes were still reacting normal to light, but we decided it was better for her to rest and hang low for a bit. So while Jodi rested alongside the dogs, Don, Jen and I went out to explore a trail that we had seen splitting off the trail we had just been on. The hope being that it would lead to some of the single track trail that is part of the Laramie Enduro race we have done several times before.

After crossing a few creeks and scrambling over some rocks we DID find single track trails. The very same single track trails that make the Laramie Enduro such a great race and ride.

After a rocking descent I suddenly felt my rear wheel locking up. Turns out that I had picked up a “little” stick which was now jammed in between wheel and chainstays!

While we could have kept going on the lengthy Laramie Enduro route, we wanted to get back to Jodi before too long. So satisfied in knowing how to get to the single track from our campsite, we turned around and made it back to Jodi. Back in camp, Jodi was feeling a little better, but the swelling had gotten worse and she was very nervous about how the cheekbone didn’t feel quite right. With that, she and Don decided to head down to Laramie to visit the ER and get a doctor to check it out. As it turns out, Jodi’s fall was very unfortunate and resulted in multiple fractures that will need surgery within the next few days. I am sending the best of healing vibes to Jodi and hope she will recover quickly and soon be back on the bike. Jodi was a trooper through the whole ordeal and while in pain she still looked around and made a comment about what a beautiful and wonderful place Vedauwoo is…

Saturday morning, after a yummy breakfast (why is it that food tastes so much better in the open?), Jen and I headed out to Curt Gowdy State Park for some more riding. Curt Gowdy is not far from where we were camping and it offers some amazingly well built flowy trails.

The trails at Curt Gowdy offer buff flowy sections mixed with technical rocky sections all tying big rocky playground areas together. Here is Jen working it through a rock garden with a little body english.

Oh by the way. We absolutely have no fun when we are out on the bikes as illustrated by the following picture

Here is Jen literally rolling off one of the big rock playgrounds.

While Jen and I were playing around on the rocks at Curt Gowdy, Strelka was gathering energy for a near camp excursion of scrambling around on the massive Turtle Rock. We started climbing up Turtle Rock, but even with “4-wheel drive” a dog can only climb so much. Here is Strelka puzzled by the fact that we want her to squeeze through an opening in the rocks. She opted to go up and around them.

Sunday morning after breakfast and breaking camp we went out for one more lap on the Turtle Rock trail with Strelka. The Turtle Rock trail circumnavigates Turtle Rock and is a great neat little trail, perfect for bringing a dog along.

The views here are fantastic and the terrain quite varying for its relatively short distance.

Much like at Curt Gowdy, there are lots of rocky playground areas on the Turtle Rock Trail as well. Here is Jen riding up one of them, right next to a tree that seems to be growing right out of the rock!

Back at the campsite, we packed everything into the car and then headed west towards the Snowy Range for one more bike ride, on the North Fork Trail. Apparently, it is normal to shuttle the North Fork Trail, but since we only had one car, and we both wanted to ride the trail, we instead chose to ride it all as one big loop, making sure we would start with a climb and more importantly end with an exhilarating descent.

The climb up the road wasn’t that bad. We took our time and enjoyed the views as we passed by the Snowy Range Ski Area.

Its funny how even on the road you can appreciate being in the high country. The air smells good. The wildflowers are right next to you. Not too bad at all.

As we gained altitude, the air got colder – or is that fresher? – and we started seeing snowbanks on the side of the road. I was surprised. Its early July after all! Anyway, we finally found the start of our pristine little single track. It was super narrow and didn’t look like it had seen much traffic at all. We got on it with great anticipation.

It started out good, but barely had we gotten onto the trail, before we ran upon snowbanks all the way across the trail. We hiked over them, hoping that it would soon get better. As Dave says: “Its not mountain biking, unless you are hiking!”

It did get better. After a few more snowbanks and snow melt laden trails we finally got to fun dry Sourdough-like buff trail.

The trails then dumped us out into this beautiful open meadow. We were really liking this trail and its diversity.

Well, as it turns out – we hadn’t seen the last of the snow. The open meadow dumped us right into a huge snowbank. It will definitely take a while before all this snow melts. Heck, it may not even melt before the snow starts flying again. Talk about a small window of opportunity to ride this trail!

A little bit further down the trail it seemed like the water finally had figured out to head for the North Fork Little Laramie River and leave the trail alone.

From here the trail meanders through the forest with super-yummy-fast-silent-on-top-of-pine-needle sections, plus the occasional rocky and rooty sections thrown in for good measure.

The bottom of the trail intersects with the gravel road we had parked on, and from here we quickly descended down to the car. At the car, we cleaned up as good as we could and rolled down the hill to Centennial to grab dinner before driving all the way back to Boulder after a fun filled satisfying long camp weekend; our thoughts still going out to Jody, wishing her a speedy recovery and no pain.

Memorial Day Weekend

Import — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:48:53 +0000

This past Memorial Day Weekend we had only one plan: To leave the house! with a secondary goal to dodge bad weather. The first part was easy, the second turned out to be a bit tricky, but we managed. The first stop ended up being Manitou Springs with a hike in Garden of the Gods the following morning.

From Manitou Springs we headed south with a stop in Pueblo to check out the trails in Lake Pueblo State Park.

From Pueblo we made the longer haul west through the mountains to the high valley floor. We wanted to stay in Alamosa, but ended up in Monte Vista since that was the only place where we could find available lodging. All this, in order to get up early and head to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

From the sand dunes we started heading north again. It was after all only a three day weekend, so it was time to start heading back towards to Boulder. But before getting home, we made one more stop. This time in Poncha Spring, not far from Salida. We wanted to ride the Rainbow Trail!

We had no travel plans or specific destinations in mind, but we came prepared; for camping, for biking, for hiking, for having a great time with no real travel destinations. We made all choices as we went and I can’t imagine a better way to spend a long Memorial Day Weekend than so – with my two favourite girls in the world!

Find even more photos here.

Mountain Bike Ride

Import — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:46:19 +0000

A Mountain Bike Ride from a dog's perspective! Continue reading →

Left Hand Reservoir

Import — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:25:01 +0000

With all the skiing and hot tub working going on the last couple of weekends, it was due time getting Strelka out for a fun outing. We decided to head up to the Brainard Lake area, specifically the Little Raven trail, but as it turned out, dogs are not allowed on Little Raven at winter time, so we proceeded all the way up to Left Hand Reservoir. It was beautiful up there, but WINDY!

Meeting Mister Winter

Import — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:13:54 +0000

This weekend we decided to leave rainy Boulder in exchange for more solid precipitation and to give Jen a fresh fix of the mountains before she heads off to Florida. Mister Winter was definitely knocking on the door up there…

On our way up there was still some blue sky

No blue sky by Yankee Doodle Lake

Strelka checking out Yankee Doodle Lake

The west bank of Yankee Doodle Lake

Despite being in the gray clouds there was still some colour to be found

This red “carpet” also caught my eye back in 2005

As we started our ascent it was clear that we wouldn’t have many views

But no views doesn’t mean you can’t have fun

These weather shelters were nicely decorated with seating and tables!

Heading up towards the Continental Divide

“Are you sure this is the way?” asks Strelka

“Before you answer let me check out this smell here…”

“I don’t know, dude, this seems to lead to nowhere…”

A Continental Divide Trail marker shows we are on track

“OK, you were right, but check out my spiffy coat”

“This is how it looks from the side”

“I am pretty darn cute, am I not?”

The only kind of views we got between snow clouds drifting through

As we were heading down we finally got a glimpse of the surrounding mountains

More views of the surrounding mountains

Yet again the “Black and White” world of winter…