Indian Peaks Part II / Left Hand Canyon / Peak to Peak Byway

It's been a pretty epic couple weeks!

Last weekend, my high school friend Cody and I headed up to Indian Peaks (weirdly on the same weekend as our 5-year high school reunion). We pushed up and over the Continental Divide, and then down along Pawnee Pass to Crater Lake - we arrived there around 3PM and promptly went for a bone-chilling swim. We snagged a campsite with a fantastic view and chilled for the evening, then turned around the next day and hiked back the way we came (~20 miles round trip). Crater Lake is tucked in a deep valley, so while the sun set early and rose late, we were protected from the cold wind. Great adventure, beautiful scenery, perfect weekend.

This morning (Saturday) I biked up Left Hand Canyon to Ward, CO, drank an espresso shot, and then continued on the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway to Nederland. The ride up Left Hand was a gradual climb through the quiet, foggy foothills. Peak to Peak is a north-south highway that runs parallel to the divide, winding through amazing mountain landscapes.  I lunched at Kathmandu, my new favorite mountain food spot, and then headed down the canyon to Boulder. I hit some unexpected wind resistance on the way down that slowed me almost to a complete stop :/ Still, I had one of the best mornings of my year, biking a total distance of about 50 miles and climbing over 5000 feet in elevation (who needs animal products?)

In chronological order, here are some (touched-up) photos from the past few weeks:

Fall in the Rockies

I just had a pretty Colorado weekend - saw Railroad Earth at Red Rocks Friday night, and then spent Saturday night in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Red rocks was wild! Aside from the folks chain-smoking cigs around us, I dug the festival atmosphere and people-watching. I had seen Railroad Earth over Memorial Day weekend at Revival in southern MN, but this show had a uniquely western flavor...Saturday I had plans to get up at 6AM and go backpacking with some folks, but of course they stayed out all night and bailed the next morning...so I went with my roommate instead! We hiked for about five miles, and then picked a nice grassy camping spot at about 10,000 feet. My tent was surrounded by mini-evergreens that protected me from the wild winds of the alpine night (no animal noises this round). I've become quite fond of these little trees - they might be some kind of spruce? The mountain slopes are speckled with dazzling splashes of yellow from the aspen groves tucked among the Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs. I hate to say it, but autumn in the Midwest is much more impressive with the reds of the maples... 

In other news, I've decided to stop spending my hard-earned money on animal products. Over the past couple months, I've drastically cut down on my animal consumption and discovered that I can get my protein from plant sources. Lots of reading, documentary-watching, and chats with a vegan friend have convinced me that I should give it a shot. Hopefully I'll soon be at a life position where I can care for backyard chickens, but until then I can no longer justify financially supporting industrial beef, pork, and poultry operations - I can't call myself an environmentalist while implicitly contributing to this impending environmental catastrophe. Still, I will not be turning down any animal products that I score during my food-rescuing activities - there's no reason why they should go to waste after all that went into producing them! I'm looking forward to fully embracing my love of black beans, kale, sweet potatoes, coconut cream, walnuts and avocados. 

Labor Day Weekend

Another great weekend in beautiful Colorado: Friday evening I biked up Sunshine Canyon (more like partly cloudy with scattered showers). This road was significantly less steep than Magnolia but I still had a wild ride on the way down! I had a spirit moment with an elk on the side of the road - we locked eyes for a few minutes before a car drove by and severed the connection. I've been contemplating spirit animals as of late - I tend to associate with the bobcat/lynx/cougar family, but also with aspects of mountain goats, beavers, and elk. Saturday morning I drank lots of espresso and cut lots of wood - the city of Boulder has a program by which folks like myself can sign a contract and pay $15 in exchange for access to a lot where the Parks & Open Space department drops off surplus wood from maintenance activities. This round I gathered lots of wrist-size wood for starting fires; next time I'll bring my saw to cut up larger logs (and get an upper-body workout). My roommate and I had brunch with a Couchsurfer who stayed with us last Monday evening. She is a delightful woman from Ann Arbor (originally from Thailand) and shared many stories from her trek through the backcountry. Saturday afternoon my roommate was playing violin at a wedding in Grand Lake on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, so I tagged along. We drove Trail Ridge Road on the way over the divide - wow! That evening we hiked a couple miles from a random trail head into the park and set up camp in a grove of trees next to a wide meadow. After enjoying some pesto and bananagrams, we attempted to sleep, but were kept awake by a terrifying, high-pitched whine very close to the tent. It didn't help that a couple hours earlier on the trail we had run into a gigantic bull moose who snorted at us when we got too close. I managed to get some rest after picturing a peaceful moose family sleeping in the field. After doing some research, I'm fairly positive the shrill noise was the distressed mating call of a lonely bull elk. Sunday afternoon, I had some plans to backpack in the James Peak Wilderness with grad school colleagues (I feel old saying "colleagues"), but those plans quickly unraveled. I was pretty exhausted anyway, and enjoyed the evening with Chipotle and Mountain Men, my most recent Netflix favorite. Today (Labor Day) I worked on a programming assignment, biked to some live bluegrass near the creek, and did some grocery shopping. This evening my roommate and I biked up to Settlers Park, one of my favorite spots for a quick mountain hike fix. Still loving my new life in Boulder one month in!

Boulder Food Rescue

As promised, a food-related post! I recently started volunteering for a group called the Boulder Food Rescue. The leadership of the organization maintains relationships with local grocery stores whereby volunteers on bicycles (like me) pick up produce that the store is no longer displaying and deliver it via bike trailer to group homes and senior living facilities. Part of the process is sorting the produce to pick out anything questionable, including bruised, overripe fruits and veggies - this is my cut!!! None of it has actually "gone bad" - the recipients of the food just prefer that the donation is aesthetically-pleasing. Today I scored organic avocados, zucchinis, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, arugula, jicama, grapes, peaches, apples, oranges, plantains, and guacamole! Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall...I whipped up a brunch that included an arugula/jicama/avocado salad and a zucchini, mushroom, tomato frittata (supplemented with eggs, garlic, and grape tomatoes from my personal stash). Later this afternoon, I'll probably blend some of the fruits into a smoothie. Going forward, I'll be volunteering on Wednesday afternoons for about an hour delivering food from Sprouts (a few blocks from my house) to the Family Learning Center. 

In other news, yesterday was a dream - my adviser and I attended a retreat of the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory, the research group that I will be working with starting in May. The retreat took place at the CU Mountain Research Station between Nederland and Ward. We drank lots of coffee and listened to presentations detailing the CZO's ongoing earth science research. This experience was incredibly exciting personally and professionally, and will definitely inform and inspire much of my studies for the next year. Eventually, I'll be working on reactive transport modeling: coupling subsurface flow models with fracture and weathering models, as well as other factors such as nitrogen deposition. The work will look at the large-scale evolution of these processes and project how we can expect these critical zone environments to develop years into the future. 

The usual question I get when I explain these things is "wow that sounds really hard - won't that be a lot of work?" The following is my answer: Science and math come easily to me and that's part of why I studied physics and biology as an undergraduate. Math can definitely be a headache at times, but at the end of every day, I feel so good about the work I have completed and am excited for the next day's work. There is something uniquely-satisfying about directing one's brain to think in a certain way to solve a practical problem - the learning (and teaching) process is inherently pleasurable. In a more general sense (I'm about to smugly preach about life and contentment so tune out if you don't care), I've always thought that growth and depth are achieved through service and "suffering" - not in the sense of physical anguish, but meaningful work. Whenever my life is "ideal" by society's standards (well-paying, reliable job, material success etc.) I've always felt empty. Alternatively, when I am working towards a goal and actively using my skills to contribute to the community, I never experience that awful Sunday night feeling - "ugh I have to go to work tomorrow, I hope I can get through another week..." Furthermore, I've never been able to successfully "partition" my life. Many baby-boomers seem incredibly willing to work awful 9-5 jobs in exchange for "economic security," trading lots of their time so that they can be "happy" in their free time. I have always found much more contentment and success when my life is completely integrated - the boundary between work and play becomes much more undefined...That's enough for today - we'll see how I'm feeling later in the semester crunching out fluid mechanics on a Friday night in my basement office :) 

Nederland before Noon

I biked to Nederland! After drinking copious amounts of espresso, I rolled out of the apartment around 8AM and headed up the canyon. When the creek trail ended, I got on Highway 109 (Boulder Canyon drive) for about two miles, and then turned onto Magnolia drive, a notoriously steep and winding road with grades of up to 14%! I followed this (paved) road for another 5 miles or so, occasionally having to dismount due to the strain on my lungs and calves. Eventually the road turned to gravel, winding its way through picturesque ranches and opening onto vistas of the Continental Divide. By this time I was totally zonked and jumped for joy when I heard from some passerby that the highway was just a quarter mile away! I descended down into Nederland (truly a lovely place) and found my destination - Kathmandu Nepalese buffet! I enjoyed various chicken curries along with spicy zucchini and cabbage, puréed spinach and carrot treats, and all the orange slices I could ever want. I rested, rehydrated, and refilled my water bottles before heading home on Highway 109. On the way back I dunked my head in the creek, my favorite feature of Boulder thus far - how cool that I get to work on a PhD studying this awesome watershed! Initially I thought I would get into the mountain biking lifestyle, but I'm totally in love with riding my road bike on the steep, curvy roads leading into the foothills. It's so much fun to climb 3,000+ feet in the morning, and then cruise at 30mph down 10% grades in the early afternoon. I was back by about 2pm, totaling about 37 miles. In my experience, automobiles respect the presence of bikers on these highways despite the narrow shoulder. Yesterday evening I cruised 4-mile canyon. Future destinations include Sunshine canyon, Left Hand canyon, and the Peak to Peaks scenic byway, all with generous shoulders. 

Three days of active meditation in the Cloud Peak Wilderness

You probably know I moved to Boulder, Colorado for a Master's/PhD program in environmental engineering - hydrology and water resources. If you weren't privy to the nitty gritty details, my buddy Dave and I moved all of my stuff August 3-5 using my parents' trailer, and then returned to the Twin Cities after a long day-hike at Chautauqua Park. Afterward, I spent the weekend with my folks in Bayfield, WI seeing folk and blues shows at Big Top Chautauqua, cycling Madeline island, enjoying all-you-can-eat Lake Trout, and foraging for berries (blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries!!!) I needed to drive my Toyota Corolla to Boulder, along with my camping gear and a few miscellaneous items. I didn't want to drive through Nebraska again, so I decided to drive through Wyoming and stop in the Big Horn Mountains! I had hiked the Cloud Peak wilderness with Troop 67 in August 2005 - 10 year anniversary! My buddy from Bozeman was talking about coming along, but I later found out he had to work, so I was a lone wolf! (I think this journey was meant to be solo anyway, sorry mom)

Monday, August 10:
Left Saint Paul, MN around 4AM and arrived in Buffalo, WY around 3PM. Aside from nearly getting mowed down by an old woman who didn't check her blind spot, the drive was pretty uneventful. Highway 16 (AKA the "Cloud Peak skyway") heads right into the mountains outside of Buffalo. I cruised winding mountain roads through thick pine forest, spotting the occasional elk, until the landscape became more rocky near the Gallatin formation, a giant rock spire rising from a jagged ridge carved by the Tensleep creek. The road began to descend steadily and then I noticed a sign "leaving Cloud Peak skyway..." Uh oh - missed my turn! It was fine, only a 10-minute detour through majestic scenery, but I got stuck behind a giant RV going 10mph and just about melted the brakes on the poor Corolla... After much confusion, I found my route, a ~20 mile dirt road punctuated with boulders just waiting to destroy your suspension. Battle Park is mainly a campground for horse folks - apparently they drive their trailers up there for weeks on end and go on trail rides during the day - not a bad life. I met some nice folks at the trail head - a Dad and his two sons - they had too much food so they unloaded some celery and green onions on me. I whipped up a zucchini and celery curry with ginger, green onions, and coconut cream, very cleverly adding much more water than I normally would since the soup would boil, and I needed to consume lots of liquids to facilitate my acclimation (8,000 feet). I knocked out two birds with one stone, sipping the warm broth late into the evening.

The combination of leaving home after a great family trip up north and heading into the mountains solo made for a rough transition. Since I had been living with the folks all summer, it almost felt like I was moving out all over again... My mom sent me off with some tasty blueberry pie - it just about killed me to eat it.

Tuesday, August 11:
I woke up at the crack of dawn and hiked from the Battle Park trailhead to Lake Solitude, where I lunched, rested, and bathed. Of course, as I climbed out of the water I noticed a crew of hikers at the lookout on the other end of the lake, oops! I climbed steep ridges, forded swift streams, and ran into the elusive elk and clumsy grouse. I continued on past Lake Solitude up and along Paint Rock creek and then found myself where I had camped with Troop 67 in 2005, on a sloping boulder-strewn meadow overlooking a wide drainage fed by a cascade. I headed up and around the cascade and found myself a grassy draw on which to pitch my tent - the ideal base camp for Cloud Peak tomorrow. I am very content backpacking through mountains surrounded by rocks, streams, lakes, and forests - the peaceful incline and descent keeps the body moving and the soul alive. I covered many miles before noon and spent the afternoon relaxing at 10,000 feet. Much insight was gained from many friendly trail folks, in groups of 1 to 8, the most common being couple + dog. I was asleep in the tent before the sun finished setting.

Wednesday, August 12:
Today was an insane day - in fact, mothers and the faint of heart should probably skip to the photos. By about 10AM I had climbed Cloud Peak (13,167 feet), which is really just a pile of rocks with a great view. In true adventure fashion, I wanted to make a loop out of my day instead of going out the way I came. So I followed a route that I thought was marked "Primitive trail" on the map - turns out that symbol is actually the county line (very subtle difference, I discovered this fact later in the evening). In addition, I had heard other hikers mention that they were heading to Bomber Mountain and Florence Pass, through which this "path" traveled. From Cloud Peak, I saddled my way over to Bomber Mountain (12,840 feet), where I followed a ridge and then climbed down through Florence Pass. Along the way, I came across the debris from a plane crash - the scene was too eerie to stop and take pictures. Here is the full story for your information - crazy! The terrain wasn't anything I hadn't been doing before - just more barren boulder fields to cross - however, by the end of the day my feet were very tired of rocks. In retrospect, this may have been a foolish decision given that I was solo - I was taking extreme caution with each step, but all the same, a loose boulder could temporarily immobilize me. Anyway, rest assured that I got a lifetime's worth of barren boulder bush-whackin kicks and will not be seeking out similar terrain. That's not to say I won't be back in the mountains soon! I'll just stay on the trail. I hiked a couple more miles from Florence Lake to Misty Moon, ran into some scattered showers, set up the tent quickly and kept everything dry. The sun came out briefly! I stretched out with tree pose, sipped from the LifeStraw®, and snapped some photos. Sounds of thunder up near the peaks - glad I'm not up there!

Thursday, August 13:
I hiked back to the car by about 10AM, headed back to Buffalo, spoke with the friendly ranger, and then made my way down I25 to Boulder, Colorado! I hit some gnarly traffic near Fort Collins (rush hour), ate the obligatory post-wilderness Chipotle, and spent the evening hanging out with the new roommates.

Overall, I think three days of solitude and reflection in the mountains was a great transition into my Boulder experience. My standards for comfort are extremely low, so just about everything is an improvement - bed, espresso maker, running water, crock pot etc. After days in the wilderness, I'm 100% ready to hit the books in a more urban setting (still minutes from the mountain adventures). In other news, I'm all about my LifeStraw®! Obviously it's part of a larger water strategy (including boiling and iodine) - I use it to get my fill when the trail weaves toward a stream, or when I'm camped for the night. It definitely requires a good amount of suction, so if you just had your wisdom teeth removed, seek other options! I didn't experience any altitude-related effects throughout the adventure, so I think it's time for some 14-ers!

Faux Phở

So it doesn't look all that appetizing! But let me tell you... Basically I followed this recipe, but exchanged the rice noodles for spinach. This may not seem like a logical substitution, but I am of the school of thought that noodles are unexciting, flavorless carbohydrates that can be removed from a dish without compromising the flavor. And why not eat more spinach? Sort of along the same lines as my broccoli "pad thai." I saved turkey drippings from the past few months and made some broth with a few pounds of pork chop bones from a large group meal event (so it probably doesn't contain a whole lot of those Omega-3's we get excited about). I tend to go crazy with the garlic, ginger, and fennel, but I more or less stayed consistent with the ratio given in the recipe. In addition, I added cinnamon and crushed red pepper flakes, and then threw in a few bunches of cilantro and mung bean sprouts at the very end. In looking at other sources, I see that "Faux Phở" is a term that has already been coined and so I can't rule out the influence of subliminal messaging from the past 22 years, but I thought I was pretty clever yesterday in the kitchen when the name for this post popped into my head...