July 5, 2008 |

Great way to spend the 4th

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Four hikers resting on rocky mountain trail under a clear blue sky

Good times, good times. ~ Jerri Blank

What better way to spend a sunny 4th of July than skiing in the Indian Peaks? Beats what most of the U.S. does (whacking down parasite dogs, drinking shitty beer and blowing stuff up). At least that’s my take on it.


Now I am never one to say that getting up at 3:00 is a good idea but that is what happened this morning. Ben, Caleb, Evelyn, Luke, Megan and I met at the Long Lake trail head at 4:30 to begin our most excellent assault on Apache Peak.


We jammed up the trail and quickly found ourselves reaching Lake Isabelle with the morning sun illuminating the Indian Peaks in the distance. Just a gorgeous morning altogether. Warm, sunny, quiet. Perfect.


The adventure started soon thereafter with Ben, Luke and I bushwhacking around the south side of the lake to access an “ice berg” that appeared to be attached to the southwest side of the lake. Once we got there, we realized that the berg was not, in fact attached, but was about 3 feet away from the bank. Some campers informed us that the previous night, it had been attached to the northwest side of the lake and had drifted overnight to its current location.


Luke went first, then Ben. When I took off from the shore, a foot-wide portion of the remaining snow and ice on broke off and another foot broke off the berg when I landed. Fortunately, I didn’t get too wet. Pretty funny, actually.


We traversed the full length of the berg (~1/8-1/4 mile long) and then Ben wiggled out to the end to get the full effect. We leaped back across (I broke off another chunk on the berg side, Luke broke off a big chunk on the shore leaving Ben with a massive jump back across) and headed back to the trail to continue our approach to Apache.


By this time, the snow fields were really softening up and we quickly caught up with Caleb, Evelyn and Megan then started our journey up the couloir. Luke and Ben led the way, bootpacking up to the top. Megan relaxed at the bottom as we made our way through the portage (100 steps at a time – thanks, Caleb!) and finally we were atop Apache. We hung out for a bit then took turns skiing great conditions back down. Tons of fun. This isn’t a terribly steep pitch and the consequences are not great if one were to fall so that made it a fairly mellow ski out. Good times.


We hooked back up with Megan, then began our trudge back out to the cars. By the time we made it back to Isabelle, the ice berg had moved east quite a bit. No way one could get there from our previous position. Luke and Ben hatched a plan to access it once more from the northeast but the rest of us headed back down the trail (assuming they would either a) figure out it wouldn’t go, b) figure out they were going to have to get really wet to make it go, c) get wet or stranded trying to get on the damned thing). Turns out they used another, smaller berg as a raft and pushed off from the edge of the lake to get on the main berg. Then their raft floated away and so they somehow got a second one broken loose and navigated back to shore. Ha!


The rest of us hung out at the cars until Luke and Ben finally showed. All in all, it was an awesome day, with a great group of friends.


Here are links to photo albums:


Then I came home and took a nap with my sweet, sweet Rach.



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Four hikers with backpacks walking along a rocky mountain ridge under a blue sky
May 8, 2026
We are each our own greatest inhibitor. People don’t want to do new things if they think they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bad, to fall on your head and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be. ~ Laird Hamilton Yesterday: Hit Range Balls/Hike – Casa del Critters, 1:15 Today: Run – GGCSP, ~2 hours Tomorrow: Ride – Somewhere singlespeedy, ~2 hours Yesterday, Rach and I took a nice stroll in the woods around our house. The songbirds were going crazy-nuts and surprisingly, we only saw one other person walking his dog. I love where we live – close proximity to fun trails and the ability to get away from it all in just a short walk from our house. During lunch yesterday, I went to the driving range to get a few cuts in before playing a round of golf with my dad next week. I don’t get to play very often so need to brush up on my skills (or lack thereof) whenever I can. I am looking forward to playing with my pops and hope to break 100. I shot a 102 the last time I played so I am within striking distance of the sub-triple-digit score. We’ll see how things go. I usually do okay for most of the round and then fall apart on a couple of holes pushing my score way up. Dad shoots in the low 80s usually (I think). I am not sure I will ever play enough to be that good but it is fun to get out on the course now and again. I also went to see Dr. Paul yesterday for my ankle problem (which seems to have been resolved) and my knee (which is still a bit swollen but has decreased in size markedly over the past several days). The knee stems from my unscheduled nose-dive back in May (see this post for details). The shot some pictures and believe that everything is a-ok so that was good news. I just need to select better places for splashdowns in the future. And today is Luke’s birthday. Age is one place where I will always beat him but visit his blog to congratulate him on trying to catch up. Until next time…
Runner silhouetted at sunset on a rocky trail, mid-stride between hills.
May 8, 2026
Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience. ~ Elbert Hubbard Yesterday: Run – Casa del Critters/Flume, 1 hour 15 minutes Today: Ride/Hike/Relax Tomorrow: Run/Hike – Pawnee/Buchanan Passes, 6 hours? Yesterday I ran around the house. Not literally, mind you, but in the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous evening – calm, cool. Perfect. The wildflowers are really starting to take off up here and I was treated with a bold display of color throughout my run. Tons of Columbine lined the trailside as I ran on old mining roads and singletrack trails. It is really fun to see how much differently I am able to handle familiar terrain. I used to have difficulties running this loop and would have to walk major sections. Last night, I ran the entire loop without trouble and was able to moderate my speed to maintain a steady cadence through the run. Good times. Contracting is staying steady. A bit of a drop-off this week given the holiday but I am still managing to put in a decent number of hours. I picked up another new project today and will need to get started immediately to ensure that it gets completed on time.  Tomorrow, we are going to head up Pawnee Pass and loop back around to Buchanan Pass in the northern Indian Peaks Wilderness. This should be a fun challenge as we’ll get up pretty high, have to navigate some snow (most likely) and will be out for quite awhile. I am looking forward to it for sure . Movie time: I forgot to mention Shopgirl, a Steve Martin vehicle, we watched the other night. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but found this to be a charming film about loneliness. It was well acted and would recommend it for sure. The pacing is steady throughout and some might find it a little on the slow side but it was an engaging film that had a lot to say without being overly sappy.
Hands holding a tablet displaying a video player interface. The video is paused.
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In case you hadn’t seen these (and also for my friends at Adventure Film ), here are a couple of must-see running movies from Joel Wolpert:  Geoff Roes: Slogging to the Top