Stromy Peaks Pass to Signal Mountain

The North Fork Big Thompson and the Bulwark Ridge (Signal Mountain) trails out of the Dunraven Trailhead are two trails that I have run many times, but always in out and back fashion. A few weeks ago, I finally hit both of these trails in a single loop. The "big loop" was about 30 miles and took me all the way to Pingree Park. Hoping for a shorter loop option, I decided to explore the unmarked trail that extends from just about a half-mile up the Stormy Peaks Pass Trail from the North Fork Trail (about 2 miles South of the pass) over to Signal Mountain. This trail is shown on old USGS topo maps, but not on any recent trail maps. There are also no signs indicating this trail option.

The start of the trail from the West is easy to find, just take a right at the first mileage sign (7.9 miles to Pingree Park?) near the top of the steep switchbacks heading up toward the pass. The first half a mile of the trail is easy to follow. I lost the trail when it reached a meadow at the headwaters for Pennock Creek. Instead of spending much time looking for the trail, I just headed straight toward Signal Mountain in hopes that the trail would come back to me. I would have been better off trying to maintain the top or close to the top of the ridge, as I dropped down too low toward the valley and got into some rough travelling. I ascended back up the ridge and did find the trail again, only losing it slightly a couple times after that. Luckily, quite a few cairns have been placed along the trail to guide the way. The trail opened up too many great views in all directions along the way, eventually climbing up above treeline on the approach to Signal Mountain. After about 4 miles, I hooked up with the Bulwark Ridge Trail on the saddle between Signal and South Signal Mountains and made my descent back to the Dunraven Trailhead. The total loop is about 17 miles with a just a little under 4000 feet of climbing. I'm sure that I will be back to do this loop many more times (in both directions) and eventually should have little problem following this great connector trail.

GPS data

The view to the West (The Mummy Range)

The view to the South (Longs and Meeker)

The view to the North (Pennock Creek Valley)

Approaching Signal Mountain around the North shoulder of South Signal

Above the Clouds

It was nice to get a little moisture here over the weekend, but we could still use a lot more. Fort Collins sat in a dense fog for most of the morning while it was clear up in the foothills. Just like last week, I put in about 17 miles and 4000 feet of climbing. This time it was all within Horsetooth Mountain Park. I like to plan routes where I don't retrace (no out and backs) or criss-cross any of my tracks along the way. This was a pretty good one with plenty of climbing.

Today's route:

Southridge-Audra Culver-Horsetooth Mountain-Soderberg-Wathen-Westridge-Towers-Mill Creek-Loggers-Sawmill-Stout-Towers-Spring Creek-Herrington-Stout-Spring Creek-Horsetooth Falls

Start and Finish at Horsetooth Mountain Trailhead.

GPS Data

Reservoir Road Fire outbreak last Sunday

Storm Pass Trail

The aspens are starting to glow and the elk are bugling, just a great time to be on a Colorado mountain trail. The Storm Pass Trail is a great trail run option in Rocky Mountain National Park. Despite having one trailhead near Longs Peak and the other near Bear Lake, I find very little traffic on this trail. I took off from Lily Lake (the eastern trailhead) before dawn and ran the entire length of the trail to its western trailhead on Bear Lake Road. The one-way length is just a little over 7 miles and tops out at Storm Pass, elevation about 10,300 feet. I crossed Bear Lake Road and tacked on the climb up to Bierstadt Lake for a little extra mileage and climbing. Bierstadt Lake is rather uninspiring, but the views from the ridge just below the lake were worth the climb.

The Glacier Basin as viewed from just below Bierstadt Lake

I turned around at Bierstadt Lake and returned the same route. This out and back totalled just over 17 miles and just under 4000 feet of climbing. There is a great loop option which I've done a couple of times taking Boulder Brook/North Longs Peak up to Granite Pass and then back down the main Longs Peak trail. There are also endless trails heading out of Bear Lake. I was happy staying below treeline today, however, especially after doing big miles last Monday.

One of many great views from the Storm Pass Trail

I'd like to give a shout out to Nick C for winning his first 100-miler (first of many?) at Wasatch this weekend. Also, to Pete S for finishing Wasatch to complete the Grand Slam.

GPS data for today's run.

Stormy Peaks/Pingree/Signal Loop

The loop in red.

I have been wanting to do this loop for some time going from the Dunraven trailhead. Finally got it done today. Forgot the GPS but I estimate the distance at around 30 miles and the total climbing around 7500 feet. Really just two big climbs. The first over Stormy Peaks Pass (11,600 ft elev) and the second over Signal Mountain (11,200 ft elev). I took the loop in the clockwise direction since the North Fork trail offers some nice gradual uphill running to warm up on (even a little downhill to the river at the start).

I got up to Stormy Peaks Pass well before sunrise and experienced a nice little snow flurry. I think the days of snow-free trails up high are numbered. Soon after, I was able to turn off the headlamp and enjoy some nice trail and spectacular views as I descended about 5 miles down to Pingree Park. My first time on this part of the trail.

Overlooking Pingree Park

This loop requires a few miles of road running (it is dirt) from Pingree Park over to the Signal Mountain trailhead. Instead of running all the way to the trailhead at Pingree Park, I turned onto the trail for Twin Lake, cutting out a good chunk of the run on the main Pingree Park road.

Twin Lake Reservoir

The run up Signal Mountain from the North side is quite mellow the first few miles, but gets very steep on the last couple of miles to the top. Also, my first time on this trail as I have only come up the mountain from the South. It wasn't snowing on Signal, but the wind was nearly blowing me off the mountain. I met my first hiker on my descent from Signal. There were lots of cars at the trailheads, but I don't know where everyone was hiding.

I plan to explore a shorter loop option some other time. There is an unmarked trail that goes directly between Signal Mountain and Stormy Peaks. This trail is shown on old topo maps, but there are no signs for it.

Triathlon Anyone?

I joke with some of my triathlete friends that I am just going to show up and jump into a triathlon one of these days. Well today, I literally almost did (although unofficially and unintentionally). While these events look fun, I just don't want to train for one. I like the simplicity of trail running. I had planned a big loop around Horsetooth and Lory Parks only to find myself eventually heading down toward the Timber Trail Trailhead in the opposite direction of the Xterra Lory Trail Triathlon. I had actually done this triathlon a few years ago (the trail run portion only on a team), but completely forgot that it was going on today. So I pulled a U-turn and huffed it in the opposite direction hoping I was far enough ahead of those lead bikers. So my route today was created and edited "on the go" to get me about 19 miles and 4000 feet of vertical. I even included Nick's "secret trail" today so I can now say I have run on every piece of trail on Horsetooth Mountain Park. Not too much to it, but it does provide a loop option when doing the Towers Road climb (I need to best my very soft PR of 41:11).

Todays run: Southridge/Horsetooth Rock/Westridge/"secret"/Towers/Mill Creek/Arthurs Rock/Timber Trail (toward trailhead and back)/Well Gulch/Overlook/Arthurs Rock/Mill Creek/Loggers/Herrington/Spring Creek/Soderberg/Horsetooth Rock/Southridge

Start and Finish at Horsetooth Mountain Trailhead.

GPS data

Unfortunate that UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc) got postponed due to weather this weekend in France. This is sort of like Europe's version of Hard Rock and had a strong contingent of US trail runners this year to try to take down 2-time defending champ Kilian Jornet of Spain. Rain, snow, and mudslides caused the race to be cancelled about 3 hours into the 166 kilometer race. They ran a shorter (98 kilometer) "replacement" race the next day won by the UK's Jez Bragg. Bighorn winner Mike Wolfe from Montana came in 2nd. Certainly not as exciting as if the original race could have been run (most didn't even run the next day), but always better to be safe so we can all run another day.

Another Horsetooth Lory Loop

Sunrise over Fort Collins (from the Overlook Trail)

I've been sticking to the local trails the last 2 weeks. A short Coyote Ridge/Blue Sky run last Sunday afternoon among the crowds of mountain bikers. Today, another nice loop around Horsetooth and Lory Parks. No people (until near the end), but plenty of deer and one black bear. I wasn't blistering the course, but had a strong low gear for climbing. Ran every step, including some tough climbs up Timber Trail and Mill Creek that usually force me into some intermittent hiking. I guess I was inspired by all those fast Pikes Peak ascents this weekend. Glenn Randall posted a 2:09 for the win at the Ascent on Saturday. My pick, Tim Parr, had a bad day (for him) and a couple of my other picks actually went off-course to drop them out of the running. I can't understand how you can lose the Barr Trail. Matt Carpenter barely held off all the young guns for another win in today's marathon in an "almost human" 3:51. Great race for Nick, 5th overall in 4:00:35. At Leadville, Tony (my pick to win there) dropped out late in the race and I believe he was on record pace. I better not make any more predictions and place my curse on anyone else. Duncan Callahan got the win in 17:43. Strong runs by Brooks, Brownie, and Pete. Only one more race to go for Brownie's Rocky Slam and Pete's Grand Slam.

My course for today.

Swan Johnson, Shoreline, Valley, Arthurs Rock, Overlook, Well Gulch, Timber, Westridge, Howard, Mill Creek, Spring Creek, Herrington, Stout, Towers, Swan Johnson (start and finish at Soderberg Trailhead)

About 17.5 miles and 3900 feet of climbing.

My playground for today (from Howard Trail)

Big Race Weekend

A big weekend of trail races here in Colorado with Pikes Peak (Ascent on Saturday, Marathon on Sunday) and the Leadville 100. I am not running in any of these this year but have a strong interest in how things turn out. Made my predictions for the top 10 at the Ascent over on runcolo.com in hopes of winning some La Sportiva shoes. This year's Ascent is also the World Mountain Running Association Challenge, so a strong field from all over the world will be there. I'm still picking last year's winner Tim Parr to repeat as I think experience on this course is a big advantage. Of course if Matt Carpenter decides to run the Ascent at the last minute, he would be the favorite (he is only registered to run the Marathon on Sunday). If I am lucky the top 10 go like this: Parr, Blake, Hafer, Gates, Chemweno, Manning, Randall, Delaney, Freudenberg, Nichols. At Leadville, look for Anton Krupicka to possibly take down Matt Carpenter's course record. There are going to be close to 1000 runners at this year's Leadville race (too many for my liking). Hopefully I can find a quiet trail somewhere this weekend since everyone else will either be in Leadville or Manitou Springs.