A Few Trails

[Chris]

Barb & I left Denver on Sunday and will be home tomorrow. We've done a number of great trails and enjoyed them all and taken lots of time to enjoy everything around them. We yend to wander down every spur we come across and make a 4 hour run last 8 hours. We camped a couple nights and got hotels a couple including tonight. We've run the Baldwin Lakes/Anterro area, Hancock/Alpine Loop trails, Sholfied/Devil's Punchbowl and a number of others around/between each of them.

Marble Quarry Trail is closed. :(

I'm going to unload my camera now and see if there's anything good to share.

[Roostercruiser]

sounded like a good time. glad yall took your time and enjoyed yourselves.

[Chris]

Back home and figured I'd say a bit more. Our first day in BV we did the Baldwin Lakes section of the road to Mt Anterro simply because we hadn't before. When we came on the shale trail we remembered we had a few years ago. That section was much more compacted than out previous visit. We spent about 8 hours exploring the area including the mine above the lakes. A group of guys on quads came up and decided to check out the mine and 6 or the eight went inside. Pretty stupid and we hung around until they came out about an hour after going in. After they came out telling how cool it was we kind of wished we were that foolish too because it sounded great. I'm a coward but that's fine with me.

The next day we decided to try Grizzly Lake or Iron Chest but it had started to rain so we opted out of those and headed up Hanckock and visited the Alpine Tunnel and went through to Pitkin instead. The Alpine Tunnel construction was fascinating. I admire the people that built that! Wow. I would really like to do Iron Chest some time, we made it up the beginning but the idea of the rain turning in to a down pour made the decision to not do it a good one. We did have some very brief snow father up the trail at the lake which was fun.

From Pitkin we ended up going to Gunnison for the night to clean up and sleep in the kind of comfort we're accustomed to. :lol:

We then went to Crested Butte to run Devil's Punchbowl/Sholfield Pass which is a real nice trail despite its undeserved 'death trail' reputation. It's not particularly hard at all but the drop would intimidate many people. Fortunately we only had hikers and a couple motorcycles going the opposite way. One of them couldn't make it up and were trying to decide the easiest way back down. Some ATV's going the same way as us (down) had a lot of trouble but I think they were just freaked out by the drop over the side. The bonus of the Crystal Mill is always nice and we had to contribute to its reputation as the most photographed building in the state.

We were very disappointed to find the Marble Quarry Trail closed. In the past we spent time at the marble quarry and above but an avalanche apparently has made it pretty unstable so it's now just open to employees. Also disappointing was the fact that the majority of the marble along the road sides has been removed.

Also closed by an avalanche was the Pomeroy Lakes trail we came upon early and couldn't visit the Mary Murphy Mine either. All in all we had a great time despite the closures.

A few pics in no particular order...

[Chris]

And a few more...

[Funrover]

Great pics.. I REALLY REALLY want to do Powerhouse Mill. I am noticing a trend with you and Griz Lake... One day you will git-r-done!

[Chris]

Last few...

[Funrover]

Wow.. Griz Lake looks almost paved!

[4Runninfun]

very cool! definitely some great places.

[Brody]

Thanks for the pictures, Chris!

The start to Grizzly Lake is way different than it was a few weeks ago for the WFTW run. There were no rocks at all at the base of the starting obstacle and the water was right up the the bottom of the rocks.

This picture looks like a little bump compared to then. There must be at least 400 pounds of rocks that have gotten stacked up there!

[Funrover]

Thanks for the pictures, Chris!

The start to Grizzly Lake is way different than it was a few weeks ago for the WFTW run. There were no rocks at all at the base of the starting obstacle and the water was right up the the bottom of the rocks.

This picture looks like a little bump compared to then. There must be at least 400 pounds of rocks that have gotten stacked up there!

Some serious work involved in that stacking!

[Pathrat]

Great pictures! Where specifically is that waterfall?

[Chris]

There are two, one smaller one is before Sholfield and the second along side the trail itself. Not advisable to look at it while moving though. :erm:

[Pathrat]

Thanks. Very pretty, I love the water scenes

[Chris]

Yeah, me too. The area was much wetter this time which was surprising. I didn't even see the first falls last time we were there.

[Pathrat]

Yeah, me too. The area was much wetter this time which was surprising. I didn't even see the first falls last time we were there.

Everything is wetter. The last four trails I have done, at least, have had varying amounts of water running down the road. The dirt seems to be going with the water too.

[white collar redneck dad]

Wow!! thanks for the gorgeous pics!! I have been eager to see crystal mill for several years. I

[1freaky1]

Awesome Chris, would love go that way someday and hit a few of them. Thanks for sharing the pics too!