HRH trail marking - day 4

Day 4 (for us): Arrastra Gulch to Maggie's, a l-o-n-g day, and hence, a large # of photos...

Joe, Jennifer, Ann, and Andy:


The mine above Arrastra:


Some trail work (thanks guys!):


Ann near the top of the first (and highest) pass:


John coming up after finishing the first bit of trail work:


"Snow work" on the traverse at the top (probably all melted by race morning):


Cunningham aid station way down below:


The Gospel According to Charlie (The Book of Wildflowers):


Crossing the creek into Cunningham:


James and Joe know how to optimize their wait time:


Looking back where we came down:


Heading up the next valley:


And down...and up...and down...



Cramming into the back of Jim's pickup for a ride down (7 in the back) - maybe should have run down instead! Lots of good learning on this trip:

HRH trail marking - day 3

Day 3: John, Andy, and I parked at Grouse Gulch for an up-and-back to Handies Peak, forgoing the long 4WD trip over Cinnamon Pass to Sherman. That worked out to be an excellent choice.

Coming up a snow field:


Mountain lakes are awesome:


A bear print or something else?


Handies Peak:


Coming up from American Basin:


I wouldn't step there if I were you:


View from the top of Handies (14,048 ft):


We hiked down the trail on the other side so I could get a feel for it. The snow fields (on the right side of the photo) where you have to go down in the CW direction can be icy and slippery at night, but now I have a better idea what to look for:


John and I did a bit of off-trail exploration, including climbing up the ridge back toward Handies. It was good training for me, and a continuous mystery whether we could keep going over or around the next set of rocks. John did good route finding, it wasn't TOO difficult overall (despite how it looks from a distance), and we made it!


Pretty wildflowers:


My legs were dang tired by the end of the day. We were going to take the next day off, then we decided not to, then our battery was dead in Howie so that sealed it. The following trail marking day (Maggie Gulch to Sherman) was an "off" day for us while we figured out the problem (the generator is only a trickle charger and cannot be relied on to keep the battery going) and did laundry.

HRH trail marking - day 2

Day 2: From Kamm Traverse aid station back toward Silverton...

Smiling Sue, with John messing around in the background:


Charlie telling tales to Jeff and Jennifer:


One of the sections without a trail - therefore we go straight up, of course!


Geology is cool:


At the site of our aid station (Putnam), John couldn't resist starting work. Here he is clearing branches off a log to make a bench for runners to sit on:


On the way down toward Silverton - I love this sign! Never did find the "End" though:


A couple of Columbines:


Lunch!


The Mineral Creek crossing (the most interesting part of this section) - I heard the water was lower by race day:

HRH trail marking - day 1

It may soon be clear from the multitude of blog posts exactly why I wasn't keeping up with them the past two weeks - too much amazing scenery, too much hiking, not to mention too little electricity in Howie. We tried "dry camping" (without hook-ups) for 10 days at a site along Mineral Creek close to Silverton. We learned some important things in the process, met a wonderful guy named Bill at the auto repair shop, had our battery recharged for us twice, and are now proud owners of our first 2 solar panels!

Howie and Tug at the campground before the July 4 crowd started piling in around us:


OK, on to Hardrock trail marking! The first day started at Ophir Pass and finished on the other side of Grant-Swamp. A very interesting first day... soon we'd learn that EVERY course marking day is interesting in various ways.

Looking over at Oscar's Pass from Ophir Pass - part of the 2002 PQ course (final trek):


Charlie entertaining us with information and stories - always fun to listen to:


The first course marker placed in 2009:


Grant-Swamp Pass:


Waterfalls on the way up to the pass:


John with marking flags, looking up to the pass:


Lots of snow on course marking day, which made it an "easy" climb. Much harder during the race when I believe it was mostly scree:


John may balance on the highest rock around, but I ain't no mountain goat:


Snow sliding was fun!

Mesa Verde - Wetherill Mesa & Far View Sites

Backtracking and catching up!

I think I left off with our last bit of time at Mesa Verde before coming to Silverton...

The cultural center in Cortez has a free program every night. We got to see some Native American dancing - an amazing show! Here is the father dancing while his two sons look on:


Back to Mesa Verde the next day. An area that was burned in a forest fire a couple years ago:


We spent some time on Wetherill Mesa ("the quiet side of Mesa Verde"), including taking an excellent tour of the Long House:


Another view from inside the Long House cliff dwelling:


Step House, including a reproduction of an older type of shelter built into the floor (in the background):


The Long House from across the valley:


A multi-room dwelling as part of the Far View Sites:


An inscription in a stone at Far View Sites:


An interesting reservoir that is believed to have held a lot of water (also at Far View Sites):


Another awesome National Park that I highly recommend!

Hardrock Live!

The race is on! The Hardrock 100 kicked off at 6 am today in Silverton, CO. Just shoot me for not having my camera at the start to show you a photo (it's already packed in my hiking bags).

The first runners have reached Cunningham at around 8 am. We're about to head up there to see if they have a couple extra bottles of Coke we could snag for our aid station. Maybe we'll catch a couple of the last runners coming through. Then we won't see them for a very long time.

Later today we'll be hiking in to our aid station (Putnam) with a horse train to hang out for a couple nights. No internet access for us! But we'll get to hear the juicy details via ham radio.

Anyone who wants to follow the race can check the "Hardrock Live!" link from this page:
http://www.run100s.com/HR/

We're rooting for a bunch of folks we've met over the past couple of weeks. Austinites - keep an eye on Joe Prusaitis! Go Joe :)

Quick update

Hello blog followers!

As expected, our internet access is extremely limited while we're in Silverton. Plus we're spending most of every day up in the mountains with trail marking of the Hardrock 100 course. We're having a blast, meeting a bunch of cool people, and enjoying the heck out of our time here. Next weekend we'll be running an aid station during the race, which should be another interesting experience.

For now, here are just a couple of the many photos we have taken (more later!):