Ute Pass

Before we backpack over Tom's birthday weekend, we wanted to try Ellie's repaired ACL out on a decent incline and a longer hike. This year, we've been bagging 13ers and have left her at home for those, due to the sharp talus and scree near the top of most tall peaks in Colorado. So, we headed up north of Silverthorne to tackle the rarely used Ute Peak trail. 

We started off on a good trail (which there would be most of the way). Early morning sun shone through the tall pines, and the temp was probably hovering in the upper 40s. A layer of frost was still melting from the night before. Mid August has arrived in the high country. Perfect. 

The trail was a steady climb up, with some steeper spots. Definitely enough to get your heart rate up. We would gain a lot of elevation over the next 5 miles. 

Taking a snack break about halfway up.  Ellie's leg was hanging in there!

We popped out of the tree line eventually around 11,600ft, lost the trail, and headed up a ridge to get some 360 degree views. Ellie had started to limp noticeably on her repaired leg, so we decided to turnaround after we gained the ridge and not continue another mile to Ute Peak. Tom and Ellie on the ridge below. 

We had ourselves a good, sunny break complete with snacks and drinks while enjoying the craggy peaks of the Gore Range. 

We headed back down the trail toward the car, still a long way away. 

One last peek at the Gore Range before we headed into the forest. 

We made it back to the car a little over 5.5 hours from when we started. We gained about 3000ft in elevation and hiked 10 miles in total. Ellie was wiped but she rallied today and her leg looks to be holding. Yay!

This hike was not our normal "mostly above tree line, scrambling over large boulders and small rocks, without a trail, route finding and peak bagging" hike. This one had its own charm - very green (for Colorado, at least), shady, meandering and 95% in the forest. I have to say I prefer the wide open views of high altitude to the somewhat closed-in forest. While shade definitely has its benefits, I long for the views of peaks and the areas above trees now, often windswept, steep and sometimes chilly, but wholly amazing. Colorado has spoiled me with the amazing vistas to be had in those spaces. 

Frozen balls of dents.

Well, we haven't gotten out to the mountains in a couple of weeks, bah humbug. On second thought, that's not entirely true. Last weekend, we drove up to Breckenridge to try to bag Pacific Peak, which was going to be a fun Class 2+ scramble, but as we drove toward Breck, the clouds got thicker and thicker and lower and lower. So, we ended up stopping for donuts (Daylight Donuts, on main street in Breck, YUMMY) and headed back down the hill, very unsatisfied. But if the weather holds, this weekend should be a hiking weekend!! And the following weekend, we are headed to the White River National Forest to backpack and maybe bag a peak there as well.

In other news, Green Mountain got hit with a bad hail storm.  The stones dented up Tom's car pretty badly and ruined our hot tub cover. Of course, Denver's version of storm chasers were out after the storm, and roofing company signs line our streets now. Our roof inspection comes this week, so we may be getting a new roof out of this. The hail was the biggest I've seen out here yet. Hail is common in Colorado, and it seems a neighborhood or two around the Denver metro area gets hit hard each year, it seems this was our year.  You can see the quarter for a size comparison.  Yikes!