Mountaintop adventures
July 1, 2023
Our shuttle van left Ouray around 7 am for Last Dollar Pass, and the start of the Sneffels Traverse. We trundled up the rough dirt road, through rolling hills of green grass. The morning sun shone through sparse stands of aspens. Patches of hillside were covered in thick blooms of purple lupine. A herd of elk moved about the hills below us.
Continue reading “The Sneffels Traverse: Hut to Hut through the San Juans”
June 24, 2023
I left Denver at the crack of dawn, to beat the weekend I-70 traffic. I sped through the Eisenhower tunnel as the Sun rose above the rugged peaks of the Continental Divide. Ahead I saw only clear blue skies. We had been blessed with a perfect weather window.
Continue reading “Climbing Snowmass Mountain via the ‘direct’ route”
June 18, 2023
Around 7 am, I wound my way up Village Road toward Beaver Creek’s upscale village complex en route to hike the Overlook Trail. The morning sun flickered through stands of quaking aspens and cast long shadows across the lush golf course. In winter I’d of parked a few miles downhill, in one of Beaver Creek’s $10 day-skier lots. But in summer, the far more convenient Ford Hall Lot is free and open to all.
Continue reading “Hiking Beaver Creek’s Overlook Trail”
June 10, 2023
I arrived at the Crags Campground trailhead around 3:45 am. It was June—when hikers are blessed with the longest days of the year. But even still it was pitch black.
Continue reading “Pikes Peak from the Crags Campground”
May 23, 2023
I met my friend at the trailhead for a springtime outing skinning/skiing Quandary Peak. From the looks of the parking lot area, a few fresh inches of snow had fallen the night prior. Even at Quandary’s lofty trailhead—roughly 11,000 feet above sea level—the snow looked wet. But with any luck, things would be a different matter near the 14,271′ summit.
Continue reading “Skiing Quandary Bowl”
May 13, 2023
My day began over twelve hours ago at the Denver airport. A short flight later I touched down in Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Then an hour or two of driving brought me to Hoosier Hill, Indiana’s wooded high point. It was a lot of states for one Saturday.
Continue reading “Campbell Hill, Ohio’s High Point”
May 13, 2023
I landed mid-morning Saturday at the Cincinnati Airport. Interestingly enough, the airport sits across the Ohio River in Kentucky. It was my first time in the bluegrass state. This visit would be brief, however. I immediately drove north, into Ohio—though not before passing by the Creation Museum.
Continue reading “Hoosier Hill, Indiana’s high point”
April 15, 2023
My day began at 4 am in Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. A few hours of southbound driving brought me to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia, and the Allegheny Mountains.
Continue reading “Mount Davis, Pennsylvania’s High Point”
April 15, 2023
I sped along the country roads of West Virginia, having just visited the state’s highest summit. I came to a seemingly unremarkable bend in the road, along US 219. A small green sign announced its relevance: “Maryland’s High Point”. I had reached the trailhead.
Continue reading “Hoye Crest, Maryland’s highest point”
April 15, 2023
My day began in Pittsburgh, about three hours north of Spruce Knob. I left my hotel around 4 am, crossing the Monongahela River on I-376. Even in those small hours, plenty of trucks rumbled about on the highways of southwestern Pennsylvania. But the roads grew progressively quieter and smaller as I worked my way South and East into the rural mountains of West Virginia.
Continue reading “Spruce Knob, West Virginia, via the Huckleberry Trail”