Are we going to skip shoulder season this year?

After an abysmal 2015/2016 Nordic ski season, early season snow dumps are getting my hopes up for a better upcoming season. The snow is too early, in fact, interfering with normal fall activities.

Saturday I surveyed the NOAA snow cover maps. Much of the green mountains in VT was depicted as having snow cover. A portion of the white mountains in NH too. I haven't been doing much climbing on my bike lately, and I felt the need for some long, sustained grinds. I've been to Mt Sunapee a couple times. The 1500ft gain gravel service road to the summit offers superb punishment. NOAA maps showed zero snow cover in NH south of the Whites.

Pulling into the Sunapee ski area with heavy overcast, I thought wow, they started making snow already?!  Then I realized the whole mountain was white. SOB! So much for NOAA accuracy. Maybe it was just a dusting. Heading up on my first repeat, a hiker was coming down. He chuckles and says "you're never gonna make it up on that!" There was 8" of heavy, wet snow at the summit. He was right. I could only make it up to 1900ft, well shy of the 2700ft summit.

20% grade no-go at 1900ft

If my plan was to do two 1500ft climbs, then I'll just have to make do with four 800ft climbs. It wasn't like the dreary day offered up views from the summit anyway.

After four repeats, I swung over to the MTB terrain park in the learners ski area. An ATV track takes you steeply to the top of three flow trails down. As I approached the top, the skies opened up with 30-something degree bone chilling rain. Well, only one run down was going to happen today. As I popped out at the bottom, I noticed the cloud deck lifted enough to reveal the summit, and the rain stopped. Hmmm, maybe I'll drive up to campground gate and hike the top 1000ft of service road to the summit in worn out running shoes. Bad idea!

Lake Sunapee

I got up ok, but coming down was a bitch. Sliding most of the time. There were ski tracks down one of the alpine ski runs. Had I known, I would have thrown my crappy old alpine gear in the car and skied down the top 800ft or so of the mountain. The skies opened up again as I was coming down. Couldn't get the heat cranking fast enough when I got back to the car. Did manage to snap a few photos through the clouds.

Coulda had first tracks!

Mt Kearsarge just poking out

The Facebook 4000 Footers page was filling my feed with winter wonderland pictures on Saturday. I just had to get up there Sunday and take in more of the early winter conditions we're getting at higher elevations. I didn't even have a hike planned when I hit the road in the morning. Figure out when I get to the notch, I reasoned.

No surprise the cloud deck was low. What did surprise me is no visible snow to the cloud deck, at around 3000ft. Wow, many miles south, the snow line was down to about 1500ft. I assumed Franconia Notch would be winter wonderland. Oh well, that just meant the hiking would start out easier.

I decided to hike up to Mt Lafayette, the highest peak this side of the White Mountains at 5260ft, via the Skookumchuck Trail, one I've never hiked. An out and back would net only 9.4mi, which was fine, as I'm nursing a foot injury. Not sure what is going on, acts like extensor tendinitis, maybe caused by the La Sportiva Ultra Raptor trail runners I've been hiking in lately. The lacing comes down very hard over top of foot close to joint. I've noticed pain after some hikes, but now it seems cumulative. I tried double tying them today, lower loops tied snug in a knot, upper part where sensitivity is loosely. Hope it is not a stress fracture. Pain has some characteristics of that too. I see doc for full physical next month. If it persists, I'll ask for an xray.

Starting out on Skookumchuck at 1900ft. Very deceptive of what's to come!

At 3900ft, started getting knee deep drifts not very well packed.

I headed up Skookmchuck in my Ultra Raptors. It was pretty mild in the notch, but I also threw my winter hiking boots in the backpack. I started seeing snow around 3000ft. There was a lot of snow melt going on, Keeping feet dry was a challenge. Around 4000ft, I started getting knee deep post-holed snowdrifts. There had been only 4-6 people up this trail since it snowed, not a popular trail. It was still above freezing and the snow was slushy.

Looking out onto the open tundra at tree line

As I approached treeline, the weather changed dramatically. Where did that wind come from?! There was no way I was going above treeline in water logged trail runners. Dry socks and boots went on. Gortex shell, lobster mits, heavy hat all went on. Out on the rocks I headed. The wind nearly knocked me on my ass. Everything was conformally coated with ice! Back down to the shelter of scrub brush. The microspikes went on too.

Another thing I noticed is all but two sets of tracks continued. That meant the other 2-4 people had turned around at this point, probably yesterday. I hadn't seen a soul since leaving my car.

The open ridge was a tad scary. The wind was constantly knocking me off balance. Visibility was about 50ft. The minuscule cairns on this side of the Mt Lafayette were very hard to spot. With drifted snow filling any hint of a trail in spots, navigation was tricky. Just go up, right? You can always tell when you are going up because you breath harder than when you are going down. Every direction looked the same otherwise. Easy to see how many people have died on this ridge over the years. And no, I didn't have a GPS track to guide me either, since I left home not knowing where I was going to hike yet. My GPS does provides compass info though.

My whole body quickly became encrusted in rime ice. I had to remove my glasses because they would instantly ice over after wiping them. There was so much moisture in that air, almost drizzly, yet it would freeze on contact. I had ice hanging from my eye brows in no time. The absolute temperature wasn't that cold, probably in the mid-20's, but it was the combination of super-saturated air and wind that made it feel so raw.

I hadn't approach Lafayette from this side before. Not being able to see more than 50ft ahead meant I would be frustrated going over about five false summits. Every time I crested, thinking surely this is the top now, I started going down again. Finally I see the sign I recognize and knew there would be no more false summits. Two other guys crested at that same time. We were the only three up there, taking shelter in a nook on the east side of the summit.

Mt Lafayette summit, wind inflating my pants and GTX shell

I didn't particularly relish the thought of going back down the rutted post-holy way I came up, and loops are always more fun anyway, right? The two guys I met at the summit said a lot of traffic had been up Greenleaf Trail. I've hiked that several times, so I decided to take it back down, which also meant I'd have 3mi of paved bike path to walk back to my car.

Looking up Greenleaf Trail just after passing two hikers heading up.
It all looks the same up here, no landmarks to follow, just an occasional cairn if you're lucky.

Looking into Franconia Notch from Eagle Pass right at cloud deck at 3000ft

Tree literally growing right out of slab of rock

I left the microspikes on all the way to below 3000ft. That was a pretty slick, sloppy descent and the spikes helped control the sliding.  The trail runners also went back on at Eagle Pass.

Overall a great hike. The mild temps over the previous 24hrs brought down all the snow in the trees, so it wasn't quite the winter wonderland experience I expected. 9700ft of climbing for the weekend, much of it on snow. I strive for 10,000ft per weekend. Sometimes that is tough to do on my working Friday weekends, but much easier to attain on my off-Friday weekends. It's not even November yet and it is starting to look a lot like winter.

Putting the Sofa back into Bike

Been a while since I posted a dedicated Hill Junkie post. You can blame Facebook for that.

I bought my Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc over three years ago.  Since then, I've put over 9000 miles on it. Best bike I've ever owned by far. The LTc stands for Long-Travel Carbon. I often affectionately refer to it as my "sofa bike," because it rides so plush. Like riding your sofa through the woods. Ironically, bikes with this geometry and travel sold today are referred to as cross-country bikes, really an obsolete relic term from the heyday of cross-country racing 15-20yrs ago. Current generation bikes have an even more slack head angle now and can accommodate bigger "plus" size tires. I like to climb and I just don't see how a more speed/downhill oriented rig will be a net gain for me. I'll keep my Tallboy, thank-you.

Everything on the Tallboy has held up amazingly well. It has traveled with me to many states out west. I only recently replaced the suspension pivot bearings. The grease fittings below and adjustable angular contact bearings keep the main pivots working smoothly with no play for multiple seasons of heavy use. Even more amazing is the air seals in both the fork and shock have held up flawlessly for over 9000 miles. Air sprung forks have progressed mightily from the early Rockshox SID fork days. You were lucky to get a season out of those, and they developed bushing play almost immediately.

I'm a big fan of Fox suspension products. When I built up the Tallboy, the cheapest 140mm Fox product I could put on it was over $1000. That crossed the threshold of more than I wanted to spend. So I went with a Rockshox Revelation for $200 less. I was skeptical at the time, not having best of luck with Rockshox products. The Revelation fork has proven it's value now.

After 9000 miles, some of the surface treatment on the left stanchion started wearing off. The roughness allowed fork oil to leak by the seals.  That was just a nuisance. More notably, the fork started getting "sticky." It was loosing its small bump response as the stanchion shaft got rougher. It was getting so bad recently that it was almost like riding rigid on chunder. I wanted my sofa bike back!

Gray area where slippery gold anodized finish has worn off. Made for very abrasive surface on internal bushings and let oil get past seal. Internal air chamber held air impeccably though, going sometimes months without adding air. The lower shown here does have some shipping damage from  rubbing against metal brace inside bike box numerous times it was shipped. Probably cosmetic, but seems odd that only this stanchion has wear and other side has zero wear.

I capitulated and finally ordered a new fork. The Fox's were still ridiculously expensive. I found Jenson had the 2016 Revelation model on closeout for $560.  That sounded like a deal for another 9000 miles.

The new Revelation fork in stealth black

It took little over an hour to swap the fork out, most of the time spent removing the crown race. What a PIA.  Got out for a lunch romp today. Wow, the old fork must have slowly degraded over a long period. I had my sofa bike back! So plush up front. I didn't even have to adjust the air pressure. What I got from the factory was perfect for me.

Eventually I'll have to replace the bike. I'll have to see where Santa Cruz's Tallboy sits with geometry and wheel size choices when that day comes. Don't want to go slacker, and certainly want to keep 29" wheels as an option.

Haflin Downhill. Final ColoRADo day. Boo.

[Final catch-up post from September Colorado trip. Previously posted on Facebook September 17. An awesome trip, first week pure bluebird weather. Hit many favorite rides, many new areas, and brought hiking-only days into the trip, a first on a Colorado trip.]

Decided to keep it simple with bike disassembly, drop-off, and 6hr drive to Denver later in day. Did loop from hotel I was always curious about, the Haflin Trail from Missionary Ridge.

It starts out with a brute of a climb, some 3300ft net gain, mostly on gravel and jeep roads. The whole area burned many years ago. Pretty much all burned trees have fallen now, so the trail is more easily kept clear. This was not so several years ago.

Haflin Trail looses about 3000ft vertical in four miles, and part of it is a level traverse. So that average grade while going down... yeah, it's nuts. I found the trail to be in surprisingly good shape considering most of the vertical can be shuttled, drawing the downhill type crowd to this one. I did dismount many times though to play it safe, sometimes for insane switchbacks, other times for big rocky drops. There is some exposure too, places where if you slipped over the edge, you'd disappear into the ravine to where nobody would ever find you.

There was some haze in the air today, maybe from a distant fire. Didn't smell it. There were prescribed burns just east of here, but I think all that smoke was going towards Denver. I drove 100 miles through choking smoke later in day.

Anyway, this is a great ride from town, a climbers delight, with great views from Baldy Mountain. The loop went 24mi with 3700ft of climbing.

Can you pick out the houses? 2500ft above town and houses everywhere up here. I would love to have a house on this road. Cathy, well, probably not so much.

View north from Baldy summit

View east from Baldy summit

View west from Baldy summit

Zoom into Durango from Baldy summit. That is Animas City Mtn in the center, the mountain I hiked up from hotel a few nights ago. Hazy.

Pockets of color on Baldy summit

Animas valley looking north, Engineer Mtn center, which I finished a ride over its shoulder earlier in week.

Missionary Ridge trail. Burned many years ago, very few dead trees still standing. Whole trail was like this, thousands of trees had to be cut and moved over the years.

Looking down Missionary Ridge Trail. At least the burn opened up views like this.

On Missionary Ridge

Looking up Missionary Ridge trail

There was lots of thistle up here, probably thriving after the burn. You'd find it in a hurry brushing by it on the trail.

Looking down the drainage Haflin Trail descends

Haflin Trail cuts in and out of many side drainages. This one with bridge that sketched me out.

Looking down Haflin Trail

Color along Haflin Trail

The gorge appeared bottomless here, sometimes with much more exposure than shown here

About 1000ft more drop to go on Haflin Trail, views of Animas Valley opening up

Looking north down the Animas Valley from Haflin Trail

One of the easiest switchbacks on Haflin Trail

Handies Peak via Grouse Gulch (not the short way)

[Previously posted on FB 15-Sept-2016]

Finally the temperamental weather pattern broke and all-day bluebird skies returned to the high country. One of the must-do's on my list was Handies Peak, a 14er in the Handies Wilderness Study Area (essentially wilderness area). Coming from Durango, I could not drive all the way around over Cinnamon Pass to the common trailhead peak baggers use. I had to use Grouse Gulch with lots of bonus vertical. Instead of 5.7 miles and 2500ft, I'd be looking at closer to 10 miles and 4700ft.

Temps were below freezing driving over. I packed essentially winter hiking gear, not knowing what I'd encounter at the summit. The last two miles of the drive, oh boy, did that road suck. Even in a Jeep. Max speed was less than 5mph much of the time.

At the trailhead, there was one other car. An ultra-runner was just coming down, training for the Bear 100 in Utah, a qualifier for the Hardrock 100. We talked a bit, mostly me begging for energy bars, since I completely failed to pack any food for 5hr hike. He had none. Ultra dude. Runs on fat breakdown and plain water. Anyway, he started wicked early and did not summit. Said it was very cold and looked too snowy and icy for the type of shoes he had on. Great. He had trail runners not much different than my Raptors. You cannot see the summit from this trail head. You must first climb Grouse Gulch and cross over a 13,000ft pass into American Basin before you see the summit. American Basin is where most start their hike, at a much higher elevation than where I started.

Elevation clicked by quickly. Very steep persistent grade up Grouse Gulch. Cresting the top, Handies was indeed white capped, but looked to be merely a dusting. The ground was crunchy with frost. Puddles were frozen pretty hard. And the wind was howling. I stayed in shorts, but just barely, as long as I kept moving.

As I merged onto the American Basin Trail, a younger couple from Portland, OR were also heading up. We hiked pretty close to the same pace to the summit. The summit cleared of others before we got there, so it was just the three of us. Another amazing day at 14,000ft. The gal was getting cold, so they headed down. I had a 14er to myself for a while! Second time this trip. If you sat out of the wind, it was tolerable up there, but I could feel myself getting chilled too. The others I saw coming down were in winter gear. Didn't want to put on the next layer of clothes I brought with me, so I headed down. Many other groups were making their way up on my descent.

Not bringing food wasn't too big of a deal. I brought 100oz of Gatorade mix with me, so I kept sucking it down even though I did not need fluids. Peed a lot! Hiking is a much slower burn than riding, so fat breakdown can make up a much larger percentage of calories burned than glycogen.

I got back to the car with 9.9mi, 4700ft in 4.2hrs moving time on the Suunto. I had the entire Grouse Gulch to myself both ways, which was awesome. Not a very frequently used trail. One more activity day left before heading back to NH. Will be a busy day. Hike or bike?

Just starting up Grouse Gulch from the jeep road. The beginnings of the Animas River, an eerie iridescent blue here.

Looking down Grouse Gulch in the morning. Map does not give name for this emerald green lake.

On the pass between Grouse Gulch and American Basin. First look at Handies Peak.

Handies and the top of American Basin

Looking down American Basin

Heading up Handies

Looking down American Basin Tr

On Handies Peak

View west

View north

View east down Grizzly Gulch 

View south

View east(ish)

Zoom of view north. That might be Wetterhorn and Uncomprahgre 14ers left and right of center.

Zoom west. Is that Sneffels in the distance?

Heading down, looking back up at the summit

There was some talus field to cross

Stopped by Sloan Lake on the way down. Very clear, very green. Don't think it is algae. Probably minerals make it that way.

Finally had a marmot pose for me. Normally they would always bolt.

Looking back at Handies Peak after noon, most of the snow now burned off.

In a little cove heading back over to Grouse Gulch, there was no wind and it was so pleasant. Could've taken a nap here.

Pano of Handies

Unnamed pond in Grouse Gulch

Looking back up Grouse Gulch on way back to car

Small falls in Grouse Gulch

My very dirty rental. Rained a lot here in last 24hrs, so road driving in was still very wet.

Some color on County Rt 2 heading back into Silverton