Tag Archives: winter

Okay, so weather is weather is weather and whining about it isn’t going to change anything but…spring seems to think it has arrived here in Summit County, Colorado. Since early February we’ve had only a handful of days that didn’t get above freezing with most of our days hitting 40-50 degrees before noon rolled around. Sounds like spring, right?!

Except it’s March! Spring should NOT be here yet! 

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m loving this weather — it’s fantastic for running on the roads or trails, it’s doing a great job of kicking off my runner tan lines + back country packs are lighter because you need more sunscreen than layers.

What do you do when your immune system gives into a weird bout of the stomach flu and cancels your weekend yurt trip? You watch a lot of movies in the comfort of your own home and reschedule that yurt trip with a hut trip a few weeks later. Or, at least, that’s what I do! I spent this past weekend at Uncle Bud’s Hut doing my best to make up for the weekend my body vetoed in mid-March. Along the way I learned a thing or two about taking the long way and making the most of the situation you’re in…

In preparation for our trek around Torres del Paine in Chile I decided it was necessary for Logan and I to figure out how we deal with stress…you know, in case something goes wrong in a foreign country where neither of us speak the language. Besides, a little misery training always does a person good, right?!

That is how our plan to summit a winter 14er came to be – we were going to put ourselves in a situation that would result in misery for the sole purpose of making sure neither of us got murdered for being annoying, whining or generally unlikable. Looking back I basically created the perfect plan for my own death. Luckily we were able to convince Robb to join us. And by convince I really mean I said “Hey, can we crash at your place Saturday night? Oh, and by the way, you should come hike a mountain with us Sunday!”. What can I say, he’s agreeable like that!

I proudly pack ALL of my weekend adventuring gear and backpacking essentials into a 22L Columbia pack and wrangled tent poles through airport security with big plans for some backcountry backpacking in Oregon with Erin and Weez. After a day of wandering around Portland on my own it was time to explore the great outdoors. On Friday morning I carefully packed up my food and reassessed my layers. The weather was much chilly than forecasted but we had high hopes for rising temps as the world woke up.

By mid morning we’d packed everything into the car and headed southeast toward the Three Fingered Jack trailhead. Our game plan was to spend the next two days/nights backpacking the 20-24ish [depending upon which website you ask] loop around Three Fingered Jack. In our diluted minds we’d spend the days hiking and exploring than camp along the trail with rainy but bearable temperatures that *might* drop below 20 degrees. The closer we got to our destination the more “uh, we might die” talk swirled around the car. The thermometer in the car kept spitting out lower temperatures…by the time we got to the trailhead, at 2pm, it was reading 11 degrees. ELEVEN DEGREES! In the afternoon…on a very sunny day. Oh, and we were surrounded by heaping piles of snow. As in the trailhead was not accessible because it was buried under 2-3 feet of fresh snow. This was not going as planned…

This past weekend I did a little exploring on the west coast. Oregon was one of the many states that I hadn’t been to yet so a few weeks ago I booked a flight, sent Erin an email and made plans to harass the crew at the Columbia HQ. I flew into Portland late on Thursday night and Erin was at the airport waiting for me…and that was only the beginning of a weekend of being spoiled by Erin and Brian!

We arrived at their new home and I was welcomed with the cutest list of things to do around Portland, snacks and car keys. We crashed as soon as we found our pillows then got up early to take on the day! Erin and Brian headed to work like responsible adults and I wandered off to explore Portland! Up first, Multnomah Falls!

Thanks to crazy ice on the roads as I ventured east it took me about 90 minutes to get to the falls. Holy ice! When you’re driving around a new state you learn all sorts of interesting things…like how Oregon doesn’t really do ice removal or provide legitimate pull off areas for truckers to put chains on! The last stretch of interstate was…interesting, to say the least. But once I got to Multnomah Falls…wow!

At first I was going to just take a few photos from the bridge but the sign said it was just a mile to the top…and who doesn’t want to see the top of a waterfall?! Turns out the top of waterfalls are kind of boring. However, the river leading up to the gigantic drop?! Absolutely gorgeous, especially when covered with inches of pristine white snow! Whip cream snow!

I made the trek up to the waterfall overlook, explored the river trail for a bit and then ran down the trail. It felt so good to just run. My Achilles was happy, the air was crisp and the snow was crunchy. I was a freaking pile of smiles when I got back to the car! Up next…lunch with Tori, a tour of the Columbia Headquarters and more Portland exploring with my very own Tori tour guide! We visited Pittock Mansion, nearly died on a black ice parking lot and took a few selfies with all of Portland behind us…then wandered around the trendy part of town and filled ourselves with lattes before parting ways for dinner.

Portland in the afternoon…Portland after dark!

Erin, Brian and I went for “eclectic” and had dinner at Le Bistro Montage, an interesting place “under the bridge” where we got to try alligator! After a stop at Deschutes Brewery we called it a night…far too early to say we experienced the Portland nightlife but we had big plans on Saturday. The “just in case” email I sent out to my mom said we were going to backpack the Three Fingered Jack Loop, a 20-ish mile trek in the Cascade Range between Portland and Bend. That’s not exactly what happened…but we still had an awesome, snowy week! More on that later…

Well, winter finally showed up in Colorado. We had far more weeks of 65+ degree weather than we should in October/November but that all changed yesterday! On Monday I showed up at the office in Fort Collins at 8am…it was 62 degrees and sunny. By 10:15am it was 28 degrees and snowing sideways. Welcome to Colorado where the weather cannot make up it’s mind!

After a long week with many, many moments of “gah, I wish I could just turn the internet off” I spent my weekend doing exactly that. Sure, I had my phone on me and yea, I double tapped posts on Instagram but in the grand scheme of things…the internet did not matter!

It started with a friendly meet up with Chris and Marissa in Boulder. It was a freaking gorgeous day with bluebird skies and temperatures that should have left us in September. We spent some quality time frolicking around trails and making fools of ourselves before we decided we’d earned our weight in fries + beer. I guess the internet isn’t all bad if it gets you friends like these crazies…

The backcountry is an interesting place. If you take a second to think about it you realize that a lot of the things about the backcountry are really quite miserable. What part of skinning uphill for miles with a 40lb pack sounds fun? None of it! It doesn’t matter how beautiful the scenery is…that kind of hiking hurts, a lot.

And somehow I am still always jumping at the opportunity to spend hours trudging through the snow. Why?!