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Boulder and Larimer County Exploring
January 3-5, 2013
Wanting to break my fast of about a month of being lazy and doing nothing, I decided to do some exploring that I had been thinking about for awihle. On Thursday, I drove down to Boulder and made a loop through the Flatirons starting at Chautauqua. As I hiked through some seldom-traveled terrain, I saw several herds of turkeys and a flock of deer. Scrambling up the descent routes on several formations proved fairly "exciting" with wet boots and snow covering the slabs.
Friday came and Brian and I headed up north to scope out some undocumented peaks in Larimer County. We pulled off of 287 at the closest point to the Steamboat Rock formations. There were not any signs barring entrance, so we quickly made for the peaks. The south formation was climbed via a short 5.0 wall on it's south east side, and the north's summit block gave way on its west side on crumbly 5.2 rock. We were happily surprised to discover to find a natural arch on the north summit block that was engraved with numerous names and initials. Many of the engravings were dated back into the mid-1800s and it was exciting to see such old markings. We then drove toward the Red Feather Lakes area to scope out the imposing 8100. We drove to the base, snapped some photos, scrambled the nearby 7940 and headed home.
Pete and I had planned on North Star for Saturday, but I had tweaked my hip the day before and didn't want to deal with the wind, so we decided to visit the Flatirons. Little did Pete know, but this ended up being much worse than North Star would have been. The cold temps at 8am helped us decide to scramble the small Crown and Alamo Rocks off of Flagstaff Road and we also tromped up Flagstaff Mountain. These small diversions were exactly what we needed, and the sun was doing its work and warming us up. We then parked at Chautauqua and made for Wood's Quarry, chatting about classic and obscure Flatiron routes. The steep slopes heated us up and we soon scrambled up to Royal Arch's lofty summit. Back to work, we grabbed our gear and left the cozy trail and made directly into the snowy jaws of Tangen Tunnel. Slippery slopes of brush, thorns and fallen trees valiantly resisted our ascent and two obstacles forced us to break out the rope. An eternity of this bushwhacking nightmare finally gave way to easier terrain, and the summit of East Green Mountain was a welcome sight. Green Mountain came and went and the trail flew under our feet back to the car. Although one of the worst bushwhacks imaginable, we both laughed it off and decided it was best described as character building. Back to work will be much more bearable now!
Wanting to break my fast of about a month of being lazy and doing nothing, I decided to do some exploring that I had been thinking about for awihle. On Thursday, I drove down to Boulder and made a loop through the Flatirons starting at Chautauqua. As I hiked through some seldom-traveled terrain, I saw several herds of turkeys and a flock of deer. Scrambling up the descent routes on several formations proved fairly "exciting" with wet boots and snow covering the slabs.
Friday came and Brian and I headed up north to scope out some undocumented peaks in Larimer County. We pulled off of 287 at the closest point to the Steamboat Rock formations. There were not any signs barring entrance, so we quickly made for the peaks. The south formation was climbed via a short 5.0 wall on it's south east side, and the north's summit block gave way on its west side on crumbly 5.2 rock. We were happily surprised to discover to find a natural arch on the north summit block that was engraved with numerous names and initials. Many of the engravings were dated back into the mid-1800s and it was exciting to see such old markings. We then drove toward the Red Feather Lakes area to scope out the imposing 8100. We drove to the base, snapped some photos, scrambled the nearby 7940 and headed home.
Pete and I had planned on North Star for Saturday, but I had tweaked my hip the day before and didn't want to deal with the wind, so we decided to visit the Flatirons. Little did Pete know, but this ended up being much worse than North Star would have been. The cold temps at 8am helped us decide to scramble the small Crown and Alamo Rocks off of Flagstaff Road and we also tromped up Flagstaff Mountain. These small diversions were exactly what we needed, and the sun was doing its work and warming us up. We then parked at Chautauqua and made for Wood's Quarry, chatting about classic and obscure Flatiron routes. The steep slopes heated us up and we soon scrambled up to Royal Arch's lofty summit. Back to work, we grabbed our gear and left the cozy trail and made directly into the snowy jaws of Tangen Tunnel. Slippery slopes of brush, thorns and fallen trees valiantly resisted our ascent and two obstacles forced us to break out the rope. An eternity of this bushwhacking nightmare finally gave way to easier terrain, and the summit of East Green Mountain was a welcome sight. Green Mountain came and went and the trail flew under our feet back to the car. Although one of the worst bushwhacks imaginable, we both laughed it off and decided it was best described as character building. Back to work will be much more bearable now!
