WEEK 2: Summit County, Colorado Trail and humbling bails.

I turned around twice this week and I'm not too mad about it.

Getting deep in the wilderness on solo adventures can be unnerving. Luckily for a solo traveler in the Summit County area (Denver West?), you can get deep in the backcountry but know that rescue isn't far. This doesn't give you a license to make irrational decisions though. The devil/angel on my shoulders have been pretty chatty this week as I pushed further into the middle of nowhere.

A beautiful singeltrack ribbon but do not snap an ankle here.

For me, one of the most interesting tools for avalanche safety is arming your brain to understand the "heuristic traps" and psychology that lead to poor decision making. I try to apply these to dirt adventures too. Specifically, the escalation of commitment. It's the "We've come this far" fallacy...The snowpack doesn't care if you hiked 5 hours or spent $1,000 on a heli ride to come ski a slope. If it seems like a dangerous slope, it will be there tomorrow. Turn around and live to ski another day.

OF NOTE: I've run into a lot of interesting folks on the trail and want to capture their pearls of wisdom in these day summaries too.

COLORADO TRAIL: Georgia Pass Segment

The Colorado Trail is a 567 high elevation backcountry trail that goes from Denver to Durango. It's popular for thru-hikers, backpackers and mountain bikers. The trail is raw, remote, steep and offers incredible alpine views.

Some bikers want to "bikepack" the whole trail in a two week stretch. I figured I'd most enjoy the CT in single day segment loops. This lets you the ride the trail in the most fun direction on a lighter bike setup.

The Georgia Pass Segment can be accessed pretty easy from Breckenridge, but involves some nasty "hike-a-bike" up a janky jeep road, like many sections of the CT. Once up top, you reach the continental divide.

If nature calls you have a choice which ocean it may drain to.

This segment serves as both the Colorado Trail and Continental Divide Trail.

Mount Guyot looming large.

The good dudes and dudettes at Wilderness Sports in Dillon gave me the tip on which direction to ride this segment. The descent starts out on smooth roller singletrack in alpine meadows and ends on about 1,500 feet of old school rocky fun. No pictures from this section, I wasn't about to break up the fun.

MOHAWK LAKES & CRYSTAL PEAK (bail!)

I woke up with another itch to get into the alpine via foot and maybe try to bag a peak. I'm not too focused on the Colorado 14ers (14,000 foot peaks) that draw big crowds. I'll knock a few out to say I did so. Really, I'm more after the alpine lakes, cirques, peaks and killer views regardless of elevation.

The Mohawk Lakes hike is a super popular hike close to Breckenridge for good reason. Most hikers go to what is called the"Upper Lake" and turn around. Ironically, there are 3 more alpine lakes if you hike to the upper reaches of the basin. Also at the upper reaches of the basin was my objective for the day, Crystal Peak.

"Upper" Mohawk Lake on a quiet weekday.

Knowing I had a hell of a lot more trekking to do I didn't spend much time at the lake. I carried on and soon passed 3 overnight backpackers and their wolf looking dogs heading down trail. From there I had the entire drainage to myself for the next 5 hours and pretty much walked around in awe snapping pics and delaying the inevitable "should I summit" question in the back of my head.

Mountain goat warming up on his rock slab.

The upper upper upper Mohawk Lake for a lunch stop.

Crystal Peak right, Pacific Peak left.

Scrambling up to the saddle between Crystal and Pacific, looking at Pacific.

After two stops thinking "maaaaybbbbe it's time to head back down" I kept on pushing to the headwall of the drainage. From here, it was decision time. A 40-45 degree slope filled with loose scree and intermittent solid rock. I was 600 vertical feet below Crystal. I am reasonably comfortable scrambling up a Class 3 slope, but being solo and remote the voices started chirping at me. I scrambled for about 20 minutes, took a peek further up the slope and called it off. A fall or rockfall here and I could be alone for hours or days.

Bailed at the (!)

I was so content with this outing, it was a pretty easy decision to listen to the voices and head down to hike another day. So, down I went. And quickly smoked my patella on a rock.

What the hell, karma? Rewarded with a bummed knee? I limped the 3 miles back to the truck.

MAYFLOWER GULCH

I tried to pedal this AM and it wasn't even close to happening with the knee. Significant pain. So, I drove up a new to me stretch of highway past Copper Mountain to find a place to chill in the shade for the day. I stumbled on the Mayflower Gulch trailhead.

I'm not very good at taking rest days, or generally "doing nothing". Chloe always says "the husky needs a run". Pretty true.

I got a glimpse from the trailhead up the drainage and couldn't resist. Short hike and nice views sounded like good rest day.

Snuck a peek of the ridgeline.

After a mile you pop out of the trees and BOOM!

Colorado is riddled with mining history and Mayflower Gulch had no shortage of evidence. Miners have to be quite possibly the hardiest SOB's to ever exist. Living at 11,000 feet in alpine terrain, climbing 2000 vertical feet to access a mine shaft, and waking up to do it all over again. Their hardiness was motivation to get over a little bit of knee pain and suck it up and keep hiking.

A whole mining camp was setup in the meadow.

Upper reaches of Mayflower Gulch but these are not Mayflowers.

The backcountry skier mind-shredding took over fast once I got up high. There's a line, there's a line, oooooo look at that line. Dear god this place is magnificent for skiing!

Rest day adventure complete, I headed back down to for some libation therapy.

3/4 Porter and 1/4 Cold Brew is 100% heaven. Mosquito?

COLORADO TRAIL: Copper to Searle Pass Segment (Camp Hale bail)

"You're making the right call man" - Overnight local backpacker

I'd heard the Camp Hale descent section of the CT was not to be missed. The only problem is you need a shuttle or to be capable of the epic of most epic big days on a bike (40+ miles and 6,000 vertical feet).

So, I started pedaling from Copper with an open mind and loose goal of getting to Searle Pass, where the Camp Hale descent starts.

Searle Pass, looking back at Mayflower Gulch from yesterday.

Marmot in his natural environment, what a life.

Sampling some fine Colorado Trail hike-a-bike.

After about 2 hours and 2700 feet of steep granny gear grindin'... yet again, decision time. I'd made to Searle Pass and the point of commitment and was noodling over the idea of descending Camp Hale and committing to the "epic" for 15 minutes. Voices again.

Inner Dialogue: I've got 1.5L of water and 400 calories. I've heard its a brutal climb back to Copper. I'm feeling decent on energy though. Ugh, I really need a riding buddy out here. Man those clouds looks fishy and it's getting late. All else fails I can hitchhike back?

Luckily, a Breck local on a 2 day thru hike passed by and we had a chat. I told him my dilemma and that I was leaning towards heading back. Confidently he replies"You're making the right call man". That was all I needed, so I pointed it back towards Copper.

And like clockwork after making the "right call" again some garbage karma! A snakebite flat tire and a malfunctioning CO2 inflator. I was pretty much stuck with a tire at 10 psi and valuable lesson to always pack the manual hand pump. I shoved the hole full of tire plugs and limped down the trail sulking about my luck. I came across a Frenchman starting a bikepacking trip on the CT and he lent me his hand pump. I thought Frenchies were all assholes? Sweet! I was able to rail the descent back to my truck and sneak a few smiles in.

COLORADO TRAIL: Miner's Creek

"What else could I possibly ask for in life, my health and these views are all I need" - Danny, German CDT thru-hiker

The guys at Wilderness Sports I chatted with multiple times talked up the CT Miner's Creek epic loop big time. Apparently it was one hell of push to get there, but once you do...oh buddy that downhill!

In the Wasatch I'm usually using a smaller "fanny pack" on most rides to reduce weight. The remoteness and huge days on the CT had put me in my place and I'm packing more fearfully and responsibly now. I loaded up 4L of water, 1000 calories, and just about every damn bike tool I owned.

The Peak 9 fire road at Breck seems like a bit of a rite of passage for any biker in the area. It's typical of the high price of entry of the Colorado Trail I'm coming to discover.

Peak 9 road climb: 2,800 feet of torture.

These 3 were enjoying some Colorado bud on their way to ski a Ribbon of snow. The driver, "Skidmark", wants me to tell his old roommate who bartends at the Enterprise in Rico he says hello.

At the top of the nasty fire road climb you can connect with the Wheeler Trail to traverse an alpine bowl and gain the ridgeline of the Ten Mile Range. It was nice to finally see some singletrack.

Biking through alpine ski terrain.

This ride was a 4,500 ft total climb but about 1/3 hike-a-bike. Start pushing.

On the Miner's Creek section of CT with I-70 below.

I got to the top of Miner's Creek trail and took in the views for a while knowing full well things were about to get rowdy. Then I ran into Danny, an inspirational thru-hiker halfway through the CDT. He was ahead of schedule and "bagging 14ers along the way", because why not? Danny was a carefree and calm spirit. Seems the wilderness can do that to a person. We chatted about his future plans. He still had plenty of savings and was only burning about $700 a month. He'd been traveling for 2 years. What's next? Maybe the Pacific Crest Trail. Or Appalachian Trail. Not sure. But work wasn't on the agenda. "What else could I possibly ask for in life, my health and these views are all I need". He didn't let me downplay the fact that I was on a similar journey of my own. But I felt like a rookie compared to him.

Danny, consider me inspired.

I strapped on the knee pads and started the 3,000 foot descent all the way back to Lake Dillon in town.

One last mechanical for good measure.

The descent down Miner's Creek really was a must-do in the Breck zone. I was so full and content on good views, good people and good trails I was pretty unbothered by the pedal mishap.

Wrapping up my time in (Denver West) I was pretty surprised how easy it was to get away from the crowds and seek adventure. I understand why that I-70 powder frenzy traffic is notorious now. The front range and Summit county is a great place to adventure.

Time to keep pushing further south into small town CO though.

Last night in Summit County soaking in some Dillon views.