Bowen-Baker Loop in Never Summer Wilderness

If you like rugged, remote, low-crowd loop trail runs with mileage above treeline as well as runnable alpine single track in the lush pine forest, then the Bowen Gulch - Baker Gulch loop is for you. There were exactly 0 people on this loop when I did it in mid-October. Amazing.

From where we camped, this is a 21 mile route with 5,600' of vertical gain, ranging from 8,800' - 12,100' above sea level. The trail is entirely single track that ranges from buttery smooth, rolling terrain to loose, steep, washed out dry creek bed.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/415902677

Cody, our Australian Shepherd, and I ran this loop in mid-October and had a blast. The family drove up from Golden, CO on Friday night, took I-70 to the CO-40 exit, over Berthoud Pass, through Winter Park and Granby, up CO-125, and down CO-21A until you get near the Never Summer trailhead. The trip took about 3hr 15min to get to the campsite.

We saw three trucks with people near the trailhead, all of whom had hunter blaze orange on. This was October and the hunting season was in full force. Be aware and visible. 

Running up the dirt road for .25mi, we found the #1141 Never Summer trailhead on the left side of the road and we started up. This is fairly runnable grade, narrow single track with rocks and roots but no big jumpy moves all the way up from 9,900' to the top of Fairview Mountain at 12,140'. Around 11,400' you'll see a junction to Jack Park Trail on the left. Continue right up the steeper trail to stay on trail #1141. At 11,800' there is an unmarked trail junction. Take the trail on the left to go up to Fairview Mountain. If you go straight, you'll be on Bowen Pass Trail. 

At the top of Fairview Mtn. there's an amazing view on both sides. Enjoy. Most of the Bowen-Baker loop is below treeline, so take some pics. The trail down to Parika Lake is loose gravel but lots of fun to bomb down. Continue down the trail from Parika Lake on fairly steep, technical rock trail with switchbacks and creek crossings. You won't make up a ton of time on this downhill because of its difficulty.

At a creek crossing at mile 6.5, you'll see the Baker Pass Trail on the left. Don't take this unless you want to add miles to your loop. Keep right and keep going downhill. From the top of Fairview Mtn. down to the Bowen-Baker Trailhead it's 6 miles of non-stop downhill with lots of creek crossings. I drank the water untreated and didn't get sick. YMMV.

Just before you arrive at the main Bowen-Baker trailhead near CO-34 Trail Ridge road (my mile 10), you'll get to the registration box for hunters and backcountry overnight hikers. Run past this through open forest on a crushed gravel trail, and then at a small parking lot, take a hard right and go through the gate to get on some smooth rolling trail. Follow the trail signs to the right on some gentle uphill single track for ~3 miles up to the trail junction that leads to Trail Ridge Road (left) or Bowen Pass Trail (right). Take a right to stay on trail 119 Bowen Pass Trail. This trail is very smooth and runnable for 3 miles, so take advantage. Once you get to 9,800' it's much rockier and steeper.

There is not much water for the next 4 miles from the previous junction, until you cross the creek and head toward the Blue Lake trail turnoff, so take advantage when you can. Continue on Bowen Pass for another 2 miles until you see the Bowen Lake trail junction on your left. Stay right on the Bowen Pass Trail. The next 2 miles is rocky and steep up to treeline and the open basin near Ruby Lake. We heard elk calling to each other in this basin with incredible views of Cascade Mtn. to lookers left, Ruby Mtn. next to it, Bowen Pass Straight ahead, and Bowen Mtn. on lookers right.

Climb up 400 feet of vertical from 11,000' to the top of Bowen Pass. At the top of the pass is a junction. On your left is the Cascade trail, part of the CDT. Continue straight on Bowen Pass Trail down the other side of the pass. In about .2 miles you'll reach the junction to the Ruby Mountain trail on the left, which says it's part of the CDT. This trail will take you the long way down to western-most Illinois River trailhead. Stay straight to drop back down onto trail #1141 to get back to your start. It's about 3 miles of single track downhill with views for days. Trail #1141 exits onto the dirt road and back down to wherever you decided to camp off the road.

You made it!

Anna Karenina Principle for 100 Milers

The Anna Karenina principle describes an endeavor in which a deficiency in any one of a number of factors dooms it to failure.

The Anna Karenina principle for running 100 milers:
100 Mile Finishers are all alike; every DNF is different in its own way.

6 reasons why runners (including myself) fail at 100s:

1. Nutrition - You need to eat (and keep down) enough calories, water, and salt to make it through 100 miles of running. That's ~200-300 calories per hour. It’s an all-day eating contest.
2. Pacing - You need to be able to sustain an effort that can last 100 miles while ingesting enough calories. Are you going out too fast? Yep!
3. Training - You need to put in enough miles/hours to be physically/mentally prepared to run 100 miles. But not so many miles that you burn yourself out in training. Everyone is different.
4. Equipment - You need to have protection against the extreme elements: cold, heat, rain, snow, lightning, hail, etc. Did you bring protection with you and make it available to you at key points in the race?
5. Injury - You need to stay safe in training and during the race. You've already won most of the battle if you get to the starting line healthy. 
6. Will to Finish - You need to want it badly enough to endure the very lowest points during the race. How much do you want it?

A successful endeavor (subject to this principle) is one where every possible deficiency has been avoided.

The name of the principle derives from Leo Tolstoy's book Anna Karenina, which begins:
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

When Skiing with the Pups Goes Wrong

You never know where or when your pup will suffer an injury. But when you’re in the backcountry, it’s almost certain to happen at a less-than-ideal time. That’s what happened to Dante, our 5 month old puppy, when we were skiing at Berthoud Pass in Colorado on New Year’s Day. We made mistakes that day, but here’s what happened and what we learned in order to be prepared going forward.

Dante’s leg was cut by our skis when we were skiing down the slope to our car. We were heading there to put him in the car because he was tired, but on the way down our skis knicked his back paw, right where he has an artery near the surface of his skin. Although the cut was not big and not even that deep -- it did minimal tissue damage -- the blood vessel was penetrated, and blood started pouring onto the snow, flowing heavily.

We quickly wrapped a neck gaiter around the wound but it was flowing through that, and he was squirming so we didn’t get a tight wrap around the cut. We then tied the sleeve of my down jacket around the cut to put pressure on it. This was not effective either, so I squeezed his leg tightly as I skied him down to the car. Blood was pouring through my clenched fingers.

A Colorado State Patrol vehicle happened to be in the parking lot, so I waved the Officer down and asked him for help. A man also came over and asked if he could help. These two people were crucial in saving Dante’s life. The Officer calmly made a tourniquet out of gauze while the man applied a bandage and used his kid’s scarf to wrap around Dante’s leg. Alaina held Dante still, and I looked for our medical kit, which was buried somewhere in the emergency bin in the back of our 4Runner. I couldn’t find it, so I was directed to get towels from the Officer's vehicle.

Once Dante’s bleeding had been stabilized and it wasn’t pouring through the make-shift bandages, the Officer called in on his radio to find out where the nearest animal hospital is, since we have no cell service on Berthoud Pass. The hospital is in Fraser, about 16 miles down the pass, away from Denver. This was good news since the road into Denver was bumper to bumper traffic. Alaina held Dante’s sleeping body with his injured leg elevated and compressed in her arm. We drove until we had cell service and called the hospital. The recording said they were closed for New Year’s Day and to call the Emergency Vet number. We had to re-play this message several times trying to memorize the number.

We called the Emergency Vet who said she was in Grand Lake, about 40 minutes away. The road was dry and traffic light, so we made it quickly to the Vet’s house. She was in the process of setting up her mobile vet clinic but it wasn’t ready yet, so we put Dante on the floor near the kitchen. The Vet quickly and calmly assessed the wound, informing us of the extent of the injury. She decided to put him under anesthesia since he needed internal stitches for the artery and external stitches for his skin. She performed the surgery and bandaged and cleaned him since he had a lot of dried blood on him and then brought him out of anesthesia.

Everything went well. We thanked the vet many times, paid for the surgery, and drove back home. The wound would need to be in bandages for 10-14 days until the stitches were no longer needed, and the internal stitches would dissolve on their own. Dante slept the whole way back.

We felt relieved but also extremely lucky. Overall, we caught a lot of breaks and Dante will be fine, but it certainly could have gone so much worse. We might have cut him on a different trail and needed to skin back uphill to the car. He would have bled a lot more because we didn’t have an emergency kit on us, and I would’ve been carrying him so it would’ve been slow. There might not have been a highly-trained professional or extremely generous volunteer in the parking lot. But there were, and we have called and thanked the Officer. We don’t know who the volunteer was, but many many thanks to him.

What we learned:

1. Skiing with dogs is dangerous. We knew this but didn’t realize how quickly the injury could become life threatening. If we choose to ski with our dogs again, we would be far more cautious. Right now we have no immediate plans of skiing with the dogs again.
2. Always travel with an emergency medical kit. Better yet, one in each of our avy bags. In the backcountry, we are the only aid we can count on. We were VERY lucky to have the parking lot nearby, and even luckier to have an officer and a volunteer willing to help there. We should know what’s in our kit and how to use it. When blood is flowing, it’s not a good time to learn.
3. Hospital contact numbers and locations. Before we go, research the nearest 24-hour Emergency Vets and Hospitals (animal + human) and have their phone numbers in our contacts list. Some animal hospitals are not open on the weekends or holidays. You can never count on cell service in the mountains.
4. Always have boots on the dogs. It may not have prevented this particular cut, but since nearly all cuts happen on their lower legs/paws, even just a thin barrier would help.
5. A very serious cut like this can happen at anytime. We are almost always a 1+ hour drive away from a hospital -- human or animal.  Even when out running, a stick or barbed wire to the wrong part of the body can turn deadly if we can’t stop the bleeding. A small first aid kit should always be on us if we are more than an hour away from a hospital, even on ‘short’ runs.

Emergency Medical Kit Supply Basics:

• Antiseptic wipes (BZK-based wipes preferred; alcohol-based OK)
• Antibacterial ointment (e.g., bacitracin)
• Compound tincture of benzoin (bandage adhesive)
• Assorted adhesive bandages (fabric preferred)
• Butterfly bandages / adhesive wound-closure strips
• Gauze pads (various sizes)
• Nonstick sterile pads
• Medical adhesive tape (10 yd. roll, min. 1" width)
• Blister treatment
• Ibuprofen / other pain-relief medication
• Insect sting relief treatment
• Antihistamine to treat allergic reactions
• Splinter (fine-point) tweezers
• Safety pins
• First-aid manual or information cards

Extra Trauma-specific Supplies

• More Gauze wrap
• Sterile towels for compression
• Quickclot
• An easy to access Trauma kit (specific to bleeding) (like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DPVERM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1) it’s all in one so you don’t have to open multiple packages.
• Tourniquet
• Wound stapler (for extreme backcountry)

Dog Specific

• Milk of magnesia (help with poisoning)
• Hydrogen peroxide (induce vomiting)
• Thermometer- (sometimes the only way to check a dog)
• Muzzle

• Another resource: http://www.gundogsupply.com/ready-dog-gun-dog-first-aid-kit.html

Commands that must be 100% proofed:

• Stay (must be able to resist the urge to chase a moving skier and called to from a distance. Ugh)

• Heel (either near or behind you)

• Come

• On by (go past something/ignore it)

• Side of the trail command (get off the trail, stay to the side)