Trail Review: Backcountry skiing at Arapahoe Lakes, East Portal Trailhead

Ryan and I are on a quest to find the best spots to backcountry ski when the avalanche danger is high and we don't want to get stuck on I-70.

Here is the video version of skiing at Arapahoe Lakes:



This past weekend we explored an area outside of Rollinsville, near Nederland, CO. The drive from Golden is easy since the unpaved road to the trailhead is actually plowed. We parked at the East Portal Trailhead, near Moffat tunnel. By the time we arrived at 10:30am on a Sunday, the parking lot was full! That being said, we saw very few people while out skiing since there are a lot of trails to explore.

The parking lot cleared out by the time we left

On our previous excursion to this area, we stuck to the South Boulder Creek trail. To get to Arapahoe Lakes, we started out on the South Boulder Creek Trail, but at ~1.2 miles, we turned right at the trail sign to go on the Forest Lakes Trail. At around 2.8 miles, we came to an open meadow (?) area. There were some skin tracks that went up to the right, so we first tried that path.

Choosing our path

The forest was a bit dense, so we weren't too keen on coming down through that area, so after about 200 feet of climbing, we turned around. We then took the more well used skin tracks to our left and climbed up through the some well spaced trees. This was definitely the way to go. The grade was mild, the trees weren't too dense, and it didn't look like there were any areas that could trigger an avalanche.

Skinning up!

We climbed about 500 feet to a little bit of a clearing area, where we could actually see the mountains. There were some awesome bowls and peaks above us, but we could see a few natural slide areas, so we didn't want to risk going any higher.

Cody wants to keep exploring

Maybe some day we will ski there

With our slight detour, the total ascent was 3.6 miles to this point. Skiing down through the trees was a blast- the 12" of fresh powder felt amazing, the grades were nice and mellow and the trees were well spaced.

The view near tree line where we took off our skins

Perfect day

I highly recommend this area if you are looking for a very long, very gradual climb, with little avy danger and great tree skiing. I also can't wait to get back here and check out some of the bigger bowls- you could make a really long run from the very peak all the way back to the car!

Powder!

Family ski day

Cody the ski dog

Perfect lines through the trees

Cody is swimming in powder!

Definitely bring food and water because you can spend a lot of time out there. The ski back down to the car was a lot of fun, but be careful of other people coming up!


Here is the Garmin Data:

Weekly Photos 11/25-12/1

The weather in Colorado was perfect this week- sunny and in the mid 50s. Almost too warm for Cody to run in! She was a trooper though, and her weekly total was 36 miles!

Tuesdays 9 mile Sunset Run

Thursday was Thanksgiving, so to celebrate we went running with all of our friends who stayed in Colorado for the holiday. We had a great 9 mile run at Mt. Falcon. There were so many people out enjoying the day- the parking lot was completely full! I love how active this state is!

Planning our route

Goofballs!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pre-burning our Thanksgiving feast calories

After our 9 mile run, some of the boys decided to run a Vertical Beer Mile! They had to drink a beer at the start, then a beer every .25 mile as they ran up 1,200 feet in a mile. Here is the GoPro video footage:



Silliness!

Our Thanksgiving feast was delicious- lots of food, beer and laughs.

Friday was a recovery day- more from the food than the running. Saturday we decided to go play in the snow, and found an awesome trail off of route 70 that is very easy to get to. The trailhead is Herman Gulch, and it is part of the Continental Divide Trail. We originally intended to snowshoe, but the snow on the trail was really hard packed, so we left the shoes in the car.

Torreys Peak behind us- a 14er we climbed over the summer

The trail was perfect for the day- a nice gradual climb up into a gorgeous snowy bowl. Cody had a blast frolicking in the deep snow, and leading the way.

Come on, slow pokes!

We made it to what appeared to be the end of the trail. We realized we missed a turn, since the trail was through the snow, and probably not the original trail, and ended up making it to Herman Lake. Apparently we are REALLY good at getting lost!!

Cody wants to be a search and rescue Mountain Dog

We tried to blaze our way through the snow, back to where we missed our turn. We wanted to continue on the Continental Divide trail, but at this point, the snow was thigh deep. I guess we should've brought the snowshoes after all!!

Making Fresh Tracks

Here is a quick video I put together of mostly Cody being adorable in the snow:



Sunday was another perfect, warm day. I had a lot of writing to do, so Cody and I didn't make it out to run until sunset. Lucky us!! The sunset was absolutely amazing. When we started our run, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, but just as we were finishing, the sky was on fire.

The clouds just started moving in- the streaks in the sky were so cool!

Dusk over Denver

Hey guys- wanna play?!

More cool clouds moving in

And just like that, the sky was alight:

No filter, no edit- this was the exact lighting outside 

Cody thought the sunset was pretty, too :)

It was another great week! 

Snowshoe Adventure on the South Boulder Creek Trail

Snow came early to the front range this winter, and after our first adventure to Indian Peaks Wilderness, when we unexpectedly played in a lot of snow, we immediately purchased Snowshoes. During our previous life in Michigan, we actually ran in a few snowshoe races, so we knew how to use them at least. I found a great deal on some RedFeather snowshoes at Sierra Trading Post (make sure to find a 30% discount code!!), and it finally snowed enough this last week to venture to the high peaks and try them out.

Here is the video of our Snowshoe adventure:

Trip Details:

With so many trail options, I decided to go with a low avalanche risk area- I didn't want us to get in over our heads! I chose the South Boulder Creek trail to Rogers Pass, in the James Peak Wilderness area, outside of Rollinsville, CO- starting at the East Portal Trailhead. It looked like a challenging hike that could get us above treeline, and hopefully had a lot of snow!

Here is where the East Portal Trailhead is located

Topo map of the trail. We took South Boulder CR Trail, but there are other options as well. 

The drive from Golden was easy, and the gravel road from Rollinsville, CO to the trailhead was plowed and very drivable (compared to the 4th of July trailhead outside of Nederland- that road is basically impassable). As we were headed to the trailhead there didn't seem to be a lot of snow on the ground, and I was nervous that the snowshoes wouldn't be necessary. However, as we pulled into the parking lot, we saw groups of cross country skiers, snowshoers, and alpine touring skiers all headed out- there was definitely enough snow!

Getting our new snowshoes on for the first time was a breeze- so far, so good for our new toys! The trail had at least 4" of snowpack on it as we started out, and luckily for us, plenty of other people had been through, making the trail very obvious. For the first mile, we probably could've gotten away with no snowshoes, but as we slowly climbed in elevation, the snow just kept getting deeper and deeper.

Starting out in nice hard-packed snow

Happy Snow Runners!

After 2 miles, we were in love with the snowshoes- they did exactly what they were supposed to do, and kept us from post-holing, or sinking way down into the snow. We could tell that someone else had attempted to hike this high- there were very deep bootprints, probably up to someone's knee in the snow. Even though she doesn't weigh a lot, Cody was still sinking in a lot of spots.

Running in Snowshoes is fun!

Snow's getting deeper- Cody put on her boots

As we got above treeline, most of the tracks we were following stopped, leaving us with only one other set of ski tracks- and lots of fresh snow. The sky was really dark, and snow started falling while we were up there, but it was just beautiful.

Tree Line

Gorgeous view- you can see it was probably sunny in Denver!

This was the best part of the whole day- plowing through fresh, deep, light, fluffy snow! We had so much fun trying to run, falling a lot, and watching Cody be a goofball.

Breaking trail

Cody had to practically swim through the snow- she was buried up to her chest!

Cody tries to herd Ryan through the deep snow

Look at Cody's face! She follows us so closely that she's constantly covered in snow

After breaking trail for a bit, and enjoying the deep snow, we also realized that we literally know nothing about avalanche safety- so after 4.5 miles we turned around, before we actually got to Rogers Pass, and before the mountainside got too steep.

Can an avalanche come down from there??

Above treeline

This trail was perfect for snowshoeing, cross country skiing and alpine touring. The grade is challenging, but do-able, and the trees weren't too dense for making turns. Bombing down the mountain on our snowshoes was a blast. We can not wait to get our hands on some Alpine Touring skis, so we can get the aerobic workout of going uphill, with the thrill of coming back down! It looks like there's enough snow on the ground for it to work!

At the end of the day, we were very happy with our snowshoe purchase. The snow out here is a lot deeper than anything we've been in Michigan, which makes them a lot more necessary. They also gripped very well on the more groomed trails at the bottom of the mountain, and handled the very few icy spots well. I will do a full write-up on the snowshoes soon!

After a 9 mile snowy run

I also highly recommend the South Boulder Creek trail, heading to Rogers Pass. I can't wait to get up there again and check out some of the other trail options!

Garmin Details:

As you can see- we almost made it to the lake! However, you can also see from the pictures that there wasn't much 'seeing' going on that day. And our feet were cold.