Colorado Running Loops: Indian Peaks Pawnee Buchanan Pass

One running loop that should be on every Colorado trail runners bucket list is the Pawnee- Buchanan loop. The views throughout the run are gorgeous, the trail is technical and challenging, and it is the perfect distance for a great, long training run.

Date Run: July 13th, 2014

The Pawnee-Buchanan loop starts at Brainard Lake recreation area. It is supposed to be 27 miles, but we managed to get a bit lost and our run ended up at 30 miles, with 7,647 feet of climbing. Since it is a loop, it can be run in either direction.

The view down to Lake Isabelle

When Ryan and I ran this loop, we started by climbing up and over Pawnee Pass first, doing the loop in a clockwise direction. However, after completing this loop I would recommend doing Buchanan pass first- so going counter-clockwise. The reason for this is that the backside of Pawnee pass was very technical and steep, and we couldn't run down it- usually we are very strong downhill runners and can make up a lot of time by flying downhill. The terrain didn't allow that, so it took a lot longer to run than we expected. We also got a bit lost going this way, so maybe if we were running the other direction, the trailhead junctions would be more obvious- maybe?

Things to note about this run:

• Remember to bring $10 in cash to park at Brainard Lake Recreation Area (or hitchhike like we did since we never remember cash). If you decide to run the way we did, going over Pawnee first, park at the Mitchell Lake trailhead and head to Long Lake, then follow the signs for Pawnee Pass. 

• A great description of both directions of the loop can be found here (bottom of the page)

• One time consuming part of this run that I didn't know about ahead of time was a very large avalanche debris field that you had to pick your way through. This involved climbing up and over a lot of very large, downed trees. 

• The trail coming down from Buchanan pass was very faint and overgrown, with a lot of bushwhacking. This is also where we got lost- apparently there is a sign for Beaver Creek trail, but we never found it and ended up looping around on some other trail- Red Deer lake- don't go on that one!

• There are plenty of lakes and rivers along the trail, so finding water wasn't an issue. We did use our Sawyer filter, but most of the water was snow run-off. Despite having ran this in mid-July, there was still a lot of snow in sections of Pawnee pass- in fact, the ranger said that we might not make it through the snowfields!

There were a few stream crossings

• Pay close attention to the elevation profile. Even though this run has 2 named passes, I didn't realize that there was one other climb that went up and over 11,000 feet. For us, this was at the end of the run, so it may have been particularly traumatic to me, since we were 4 miles over plan and out of food. And I was very, very tired.

• There were 2 major stream crossings that required getting your socks and shoes completely soaked. I recommend wool socks

• I recommend starting as early as possible. Since there are 2 major mountain passes to climb, one of which inevitably happens towards the end of the run, regardless of direction, afternoon thunderstorms are a major consideration. We hung out around treeline for a while before crossing Buchanan because we weren't entirely sure what the clouds were going to do. We got lucky and there was no rain or lightning, but there was definitely both in the area. Always be prepared with warmer clothes and pay attention to the weather!

With that being said, here are some pictures! Not pictured are the 2 bull moose that we saw- too busy running carefully away to snap a photo!

Lake Isabelle

There was a lot of snow left for Mid-July!

Pawnee Pass- the first major climb is done

The view looking down from Pawnee Pass. Yes, that is the trail.

After going down many switchbacks, we got most of the way down from Pawnee Pass, and here is a view of Pawnee Lake

Technical, steep descent

This is totally staged :)

Gorgeous winding trail through the Indian Peaks wilderness

Pawnee Lake. There were A LOT of flies. 

I guess there's a reason it's called the 'Rocky Mountains'

I wasn't miserable yet

The Avalanche debris field. Nature's amazing power- these were all full grown, normal size trees

In a meadow very similar to this, I thought to myself- wow, if I were a moose, this is where I'd hang out. When I turned my head left, 2 moose were standing 15 feet away, watching me closely. I almost crapped my pants

Trudging up Buchanan Pass, keeping our eye on the skies

Those clouds are totally un-threatening

Looking back from Buchanan pass

This marmot was this close to me. He was so completely unafraid of me, it was bizarre!

Here is our Garmin Data. Note- this was a particularly bad day for me, and we went a lot slower than I had anticipated:

Trip Report: Mt. Missouri

Missouri…misery….sometimes 14ers are hard!

September 28th, 2014

First with the fun stuff. We had an amazing camping spot outside of Leadville, and had a wonderful campfire the night before. Also- Cody loves our new truck!

The last time we attempted this peak was last year, when we got ambitious and wanted to hit 3 peaks in one day- Belford-Oxford-Missouri. However, due to our lack of route finding skills and ability to wake up early, it didn't pan out and Missouri was ditched. At the beginning of our hike, it seemed like Missouri might again allude us. As we flew down Winfield road to the trailhead in the 4runner, the skies above got darker and more foreboding- which rarely happens at 9:00am! However, as we pulled into the Missouri Gulch parking lot, it still wasn't raining, and none of the clouds had that 'thundery' look, so we decided to continue onwards and upwards- saying aloud to each other that it was OK to bail.

The beginning of this hike was familiar, going up a nice switchback alongside a creek/gulch for the first few miles. There were only a few junctures- the first turn at the 'Elkhead Pass' sign to go right (going left leads to Belford/Oxford) -- NOTE- this sign does NOT say Missouri on it -- then a second right hand turn that does say Missouri (to the left is Elkhead pass). So that's 2 rights. We didn't screw that up- yeah us!

As we hit treeline, we hunkered down on some rocks for a bit to watch the skies, and decide if it was worth continuing on. There were a few rain/hail/snow droplets coming out of the clouds, but nothing too terrible, and there was still no sign of thunder or lightning. After watching the skies get dark, then clear up within minutes a few times over, we decided to continue on.

Observing Ryan, observing the skies

Clouds forming and clearing above our heads

I hadn't read the guide book prior to this hike, so I didn't really know what to expect. I remembered reading a while back that this one was trickier than it seemed- with the words 'exposed ridge line' possibly bouncing around in my head….well, good thing the weather was great?! er…

See- the weather was nice for a bit!

After climbing for a while, and getting all the way up to 13,700 feet, it seemed like the peak was just within reach. We then climbed up and over a ridge to get on the other side of the mountain and WHAM- the wind hit us like a ton of bricks. It felt like a friggin' hurricane just blasted into us. OK, no big deal, right? The peak has gotta be like 200 feet away, and maybe a tenth of a mile. Friggin' lying GPS watches and guidebooks. It was all wrong!

Ha- this is when we thought the summit was just right there!

Looking back on the exposed ridge line

As I now look at the internet from the safety and comfort of my home, I see that this saddle point is actually 3/4 of a MILE from the summit! That is a long, long ways, when the wind is ripping at 50mph, you are at 13,700 feet, and there are sheer cliff faces 3 feet to your left, and 2 feet to your right. This was not a very fun moment in time for me (in case I hadn't mentioned it recently, I am actually afraid of heights. As I type, my palms are sweating just remembering this experience).

We began scrambling across this very exposed ridge line as the skies grew darker by the second. Holy shit this was a bad idea!! But man- the peak, it is just.right.there!! There was one more reeeeeaaallly sketchy part, where the trail no longer exists, and you have to careful traverse across some very loose gravel, with a 1,000 foot slope just one slip away. Not deadly- but would probably result in at least 1 broken bone. Oh- and 1 of our group- the one with 4 paws and a low center of gravity- unfazed by the entire thing. She thought the 'breeze' was 'refreshing'.

We finally reached the summit. I just wanted to sit and hide from the wind, but we had to get down before the wind and weather got any worse. But at least we got a few pictures!

Who's scared? Not me!

Clouds kissing the tops of mountains

I would've given anything to have her low center of gravity!

As we skittered across the ridge line once again, there was one more giant gust of wind that caused both Ryan and I to drop to all 4s. I was at a particularly precarious spot and ended up crawling the 10 remaining feet until I could hide from the wind behind a big rock. Ugh.

Once off the ridge line we whooped with relief, ate and drank again (neither of us had been able to even sip water for that last hour or so), and laughed about how scary that was. We then proceeded to run FAST down the rest of the mountain!! The trail is almost entirely dirt and non-technical, especially when compared to Mt. of the Holy Cross!

The end of the hike was so fast and rewarding- and we never even got that wet! Whew- We Won, Missouri!

Garmin Data- Note- for some strange reason, my Garmin Data is wildly inaccurate. It was also very off on the hike up- at one point Ryan and my Garmin were almost a half mile off! This hike ended up being almost as long as Holy Cross, but we finished an hour faster. There was 1,000 feet less climbing, making it more runnable, as well as much 'easier' terrain (aside from that last section of exposure, nothing was overly technical).

Trip Report: Mt. of the Holy Cross

Sometimes you just get lucky, and this weekend we had 2 lucky days in a row.
There are some well known 'rules' to climbing 14ers- one of which is to start EARLY. Afternoon thunderstorms and just general crappy weather happens very frequently in the afternoon (typically after 12), and the risks of being above tree line when the weather turns are generally too high- there's just no where to go. However, we decided to ignore those rules.

September 27, 2014

On Friday night, Ryan had tickets to go see a concert in downtown Denver (Ty Segall). We had decided earlier in the week to head to the mountains afterwards, which meant we left the house at 11:45pm. The main impetus for heading west, besides the call of the mountains, was our newly purchased Forerunner and Scamp trailer!! We couldn't wait to spend a weekend in the mountains with our new adventure-mobiles.

After successfully pulling the Scamp for the first time, including up and over Vail pass, we turned down Tigiwon Road, outside of Minturn. We found a spot to park the scamp within a mile of the highway, but it took another hour for us to get the trailer into position, which included the two of us lifting and moving our 2,000lb trailer uphill. Our muscular endurance runner's physique's obviously translates to amazing upper body strength…or not…so yeah-  we went to bed at 3am. No more moving that trailer without the truck!

Waking up comfortable and warm inside the Scamp was amazing- however this also meant we slept in very late, and didn't end up starting our hike until 10:00 am. Despite sleeping in, our bodies still took a while to warm up- which meant lots of nice hiking at the beginning of our climb.

Mt. of the Holy Cross is different than almost every other 14er we've done because the start of the hike involves a climb of 1,200 feet that then drops back down 1,200 feet, only to begin climbing again for 4,000 feet to the summit. This means that on the way back, you have an extra 1,200 foot climb, rather than the typical monster descent to the car.

As we were hiking up and over the first pass, we experienced some amazing views of Fall colors in Colorado

At the top of the first climb, we also got our first views of the mountains we were headed to!

There's Mt of the Holy Cross!

Cody says- Bring it!

After descending 1200 feet back down to 10,400 feet elevation, we had another big slog up to 14,000 feet. This late in the season the creek crossings weren't a big deal. The trail was extremely easy to follow up until the very last climb. We ended up just clambering the last 200-300 feet up whatever rocks we found- maybe there was an official trail, but it was no longer obvious.

The views at the top were amazing- as always!!

After enjoying the views on the summit we began the descent. Typically we can just bomb down the mountain, running as hard as we feel like- but this trail is a bit more technical than others. There weren't any spots that required too much use of our hands, but plenty of care had to be taken to not twist any ankles, or slip off rocks. For that reason, it took a lot longer to get down than normal. One of us also decided to lay down and enjoy the view:

On the final climb back up those last 1,200 feet, Ryan decided to run the whole section. Show off! I took my time, and enjoyed some wonderful light on the aspens.

The final 1,200 feet/1 mile back to the car was finally runnable and all 3 of us charged down, enjoying the feeling of running down a mountain. Man it makes me excited for ski season!!  Overall this was a very fun, very challenging run/hike. We completed the 11.76 miles in 4:57, logging 5,300 feet of total elevation gain.

Advice:
- Most people take 2 days to do this hike, and I can see why- the distance, elevation and technical aspects of this route make it slower than other 14ers.
- There were more big and loose rocks on this hike than other 14ers, making it harder to run down, so sturdier shoes are smart.
- We put Cody's boots on relatively early, since it was pretty rocky- make sure you look out for your dog's paws too!
- Although the first half was shaded, it seemed like we were out of the trees for a while. Cody needed more water on this 14er than any others we've done this summer, despite the relatively mild temperatures.
- Don't do what we did and start at 10:00- we just got lucky on the weather this time!

Garmin Data: