Spring Board Meeting 2013, and a little road tripping

 Colorado, March 12-21 2013 
                         Colorado Springs and Granby

Three sisters at Garden of the Gods

12 Mar, Tue – Left home at 0930 in rain which cleared by eastern WA, gas at Yakima Costco, and again at Nampa Costco. We stayed in a Super8 and heated up our dinner of pre-cooked meatloaf in a Frybaby.

13 Mar, Wed – Drove from Twin Falls to Laramie, gas at Costco Ogden. We stayed at a rundown Ramada Inn and had a rotisserie chicken for dinner.

14 Mar, Thu – Drove down from Laramie in sunny and relatively warm weather. Checked into an accessible room at the Antlers Hilton. Took Robin Jones as our guide to Manitou Springs for frozen custard, a short tour of the arcade and a drive up to the cog railway station. We were back early enough for the start of the 1600 USHPA General Session. Icebreaker party at Springs Orleans.

15 Mar, Fri – Committee Meetings, Dinner at The Ritz with Rich Hass, Patrick Hajek, Doug Stroop and

16 Mar, Saturday – BOD general session, Awards Banquet. Among other things, Wally got the Rob Kells Memorial Award witnessed by not only Ginny and C.J. but also Mary, Dave and Matt who came all the way from Chicago.

17 Mar, Sunday – Got pretty much all packed up and went to breakfast on Tejon Street with Wally and Ginny and Mary, Dave and Matt. Later we met at the visitor center of Garden of the Gods for a walk in the sun on the paved trails.

 

A short trip to the west side of the Rockies

March snow on Berthoud Pass

17 Mar, Sunday (cont) - When we left the rest of the folks at Garden of the Gods around 1430 the weather was somewhat unstable with a bit of hail/sleet but mostly sunny skies. As we drove north to Denver and then west into the mountains, the sky clouded over. Once we hit US 40, it began snowing lightly and blowing across the road. Berthoud Pass (over 11,000 ft.) was totally socked in with heavy snow and a slippery road surface. Temperatures stayed in the 20’s as we drove down through Winter Park, Fraser and Tabenash. It was still snowing and blowing hard when we arrived at the Worldmark resort in Granby, elev. about 8000 ft., just after 1800. There wasn’t much more than remnants of snowdrifts in the Granby area even when we got up the next morning.

G self-portrait near Lulu City

18 Mar, Mon - I had brought skis and snowshoes hoping for a chance to ski the Kawuneeche valley on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park but conditions were looking less than ideal. However, when I called the ranger station just after 0800, they said that there was always more snow in the park than there was around the relatively low-precipitation area of Granby. Sure enough, as I drove the sixteen miles to the park entrance the snow began to cover the fields and, even better, it was snowing with the temperature in the teens. A quick stop in the visitor center gave me a chance to talk with a ranger and get firsthand information on the many trails. I thought going up to Big Meadow would be a good option but when I stopped at the Green Mountain trail head for Big Meadow I found the trail to be steep and narrow – fine for snowshoes, but I wanted to ski if possible. Just as at the VC, I was the only car in the parking lot. Another several miles put me at the end of the plowed road and the trailhead for the Colorado River Trail which goes north to the site of the old mining settlement, Lulu City. Again the parking lot was empty and the trail was packed but covered by a couple of inches of new snow and more was coming down. I’d get to break trail, not an onerous task due to the light, fluffy snow. The temperature was about 16 deg. F when I left the trailhead around 0940 and I soon was stopped by a steep climb and had to remove my skis to gain the top of the 200-ft ridge. Once up, the skiing was mostly rolling hills through the forest with the baby Colorado River on my left. There were lots of tracks of small critters in the new snow

Looking back across a bridge at my tracks

but I didn’t see any of them. I lost the trail as I crossed the upper part of Shiplers Park and broke trail through the woods back to the slope on the east where I picked up the drifted-in trail. Shortly before reaching the meadow/park where Lulu City is/was located, I saw large tracks crossing the trail, big enough to be moose! And, sure enough, about 30-50 ft. into the trees, there was a large moose. My attempts to get a good picture were foiled by the darkness, the snow and by the equipment – my cell phone camera. Nevertheless, it was pretty exciting to be so close to such a big critter. Amazingly quiet, the moose moved deeper into the forest as I looked down at my camera; when I looked up, it was gone. Another quarter hour of skiing put me at my 1130 turnaround time in the park just S of Lulu. With the wind beginning to gust strongly and the track rapidly disappearing, I was ready to head back. This time I stuck with the trail on the sidehill and found that it had been wiped away by a small avalanche – no wonder I hadn’t been able to find it earlier. Crossing Shiplers Park again my tracks were almost totally gone – glad I wasn’t relying totally on following my tracks back to the trailhead [The Backcountry Navigator app on my phone and the built-in gps worked very well, better than a map, in fact] . Near Crater Creek there were the ruins of a cabin and a sign pointing to a privy, maybe remnants of the mine that Shipler had worked. After a few more gusts of windblown snow I pulled on wind pants and zipped up my parka, but it was too cold to stop for a lunch break although it was right around noon. It wasn’t until I was within a mile of the TH that I saw some additional ski tracks and later some snowshoe prints. But I never saw anyone on the trail. There was one person with snowshoes just leaving his car (IA plates) as I skied into the parking lot around 1250. The road had been plowed through the Kawuneeche Valley so the trip out was a little faster although I did stop at the VC to report the avalanche covering the trail. There were moments of sunshine on the way out along with snow gusts. I stopped at City Market in Granby for some stuff that C.J. needed before returning to Worldmark where C.J. had been working on editing all day.

Devils Slide along I-84

19 Mar, Tuesday – We packed up and headed home around 0900, a day earlier than I had first planned [I had thought that it would be okay to drive home in two days. But after the grueling trip out to the BOD, I figured that three days would be more comfortable even if we had to pay for another motel night.] The trip along US 40 was scenic with canyons and passes, especially Rabbit Ears Pass, to traverse. The west side of Rabbit Ears looked great for XC skiing and there is a Worldmark resort in Steamboat Springs which is only about 15 miles away. We didn’t stop in Steamboat to check out the resort but continued on with less and less snow visible through Craig (grocery stop). Then we passed through the area we had flown and driven during the Dinosaur national hang gliding meet. We wondered if we could find the launch after all these years. We got gas in Vernal (3.499, better than western CO) and drove into the Uinta Basin and over Daniel’s Summit which appeared to be almost completely a snowmobile use area. We continued along the east side of the Wasatch through Heber, I-80, I-84 and down to Ogden (gas at Costco, 3.229) with a stop for a photo of Devils Slide. Then it was only a few more miles along I-15 to Brigham City where we checked into a low-budget HoJos. We heated up the rest of the chicken soup for dinner.

20 Mar, Wednesday – Since our last two days would not be as long, we decided to visit the

C.J. at ATK (Thiokol)

Golden Spike National Historic Site about 30 miles west of Brigham City. Along the way we sidetracked to the ATK (Thiokol) display of the rockets for which they had provided solid fuel. [It was about two miles farther along SR 83 from the turnoff to GOSP.] It was drizzling as we wandered through the display and it continued drizzling when we got to the Golden Spike visitor center located near where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific had met to complete the first transcontinental railroad. We didn’t do much outside because of the rain and because C.J. had to stay on the paved walkways. The usual 10:00 tour of the building where the two locomotives are kept during the winter was not available because there was a busload of fifth graders alternating touring and visiting the displays. We’ll have to return, an easy detour from I-84 near Snowville. On the way to I-84 we passed the rest of the huge ATK complex; it would have been great to have had a guide who could have explained what we were seeing. There were lots of what looked like ammunition bunkers and some large, windowless buildings with what seemed to be escape chutes. We stayed on I-84 only to just beyond Snowville where we detoured west on secondary roads to pass west of the Blackpine Mountains along the Raft River valley. At Malta we turned west and passed over Connors Summit (5000 ft.?) and through Albion, Declo and Burley before returning to I-84. We stopped to check out the winter clearance sale at Sierra Trading Post in Meridian, ID, got gas at Costco in Nampa and reached Ontario by 1730. After taking a few minutes to get out of the howling wind in our Motel 6 room, we went back into Idaho to the Hideaway Grill in Payette for a steak dinner. The temperature had been climbing and falling all day as we drove from sunshine into rain and back. By late afternoon the temperature had reached a max of 68 deg before dropping back into the 50’s and 40’s. We were hoping for good weather for our last day but reports have been talking about snow.

21 Mar, Thursday – Up at 0730, prepared oatmeal in room microwave and on the road by 0900. Sunny skies turned gray and then, when we reached the summit of the Blue Mountains, we ran into snow. There was some slush in the right lane and a little snow in the left. It all dried up as we came down to the flats and it got windy. We stopped at Costco Union Gap for gas and an ice cream bar and then made it home (sunny at the pass, drizzle turning to rain in NB) by 1530 or so. C.J. checked the home answering machine and found that her appointment for Friday had been canceled. Rescheduled for Wednesday – several more days before she can resume weightbearing on her right foot, a disappointment.