Two mini-trip reports. One of an attempt to ski Mt. Toll and some trail work on The Colorado Trail
In early June, my buddy Mark and I made an attempt to ski Mt. Toll. A classic spring ski near Boulder.
As when I did it three years ago, I was up at oh-god-early and we drove up to the Brainard Lake Trailhead.
The skis were stowed on our packs and we biked up the Brainard Rd to the Mitchell Lake trailhead.
Skis were strapped on and off we went on the spring snow.
As we made our way to Blue Lake (at the cusp of treeline), we noticed that the divide look rather nasty above. The cold biting wind at the lake proved this to be true!
The views to the socked in divide were awesome, but perhaps not the best ski conditions above treeline. 🙂
We had a quick ski back, reached out bikes and had a rather enjoyable beer.
Not the trip we planned, but still an enjoyable one.
Two weeks later, most of the cast of The Trail Show and I did a day of trail work on Segment 12 (near the town of Buena Vista) of The Colorado Trail.
Not only is trail work a great way to give back, but you also get to work in a beautiful area with some great people.
The core group of volunteers for this segment have been working this stretch for 26 years. Amazing!
About 20 of us split into two groups who did about eight miles each of the segment. We started at one end and met in the middle at a high point just past Frenchman’s Creek
We walked the trail and cleared water bars, smoothed tread, removed blow downs and pruned back plants and trees from the trail.
Not quite half-way through the trail work, we stopped for a idyllic break at one of the Harvard Lakes.
On we went, continuing our work on the trail.
At a tundra-like clearing, and the best view of the day, we descended off the CT via an old trail to an abandoned mine. The cars awaited…and beer!
After relaxing with our fellow trail workers, Disco, POD, Hearsay and myself went back to a BLM camp three miles outside of town…and a free one at that!
The views from the camp were relaxing. A great place to drink a beer, relax and talk about the satisfying day we’ve all had.
Not bad..not bad at all.
All the photos from trail work.