The Indian Peaks Wilderness area is an absolutely gorgeous place to run and explore. I only had under 3 hours this morning to run and I got a bit lost, so I didn't cover as much ground as I had hoped. I was thinking about running over pawnee pass, but somehow I missed the super obvious marked turnoff and ran up the isabelle drainage instead. At the top it gets super steep and the trail ends and it becomes scrambling up steep boulder fields. I had to turn around when I got to a steep glacier that was not passable without crampons.
Then I spoke to some people who pointed out where I was, and showed me the airplane couloir route up to Navajo peak, where you can still see remnants of an airplane crash in the couloir from 50 years ago. I wished I had time to go up there, but it will have to be another day. I really want to get back up to this area again before the end of the season. What a great way to start the day though.
Ended up doing a very leisurely 10.5 miles with 2450 Ft ascent, in 2:50 including a bunch of stops.
Some pics of the scenery up there:
Niwot cutoff trail past Longs lake
Heading up to Lake Isabell
some small lake near the top of isabell drainage
A cool glacier bowl at the top of the drainage
This was the high point I could reach before getting stopped in my tracks by the glacier
After the run I met Nan and the kids at Castle Rock near the top of Boulder canyon. The kids really enjoyed doing some top-roping. And I got my but kicked by a 5.9+ that Chris George lead with trad gear. I am definitely extremely out of climbing shape. At least I had fun climbing the 5.6-5.7 route a couple times.
The kids couldn't get enough chucking rocks into the river
Abe loving his first climb, he was psyched to be out climbing, it was really fun to see him get into it.
Breanne
Breanne was also pretty stoked to go climbing and did great
From the looks of things, Ali wasn't in favor of the decision to not let her try out the harness and climb
