Climbing a mountain is one of the most often-used metaphors in literature, but for good reason — it’s a good metaphor for life. There’s a goal, challenge, and (hopefully) victory — and of course, the view from the top.
One should not visit Fort Collins, Colorado for the first time without visiting those jewels to the west, the Horsetooth Mountain Park and its adjacent Horsetooth Reservoir. So when Kathrin and Guy came over during the weekend from Chicago, we did an afternoon hike on the Soderberg trail through lush forests packed with Douglas Fir and evergreen pine, stunning vistas of the reservoir and the red rock outcropping above, and green hills with homes embedded in their sides that inspired Kat to proclaim, “it looks just like Switzerland!”
Never mind that the Horsetooth Falls off of the Soderberg trail turned out to be more like a “water drip” than a waterfall; this was a wonderful hike. More photos are here.
The weather forecast called for sunny skies and 50+ degree high temps, making it a nice day for a social hike. So John, Ryan, and I headed to Poudre Canyon about 9 miles out of Fort Collins for a little jaunt up to the base of Greyrock Mountain. The trail was a bit rocky and icy in sections and the winds were really howling, but the views of the evergreen-treed gulch and mountains were well worth the 3-hour, 5.9-mile round-trip trek on the Greyrock National Recreation Trail. When the weather is a little warmer, Greyrock is a hotspot for rock climbing. Click here for more photos.
“If you come,” wrote Dave, my climbing buddy and former co-worker, “we can climb Snake Dike.”
Usually the mention of the word “dike” and a slithery vernom-spitting reptile would not tempt me away from a home-finding trip hundreds of miles away, but this was different. Half Dome is perhaps the most famous piece of granite in Yosemite Valley, if not the nation. I had summitted it once before in 1999, but only as a hiker. Or “tourist”, as some elitist rock climbers might condescendingly refer to them. Intrigued, I decided to look up more information about it.
“Dave,” I replied after doing so, “I some concerns about Snake Dike. It is 8 pitches, 5.7, and very run-out in many sections. It would make for a very challenging day…” Continue reading »
From Brokeoff Mountain, I drove 6.8 miles up the road to Lassen Peak, intent on bagging my second California County Summit of the day. (Lassen Peak, at ~10,500 feet, is the highest point in Shasta County.) What had intended to be a quick 5-mile round-trip hike up and down the mountain turned out to be a slightly slower-paced, but vastly more fun, experience than I had anticipated. Continue reading »
This hike was not originally on the agenda; however, after having lunch with a friend in Sacramento I soon realized that I was not going to make it to Klamath Falls in Oregon by daybreak as I originally was planning on doing. So I looked at the map to find a closer place to camp, and not caring to return to Mt. Shasta — only because I did that 2 weeks ago already — I decided upon the Lassen Volcanic National Forest area. Upon busting out my California County Summits
book I then also realized that there were 2 county summits — Brokeoff Mountain and Lassen Peak — within 7 miles of each other, and each of them should take no more than 5 hours each. Perfect. Continue reading »
 and 8 pitches of rock climbing up Snake Dike, all in one day. Dave at the top of Half Dome.&title=Half Dome, CA "18 miles of hiking (2 due to getting lost) and 8 pitches of rock climbing up Snake Dike, all in one day. Dave at the top of Half Dome.")
