​​In The Shadow of Longs Peak

Peaceful Valley

04 December 2005

Today’s romp was our first ski for this season.  After some thought, we chose Peaceful Valley which seems to be our traditional start of the season ski.

This is a late start for the season compared to the previous few years but those were often on snow that was somewhat marginal. 

Today’s snow is not marginal, not by a long shot!  Matter of fact, there is probably more snow now than in some mid-winters in recent memory.  We park just off the highway, and today the parking has been plentiful, as it usually is early in the morning and another reason why it’s a favorite winter destination. 

There are 2 ways to start off:  up the road to Camp Dick (closed to traffic in the winter and left unplowed) to immediately get on the Middle St. Vrain trail.  The trail can be unpleasant where there is not enough snow; even with snow it can get quite icy and be even more unpleasant.

The trail is certainly is not unpleasant today.  All the rocks are covered; its cold and the snow grabs our skis (grabs them a bit too much, actually).  The snow sticks on the branches, very scenic, very wintery, there is no wind and the snow continues to fall. 

This trail stays on the south side of Middle St. Vrain Creek, crawling upward then down, resulting in a rolling path, perfect for a kick ‘n’ glide outing.

There is a branch of the trail that climbs a bit higher – the horse trail – but we stay on the lower.  There is another junction, this one the Sourdough Trail which climbs steadily up and joins the Coney Flats Trail.  We bypass that and continue straight till the next jog that will take us to Camp Dick and a rest stop.  From Camp Dick, we usually continue west on the road but today we get back on the trail which will connect back to the road beyond Camp Dick and the trailhead parking. 

Normally at this time of year we would continue on the road.  But today, the snow beckons and we stick to the trail, which at this point drops and crosses the creek on a footbridge and continues westward on the north side of the creek.  Often, this trail has hardly any snow being windblown.  Not today though:  the coverage just keeps getting better and better.  Snow continues to fall and the wind is calm.

In spots, the trail is quite close to the creek but in others it climbs up above or cuts into the hillside.  Overall, it is a gentle uphill kick ‘n; glide but still colder than we have waxed for.  Often, we have continued up the trail to the wilderness boundary but today we turn around and glide back to out, cross the bridge and are back out on the road. 

I take the trail back.  It’s been a good day’s outing.  This is why I live here.