In The Shadow of Longs Peak
Peaceful Valley
Two December ski outings
01 December 2013
First ski of the season, woo-hoo!
Our party today consists of Gary, Susan Jenning and myself. We met at my house in Lyons at 9 AM.
The roads were clear and dry as we drove up highway 7 toward Peaceful Valley. This is our first trip up CO 7 since the road was opened last Tuesday, 26 NOV 2013 with ‘the flood’ repair completed. Did not take pictures but the stream bed damage is interesting, needless to say much more below the confluence of where the South St. Vrain actually comes in. Interestingly, along highway 7 above that confluence the creek along the highway is actually the Middle St Vrain.
At the trailhead, there are a couple of cars, so plenty of room for us. We were probably on the trail by 10:15. We put our skis on but are almost immediately disappointed as we take them off again at the bridge then on again as we pass Bunce School Road. Even after this there are many spots where we step lightly and around bare spots, from one side of the road to the other, finding the 4” path. So it goes thru the campground and upper parking lot to the start of the jeep road and on beyond the Buchanan Pass Trail.
Here is where we’d hope to be at the start of the good coverage. It is doable but pretty rocky. We continue, avoiding rocks as well as the streams that seem to permeate this area. We probably will not be skiing down thru this.
Now we approach the open area which can be clear even in winter. Today we find we are able to tiptoe and find enough snow to ski over without taking our skis off.
Finally, we are back in the trees and finally the coverage is good. We continue up still circumventing streams and rocks but overall the coverage is very nice so up and up we go.
We see a log fence and know we are approaching that marshy area and soon enough there is a stream not so easily crossed. We know from experience what we are in for over the next ½ mile…rocks, slush and no snow…and turn back.
A wonderful first time out: 10:15 – 1:45
Date: 15 December 2013
Our goal today was to get at least to the intersection of the jeep road that goes up to Coney Flats.
We left my house by 9:30 AM, later than planned, but my desire to write and draw to start played into this. Not sure what time we actually started skiing.
One note here: The sign at the trailhead says “use the outhouses” but again the 2 closest to the trailhead are locked. I should email the forest service.
We ski across the bridge – which has hardly enough snow – and beyond heading into the woods as the road has been blown dry. We make our way staying on the snow. There are a couple of storage type buildings we pass and then make our way back onto the road. We pass thru the 2nd gate. My watch says 11:30
We continue up the road and past the Buchanan Pass Trailhead as I am convinced that this time of year the snow on the trail will be marginal.
The road is still sketchy but not nearly as bad as two weeks ago. We continue up to the ½ mi marker which is windblown as always. We find ribbons of snow to ski but finally there is a place to veer off into the meadow where there is at least some covering. Finally we are at the 2nd ½ mile marker, in the trees and conditions improve tremendously!
A group coming out mentions a moose (Gary saw one in the area of the marsh last week). We see tracks but no moose. Up and up we go and approach the marsh and the point of our turn around 2 weeks ago. Today, everything is frozen so no need to remove our skis. There is another wind blown area beyond the marsh but we manage to tiptoe our way around and continue up. It’s now 12:30.
Around 1 PM there is a sign for ‘Timberline Falls’ (a new sign, I do not remember this from previous outings) and a tree is across the trail. We detour to the left and continue but now we start to break trail. We continue up until 2:15 and decide to turn around. We did not reach the intersection of the road and we are not sure how far we are from it.
It takes us ¾ hour to get back to the fallen tree so we estimate we broke trail for close to 2 miles.
We are back to the car by 4:15 so we estimate we skied up about 4 miles, around 1 mile short of the junction.
Oh well. We’ll be back and it was a great day to be skiing.