Hugh Spear's Blog

Colorado 10th Mountain Division Hut Trip - Day 4 - Return

 This was my final day on these mountains and my plan was to return to my car, but rather than take the long diversion of the track, I was going to try to navigate over the hills using the directions a back-country skier would follow during the Winter. This was the route I had scouted out the previous evening, and got a good soaking for my troubles.

I was  packed and ready to ride by 8:30am and said goodbye to the other bike packers I had shared the hut with, paused for a quick photo of my bike by the hut.

I then set-off riding up to the Eastern entrance to the Hagerman Tunnel.

I stopped briefly for a photo by Lily Pad lake, this was such an idyllic spot that I wanted to capture it all on film. I continued along until the small track I was on joined onto the larger one, the 527. If I turned left onto this I would descend down to Ivanhoe Lake and have an additional 16 miles to travel. I turned right and proceeded to the end of the road, which was the blocked up entrance to the Eastern side of Hagerman Tunnel.  From this point, the path was going to be indistinct, and I would need to use a map and compass to find my route. I could also expect to see some blue diamond signs on posts or trees. These would be what the skiers in the winter would need as the ground would be featureless.

 I would like to be able to say that I found the navigation easy. But that was far from the truth. I dithered around with the phone map and compass, I tried following what appeared to be tracks, and I tried to guess which the right way would be. Really I tried everything, and it was a clear day with great visibility, where I could almost do no wrong. So that meant I was almost guaranteed to find my way back.

In the end I resorted to taking a bearing which would ensure that I hit the road, the Hagerman Pass road (105). And sure enough that is what I did.

 

The rest of my journey that morning was retracing  the route I had taken the previous day, and the day before that. I reached Hagerman Pass and descended past the entrance to the well hidden Skinner Hut, and continued on, down the very bumpy track which had beaten most vehicles on the climb up. Then upon reaching the Western side of the Hagerman Tunnel, the 4WD track turned to a gravel road, and I could freewheel almost all the way back to Turquoise Lake.

Once at the lake I was on sealed roads and could make better progress. I reached car after about 30 minutes, and took one final photo to prove it.

It was quite a strange experience going from a fairly wild place to a civilised place in such a short space of time. I unpacked everything, put on some clean(ish) clothes, and drove my bike back to The Cycles of Life. There the guys gave it a once over to see that I hadn't done anything wrong with the bike and Brian said "you look pretty honest to me, so I'll trust that you haven't gone crazy". I hadn't, so his trust was well placed. I bought a couple of souvenirs and headed across the road to a cafe for a nice lunch, before heading down the valley to Vail.

Colorado 10th Mountain Division Hut Trip - Day 3 - Betty Bear Hut

On the third day my destination was Betty Bear Hut. To get there I would need to cross the Continental Divide at Hagerman Pass.

On the third day my destination was Betty Bear Hut. To get there I would need to cross the Continental Divide at Hagerman Pass.

Colorado 10th Mountain Division Hut Trip - Day 2 - Skinner Hut

On the second day in the Rocky Mountains I was going to descend from Uncle Bud's hut, cross over to the other side of Turquoise Lake and then ascend the gravel track, followed by the old railway grade towards Hagerman's Pass to reach Skinner Hut.

I decided that as my car was parked very close to my route, that I would descend to there and drop off a few things and pick up some more food and water. This would save me a trip into Leadville.

 I had the 10th Mountain Division Hut Guidebook with me so could read the page describing Skinner Hut.

 Waking just before sunrise at Uncle Bud's was a real treat. I was sleeping downstairs next to the fire, so there were no curtains and my view was spectacular.

 I got dressed and got a pot boiling on the gas stove. The water I was using was from the pump and I couldn't trust it to be clean, but if it was boiled I figured it would be good enough.

As I made my tea and porridge, the other guests staying at the hut got up. It looked as though they had a much more hearty feast planned than my modest breakfast. But they had arrived by car, and had plenty of time. I on the other  hand was carrying everything I would use, and I had a feeling they weather was going to change today, so I wanted to make the most of the clear morning.

I packed up, washed my things and packed everything on my bike. Before I left, I brought in more firewood from the stack outside. There was plenty of kindling, so I decided I didn't need to chop any of the bigger logs up. The huts have plenty of notices posted up on the walls to remind guests that it isn't quite like a hotel, more like a Youth Hostel, where you should do some jobs, and you should always try to leave a place cleaner than when you arrive. You also have to carry out all of your trash.

Once I had finished, I said my goodbyes, and headed down the track on my bike. Unlike yesterday when I was struggling to climb the track on my bike, today, I was struggling to descend slowly enough. By the time I had reached the road, my hands ached from continuous braking. With a heavily packed bike, it was easy to go too fast and difficult to control my two wheeled juggernaut once it was travelling at speed. So it was better to keep control of the speed from the start.

Once down at the road it was an easy cycle to the car and to off-load my small bag of rubbish and to refill my water bottles. Then to setoff again on the road for the track up to Skinner Hut.

Pretty soon there is a dirt track to the left which climbs gradually to a clearing where there are several vehicles.  This is an easy track for cars and motor bikes, and so I was passed several times by vehicles travelling quite fast, and they all left billows of dust in their wake. Luckily I had a neckerchief and could put this over my nose and mouth to keep most of the dust from getting into my mouth and down to my lungs.

At the top of the trail was the remains of some old tunnel workings. These were the remains of the Carlton Tunnel.

This whole area has a rich history which was largely related to overcoming the challenges of transporting people, equipment and minerals from Denver to Leadville, a town which very briefly was home to a flourishing silver mining business. This tunnel was built to avoid the train having to cross the Continental Divide via Hagerman Pass.

I left the tunnel workings behind and also left the road track, now I was ascending on the track which once was the railway line to the pass. This was very difficult to cycle on and was also very difficult for 4 wheel drive vehicles.  I walked up a fair bit of this and pushed my bike. This sign describes a little of the background for where I was.

 

 

Colorado 10th Mountain Division Hut Trip - Day 1 - Uncle Bud's Hut

I got up in the condo in Vail I was staying at, and made breakfast and made some sandwiches for later in the day. 

The bike shop would not open until 10am and would take an hour to reach, so I had plenty of time.

I had already packed most of what I was taking into my rental car. I had the following ready to go on me or on my bike:

1. Apidura handlebar bag, smallest size. This contained the following:
   1. My sleeping bag (and PH Designs half bag).
   2. Sea to Summit silk medium sized sleeping bag liner.
   3. RAB Microlite jacket - this doubles to make up the other half of the sleeping bag.
   4. A spare vest and a cheap merino wool top from Decathlon in Spain.
2. Apidura Saddle pack, smallest size. This contained:
   1. Waterproof and warmer cycling clothing.
   2. Personal toiletries.
   3. Batter charger power packs.
   4. Camping food.
3. Apidura Accessory Pocket. This attached to the handlebar bag and contained the following:
   1. Phone with navigation app and offline maps.
   2. Map & Compass.
   3. Small binoculars (luxury item).

 I set out for Leadville and the Cycles of Life bike shop there. Leadville claims to have the highest high street in the USA, and as an old mining town, it has plenty of character. It has clearly seen some luxurious times when people had the money and time and interest to go to the Opera!

 I had already got a bit worried and bought a book called "Be Bear Aware" from a National Forest Information kiosk. Let me just say, that reading a book like this does not fill you with confidence. It tells you that you are unlikely to come across a bear, but that they are about and that even the small ones could knock your head off with one swipe. If you catch them by surprise or if they are feeling protective of a cub. How do you avoid surprising them? Well you make plenty of noise. You make sure they know you are coming well before you have the chance to see them. But to be on the safe side you should also have some Bear Spray. A pepper spray which fires a stream of pepper about 30 feet. The book tells you to buy two or more canisters of spray, and to practice using one of them, so that you can be quick, accurate and efficient.  Unfortunately, in spite of trying about half a dozen stores, I could not buy any bear spray, so the nearest I could get to any bear deterrent was to have some bells on my toes. These, in theory, would jangle as you pedalled or walked. 

The people at Cycles of Life quickly prepared the bike for me. The wanted to see where my bikepacking bags would go and then put tape on the frame, so there would be zero abrasions. Once they had finished, I put the bike in the trunk of my car and drove over to Turquoise Lake, a couple of miles away. The reason I wanted my car a bit closer to my route, was that I had several question marks about the water and cold situation and wanted to be able to return to the car and get extra gear or water bottles if I needed them.

The photo below show the bike and a back pack I had, which hopefully would have all I would need for the next few days.

 I set off from Turquoise lake in quite good weather, but there was ominous cloud around, so I could be sure it would continue.

As soon as I'd left the main road I found a sign I was dreading at the entrance to the National Forest. A sign warning that there had been sightings of at least one bear in the area. I gulped! I didn't know if I would see anyone else in the mountains, and on my own, my chances of taking on a bear and surviving seemed to be quite low.

But I wasn't planning on turning around. My first day was a short trip, but involved a fair bit of climbing, so could be a good introduction into high country cycling.

Here is my route for the day, short, but high and difficult ground to cycle over.

One of my challenges was navigation. I had downloaded an App onto my smartphone called "Backcountry Navigator". It lets you download maps which are quite detailed. But I didn't have any GPX files for where I was going, so had to rely upon descriptions from the pages I photocopied from the 10th Mountain Division Hut Book.

I cycled along the road alongside Turquoise Lake, and then took the dirt track which was described as the track up to Uncle Bud's Hut. It was a good quality gravel track at the start. But soon degraded into very much a 4WD track.

 

Pretty soon the track seemed to diverge from the description in the guide book. It is worth remembering that the guide books are written for skiers and hikers. So aren't necessarily using fire trails in the neighbourhood. I got off the bike and walked up and down a few small tracks. It was almost surreal really as I had a book with a photo of a large wooden hut, I ought to be about 100 yards from it, but could see no sign. I walked off in what I thought was the wrong direction  and all of a sudden I was greeted by the view below. These huts are well places by their builders. Quite well hidden from the well worn tracks.

 

I reached the hut, and armed with the code for the combination lock on the door, I approach ready to unlock the door, and found it already unlocked. Inside was a father and son who had hiked up earlier. We had a chat and in the time honoured way when people reach a camp and meet up,  we exchanged stories of where we came from and where we were going next.

 

Colorado 10th Mountain Division Hut Trip - Preparation

I planned to visit Vail in Colorado in July 2016 and wanted to do an interesting bike trip. I had already heard about the 10th, Mountain huts as places to stay in the Winter when you were travelling cross-country on skis. But then I read this article which opened my eyes to the idea of bikepacking between some huts.  I booked online at Huts.org and arranged for maps and a guide book to be sent to Vail, to wait for my arrival. 

Ahead of the detailed route planning, I needed to do two things:

1. Try to get some high altitude cycling practice.
2. Organise a bike to ride.

I live pretty close to sea level in Australia, and even though I did some cycling in the hills, it was only 300m above sea level, whereas I would be cycling above 10,000ft (over 3,000m), ten times that altitude. The only solution was to get to Vail with  few days to spare, and train from there.

In terms of bicycle. I found a bike shop in Leadville, about the closest town to the 10th. Mountain Huts. It is called Cycles of Life.  I got excited as when I called them they said that they would rent me a 'hardtail' mountain bike from Salsa. The model they selected was 'El Mariachi'. This was one of the most favoured bikes in long distance bike packing events, so I was interested to find out what it was like. I told the guys in the shop that I planned to bike-pack, and they said they would have to tape up each part of the bike frame where the bags might touch. So I'd need to allow plenty of time.

The route I planned to undertake was the same as that followed in the online article which had initially inspired me. First night at Uncle Bud's hut, second at Skinner's Hut and the third at Betty Bear's. Then on the fourth day, cycle all the way back to the starting point.  The reason for selecting this route was mainly because I felt it would be achievable, and as such, be one fewer thing to have to plan. I really had no idea of what the cycling terrain would be like, how the altitude would affect me, and what the weather would be. These huts are all at over 11,000 ft and I had read plenty of warnings about the speed with which the weather can change, and how serious things can get in the mountains. There is also the possibility of developing a mechanical problem which would either force me to abandon the trip, or slow down my progress.

 As I was staying in a hut, I wouldn't need a tent, stove, sleep mat or cooking utensils. But I would need a sleeping bag, food and water, and also I would need to be prepared to go and find water and treat it for human consumption. As this was my third bikepacking trip, and each have been quite different in terms of weather, season, terrain, remoteness, there was a bit of decision making to be done in terms of what gear to take. 

Here were some of the decisions I had to make:

1. Water. Unlike my trip from Lithgow to Mittagong, where water would be scarce. Here the water would be plentiful, but require treatment. By treatment I considered purifying tablets and boiling to be adequate. I had a low throughput, in-line water filter which I could use, but it was only really practical for drinking cold water while cycling. 
2. Food. I would need enough food for three days. I chose sachets of quick porridge oats as my breakfast, various snack bars for during cycing, and some freeze-dry 'Mountain House' meals for the evening. I had a few apples as dessert. I also took some tea bags (Yorkshire) and some coffee bags, and my luxury item was a hip flask full of cheap whiskey.
3. Clothing. I had one set of cyling clothing, and one set of camp clothing. Also, some wet weather cycling gear and colder weather cycling gear. In terms of footwear, I have flip-flops for the hut and hiking boots for the cycling. I assumed I would be hiking for some of the time, so wanted the best footwear for that. 
4. Navigation. I had the topographical maps of the areas I was travelling in, downloaded inside the Backcountry Maps app on my phone. But also had the 'old school' setup of physical maps and Silva compass. Also had my Garmin Forerunner 910XT. This would keep track the distance and actual route I took. 
5. Other electronics. I knew there would be no power for several days, so I needed to take a battery power pack to keep my phone working for the duration. I did not take any lights for my bike, but did include a head torch, just for finding things at night in the hut.
6. Bears! I became somewhat obsessed with the thought of meeting one of these, and what I would do in that event. I bought the 'Bear Aware' book from a Ranger Station in Minturn, and read it from cover to cover. The result of that was that no matter how unlikely it was that I would meet a bear on the trail, I should really have some bear spray and possibly, also a firearm. Well the firearm was out of the question, and in the end, it turned out that so was the bear spray. I just could not find anywhere that sold it. So my final item of purchase for my trip was a set of bells and some wire to enable me to attach the bells to my right hiking boot. My reasoning was that whether I was cycling or walking, I would still be able to make a jingling noise, and if the book was to be believed, then bears would hear me coming and make themselves scarce. Thus I would avoid the real problem with bears; happening upon them when they are least expecting you. (I have to note here that some of the people I subsequently met, made a bit of fun out of my bells, and said that the sound told the bears that lunch was on the way!).

 I arrived in Vail on July 14th and would be on my hut trip between July 19th and 22nd.

I had brought a road bike with me, and after getting settled, I built the bike up and took it for a spin to climb from Vail village at 8,150ft up to Vail Pass at 10,600ft. I found I was stopping every 500 ft of climbing, and catching my breath. I could not drink water as I cycled as the time when I was swallowing and not panting, would almost make me faint. I only made it half way. But I was not disheartened as I was well aware that this would be one of the hardest aspects of the trip.

On day two, July 15th. I did not cycle, but instead did some shopping in preparation. But I did cycle on day three, July 16th and again on July 18th. Both times reaching the top of the pass, and each time cycling faster and stopping less frequently.  The roads around Vail are very cycle friendly, they are either nice quiet roads with good quality shoulders or cycle and hiker only roads.

Here was my training route:

 

For many people the fitness and acclimatisation would not be a problem, but when you are nearly 57 years old, have quite severe jet-lag and lets be honest, are not in peak shape. You need to build up to things properly, and rest between days of exertion. Then you can get fit enough, without exhausting yourself.

By the end of July 18th, I knew I was physically going to be up to the job, just about. Providing I went at my own pace, and was not threatened by a bear.

That night I did not sleep well, and the bear issue was the problem. I wondered why I would willing put myself in harms way. I wondered whether my children deserved this sort of selfish behaviour.  In the end I drifted off, and my phone alarm seemed to go off as soon as my eyes closed.