codecat » Travelogue

It’s North Pole Season!

codecat — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Enroute to the North Pole at ABasin

Spring is showing in Boulder, daffodils in bloom and sandals and shorts all over the Perl Street Mall. Every ski resort in Colorado is closed, save one. And with the holiday season mostly past and snow starting to fade, children no longer dream of visiting the North Pole.
Oh but how I do dream of it, and here’s how it goes:
You see a landscape completely blanketed in snow, the air as well is full of white. The only dark shapes are the cliff bands and rock exposures that are too steep and sheer for the snow to stick. There is almost no-one else around, most would cringe at the idea of being out in weather like this. Then you hear the words uttered with reverence, “The North Pole is Open”.
Its usually closed most of the year. Conditions have to be just right, and at this time of year, that happens and hopefully happens often!
Ahhhh yes, thankfully this is not a dream, its ABasin, which has the peculiar aspect of being open longer and later than any other resort in CO with some of the steepest gnarliest runs being open only in late spring. The weather patterns change this time of year and upslope or North-East fronts run through and can leave massive amounts of snow on the East Face of ABasin where the North Pole can be found. Just the hike up is amazing. For those who know, its that time of year!

Some things not to do in the Daintree

codecat — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:11:25 +0000

Was just browsing through photo’s from a trip to the Daintree last year. I found many of the warning signs funny, esp. the common sense ones like: “Do not feed the elderly or the disabled to the crocodiles”.

Mt. Antero Family-Style via Baldwin Gulch

codecat — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:59:55 +0000

August 11th, 2009.

While on our two week loop of Southwest Colorado we planned three days around Buena Vista which sits at the foot of several Sawatch 14ers. The two big attractions to staying nearby were the natural hot springs and the peaks. The most well know hot springs are the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, which is a hot spring and spa resort that seems to lately be on the upswing. We also found that there are nearby cabins that have there own private hot springs at the “Antero Hot Springs” and we decided to stay there. Personally I find it much more relaxing to not have a lot of other folks around and having our own hot spring just outside our cabin was just fantastic and worth it.

Since there is a 4wd road up Baldwin gulch we took the short drive up to it to get a sense of what kind of condition it was in and take a guess at how long it would take us to get to where we wanted to hike from. With Anna being nine years old and my wife not having done any 14ers yet it seemed wise to try to drive up close and leave just the last mile and a half to climb up. So we guessed at 2 hours for the drive and 3 hours for the hike. The weather looked great for us to give it a shot and we decided to head out at a reasonable early time of 7am.

Getting there:
We drove west toward St. Elmo on Chaffee County Road 162 and another 10 miles on the dirt road to reach the signed Baldwin Gulch Jeep Road (also listed as the 277 Road).

You can park here, there are plenty of pull-offs along the road. This is the lower trailhead and its a long way from here. Short, high-clearance 4WD vehicles can drive up the 277 road, our stock 04 Jeep Liberty did fine. Above the river crossing (10,850′), there are dispersed camping spots along the side of the road as it leads to multiple switchbacks up to the saddle. We parked at the saddle and made our way up the ridge line to the top.

I took a chisel-peen hammer to prospect for Aquamarines and I think we actually did find some Garnets. It was a great trek for Chris and Anna to get on top of their first 14er with the added bonus of Gem-Hunting near the summit. If you want to see some of the nicest aquamarines found on Antero, stop at the “Rock Doc” back on US285. We picked up a few carats of Aquamarine there and they have nice examples of the things folks prospect for on Antero.

The Hobitat, San Luis Valley, and Howling winds.

codecat — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:32:44 +0000

We took a two week family vacation loop through Southwest CO and had a fantastic time moving from place to place sometimes camping and sometimes staying in hotels/cabins/resorts. One stop along the way was the Great Sand Dunes Nat. Park. We didn’t have time to be flexible with a campsite there since we had a long driving day so we were keen to reserve something. This is actually kind of hard for the Great Sand Dunes Park proper, but nearby San Luis State Park, just 10 minutes down the road, lets you reserve a spot online ahead of time.

The San Luis State Park just down the road from the Great San Dunes has free hot showers for campers, electrical hookups at each site (no need), and nearby trails around the San Luis Lakes which is an incredible birding/wildlife watching location. We also had stunning views of the Crestones esp. with the sunset light on those peaks.

The Great Sand Dunes are Huge. You have to be there to experience the immensity. Then there is also the reason for their existence, which is of course, the wind. The geography is perfect to supply a constant blowing wind which over millions of years has left the piles of sand behind we all enjoy clambering over. If you stay near here for a few days, you will start to find fine sand in just about everything.

The campsites themselves had no cover from the wind other than oddly shaped lean-to’s that sheltered each picnic table. I was of course aware of what havoc the wind might play on our tent, which is a monster car-camp Hobitat 6. That puppy was staked down with the extra fly tie downs and all. Even so, when a nearby thunderstorm brought winds with accompanying fierce gusts I was stunned to see the tent get blown into a weird ellipse shape before snapping and getting blown flat! Yes, FLAT. There was no fighting against the storm so I pulled the pole ends out of the grommets to end the tent’s misery and let it lay flat without more warping or breaking or bending the poles anymore. It was of course too late for one of the poles and the others had some wicked bends. After the storm passed it was clear that we were going to need to repair the tent pole with the provided pole repair sleeve and add some more tie downs. The problem with the Hobitat 6 and its tie downs are that the tent is quite tall and the design does not hold up to high winds. I added more tie downs attached up high on the poles, 2 extra ones in each corner, and that did the trick. It would take hurricane force winds to tear that puppy up and thankfully we didn’t encounter those! Next time if wind is a factor at all I will add the high-ties to this monster tent.

Steamboat GPS tracks and Google Maps

codecat — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:32:10 +0000

Part of my ongoing Tdroid project includes gathering GPS track data and being able to upload it to a webservice for either downloading to other GPS enabled devices or remote viewing. So going to Steamboat for a powder day becomes extra rewarding. Lots of Pow-Pow and good track data too. I think the Aspen tree-skiing at Steamboat is some of the best tree runnning available in Colorado.

Air Taxi to the Wrangells Awaits!

codecat — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:55:57 +0000

Sometimes your lucky enough to really enjoy your work. I really have enjoyed building out the website and working with the folks at Copper Valley Air. I love the mountains and these folks fly people around and down to them, landing people and or supplies to remote fly-in locations in the Wrangell St. Elias Wilderness in Alaska. I fully intend on checking this out for myself being I have an open invitation to a window seat, its just a matter of schedule, getting to Anchorage, and fitting in the time off.

If you yourself might be interested in Flight seeing in Alaska, Remote Fly-In Adventures, Air Taxi, or Air Charter Services from Anchorage into the wilds of Alaska, check these guys out!