Wisconsin Century Ride (7/2/10)

This was my second "Century Ride" up the various bike trails in Illinois to the Wisconsin border. This day I was joined by Denny (Dad) as well as Matt H. This would be Matt's first century ride and the 4th or 5th at least for Denny. Weather report was perfect for the day and indeed the weather was great and sunny all day.

We left on the Great Western Trail from Lombard just after 6am. We took this west and it eventually hooks up to the Elgin Branch of the Illinois Prairie Path. As the IPP begins to turn north and hits Elgin it eventually turns into the Fox River Trail. This continues north along the river and eventually turns into the Prairie Trail around McHenry. From there it heads north to the Wisconsin border where it ends at Genoa City. We made great time and were feeling good the whole hike north. It was fun heading through Stern Woods again around Crystal Lake where the big hills provide a challenge to the gears (and the legs!).

We made the Wisconsin border at 11:20am. We spent 10-15 minutes making phone calls, posting on twitter, and catching a drink. We were getting pretty hungry, despite the light snacking. We had originally considered hitting the Subway near the northern end of these trails. But we then decided loading up on a big sub wouldn't do well for the tummy. We hit a gas station instead and loaded up on slim jim-style meat and other lighter snacks for lunch. The ride back was a joy as well. The length of the day and the exhaustion of the legs didn't really start to sink in til we were getting onto the Great Western Trail once more. Actually for me the worst part of the return was the sore hind end from sitting on a tough bike seat all day. I nearly wanted to stand on my pedals and not sit the entire trek back on the Western Trail. We hit Lombard at 5:36pm and were most happy to be able to get off those bikes. We treated ourselves to an awesome supper at Buona Beef. Yum!

STATS

Distance Total: 118 miles
Total Time: 11 1/2 hours

TRACK

Here is the KML track file for our bike hike:

My Track

Quandary Peak Winter (3/25/10)

Route Name: East Ridge (standard route)
Start Elevation: 10,850 ft.
Summit Elevation: 14,265 ft.
Elevation Gain: 3415 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 6.4 mi (according to my GPS, 6.75mi. according to the books)

INTRODUCTION

Four of us headed up Quandary today. The weather was perfect. Hardly a cloud in the sky. Visibility went on for over a hundred miles (We could make out the Maroon Bells in the distance). There was fresh snow on Quandary over the past two days. From the looks of the trail I'd say it must have been around 8 inches. There was no issue at all route-finding as we another hike trekking up ahead of us in his snowshoes marking the trail. It turns out the guy making trail ahead of us was Bill Middlebrook of 14ers.com.

This was my second ascent of Quandary Peak and more excitingly, our group's first winter ascent of any 14er. Being our here in Colorado in March on a rare occasion we decided the time was right to give snow ascending a try. We had the proper gear including snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes though not all this was necessary on Quandary. We also liked the low avalanche danger on Quandary's East Ridge as we are not experienced at reading snow and avalanche signs.

From Quandary's East ridge

TRAIL BETA

We snowshoed from top to bottom. With all the fresh snow below treeline it was a necessity. We noticed at least one person from another group today post-holing in the trees. Once on the ridge the snow was harder in sporadic areas mixed with other sections that were still 1+ feet deep.
Once above 13000 feet the snow is mostly wind-hardened and packed down. The snowshoes for us up there became basically our over-sized crampons. The trail is just steep enough and the snow just hard enough that we were happy to have some "teeth" to grip the trail. We didn't bring ice axes and did okay with this, but in retrospect we would have felt more comfy on the descent with them.
On our descent things we warming up. We were shedding layers every half mile or so. Once in the trees the trail got more and more slushy as we went. Near the TH there were two small parts of trail that had already melted out.

TRACK

I took a GPX track of our hike on my Nokia N800 with Maemo Mapper. I've put it into a KML file for download here:

My Track

PHOTOS

If you would like to see all my photos from this hike you can click the photo below and it links to my Google Photo Album:

Tennessee Pass Snowshoeing (3/22/10)

Route Name: Tennessee Pass loop trails

A great idea of what the snow looked like. Thick enough
to make snowshoes useful in most places

Start Elevation: 10,441 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 1.85 mi

INTRODUCTION

We decided to explore the loop trail at Tennessee Pass on the snowshoes. This hike included Mark, Denny, Marcia, Luke, Jonah, Seth, Matt, and Joyce. We headed out around 10am to clear skies and a good amount of snow on the trails.
The loop trails at Tennessee Pass are mostly flat. Our elevation went up and down and did not vary by more than 100 feet over the 2 miles. Off trail the snow was several feet thick. Strangely enough, there were a few places on trail where the snow had melted through because of wear and tear.
Upon finishing our modest hike for the morning we picnic lunch-ed in the parking lot on a tarp we laid out in the parking lot. Still a beautiful day and clear skies!

Beach Loop Trail (Warren Dunes State Park) (9/4/09)

Route Name: Beach Loop Trail
Location: Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan
Start Elevation: 651 ft.
Max Elevation: 737 ft.
End Elevation: 585 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 3.08 mi

INTRODUCTION

We began this hike again near our campsite. We headed to the RV camping loop and picked up the forest trails near where we started on the Mt. Randall Trail. Only this time we turned right (northeast) and headed the other direction. The trail begins with a mile hike through the edges of the forest.

After the first mile of our hike we began to gain some elevation over one of the hills. After the first hill the trail drops and turns towards the beach. The trail will then head over a second, smaller hump, and then begins to open up with views of Lake Michigan. It also descends down to the beach itself. At this point it was a simple 1.1 mile hike along the beach.

Just Mark and Denny did this hike and upon hitting the end of our hike at the main beach area we met up with the others for some fun time with the kids in the sand and the lake.

TRACK

Here is the track file from our hike:

My Track

Mt. Randall Trail (Warren Dunes State Park) (9/4/09)

Route Name: Mt. Randall Trail
Location: Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan
Start Elevation: 649 ft.
Mt. Randall Elevation: 783 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 0.98 mi

INTRODUCTION

This is one of our favorite short hikes at Warren Dunes State Park. The route this day took us from our campsite in the tent-camping area up and over Mt. Randall on the trail and then down to the lake shore. This hike included Mark, Denny, and Luke and Jonah.

The official trail begins just off of the RV camping loop and meanders through the forest for a 1/10 of a mile and then up a 150 foot sand hill. This is definitely the highlight of the hike. The sand is very loose and with every step one takes up the hill they lose nearly all of it in sliding. (Going down is much more fun as one can practically run and jump down in about 20 seconds).

After ascending Mt. Randall then it is a flatter hike through a few sand hills and then the descent down to the beach. Most of this hike is on sand with a few portions partly covered by thin vegetation.

TRACK

Here is the track file from our hike:

My Track

PHOTOS

The bottom of the great sand dune climb. Jonah and Luke are ready to head up

At the bottom looking up most of the hill

Nearing the top now. Looks like Luke has stumbled into the sand ahead

At the top of Mt. Randall checking out the lush forest

On top Mt. Randall checking out the remaining hike to the beach