All Along the Front Range

Big Country 

A view from the top of Arapaho Basin Ski Area, with the many runs of Breckenridge in the distance to the right

Background: 

A few weeks ago I was cut from my seasonal job at Alpine Ski Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. It seemed spring had come early and it was almost 80 degrees on my last day of work. This is not the case on the Front Range, however, and I spent over 3 days of skiing on western powder, my first time skiing out west. 

The first day at Arapaho Basin was a bit chunky with no fresh snow on the ground, but it was a good day to get the legs used to longer runs. Day 2 it ended up snowing all day with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour, so we hung around in the trees and I got my first taste of what it is like to hit the chutes.

Day 3 was a bluebird day with 4-5" of fresh powder and we hit the trees practically all day long. There's nothing quite like skiing in the trees... similar to mountain biking but with no hard breaks. You've just got to pick a line, see yourself through the line, and stick with it. The only way you fail is if you bail.

At a Keystone summit, Breckenridge in the distance with the neighboring town of Frisco

The last day was quite the finale, and we ended up skiing over 7 hours into the night at Keystone, one of Colorado's only night skiing areas. Through the trees, moguls and steep runs, we were thoroughly exhausted but all in all it was the best single day of skiing I've had to date.

Anyways, this is mostly a hiking blog and we did end up trekking up a hill, but nowhere near the slopes. We ended up in Boulder and put in a lot of miles a few days later. 

Hike Report: 

A view of one of the Flatirons of Boulder

We were staying at a friend's place in Denver, in the neighborhood of Lakewood very close to Golden, home of Miller-Coors. Boulder is pretty far from here, and we had no car. Luckily, we had a light rail stop about half a mile away and that is all we needed. After hopping on the train, we arrived at Union Station in downtown. 

Union Station is Denver's historic central transportation hub, with almost all light rail and bus routes beginning/ending here and Amtrak service. The Crawford Hotel also operates out of Union Station offering 5 star lodging amenities located in the heart of Denver's "LoDo" neighborhood (lower downtown). As soon as you walk into Union Station, there is definitely a vibe about it with lots of people coming and going and some even staying around to hang out. There is a bar, coffee shops, bookstores, and more. For anyone visiting Denver it is a must-do. 

I swear I have never waited more than 10 minutes for any public transportation in Denver and almost as soon as we arrived we hopped on a charter-style bus en route to Boulder. There were a few stops along the interstate on the way, but we made it up there in about 45 minutes. 

I could write an entirely new post about Boulder, and maybe I will one day, but I will skip right to the hike up Flagstaff. We walked through the bustling downtown Boulder (and I caught up with my friends at PeopleForBikes.org) and caught a greenway trail along Boulder Creek that would take us to the Panorama Point trailhead. 

Our hike: Panorama Point up the Flagstaff trail 

At this point, Sean is very thirsty and we had found that all of the businesses that could have sold us water was way back in town. We ended up finding a working water fountain at a park near the trailhead, but we had a good bit of climbing to do with no water source in the foreseeable future. So we turned around at this point and gave up on the mountain...

Of course I'm kidding. We kept going, hoping to find some sort of water source on the way up on one of the many bathroom stops, but we were striking out. Sean found a water bottle on the side of the trail and had the bright idea of putting snow inside for it to melt and drink. I do not condone or promote picking up random water bottles and using it to drink out of, but at the end of the day we were in a spot and we had no better ideas. And best of all we were cleaning up the trail!

Overlook at the Halfway House

Fortunately, we didn't have to end up drinking melted snow as we ran into a young family on their way to boulder (as in climbing, not the town) and Sean asked if they had any water. They turned out to have like 3 gallons on them and they filled up the water bottle. It all works out. 

Hydrated, the hike got much more pleasant. We got into the tree-line and the views kept getting better and better.

Maybe this was considered a Flatiron?... Hard to tell 

The town of Boulder

Flagstaff Mountain is accessible via a two lane, paved road that we ended up crossing many times on the way up. As a result of this, the trails at the top were very manicured and even had some that were wheelchair accessible. The reward was a fantastic view of the snow-capped high Rockies

It was a great trip! Skiing, hiking, exploring, I couldn't have asked for more. My last spring break of college was definitely the best. Now, two more months of living in Charlotte and then I'm off to work in the Rockies. Getting off the plane this time around was surreal, the end is coming close. The days just go quicker and quicker, things start to run into each other and there is little free time anymore. Breaks like these are necessary, though, it's good for morale and I am ready to make the most of the next 70 days.