Colorado
JUly 2024
Dates: July 2-8, 2024
People: Mark, Luke, Seth, Dad Witte
Itinerary
6-30 (Travel Day)
7-1 (Travel Day)
7-2 (Travel Day - Barr Lake)
7-3 (Huron Peak)
7-4 (Shavano - Tabeguache)
7-5 (Camp Hale - Ptarmigan Pass)
7-6 (Silver Rush 50 - Notch Mt.)
7-7 (Travel Day)
7-8 (Travel Day)
SUNDAY JUNE 30
The trip began as my plan to get out to Colorado and run the Silver Rush 50 in Leadville. I was happy to not do this alone and so invited anyone else to come along and we'd make an itinerary of it. Dad decided he was interested in coming and wanted to drive the Jeep out to CO. Luke and Seth then opted in and they became part of the driving option. I had original plans to fly on Tuesday morning and kept that so I could have a little more time at home for work and for Monday worship.
Dad, Luke and Seth left Monroe around 230p. It was good I was staying as I ended up with a funeral service and was busy with that when they left. They stopped at Comfort Inn & Suites in Grinnell, Iowa. 536 miles on day 1.
MONDAY JULY 1
Dad, Luke and Seth left the hotel in Grinnel, IA at 9am central. They were able to take relaxing day of driving as they didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time. Dad did all the driving. It looked like they made it into Denver sometime after supper. Stayed at Comfort Suites Denver International Airport on Tower Road. 717 miles driving on day 2.
TUESDAY JULY 2
Today began my travels for the trip. Sarah and I left the house at 3:30am to head to the airport. As we wanted DTW we made a wrong turn into McNamara terminal because of a confusing construction zone. It was 4:10am when she dropped me. Security was very busy at the north end so I went to the south end where things were a little lighter. I had a 5:30a flight so I had time to walk around a bit before boarding began. Everything went smoothly for us to depart on time from DTW heading direct to Denver.
I watched the finale of Season 4 of The Chose in flight. Also took a short nap. The flight arrived into DIA 15 minutes early. We had debated whether Dad should just sleep in and I hang at the airport for awhile or whether he would grab me and take me back to the hotel for breakfast. We opted for the latter. I ate breakfast with Dad at the hotel and then Luke and Seth eventually we joined. We hung out in there room for awhile and then got packed up. We had the day free until David would arrive at DIA around 4pm.
We finally settled on a hike and went up to Barr Lake State Park which was only about 20 minute from the hotel. They had a $10 vehicle entry.
We headed out from our hike at Barr Lake back down to Tower Road and opted for lunch at Mod Pizza. We then drove over to King Soopers to get our snacks for hiking for the next 2 days. We were pretty tight on space in the Jeep so we didn't want to get too much. We headed next to the really nice cell phone lot plaza at DIA and sat inside for about an hour until David's flight arrived. We grabbed David at 415p and then headed for the mountains.
We stopped for supper to go in Conifer hitting both Qdoba and Wendys. We had a nice drive on 285 with just a little bit of traffic. We made it out to Bob and Joyce's at 7:15p. We toured some of the new additions to their house and their sheds. We visited with them for the evening. We also spent some time outside playing with their disc golf nets, Luke really enjoyed this. We slept Dad on the bed in one room with David on the floor with me in bed in the other room with Luke and Seth on the floor.
WEDNESDAY JULY 3
We were up early for our 14er start today, but nothing too crazy early. We weren't in a great hurry and were targeting a 730 start for the mountain. Aunt Joyce was gracious enough to be up and have a breakfast casserole for us to eat for breakfast. We were able to hit the road at 6am as planned to drive up to the 4WD trailhead for Huron Peak by Winfield.
After the hike we made a stop at City Market in BV to get some more Gatorade and supplies for the next day. At the house we had time for some showers and then we had a wonderful supper with Bob and Joyce. Joyce made a spaghetti with Italian sausage in it that was wonderful. We also had salad, fruit and mini pumpkin pies. After supper we spent time sitting around a camp 🔥 fire Bob had built outside. It was a nice evening.
THURSDAY JULY 4
Today was 4th of July 💥🎉
We were up at 530 again. I was surprised to wake up to some DOMS in my calves. It must have been tied to some of the steep parts on Huron yesterday and perhaps my calves not being as seasoned for wear and tear as they should have been. If I were really smart and cautious I might have taken this as a message to not do Shavano with the rest today. But let's be honest, that was not an option. The option to do another peak with David, Luke and Seth was never going to be missed. Dad, however, was definitely too sore to be in for today so he was taking an off day. He enjoyed himself anyways taking a 4WD drive pass near Buena Vista and making some connections with old friends in BV.
The rest of us got our bags packed from Bob and Joyce's house before we left for the peak. Joyce again made us breakfast having some breakfast tacos for us to partake of before departing. We shared some good byes with Joyce and hit the road at 6:30am.
Dad drove us down to the Blank Cabin TH for Shavano. While the road in was rough it followed a ridge and there were many people with camp sites along the road. This would be a spot worth returning to! We hit the TH at 8am and got started. We made plans for Dad to pick us up at the end of the hike.
We headed up to BV after the hike. We stopped at the Love's Truck Stop and did supper with the pizza and chicken places there in the gas stop. We loaded up on some drinks and then made our way back to the road to head up to Leadville.
In Leadville we stayed at Joey's house 🏠 . He is the owner of Two Dog Market in Leadville and a friend David has made via his 10th Mountain Book and as a supplier of 10th Mountain antiques for Joey. He had a nice house with a mini apartment on the lower floor. He welcomed us in and showed us around. We had a small living room, a bedroom, a mini kitchenette, and a bathroom. For four of us one might call it small but it was perfect for us. We were so blessed to have a place to stay in Leadville for the next few days and we made the most of it.
The highlight of the evening was seeing fireworks over Leadville. Joey pointed us to a hill that sits just above town and we could already see vehicles gathering up there. We took 5th St just east of town where it turns into County 1. Probably no more than a half mile up the hill there was a dirt road and a dirt lot. It was just before a couple of big tailings piles. From here we could see over the whole town. The fireworks starting at dusk and they were shooting them from the Dutch Henry Sledding Hill where my race would start on Saturday. There were also fireworks coming up from various places in town from residents. It was an amazing sight to see the fireworks with Elbert and Massive in the background.
FRIDAY JULY 5
OWe took this morning easy and as an opportunity to sleep in. There wasn't anything on the agenda for today and for me especially it was to be a rest day before tomorrow's race. I woke up and took a walk around downtown Leadville. I checked out the first couple of blocks of the 100 Course where it leaves at 6th and Harrison. Both Dad and David were out about town and they ran into Mayor Dan (name?) and talked to him for an hour.
We finally settled on a plan to do some exploring around Camp Hale for the first half of the day. We loaded up in the van, headed to Subway for breakfast subs. We then made a stop by Joey's store at Two Dog Market to talk with him for a bit. It was a real fun and eclectic store. Luke bought a nice Leadville trucker hat there.
We drove on up to Camp Hale. On the way into the valley we turned onto the Jones Gulch Rd (according to Accutera, might also be FS726) which Dad said used to be the road into the valley before US24 was made a more direct route into and through the valley. We drove this around to the base of the valley and stopped at what used to be the rock climb area of the Camp. David and Luke climbed up the slope looking for old pitons from the 40s.
Next we drove up the Resolution Pass road to Ptarmigan Pass. I opted again to stay in the Jeep and rest, especially with my calves aching pretty badly today. The others hiked up to the ridge and made for Sugarloaf Mt. Dad turned back early. The others found what used to be Machine Gun Ridge. They spent time their looking for old artifacts including shell casings. They never quite made it to Sugarloaf. They had great fun exploring.
We rolled through lunch while up at the pass and it became a snacking kind of day. We headed back to Leadville after the explorations and get in around 4:30pm. I headed over to the Dutch Henri sledding hill for packet Pickup for the Silver Rush 50. Ken and Merrilee Chlouber were there greeting people.
For Supper we walked a few blocks down the street to Moe's BBQ. We all enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches as well as their Oreo pudding dessert. It was a nice meal. I spent the evening getting ready all my gear and drop bag for the race in the morning. David made plans with my boys to hike Notch Mountain (13er) for views of Mount of the Holy Cross. We all watched a Copa America watch on TV between Venezuela and Canada.
SATURDAY JULY 6
I was up about 4:45 to begin to get ready for the race. I ate some applesauce cups and oatmeal squares. I got my Squirrel's nut butter on and put nip tape on. My KT tape on the knees and the calves held well overnight and looked race ready. I made sure all my gear was in place and Dad and I left the house shortly after 520. I would realize as we made it to the dropoff at the sled hill that I had forgotten my drop bag. We had to go back and get it. 10 minutes lost but thankfully we had been running early.
Everyone was at the finish line waiting for me which was pretty cool. I made it through and they found me a few moments later. I was pretty sure I was a bit dehydrated. A mix of that, a wave of emotions, and probably just my body being far from equilibrium left me a bit short of breath and dazed. Everyone was so helpful in just offering help to me. I think it was Luke who helped me get some water and I was sipping heavily on that. I did have two tags on my bib for beer as well as a meal tag. I did walk over and grab a beer but I only had a sip of it. Dad and DAvid worked on it instead. The basic taco bar meal just didn't seem appetizing to me at the time so we didn't partake. We hung out about 30 minutes at the post-race while I recovered and hydrated. I did finally have to sit down for about 10 minutes just to let my body settle.
We finally sent Dad for the Jeep and once he had grabbed it he came to pick us up in the lot at the start area. It was quite crowded and we had a bit of a time getting turned around in the lot and back out to the main road. We finally made it back to the house and I got to enjoy a much needed shower. My body was beginning to move to equilibrium but not quite yet. I cleaned up and then sat a bit before we decided up High Mountain Pies in Leadville for supper. We drove on over and found it quite busy. I found a table outside to sit at as I just couldn't stay standing and still felt a bit off. We probably waited close to an hour for our pizzas but thankfully we got our water early and I continued to hydrate. Thankfully my stomach was starting to get hungry by the time our food arrived and I was able to do my part in finishing the pizzas.
After supper we were back to the house for the big packing job to get ready to hit the road in the morning. While packing we watched the Copa America game between Uruguay and Brazil, which Uruguay won in PKs.
SUNDAY JULY 7
With only a 2 hour drive to the airport we decided we didn't need to head out til 6am. We cleaned up the "apartment" and got the Jeep packed and were out the door on time. It was nice heading east on 70 so early in the morning as the traffic was fairly minimal. I would look later in the day and the post-July4-weekend traffic in the afternoon on 70 looked pretty bad. We stopped for McDonalds breakfast at Silverthorne. We hit the airport at 8am and dropped David off.
Then began the big drive to Michigan. Dad drove the first leg to Big Springs, NE where we stopped for gas at 10:25am. I drove the next leg getting us to North Platte, NE where we hit the Arby's. I drove again to a rest area at Kearney Eastbound at 2:42p where we stopped to get out and walk around a bit.
Dad drove again and got us to a gas stop at Flying J in Gretna, NE. For supper we tried to hit a Wingstop in Des Moines but they had a 40 minute wait and seemed a bit of a train wreck inside. We opted for a Culvers instead. We headed to the one north east of Des Moines, just off I80 in Altoona. After supper we made plans to head to the Quad Cities for the night. We stopped in Walcott at a Pilot for one more gas stop. We made it to the hotel at 10:40p a Country Inn & Suites by Radisson in Moline. The room was a nice suite with a sofa bed and two queens for the four of us.
MONDAY JULY 8
We were up at 7:20a for quick morning to get back on the road. We did breakfast in the hotel. They had really good home fries but they were all out of bacon. Nobody from the hotel was manning the breakfast so it was a bit disappointing. We were on the road at 8:13am.
We made quick work through Northern Illinois til we hit a spot of traffic on 80/94 before getting into Indiana. We hit a rest area on the Toll Road at 11:10am in Indiana. I found us a Portillos for lunch in Mishawaka which allowed us to do a little driving through South Bend and near the Notre Dame campus. Lunch was so yum. I drove us after lunch and got us to a gas stop at the Loves just over the Ohio border before the Ohio Turnpike kicks in. From there we made it the rest of the way home in one shot getting in at 4:40pm.