The Phillips Family

I’m trying to stay on top of this, but am already a week behind!

Last weekend Annie and I got to spend the weekend in southwest Colorado. It’s too bad that part of the state is so far away. So much to see and explore. Our good friends the McPheeters invited us down for the weekend to stay with them in their house in Pagosa Springs. We spent the time playing with the kids, biking, hiking, eating well, and generally enjoying the setting and the company. On Saturday morning I was heading out to the truck when I saw a bear in the front yard. He ran as soon as he heard me, but still exciting. We left Sunday afternoon and drove to Durango for dinner, then up towards Silverton to camp. We drove down a forest service road towards Lime Creek, where we came across a nice campground on the river. I promised Annie that if we camped this summer, I’d make sure we had a new tent, an air mattress and lots of pillows. So recently we bought them all. Cush. Not sure I can go back now.

Do you see the bear?

We made it into Silverton the next morning where I had been planning on a trail run. In a couple of weeks the Hardrock 100 will be run, starting and ending there in Silverton. The Hardrock 100 is the ultimate of trail races, a 100 mile foot race with a total elevation gain of 33,992 over the course of 48 hours. Beyond imagination tough. The race uses some obscure backcountry trails in places (and often no trails), so I thought it would be a good course to find something off of the beaten path. I decided to run the first leg of the race from Silverton to Cunningham Gulch and get a small taste. It was mainly an excuse to pore over topographical maps for days. I love maps. The trail starts in town at 9,310 and takes 4×4 roads up past several mines and an aerial tramway. Above treeline it switches to an old trail that goes over Little Giant at 13,000 and down a steep but awesome descent to Dives Basin, where Annie was to pick me up. Annie and I agreed on meeting on the other side of the ridge in 3 1/2 hours, but I was moving too slow to meet the cutoff. I decided turning around was better than creating panic, so I came back down. I was so close and a little disappointed, but maybe next time!

This is where I wanted to be (some photos from Blake Wood @ the Hardrock 100 web site):

And the awesome descent… next time!

And here are a few recent photos of Annie, the baby, and the house.