The DeCaLiBron loop is a trail that summits four Colorado fourteeners: Mount Democrat, Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln, and Mount Bross (there’s a bypass trail just beneath the technical summit of Mount Bross, which is private property, that counts as a summit). This loop has been closed for extended durations in…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/10932918389 The first two months of 2024 started off rough for me personally, so a March trip gave me something to look forward to. Despite the temptation to pick a warmer destination or at least a place I’ve never been before, I chose to go to Colorado so…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9868911356 My friend Mark called me out of the blue in February 2023 asking if I had any interest in joining him for a week or so of travel in Scotland sometime in the fall. Exploring the Scottish highlands was one adventure I couldn’t say no to. During…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9539113958 Brittany and I hit the road early to get to the Yankee Boy Basin 2WD trailhead early. After an iced-coffee powered drive on the winding Million Dollar Highway the drive got even more interesting as it left the pavement and wound up a rocky road and under…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9519440700 I left Old Tale Inn in Leadville at about 4am and downed a can of cold brew coffee on the relatively short drive to the Mt Elbert trailhead (I took the standard route: Northeast Ridge). I was excited and a little nervous about climbing a fourteener on…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9508951911 I made a handful of Colorado friends through a “30 days upside down” handstand challenge on Instagram in January 2022. I got to meet a few of them in Colorado last September (Bierstadt-Sawtooth Evans with Drew; Shavano and Tabeguache with Ryan; and at a Nine Inch Nails…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/7755631622 Two days after climbing Mt Bierstadt, Mt Evans, and the Sawtooth Traverse linking them together I met up with another friend I met through the #30daysupsidedown handstand challenge to tackle my 8th and 9th Colorado fourteeners. Ryan (@nekoboushikun on Instagram) and I chose to do the Mount…
***Update: Mt Evans was renamed Mount Blue Sky in 2023. Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/7743757451 This story starts with an Instagram #30daysupsidedown handstand challenge started by some mountain-climbing Coloradans that I follow. I was going through some things in life then and I figured that having something as random as practicing handstands…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/7633913868 South Sister Summit was a climb that almost didn’t happen. After my week in Bend for a work training I had Saturday through Tuesday to explore the Pacific Northwest and with so much to do and see out there I had considered skipping South Sister to build in…
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/7233646594 The heavy rains ended at dawn. In the day’s first light, I crawled through my rental car to plop myself into the driver’s seat. I had folded the seats down and spent the second half of the night in the back of the car, encased in assorted…