Since we are less than a week away from the High Lonesome lottery, I thought, I’d create a page with the details of the 4th annual Half Lonesome. It will be on June 30th at 4am. Last year, there were only two of us since many thought 2 weeks out was too close to the race. This year, we will go 3 weeks out. It’s a little over 50 miles with 13.3k feet of climbing at an average elevation of 11k feet. The route follows the race route for the first 30 miles and then deviates to the CDT via a small cross country scramble. It then rejoins the race route at Tin Cup.
This is a “no drop” run, but if you feel that you can’t keep the split pace, there are many drop spots or places crew can meet you. I’ve projected the splits on the last 3 years and the whole route will take 15 hours or so. The drive time estimates are based on starting in BV.
Intersection of Chalk Creek Dr and Co rd 290 for a 4am start on Friday the 30th Start: 38°43’22.2″N 106°10’46.8″W – 25min drive
Bail out point 1 : Raspberry Coordinates: 38.689344, -106.170766– 30min drive Estimated time: 5:05am
Easy meeting point for crew Alpine Coordinates: 38.709844, -106.289312 -35min drive Estimated time: 9:10am
Bail out point 2 : Cottonwood Coordinates: 38.764577, -106.336511 – 45min drive Estimated time: 12:25pm
Bail out point 3 : Tin Cup Coordinates: 38.6923, -106.4142(note that this road is awful so the person will need to walk 4 miles to St Elmo – 45min drive to St Elmo) Estimated time: 4:30pm
This Sunday, I ran a new race. The race starts above Mt Princeton resort and follows the Colorado Trail for 9 miles. The course turns West and circles Mt White and returns to the start. Click here for pictures of the course
After 18 miles, I reached the high point where I jumped in the air for a picture. Unfortunately, my hamstring cramped and I spent the next 5 minutes walking it off.
Here are a few options for a long run, starting from easiest to hardest. This is a casual event so we will stick together and enjoy the scenery.
Monarch Loop – unless we would want to hike 3 miles on Hwy 50, we’d need to stage a car. Follows the HL route from Lost Wonder hut to Fooses but stays on the CT the whole way. Estimate 7 hours. Caltopo route: https://caltopo.com/m/HSE94
Browns Pass loop – Not a lot of runable areas for normal people on this route. Park at Denny creek, climb Yale, drop down the East ridge, hike to Brown’s pass, back to Denny. Estimate 8.5 hours. I’ve done this route many times (https://www.strava.com/activities/5858478624) Caltopo route: https://caltopo.com/m/QRSJ
Hancock loop – giant loop on a portion of the CDT that is not in the race. There is 9 miles of forest roads that will have some traffic. Little cross country and since the Hancock road sucks, I’d recommend we start by the Pomeroy turn-off. Estimate 10 hours. I did this in July (https://www.strava.com/activities/5613543128). Caltopo route: https://caltopo.com/m/PA52
Raspberry to Ptarmigan – Follows the HL route from Raspberry. At Cottonwood, we climb Grassy Gulch and drop down to Hwy 306 at Ptarmigan. Easiest to have a crew for this one, but staging would work. Lots of climbing. Estimate 10.5 hours. Caltopo route: https://caltopo.com/m/FE6Q4
It’s over… While I didn’t obtain the time I wanted, I beat last year’s time by 48 minutes. I finished 54th out of the 125 starters with a time of 33:02. I created a gallery below of the race pictures. Just click on any picture to start a full screen slideshow.
Saturday was the Leadville Marathon. The course normally climbs Mosquito Pass and returns to Leadville but due to the snow, the course was changed. At the start, the weather was awesome but the forecast called for showers in the afternoon – they never came. On the adjusted course, I finished about 30 minutes faster than I expected.
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Afterwards, Preston and I went to Deerhammer and played cards. The dogs assumed their positions.
Today, we walked bridge to bridge with the dogs and Preston practiced his climbing skills.
On Thursday we leave for Amsterdam and then Tanzania.
On the first Friday in August, I ran the High Lonesome 100. Since the course travels over 5 passes for a total of 23,000ft of climb, my goal was to finish in 35 hours. The average elevation of the race is 10,433ft reaching a high point of over 13,000ft. Over the past few months, I’ve hiked almost all of the course. My race card is below. The sections in yellow indicate that I can have a drop bag and light blue means that my crew can meet me.
It was a perfect morning and the forecast was for light rain in the afternoon. My only worry was that Saturday was going to be hot.
Tracy and the dogs were there to see me off.
The race started at 6am sharp.
I came into the first aid station in 1:26 against a predicted 1:45.
A quick bite to eat and a coke and I’ve off for a 4,000ft climb up to the high point of the race on the shoulder of Mt. Antero.
The climb follows Little Browns Creek up a tight gulch to above treeline. It then drops down a highly trafficked 4wd road that I hadn’t run before, nor do I want to again. Since it was Friday, there was a lot of traffic, but it was an incredible 5 mile downhill.
I reached St. Elmo aid station, over 90 minutes ahead of schedule. I now had to climb Law’s pass to Cottonwood where I’d meet Tracy.
A storm started rolling in so it got a little cold in the wind. Once I cleared treeline, it started to rain.
I made it to Cottonwood 1:50 ahead of schedule and unfortunately, I beat Tracy there by 6 minutes. A nice couple relayed my schedule to her and took the picture below of me.
I turned around and headed over Law’s pass back to St. Elmo.
Once in St. Elmo, I had to traverse about 6 miles of exposed ground above treeline. I rolled into the halfway point at Hancock, 2 hours ahead of schedule. Tracy was waiting with a kiss and I got to pick up Mike to pace me through the night. Mike and Tina are in the picture below waiting for me to come into Hancock.
Once leaving Hancock, we had to climb Hancock Pass, descend into the Middle Fork, then climb 3,000ft to Chalk Creek Pass, and finally traverse the Monarch Crest into the store parking lot at Monarch Pass. It was a tough night of climbs, but the weather held and we made it to the parking lot 3 hours ahead of schedule. There I picked up Mark to take me the next 20 miles which are considerably more flat and at a lower elevation.
I had a very dedicated crew. All of them turned up at 4:30am to meet me in a freezing parking lot. From left to right, Mark, Danielle, Mike, and Tina. I couldn’t have done it without them.
This section turned out to be the hardest for me since there are a lot of up and downs and the temperature climbed into the 80’s. It doesn’t sound hot for a guy from Austin, but when the sun beats down on you on the dry Colorado Trail, you bake. I met Tracy and the rest of the crew at Raspberry Gulch still an hour ahead of schedule.
Tracy took me home for the last 8 miles.
I crossed the finish line 70 minutes ahead of my plan. A storm started blowing in and the wind was so strong it had knocked the sign down.
I was rewarded with another kiss.
Out of 100 starters, I finished in 43rd place. It was my first 100 that I finished in the first half. My Strava read out is below. Since my watch was the longest battery setting the pace and moving time gets messed up. The distance and elevation gain are close to accurate.
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It’s been a while since I updated the page. I’ve been busy with a new house we bought and getting ready for my 100 mile race, The High Lonesome 100.
CW completed his hike around the Collegiate Peaks and Preston and I met him in Winfield and camped for the night. We ended up playing some poker and hanging out with the dogs.
The next day, I sent Preston with CW over Hope Pass and I drove around to Twin Lakes to meet them. Since they were turning off the CT onto a smaller trail, the dogs and I hiked up to meet them at the intersection. It was a steep climb so the dogs were crashed out while I read waiting for them to arrive.
The next weekend, I went with a group doing a training run on the High Lonesome course. It was a really fast group and I bonked in the heat so it had me worried about the race. We went 22 miles and climbed 6k feet in 5 hours.
Today I set out on the 16 mile Brown Creek Loop. The loop follows Brown Creek and Little Brown Creek to their sources, essentially circling Mt. White. I went counter clockwise climbing towards the headwaters of Little Brown Creek. The trail is steep, climbing 4,500ft in the first 6 miles. Just before tree line, a small meadow appeared with an incredible amount of flowers.
The trail wound higher to above tree line, maxing out around 13,000ft. It was a beautiful day, a little wind, but sunny.
Once I got to the top, the trail followed a forest road to the edge of a lake. It then was a very runable single track down. I made the journey a little longer since I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. After 17 miles and 4,500ft of climb, I’m happy to be heading to Whiskey Wednesday at Deerhammer Distillery.
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I’ve been running and hiking different parts of the course and have found some of the trail intersections confusing. To help out, I’ve been using some maps that I’ve created from Caleb’s GPX file. I’ve linked to all the maps below plus I’ve added some info on a few apps that allows you to carry offline versions of the map on your phone. If you need help, just email me at: jim@skelmo.com
You can install the free Avenza app (iOS or Android) for viewing geospatial PDF course maps. Once you have the Avenza app installed, download and add any or all of the geospatial PDF course maps. I’ve found that keeping the maps in a DropBox account is the easiest way to transfer to your device. One recent change in the app is that the free version limits you to 2 active maps. To make it easy, I’ve created multiple maps giving detail of the entire course.
This link will give you a NE,NW,SE,SW map for the different part of the course. The advantage of using these is that they have a much higher resolution.
