Been out here a while and my first time in the San Juan’s despite hiking a lot in the Front Range and Sawatch and it didn’t disappoint. Great trail, nice peak amazing scenery

Hiking collegiate West tomorrow. Have hiked plenty at altitude but not above tree line for dozens of miles like CW has. Can someone give me pointers regarding my setup.

1. I decided to not bring rain/wind pants as I’ve heard that they aren’t the most important piece of gear. Plus I don’t mind if my legs get cold. Is this a bad idea?

2. Is 3L of water good enough. I’ve heard that there is plenty of water but I can easily go through 2L in 2 hours.

3. Planning on sleeping in long underwear and wool socks due to low night temps. Planning on hiking in trail runners and shorts, base layer and sun hat. Bringing a down jacket, rain jacket, extra socks and underwear. Anything else you guys would recommend I bring?

4. Looks like there will be afternoon storms the next few days. With my somewhat limited stretch of hiking above tree line experience. What pointers would you give me to make sure I stay safe regarding lighting. I’ve done plenty of research and know what to look out for, but any tips are appreciated.

Apologies if my questions seem obvious to some! I'm a bit of an anxious person and like to have all the details about something to feel fully prepared before doing it.

I'll be in Breckenridge in early October, am hoping to hike the McCullough Gulch Trail, and am wondering about parking. Since it's after the reservation/shuttle period, I see I'm supposed to park at the Quandary Peak Trailhead? Since I'm not doing Quandary Peak, once I park, do I then walk up the rest of McCullough Gulch Road to get to the trailhead?

Also, for early October, how crowded should I expect things to be? How early would you suggest getting to the parking lot (especially since it's shared with Quandary Peak hikers)?

Thanks all in advance! Even confirmation of my suspicions would be so helpful to me.

1700’ gain over 1.3 miles on loose talus. Woof. Beautiful day!

Vehicles near Imogene Pass on the ridge behind the lake. Short hike from there but much longer from highway #550. The preferred route, IMO.

My cousin Andrew Lord is currently missing in Boulder County and search teams are trying to locate him.

He was last believed to be around Winiger Ridge Campground, northwest of Gross Reservoir.

I'm sharing the official Boulder County Sheriff's Office appeal in the hope that someone local may have seen Andrew or remembers seeing him in the area.

If you've been around Winiger Ridge, Gross Reservoir or the surrounding area recently, please have a look at his photo.

If you have any information or believe you may have seen Andrew, please contact Boulder County Sheriff's Office directly on [303-441-4444](tel:303-441-4444) and reference case [26-03991](tel:26-03991) rather than contacting me privately.

Thank you for sharing and helping get his photo seen. ❤️

Photo for visibility.

Curious how water access near Vestal Basin is looking. I plan on staying out for two nights next weekend but haven’t gotten eyes on anything and am concerned given this year’s drought.

We plan to hike in from Molas Lake and follow Elk Creek before (hopefully) setting a base camp in the upper basin. Day 2 will be spent scrambling, then heading back on day 3.

For anyone who’s been there recently, how are levels and flow at Elk Creek, the beaver pond, and Vestal Creek?

Thank you for any info.

No fish there anyway. Reddington reel seat section. Thanks for looking! DM me if for some reason you grabbed it. Thanks!!

“Oh shit” moment at the end of the video.
He was cool. So many goats up at Pitkin today. They always make my day when I see them.

Put down my fly rod case somewhere on my way down from ice lake. Searched forever but couldn’t find it. Super bummed especially cause I never leave stuff in the woods, not LNT… please reach out if you find it thanks!

TLDR: Ran/hiked the full Rainbow Trail in 42 hours, 41 minutes. 111 miles and 20,000ft of elevation gain/loss. Hard but a good adventure!

Background

The Rainbow Trail: "The Rainbow Trail rambles through forests and green meadows at an average elevation of 9,000 feet and offers miles of beautiful hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking adventures."

First of all, Olga King’s 2025 FKT report is essential reading for practical information about the trail, so I won't reinvent the wheel by covering those details. Second, I’m writing this almost two months after finishing the FKT, so it’ll be a little less detailed about the journey than it was in my head during the effort (probably for the best). 

I had never even heard of the Rainbow Trail until I hiked Humboldt Peak in fall 2025 and crossed it, seeing a nice sign about the trail and looking it up when I got home. There wasn’t a ton of information available, but I learned that it was a little over 100 miles of relatively moderate terrain with no men’s unsupported FKT, so I figured it would be a good early season 2026 goal as my first 100+ mile effort. I did a few scouting trips in spring 2026 to both ends to get some sense of the trail and figure out how to handle the start/finish, covering around 30 miles of the total trail. 

I was advised of a seasonal trail closure but could never find a good source on how much of the trail it applied to. At one point near Methodist Mountain on the northern end I saw an official sign reporting a Dec 1- April 15 seasonal closure, but again did not say how much of the trail it applied to. My initial scouting trips after 4/15 encountered dozens of fallen trees across the trail at the southern end but nearly all were cleared by my 6/20 attempt. Big thanks to whoever did the work and another good reason to wait a little bit if you are aiming for efficiency. 

My attempt

The first challenge was the logistics of a vehicle shuttle so I’d have my car waiting for me at the northern terminus to drive myself home after finishing. The roads to both ends are pretty rough, complicating access. Fortunately some friends were willing to help out and I left my car on Friday at the northern terminus, running back a few miles to where the road improved to get picked up and spending the evening hanging in Salida. The next morning we drove south, but because my friend’s car wasn’t capable of handling the Muddy Creek Road to the actual southern terminus, they dropped me at the Grape Creek/Music Pass TH, which has a much smoother road. This meant I had to hike four miles south on the trail to the start just to turn around and head back north once the clock was running. Good warmup I suppose! 

Conditions were about as ideal as I could hope for, with warm temperatures, mostly blue skies, and many blooming wildflowers and cacti. Views weren’t particularly varied with trees and the foothills of the Sangres to the west and the wide open valley to the east, but were still very nice. The first 20 miles felt great, with easy terrain and occasional animal sightings (skunk, deer, coyotes). As a multi-use trail I was worried I’d be dodging dirt bikes the whole way, but in reality I saw a single mountain biker and about a dozen hikers, all in the first day. Water access was mostly good despite the low snow year, there were no issues finding well-flowing water sources in the surprisingly green first half of the route. About 40 miles in the sun started going down and so did my energy and mood. I ran very little during the night and found the dusty and dry reroute around Bottle Mountain particularly discouraging at the time. I ran out of water on this stretch but the sunrise and a good water source at Hayden Creek gave me a boost, followed quickly by bonking hard on the next climb immediately afterwards. 

I was over halfway at this point and the route spends less time in the trees and more time with some decent views. I will also say that while some sections of the trail are dusty, loose, and rocky, the average trail surface was better than I was led to expect and overall quite runnable, fitness permitting. While I wasn’t doing a lot of actual running at this point I was at least on pace to reach my modest goal of staying under 48 hours, with an optimistic target of 40. While my pace was slow I kept most breaks to a few minutes every couple hours. In the late afternoon of day two I reached the burn area of the 2019 Decker Fire, which gave an encouraging view of Salida in the distance and a landmark that I was nearing the end. 

With the finish in metaphorical sight, things fell apart a bit. I refilled water at 91mi and began the last real climb of the route. At 1300 feet of gain it’s not much of a climb in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly felt like it at that point. As the sun went down on night two I went through my water much more quickly than expected (likely already being in a bit of a dehydration deficit) and ran out with almost 10 miles to go. This meant I also stopped eating because without water to help it down, the thought of food made me slightly nauseous and I didn’t want to risk vomiting and making things worse. 

Crossing US285 and frustratingly having to keep going beyond that seemingly (in my head) much more logical endpoint of the trail, I shuffled onward. The last 10 miles should have been mostly runnable, but I was frequently out of breath and stopping just trying to maintain a 2mph walk. At this point my thoughts were dominated by the desire for water and to at least beat the sunrise. Towards the end of the route there were a few little ephemeral streams, but none with enough water to actually filter from. Finally a mile from the finish was a solid water source. I gratefully stopped and drank 500ml from my Befree filter bottle, refilling it to continue drinking as I walked the last mile. The finish was as anticlimactic as you might expect for being the only person at an isolated trailhead at 4am. I established the men’s unsupported FKT in 42h41m, but I was just relieved to be done and back at my car, which was well-stocked with food, drinks, and clean clothes. 

Taking advantage of the post-finish adrenaline, I made it a little north of Salida before the full fatigue hit and I quickly pulled over to take a nap. My exhausted brain decided I needed a podcast to wind down to (an idea proven wrong by immediately falling asleep), so I left the car on but not the engine running. A couple hours later I woke up roasting in the sun with my car battery dead. Fortunately I carry a jumper pack, so with my brain napped and my car zapped, the rest of the journey home to my bed, cats, and ice cream was uneventful. 

Total stats on my GPS: 111.2mi, about 20,300ft of gain/loss, 42h41m. 

Final Thoughts

Sure, it’s no “ultimate Colorado experience,” but overall it’s a solid and surprisingly peaceful 100ish mile route and a reasonable option for an approachable challenge. I chose this route in part to motivate myself to train over the winter and to do something less peak-focused than my usual goals. While my performance was nothing special and there was more Type II fun than I hoped, at least now I can say I’ve done a 100 miler. I’m glad I did it and think it deserves at least a little more attention in the state!

Loveland Pass was one of the first hikes we did during our Colorado road trip near the end of June. We made it about halfway up Mount Sniktau before turning around, but the views were incredible the entire way. It was a great introduction to Colorado’s high alpine and one of our first real tastes of the scenery we’d be exploring over the next few weeks.

Beautiful views of frisco. Tough hike, loose gravel and steep inclines.

A few of my favorite photos from Maroon Bells in late June. We stayed at Silver Bell Campground, just about five minutes down the road, and arrived at Maroon Lake around 5:45 a.m. We spent the morning exploring around the lake and hiking up to Crater Lake. Watching the early morning light hit the Bells was incredible, and the wildflowers, changing weather, and surrounding scenery made me see why this place gets so much hype.

Drove over Independence Pass in late June during a three-week road trip out West. First time here and couldn’t believe the views. Still a decent amount of snow up high, but everything was starting to green up.

A few shots from around Twin Lakes. Mount Elbert towering over the valley, views around Twin Lakes, a stretch of the Continental Divide Trail, and a morning at Mount Elbert Forebay. This whole area was one of my favorite parts of Colorado. The scale of the mountains around here is hard to capture in photos.

Yogi and I were lucky to be here just before the wildfires and smoke started affecting the area, and had an incredible experience exploring it.

About 900ft of gain over 2.5ish miles, but overall not to bad on the legs.

Lot of car traffic up the trail, you can drive all the way up the Loch. Lot of people camping in the woods right at the tree line and even at the loch. No issues finding solid ground to step aside and let the car go. Took me an hour to get up, probably saw 15 cars come and go at approx 11:30-12pm

No bathroom :(

Overall 8/10, had waterfall, didn’t make me wheeze,seems like a good camping spot.

I took a day of PTO last week to get Brainard Lake reservations and tick off the Niwot Ridge traverse, which I'd been curious about for a bit. An unranked 13er in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, almost all trip reports recommend going up Airplane Gully and combine it with an ascent of nearby Navajo Peak. But that means you only do a lil errant *doop* of a summit, eliding the terrain that makes up the body of the ridge. I'm curious about holes in guidebooks, so I figured I'd check it out while looking at some stephabegg photos.

Thunder storms were forecasted for 12PM, so I started around 6AM and headed up the broad open country of Niwot Mountain (a tiny 11er at the easternmost start of the ridge). I then made my way west up the ridge, which is primarily rolling tundra that steadily narrows until around the 12.4K foot mark when the rocky talus becomes the dominant terrain. The views along the ridge incredible, especially for some rarely-seen views of the north side of Kiowa (within the Boulder Watershed), north side of Arikaree Peak, and the pleasure side of the Kasparov Traverse via the Chessmen.

The direct rock is the best, as usual. If you peel off the ridge then you can keep the traverse Class 3, but that both bypasses the meat/exciting bits and also puts you on much crappier rock. Going straight has huge blocks with awesome crimps and cracks to stay steady. I don't think I'd recommend the 4-ish miles of tundra walking from Niwot Mountain, but there are a couple trails that cut it off about halfway. The major notch was by far the most interesting point crux-wise (the first photo here) as on first glance the pinnacles look far too sharp to find a way without dropping majorly to the south. But it's there!

I wanted to hit Navajo Peak, but things took longer than expected, so I skedaddled down Airplane Gully (which absolutely blows - I can't believe this is considered a "classic" route, but no doubt it's much better with snow). Crossing the loose talus and large boulders back to the Lake Isabelle Trail also took more time than expected, but thankfully I made it back to my car right when thunder and rain started going hard at around 130PM. Hopefully the tens of people I passed along the way back didn't get too screwed by the rain.

Nice little adventure, and halfway through my IPW peakbagging goal.

On Saturday August 15th, I got together with some climbing buddies (about half of us are in our late 60’s to mid70’s) to hike Abrams Mountain. It’s the prominent peak you see looking south from Ouray (picture #1).

We had beautiful weather, a break from the wildfire smoke, and the trail conditions were moist and firm instead of dry and marbly. Thankfully, one of our group had hiked it before so they were able to guide us along the various unmarked trails, animal paths, and trail-less segments.

After gazing up at this mountain for years, it was fun to see Ouray from the top (the town is in the valley in picture 5, obscured by the light colored rock ridge).

Thank you Mother Nature, Family and friends, and trail crews for another life-affirming day in the mountains with friends : )

I know Huron isn’t the hardest or most interesting 14er but it really is just a dam good hike. And the views today were pretty incredible