Allison and I wanted to stick close to home today for no particular reason, really just in that seasonal/transitional limbo thing and lack of a real plan.
I figured a Boulder County highpoint would be fun, along with an exploration of Dream Canyon. Dream Canyon has somewhat of a shady reputation, yet I have heard that it is an amazing place from numerous climbing friends. A recent news article about some guy falling 500 feet to his death made me wonder why I have not yet seen this place, oh yeah, the shady reputation.
Armed with the wife and dog, we cautiously approached the canyon. There seems to be numerous routes down, some cliff out, some go all the way to the bottom. It was fun exploring and the only other people we saw were hardcore climbers, although I found it odd that all of had helmets, yet none were wearing them??? We went downstream a ways, then upstream a bit. I found my way across, but Allison and Sierra protested. I reluctantly gave in and went back across and we did some fun scrambling on the way back up. Luckily it was a cold day and this kept all the wackos indoors. I would love to go back and do some real climbing or try to traverse the entire canyon.
We then went up and took a short hike up Sugarloaf. This was a bit of a lark, as it was only 500 vertical feet. The views were great and I was itching to get out there on the mountain bike, as peering down on the nearby trails and valleys brought back all kinds of fun biking memories. I can see heading up there on the bike in the next few days.
2.7 miles for the day and 1,100 vertical.
