Those are some awesome pics. Beautiful scenery.

Just got done looking at all those amazing pictures. Have to say it brought tears to my eye. Has always been my dream to do something like that, but never had the time or the money. One quick question to... Your hitch that has a shackle... how was that made...

Just bought one of these: http://www.cabelas.com/p-0006915520417a.shtml

Day 7: Wise Mountain & North Fork of the Swan


After taking a right I headed back up the Middle Fork of the Swan. The skies were much clearer today so I took some more photos along this trail...









When I got up top, I found a few more Mountain Goats.

I took the short side trip to the Hall Valley Overlook





Watch where you step....or drive...




Hikers coming up through the snow


Good view of Red Cone

Next stop was Wise Mountain











Cabin on Wise Mountain




Mine shaft near the cabin.

Another mine on the way down


Soon I reached the North Fork of the Swan River.

There were a lot of old cabin ruins along this route.




This one had a nice big tree growing in the middle.


Some more mining ruins along the way, too.

End of the trail.




Next I turned around and headed back to Tiger Road. I stopped a few miles before reaching Breckenridge to check out one of the old dredge boats in a small pond near the road.









I ended up heading back to Frisco early to meet Amanda, as she would be joining me for the last weekend on the trip.

That's all for Day 7. Day 8 still to come...

Just think... some hundreds of years ago, familys were doing that in wagons and taking all the had to head out west... think of how much harder it was for them...

Was there any cell phone service out there?

Usually when up on top of the mountains you can get some cell service, and when you are closer to a town or highway.

Day 9: Chinns Lake, Kingston Peak & More


On Saturday, Amanda and I got yet another early start and made our way up Fall River Road. Our first destination was Chinns Lake.

Sherwin Lake


End of the trail


Chinns Lake. This was a very popular place. There were many campers setup along the shore of the lake. You can see the smoke from a campfire.

An old cabin in Chinns Lake




An old mine along the way.






After making our way back to Fall River Road, we headed up through the town of Alice. Once we figured our way through the maze of roads there, we were soon on our way to Kingston Peak.

We stopped at the Rockhouse at the Loch Lomond Overlook.

The rock we would leave after Amanda added our names.


Our rock in place.


Loch Lomond


Further along the Kingston Peak trail




Shelf road headed down

When we reached Apex Road, we took a left and make a quick stop at the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel (last time I was here to run Jenny Creek and Rollins Pass I didn't take the time to check it out). After that we headed out to Rollinsville before heading to Moon Gulch. This turned out to be a very tight trail that was also pretty off-camber much of the way.

Start of Moon Gulch.


End of Moon Gulch shortly before reaching Gamble Gulch and Apex Road again.




Passing through Apex on our way to Central City.





After reaching Central City we took Oh My God Road (Virginia Canyon) back to Idaho Springs before heading to the Backcountry Brewery in Frisco for some dinner.





That's it for Day 8. Only one more short day to go!

Day 8: Red and White Mountain


The final day of our trip was a short one. I had been away from home for 8 days, and had a lot of stuff I needed to get done before heading back to work. We decided to run Red and White Mountain along with Piney Lake Road before heading home. It was an easy trail that wouldn't take us very long, plus it was right near I-70 on our way home.

I didn't take many photos this day, but here's a few that I did take...