Nolan's 14 report by Mike Wood, Sept. 7, 2007.

Short version: I only made it over three peaks and was weathered off.

Long version:
	I arrived in Colorado Springs on Saturday, August 25th and drove to
the Monarch Mountain Lodge (9,500') near Poncha Springs where I would
spend three nights to acclimatize. I got to the Lodge around 2PM so I
was able to spend a few hours scouting trailheads the first day. I had
decided on a south to north course (the route can be run in either
direction) so I would be starting at the Blank's Gulch trailhead at
9,800' below Mt. Shavano (and hopefully ending at the Fish Hatchery on
the NE side of Mt. Massive). I had climbed Mt's Elbert and Massive a
few times in the past so running south to north would allow me to go
from unfamiliar territory towards more familiar territory.
Additionally, in looking at the off trail sections, the worst sections
appeared to be in the southern portion of the route (Tabegauche #2 to
Antero #3, and Princeton #4). Getting these difficult sections out of
the way in the beginning would leave easier trails to follow towards
the end as fatigue increases.
	Of course I had many suggestions to spend as much as all summer
scouting the routes, but hey, I have to work for a living, so I'd just
give it a day or two and make the best of it. After all, I'm out here
for the fun of it (well, not exactly as we'll see later!)
	I ran about ˝ mile up Shavano the first day wearing my full gear, the
trail was easy and I didn't notice the altitude. Then I spent some
time finding the trailheads between Antero and Princeton. The road to
the Princeton (Grouse Canyon) trailhead was closed and it took a while
to determine where the trailhead actually was as I scouted different
roads in the area. Eventually, I was pretty sure I had located the
correct trailhead which was confirmed by some people I met in the
area. They told me the trailhead signs had been removed and they felt
the Forest Service was attempting to discourage people from using this
trail (the Southwest Ridge route) and remove the trail and return it
to a natural state.
	On Sunday, I drove up to the Fish Hatchery and ran up to 11,000' to
check out the end of the route. Then I refreshed my memory by
revisiting the South and North Halfmoon Lake trailheads between Elbert
and Massive. Following this I made a trip to the Lake Creek Trailhead
and the Echo Canyon trailhead between La Plata and Elbert, and then
the South Winfield Trailhead and West Winfield Trailhead between Huron
and La Plata so I would be familiar with those areas too.
	I decided to use Monday as a day of rest. I had read a number of
reports of people doing event after event prior to Nolans and felt a
taper approach would be better. I felt well rested, other than the
fact that due to the altitude I only got an hour or two of sleep the
first three nights (I take a purist approach and don't use diamox or
other drugs).
	I got up at 2:30AM on Tuesday and began my quest at 4:22AM. I was
expecting a full moon, but as luck would have it today would be a rare
lunar eclipse. I ran with pretty much the same gear as I have used on
the John Muir Trail in the past. A six pound fanny pack which holds an
inner layer, down jacket, rain gear, bivy sack, first aid kit, gloves,
sunglasses, camera, FMS/GRMS radio, cell phone, maps, compass,
whistle, cord, duct tape, foil, survey tape, Koolaid (for marking
snow), balaclava, two sets of spare batteries, TP, mini pack towel,
chapstick, Bodyglide, gelflask full of Endurolytes, 2 packets of GORP,
a couple Hammergels and a gelflask full of Perpetuem. Two mini-biners
are attached to pack straps to allow me to attach my hand-carry
bottles to them if I need my hands free. Four alligator clips are
attached to the rear of the pack which allow me to attach items for
drying or to seal off rain gear. In one hand I hand carry a 28 oz
water bottle (the strap for this also holds a tic-tac container filled
with Iodine tablets). In the other hand I hand carry a 34 oz bottle
filled with Perpetuem (the strap for this also holds a bunch of Jolly
Rancher candies).
	I started out running the low angle hills and was making good time. I
had had one person tell me there was water everywhere and I could
easily find it above 12,000'. Another had told me it would be more
like 11,000 or 11,500' where the last water would be. My previous
experience has been that most places have water to at least 12,000',
so I planned to fill up between 11,000 and 11,500'. Unfortunately, it
turned out that the last water was at about 10,900'. Thus, I never was
able to refill once I hit 11,000' and ended up rationing water for the
next few hours. The second problem I encountered was being told to
take a direct route. I had been doing some switchbacking and figured I
could save some time by going straight up (around 11,500' or so).
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me the trail had finished switchbacking
and was already on a pretty much direct route. This put me on much
slower class two territory and on a longer route. Expecting to
re-encounter the trail on my left, I eventually did. Too bad it was
the wrong trail and I ended up making an hour detour to the wrong
peak. Eventually I sorted things out and proceeded over Antero and
Tebaugauche. I used to have a pair of VBL mitts which were super
lightweight and kept my hands fairly warm. I had lost those a few
years ago and since they are no longer made, had switched to a pair of
VBL gloves. These are not near as warm and my hands were numb as I
went over Antero. I put on my spare socks which helped out somewhat.
By the time I got to Tebagauche, I figured with the wasted time from
the direct route, the fact that I was almost out of water, and the
fact that my gloves were inadequate, I would just call the day a false
start and restart the following day. Three other problems showed up on
the way back down. For one, I had recently changed out my Marmot fanny
pack for a North Face one with a shove-it pocket. I had shoved my
Patagonia long sleeve shirt in this pocket when I warmed up on the way
down. If popped out somewhere along the line and disappeared.
Secondly, my gel flask in the right hand pocket on the Race-Ready
shorts had popped out too (in the past it has stayed in place for
nearly 200 miles with no problems). Finally, when I got back to the
trailhead I noticed a major seam on both Adidas trail shoes had blown
out!
	Well, obviously there was some room for improvement. I had a good
pair of Montrail trail shoes I had brought as spares. I switched to a
gel flask belt pouch holder and added a spare Mountain Hardware long
sleeve shirt and I also added a pair of Marmot gloves. One of the main
drawbacks was that I had racked up about 14 miles and wouldn't be as
fresh as I had planned when I started again on Wednesday.
	For Tuesday night, I left the Monarch Mountain Lodge and went down to
Salida (7,100') where the lower altitude let me get a good six or
seven hours sleep. Wednesday morning I got up at 2AM and was on the
trail by 3:22AM. This time I didn't run any of the low angle uphills
and took the route a little easier. I refilled my water bottle at the
last stream crossing (the one with the three logs) and had a smooth
but slow trip up Antero in 2+40. I then went on to Tebaguache in 0+41,
returned to the saddle between the two and started down towards
Brown's Lake. Although only class two, this is a very remote gulley
where you are constantly on boulders or scree. If you're not up to
speed on your standing glissade then this will give you plenty of
practice. Even though I was told I would have cell phone coverage on
all the peaks, I found during all my scouting and running that I never
had coverage at all other than when I was fairly close to HWY 285.
Although I had a two-watt radio with me, a five-watt would have been
better (albeit with the accompanying weight penalty). Plus, remember
there have been cases of people falling on their cell phones or radios
rendering them useless. The point I am trying to convey here is that I
would not want to solo this descent again. It's just very remote with
little chance of contact should you run into a problem.
	As I neared Brown's Lake, I could see the marshy area (referred to as
swamp in some reports). This area lies about ten to twenty feet above
Brown's Lake, but is so lush that it holds in much of the water from
the gulley you just descended. For much of it I only got wet to my
ankles, but there were a couple times I was in up to my knees. After
crossing the marsh and a small river just above Brown's Lake, I took
the road going NW and then followed a stream going NNE until about
12,700'. At this point, a cloud obscured the zig-zag road I should
have taken yet conveniently left the wrong one visible. I cut directly
up the zig-zag road until it ended then followed the trail right up
the wrong 13,300' peak, at which point the clouds lifted enough for me
to see the correct zig-zag road to the north, along with the fact that
the peak it was on was much higher and obviously Antero. Back down to
the saddle between the two peaks and now straight up the correct
zig-zag road. This took me to about 14,000', where there is long ridge
that leads to Mt. Antero. I followed the trail which stays on top or
on the south side of the ridge. Clouds moved in again and about 50'
below the summit I felt my first raindrop. On the summit, there was a
man dressed in Levis and a long flannel shirt along with a woman
wearing what I can only describe as an Amish cotton dress. Another
drop fell and I told them they should descend immediately. I took some
quick photos and began my descent with another recommendation for them
to start down as they seemed to be in no hurry. When I was about 50'
below the summit, it began to hail and lighting began striking.
Believe me I was hauling ass, well, at least until the hail made
everything slippery. Most of the lightning strikes were one mile away
other than one that was only 350 yards away. The hail storm was the
worst I had ever seen and rapidly obscured the trail as it filled in
with up to two inches of hail in places. Added to this was the fact
that the trail followed the top of the ridge in places, which I now
had to avoid in order to reduce my chances of a strike. As I hurried
down I expected the two people behind me to become fatalities, either
due to hypothermia or lightning strike.
	From the top of Antero I had noticed a new road being built on the
north side that I hoped to take going down to save time. But the
lightning had forced me to the south side of the ridge. I followed
this until I met the zig-zag road and continued on the road which
gradually swung around the north side and towards Alpine. The road was
very easy to run on and I made good time as soon as I was on it. After
about an hour of running down, the two people I had seen on the summit
passed me on a 4-wheeler so I knew they had made it safely off. By the
time I had got to 10,000' the hail had turned to rain and then had
stopped. I went through Alpine with clouds moving in and out. Still
having no cell phone coverage, I managed to pass a business card to a
passing driver and asked her to phone my wife Debbie and update her
with my position.
	From the Grouse Canyon trailhead at 9,300' I started up facing
darkening skies again. I found a couple cairns which I followed up a
thin trail. This thin trail faded in and out, as did dozens of others
around it. I would later find out there was a much better trail and I
should have not have followed the first set of cairns. At 9,650' it
began to thunder and rain again. I put my rain gear back on and
battened down the hatches as I dug in. Took care of a few odds and ins
and then just laid down on a rock while it rained. By the time it was
4PM, I was just about ready to pack it in when it stopped raining and
the sun came out. I took the rain gear off and started back up again.
I continued up continuously finding and losing very thin trails,
crossing class two rocks with slippery dirt in between. All the time,
I was thinking this would make for a really crappy descent. At
11,350', I really felt these thin trails were taking me too far east
of the correct route. Thunder and rain began again. This time, I was
nearly at tree line and was rather more exposed than when I had waited
it out before. I decided the safer course would be to descend rather
than to try in place and wait it out. Here I faced the crappy descent
I had not wanted to make. I had only gone down about 200' when I
slipped and my right foot got caught and bent all the way back to my
butt as my left leg continued forward. I at first thought I would have
broken or dislocated my right knee, but thankfully after a moment
realized it had only been wrenched. I gingerly began to descend again.
Still feeling the thin trails I had followed had been east of the
correct route, I angled north as I continued down.
	At 10,000', I suddenly found a good trail just as the rain stopped
and the sun came out yet again. It was now 6PM. I really didn't want
to pack it in with only three peaks down and felt my knee would hold
up, sooo…, I started up for a third time. This time, I told myself if
it rained one more time that would be it and I would call it a day.
The trail was much better now, and often there was a cairn every 25-50
yards. Still, there were many places where there were gaps and I knew
it would be a bitch to stay with in the dark. I reached 12,000' at
7:30PM. The whole time I had been on Princeton I had been telling
myself that I would really much rather go over the top and pick up the
Colorado trail on the other side rather than to descend back the way I
had came. Unfortunately, clouds had moved back in, thunder began and I
felt the first raindrop fall. So, I started back down.
	I was using a Brunton L4 (the most powerful headlamp available), but
lost the trail by 9,900'. At one point I passed through (or I should
say tried to pass through) brush that became impenetratable and had to
make a U-turn. By 10PM I finally reached HWY 162. It was late, no cell
coverage and hardly any traffic so I jogged/walked the 10 ˝ miles to
HWY 285. After a mile or two on HWY 285 I was able to get a ride back
to my car and finally ended up in a hotel about 3:30AM.
	I had thought I might rest on Thursday and Friday and perhaps run
through Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs on Saturday. However,
right before I had left Houston I had contracted some poison ivy which
had continued to spread and by Friday night I ended up making a trip
to the emergency room in a Colorado Springs hospital. So I wasn't able
to do any more running on Saturday, and perhaps it was a good thing
that my run had been cut short on Nolans after all.
All-in-all, one has to play the hand that one is dealt. And although I
had hoped to do quite a bit more on Nolans, with only one week of
vacation to spare I did what I could.
	Good adventuring,
	Mike Wood