St. Mary's Falls

I left the house at 6:20am and headed over to pick up Eric.  We were in the Gold Camp Drive parking lot at 7:20.  We were the first ones on the trail this morning.  It was cold and windy when we started.    It stayed that way until we got off the road and caught the trail head.

I put my MicroSpikes (http://www.pogu-spikes.com/) on once we hit the tunnel.  This is the first time I used them.  There was quit a bit of ice still on the trail and we had a light dusting this morning.  Eric didn’t put his on until we reach the top and figured he better have them on for the descent.

Saw some rabbit tracks but no rabbits.  We did come across several chipmunks chattering away up in the trees.  One chipmunk was running up the trail with a big pine cone in his mouth.

We managed to get six miles in round trip.  We climbed 1,401ft with an average moving time of 2.3/MPH.   Total hiking time was two hours and forty minuets.   I did manage to snag a couple of pictures today and have included them.

We reached the top of the falls at about 8:40am.   We thought about having our sandwiches but with the wind blowing it was to cold to stop moving.  The falls were covered with ice.  I ventured out a little ways but didn’t go to far.

We worked our way back down moving at a pretty good pace.  On the way down we ran into two other hikers working there way up.

Happy Hiking!

Mary A. Clark

Oh man (big sigh), not even sure where to start as it seems like it has been so long. I started off the first of the year with a bang! I had already logged just over 20/miles by the 12th. Then I had to hit the road and my walking came to halt. I kept telling myself to make the time but I just didn’t. Spent a week in Austin and then had to make a run up to Wichita, Ks.

On January 22nd 2012 my grandmother Mary A. Clark passed away at the age of 87 and the funeral was held on Friday the 27th. She packed the church with family and friends! Growing up in rural Kansas in the 1930’s on a farm. She always had a thirst for knowledge and when you tell your kids that you had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways, well that’s how it really was for her.

At the funeral the minister said that he asked her children about her and memories that they had. They all came back and referred to her as their GOOGLE. When the preacher said that, I sat there in the pew with my draw dropped as that was the perfect definition. She knew everything about almost every subject.

I would go to Kansas in the summers while growing up and I would stay at her house. I remember her always working a crossword, putting together puzzles, playing chess and other games. In her kitchen she had a large room with a long table, needed it for raising 10 kids. Anyway there would be thousand piece puzzle on the table that everyone worked on. Family and friends always visiting who would add a piece or two as they came and went. Good times!

The following is from obituary in The Wichita Eagle.

Mary A. Clark
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kansas/obituary.aspx?n=mary-a-clark&pid=155617262&fhid=11129

Clark, Mary A., 87, retired co-owner of Scotty Clark Plumbing, passed away Jan. 22, 2012. Rosary 6:30 p.m. Thursday; Mass 11 a.m. Friday, both at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 2007 N. Arkansas, Wichita 67203. Mary was preceded in death by her parents, "Jack" and Agnes Ridder, husband, "Sharkey," brothers and sisters-in-law, Tom Ridder (Jeannie), Larry Ridder (Mary); sister, Anita Ridder; daughter-in-law, Debbie Clark; grandson, Tommy Clark; great-grandson, Anthony Marsh. Survivors: sons, Mike Clark, Scotty (Charlie) Clark, Jan Clark, Pat (Paula) Clark, Eddie (Pam) Clark, Tommy (Peggy) Clark; daughters, Goldie (Dennis) Robinson, Carolyn (Mike) McClellan, Lisa (Ron) Land, Rosie (Jeff) Creekmore; brothers, David (Jo) Ridder, Jerry (Pat) Ridder; sisters, Sr. Helen Ridder, Esther Oliverson; 28 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; 1 great-great-grandchild.

A few days back I loaded http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ on my IPhone. I have been using it now for 5 days. It tracks what I eat and the calories as well as my exercise and calories burned. I am set to 1650 calories a day. When you start looking at this way, it sure makes me consider what I am eating. I have already lost a couple of pounds, so we will see how it goes. I logged into their website and you can build some reporting that graphs out calories burned, calories consumed and others.

Once I get a little data loaded ill add some charts to the blog showing my progress.

Happy Hiking!

SQL Server Saturday

Ah, the weekend!  I was hoping to get out on the trail tomorrow but I am headed to the SQL Server Saturday meeting up at Mr. Biggs.  A team member that I work with Mr. Mark Halstead is presenting and several others are attending.  

 

Mark is presenting on PowerShell and VBScript for the DBA:  http://www.sqlsaturday.com/viewsession.aspx?sat=104&sessionid=6106

 

XTIVIA is proud to be Bronze sponsor and congratulations to Mark for being selected to present.  Maybe I’ll se you there!

Walking to work and back

I got of my ass and walked to and from work today.  Took the longer route both ways and managed to get six miles in.   I left the house at 6:30am and got home tonight at 6:30pm.  Got to walk in the dark for most of the trip home.

Colorado Birds

Over the last couple of years I have been taking pictures of birds when I come across them on the trail or around the house, mostly in the back yard.    I took some of the pictures and made an attempt of making a video montage.   Some of the pictures are better than others.  I hope you enjoy!

Party's Over

Holidays are over and tomorrow it is back to work. Going to be a busy year and looking forward to it. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and wish you the best for the New Year!

Let’s see I was planning on doing the Mt. Rosa loop on Sunday but my hiking partner slept in. Then I thought I would do it today but I didn’t want to spend my last day off gone for 6 hours.

It was a great day to be outside so I headed over the shop to see what work I could get done.

I got a new blast cabinet a week of so back and today seemed like the day to get it all put together and ready for operation. It went together pretty easy doing it by myself. I need to get some sand and then I can look forward to blasting something. This one is larger than my old one so I should be able to blast bigger pieces.

Once the blaster was all setup I spent a little time working on the west wall. I have most of the insulation up and am just about ready for sheetrock but that will have to wait until spring/summer, just too darn cold in the shop without any heat. Heat is on the list but it is going to be a while.

I loaded up a new back pack and will be trying it out this week for when I walk to work. I am planning to try to walk everyday this week. I started a new spreadsheet for 2012 to start tracking my mileage and diet. I have a lot of travel planned for the month of January so I am going to have to get used to the treadmill when on the road.

Happy Hiking

I didn’t make it out on the trails yesterday but I did end up doing just a little over 4/miles on the treadmill. This week hasn’t been too bad for getting miles in, I am now just over 20 for this week. It doesn’t look like I am going to make it out today. The wind is really blowing and we have wind advisory warnings. I'll try to get on the treadmill later today.

Happy Hiking

Seven Bridges Loop

This morning I drove up to the GCR parking lot.  I expected to see a few more cars in the parking lot at 10AM, there were only three other cars.  I headed up GCR and figured I would either do Seven Bridges of go up to St. Mary’s Falls.  Well Seven Bridges won as it was the first trail that I came across.

On my way up GCR I came across two guys who were just coming back from doing St. Mary’s and said that the trail was decent, it had seen a lot of action since the snow.   So I caught trail 622 which is also known as Seven Bridges.   Hiked up to the Jones Park area and there is still plenty of snow and once again I could have used my snow shoes but didn’t have them with me.

I managed to find trail 668 and then over to 666 for about mile before catching trail 667 aka Captain Jacks.   I then worked my way down the Mt. Buckhorn trail back to GCR.   I moved a little quicker today.  Hiking time today was 3 hours and 44 minutes with a total distance of 6.83 Miles.  Once again another great work out with an elevation gain of 2155 ft.

I managed to get a few pictures today and have included or you can view all the pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111229?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWi18LHj-3vlQE

Not sure where I am headed tomorrow but you can rest assured I will let you know.

Happy Hiking

Paint Mines Interpretive Park

Today I headed out to do one of my favorite hikes, the Paint Mines.   I drove out highway 24 to Calhan, CO.  It’s about 35/Miles from Colorado Springs.   This isn’t a long hike, today I managed to get 3/miles in.   What makes this hike so much fun is that the scenery is so different that what you find in the mountain areas.

You will find it hard to believe that such great rock formations exist just outside in the Colorado plains.   The mines have evidence of human life as far back as 9,000 years ago. The colorful clays were used by American Indians. The park features fantastic geological formations including spires and hoodoos that were formed through erosive action that created incised gullies and exposed layers of seienite clay and jasper.

All of today’s pictures can be found here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111228?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvwlJuEzNOYBg

I had to trek through some deep snow in the canyon areas.   It was pretty slick climbing on some of the rocks.  I actually fell a couple times today and need to clean up my camera.  It was cold in the shade and the wind was blowing.  In the sun wasn’t to bad.

If you like hiking and are looking for something different I would recommend this hike.   You better get to it soon as I am sure that at some point they will begin limiting the trails and you may not have access any longer. 

Happy Hiking

Trail 666

This morning I headed out to get some miles in.  Drove up to GCR and parked in the parking lot at the bottom of High Drive.   Threw on my gear and headed up the road.   I got a chance to use just about everything today.   I had my stableicers on and wore them for the entire hike.   Had my nano on and my tunes going and was trying my new GPS for the first time on the trail. 

I hiked up High Drive to the trail head for trail 666.  This isn’t one of my favorite hikes but it has a decent incline and it is a great work out.   I wish I had taken my snow shoes as I could have used them today.  I figured the trail would have seen a lot more activity than it had.  For about the first 2 miles up I was hiking up in someone else’s snowshoe tracks.  But then they stopped and I was now walking through a good 8 to 12 inches of snow.  I did about another mile up to the junction of trails 666 and 667.   That deep snow was a real work out trying to get through.

All pictures can be found here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115678648713324071004/20111227?authkey=Gv1sRgCNCt9IbOjIjahQE

I was on the look out for any bird photo opportunities.   I was only able to get two pictures and neither of them was all that decent.   I have several different bird whistles on my phone.  I would stop and play them along the trail to see if I could get any birds to come fly my way.   I need to get a Finch song as that is what I saw today.

All together I was able to get 6.44/miles in.   I hiked 3.22/miles up with an elevation gain of 2221/ft.  The average slope was 12% incline on the way up and -12% on the way down.  I moved pretty slow today as up and back it took me just over 4 hours.   I contribute the slowness to the deep snow.

I have to admit it was beautiful up there today.   Snow everywhere and in the sunlit area’s the snow just glistened like diamonds.    I had some great views of the stream in between the snow.  It was just great to be out.

Didn’t come across anyone on the trail today and until I was just about back to the truck.  A guy and girl came past me on cross country skis.

I am going to try to get out again tomorrow, not sure where yet.

Happy Hiking