North Catamount Reservoir

Right after church we came home, changed, grabbed our gear and we were out the door.    The night before we had been looking at my map trying to figure out a place to go and wanted to get back on Pikes Peak so decided on the N. Catamount Reservoir.   Thought we would hike around the lake and if we were up to it, go as far as Raspberry Mountain. 

Since we were getting a later start in the morning we packed our lunch to have a Picnic on the Peak.   We packed ham sandwiches, trail mix, pretzels, izze’s and a couple bottles of water.

We left the house and headed up Highway 24 and we were at the toll gate by 11:30.  At the toll gate they had both entry lanes open and we were probably 5^th in one of the lines.  I was surprised by the amount of activity and people.   I don’t know why it is tourist season and we are happy to have you here!  Drove up Pikes Peak Highway and made our way to the North Slope Recreation area where we parked at the damn on N. Catamount.

Threw on the pack and turned on the GPS so that we could track our route.  Picked my playlist Hiking up the Hill on the IPod and away we went.   It was a great day to be outside and especially outdoors up on mountain.   The temperature was in the high 70’s and with a breeze. 

Headed across the damn and picked up Catamount trail.  Traveled a short distance and caught the Mackinaw trail that runs along the reservoir.   Wow, the reservoir was way down, I am guessing but probably 20ft maybe more.   Guess we didn’t get as much snow as we needed this last winter.  Thinking about it, we didn’t get much at all along the Front Range and we haven’t had much rain this spring or early summer.

From the Mackinaw trail you have some great views of the north side of Pikes Peak.  We found a nice stump in the shade, stopped and had a sandwich and took a little break.

Reaching the end of Mackinaw we picked up Mule-Deer trail back up to Catamount.  Catamount is also part of the Ring the Peak trail system, which someday I plan on doing that hike all 57/M in three days. (http://fotp.com/ringthepeak/Trail3-4.html).

We then hiked down Limber Pine trail, which is actually a service road.   It is a long down hill with no traffic.   If you are coming the opposite direction be ready for a long steady incline.   We then reached the end of the reservoir and got off the road and caught the Limber Pine trail that is actually a trail.   We screwed up here as we came across a fork in the trail and one followed the reservoir and the other seemed to move away from the lake.  Well you want the one that moves away from the lake.

After a quarter mile or so the trail following the lake pretty much disappeared.   It was there but didn’t seem to be well traveled.   Being that the lake was so far down, we just walked along bank of the lake back to the damn.

In the fingers of the lake there was lots of drift wood that had collected.

On the GPS I logged 8.4/M so some decent distance.   We both have red faces from getting a little too much sun today, but not bad.

Happy Hiking

Additional Photos