Making it count

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 or 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

IPod Nano

I was lucky enough to receive a IPod Nano recently at a holiday party that I attended.  Thank you Xtivia!   At first I didn’t get that thrilled about it as I have an older classic IPod that I have carried with me for the last couple of years.   But after getting it home and adding my favorite playlist it was all setup and ready to go.   Being so small I was concerned that I would loose it or leave it in my pant pocket and run it through the washer.

Well guess what they make really cool watch band that will turn you nano into a really nice wrist watch, with your favorite music and photo’s  all there on you wrist.  I asked Santa for one and she gave me one for Christmas.   It’s great! I have been wearing this for the last couple of days.  Today I used it for a hike up trail 666.  It worked great and with it on your wrist you can run your earphones inside your sleeve and up your back.  So you don’t have a wire hanging in the front that gets tangled with you back pack strap or camera strap.  Being on your wrist it is easy to get to so you can check the time or change up your playlist.

Garmin Foretrex 401

For Christmas Candy got me a new GPS.  It is a Garmin Foretrex 401 and it fits nicely on the wrist.  Much smaller than my Map 60 that I carry.   I plan on getting out and testing it to see how it works.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=30026&ra=true

Wow what a week. I got home from Austin Texas last night it was a full day of travel. Candy picked me up at the airport at around 4:30 and we stopped and grabbed a sub on the way home. I then spent most of the evening working on email from the week that I was tardy on replying to.

The week in Austin went well. We had one of our Business Partners in the office to do training with our team. Had our client visit us from Angola and spent time with our AWESOME team in the evenings as well as having a big holiday party.

I had planned on going out on a hike this morning and it was a great day for one. I was exhausted and didn’t get out of bed until 10AM. Guess I needed the rest. I did spend an hour on the treadmill and managed to get 4/miles in. I feel better and hope to get our tomorrow.

I was out in the backyard this afternoon and the squirrels were going crazy. I counted eight

of them all together. They were jumping from tree to tree and chasing each other all over the place. I grabbed the camera and snapped up a few pictures. I guess the nice weather brought them out of their nests.

I put some food the in feeder and they spent most of the day fighting over the food and taking turns eating.

Happy Hiking

I managed to get a lot of work done today.  Headed into the office in the morning to catch up on overdue work items as I had been on the road this week and was a little behind in email, etc.   Made a trip up to Milwaukee for client meetings this week and that went very well.

Made it back to the house about 1:30pm and did some house work.  We decided to head out for a little walk in Bear Creek Park.  Left from the house and did a 4.5/mile loop.  We were a little over dressed or so I thought as we got started.  In the sun it was nice, but in the shade and once the sun set over the mountain it cooled off quick.

Tried several times to get a few bird pictures, but they just wouldn’t hold still.   We saw magpie, finches and a few others.   I did manage to snap off a few pictures and I included them below.

Headed out again in the morning to see if I can do double what I did today.

Happy Hiking