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

Round-A-Bout

Eric and I left the trail head about 8:45AM.  We made our way up High Drive and then took the twilight canyon trail.   This is a pretty decent incline for about 2/miles.  We made our way up twilight and then lower Captain Jacks and then the upper Captain Jacks and then down 666.

I only got a few pictures today but the ones I did get seemed to come out very nicely.    We found a Blue Jay, Chipmunk and a Toe head.  Not sure what the Chipmunk was munching on  but he looked happy

We logged just a little over 8/miles today.   Not sure about Eric but I ended up with a pretty nice sunburn.

Most of the trails were icy and in some sections we were in about 8/inches of snow.  We only came across a couple of other hikers today, most of them on 666 on our way down.

Happy Hiking!

New Friend

I have had a lot of fun keeping my blog. I also started a group on facebook named Hiking Colorado Springs. To date there is 129 members. It’s open to everyone and they can post photos and stories. Hopefully it will catch on and we can get it going.

Well through this group I was able to make a new friend and hiking partner. We made plans to meet up at 5:30AM at the Gold Camp park lot and then head up to Mt. Rosa. I had told Candy what I was doing and she was ribbing me about making a date on the Internet. LOL.  Derrick and I met for the first time in the parking lot. We were both on time and after we exchanged initial greetings we were on our way. Luckily I think our hiking abilities were about the same. I was concerned as you never know the pace a new hiking partner will keep. But we seemed to be pretty evenly matched.
There are two ways to get up to Mt. Rosa but this route is the longer of the two. My GPS tracked that the route we took today was 15.2/Miles. From the Gold Camp parking lot up to Mt. Rosa it is 7/Miles with a 4K elevation climb. The following are the trails that we took today:

Gold Camp Road (GCR), 624, 673, 672, 701, 668, 622, GCR. On our way up 624, we took time to go to the base of Saint Mary’s falls. Always a great place to check out. They have really done some nice work on the trail as well at the base of the falls. After a few photos we continued on up. We made the steep climb and finally found ourselves at trail 673 to make our way up to the summit of Mt. Rosa. We worked our way up and at 9:45AM we had reached the summit.

This was the first time to the summit for Derrick and the fourth for me. Be it your first or fourth, it is always a great experience. We pulled out the cameras and snapped some pics. While at the top we had two other hikers join us. We all took pictures, we took some pictures of them and we had them take pictures of us, showing we had reached the summit.

Once we had a quick bite and some water we started our way back down. We took trail 672 down to Frosty Park and then took 701 to trail 668 aka Pipeline Trail. Had a first for me on the trail today, as we were coming down 668 and around a corner I look up and there is a girl putting her bikini top back up and I could tell she was embarrassed. She had what I am guessing was her boy friend with her. I am guessing they were doing a little candid photography, we said hello and kept on moving.

It was hot today and luckily we had a breeze and for the most part shade. In the areas where we didn’t have shade it was hot! We didn’t start running into people until we were back on 622 aka Seven Bridges. The closer to the bottom we got the more families we came across. I think most of them are tourist but I didn’t check that license plates in the parking lot. Today we spotted two deer, a snake and numerous squirrels and birds. I came across the first columbine that I have seen this year. Two different color varieties of columbine, I had not seen the yellow colored ones before but the blue are common.

Happy Hiking

Another Great Day in Colorado!

I left the trail head at 7:30AM and headed down Gold Camp Road to Trail 622 (aka Seven Bridges), to Trail 668 (aka Pipeline Trail), to trail 720 to 667 (aka Jones Park) then looped back down to Gold Camp Road. Total miles today came up to be 9.08/Miles. Hiking time was 3 hours and 30 minutes plus I had 38 minutes of stopping time to take pictures and get a drink of water.

It was overcast this morning and the clouds were hanging low around 8K feet. I didn’t snap two many pictures on Seven Bridges as I had done it just the weekend before. But I did have the camera ready for any flowers, birds or other critters that I came across. I moved up the trail pretty good today. Might have been that I did it the weekend before or the fact that I have been walking to work again everyday when I can.

It was nice and cool this morning with the low hanging clouds and it had rained last night. The vegetation was loving the wet weather and there were so many wild flowers in bloom. I snapped this picture of some wild iris’s growing in a meadow of Aspen trees. I have also included a close up.

This picture is of another Chipmunk that I came across. They are so funny actually little camera hams. They will sit on the branches and let you snap as many pictures as you would like.

This is a picture of a nice little water fall on trail 667. I actually hung out here for about 10 minutes and had some turkey jerky and a little water to drink. While down in the creek I had 5 dirt bikes come by on the trail. I don’t think they had seen me as I was about 10 ft. below the trail in order to snap this picture.

I have to say riding dirt bikes up the trail looks like a damn blast! After seeing them I started toying with the idea of putting my old 75 Ford Ranchero on Craig’s List and seeing if I could sell it or trade it for a decent dirt bike.

One other cool thing you will spot is this old mining tunnel. I don’t know how far in it goes as I have only stepped in the entrance to snap a picture. If I had someone with me I might have the guts to go in a little further.

Well that’s about it for this trip. Need to figure out where I want to go next weekend. I may head up to Pikes Peak and hike the Oil Creek Tunnel trail again. If you would like to view all pictures from today's hike you can find them
here: http://picasaweb.google.com/drobincorvette/20100613#

Happy Hiking!

The Route

Well I am starting to get serious about my hike in Oct. This last weekend I drove down to Canyon City and caught Phantom Canyon Rd (PCR). I had the GPS with me and marked waypoints at every mile. On Saturday when I start I will have a full 21/Miles to get completed. I found a decent campsite, hope it is available when I get up their. If not I will find another, there a few around. Not as many as there are back at miles 5-10. I came across about 8 or 9 campsites that people were in. Being this late in the year when I leave I hope it isn’t to busy.

On day two, I have to get in about 23 miles to get to the next campsite. From the first campsite it is 10/Miles to Victor. Looked like their might be a restaurant or two that I can hit. Be a good place to clean up and get a small bite to eat. Don’t want to get to full. Once in Victor I will have to walk on the Highway 81 for about 3.5/Miles until I catch Gold Camp Rd (GCR). Once on GCR it is about 10/miles to get to Seven Lakes Rd (SLR) aka 376. At the junction there are several campsites. If I can get up SLR there is plenty of camping spots.

Day three starts out my tracking of miles for the remainder of the hike. Off of SLR I will be catching trail 379. This is new territory for me as I have not been to this area before and it is hiking only. My plan is to hike trail 379 and catch 379a, which will take me up to the Stratton Reservoir. From here I will be catching another foot trail, which looks like it goes up to the summit of the Almagre Mountain. From my map it looks like it is 12,367ft. Then I will come back down and find a place to camp on the back side of the reservoir. The only problem may be is that according to the map 379a may closed off with no access/trespassing signs. I am going to go for it.

Day four, I will be working my way home. I will head back down trail 379a and catch a foot trail that will shave off about 2/miles and I will catch 379 again. I then have a couple of options. I come to an intersection of trails 672, 701, 668. I think at this point it is going to depend on what shape I am now that’s it’s day 4. Guessing it is going to be about 20 to 23 miles for the day.

I need to start making my list of what I am taking with me. Tomorrow night I plan on setting up the hammock and sleeping out in the backyard. I have been trying to decide if I should go with the tent the hammock or both.