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

600 Miles

Well today I have managed to cross the 600/mile mark. I was able to get some good distance this weekend. On Saturday I headed out the door at 7:10am and headed down the street to catch the bear creek trail head. I have included an outline below of the route that I took. Out and back, were a total of 16.89/miles. It took me 5 hours and 56 minutes walking time and 48 minutes stopping time. I was gone for 6 hours and 44 minutes. Pretty un-eventful and didn’t cross anyone until I got on to trail 667. I took my cooker and some food but never got to it. I drank water from my camel bag and just kept moving. Came across dear, squirrels, and lots of birds.

Today I left the house around 11am and did 6.81/miles. So all in all it was a good weekend to catch up. The monthly average so far is 5.5 for the month and a monthly total of 38.51/miles. This is good because I am going to be on business and vacation for a couple of days and it is going to tough to get the miles in that I would if I were at home.

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.