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!

Lake Moraine

I packed up yesterday so I could get an early start today. I hit the High Drive parking lot at just before 8am. Then jumped on trail 666 and then up to 667. If you stay straight on 667 you will come to Seven Lakes Rd. Today’s trip had all the elements and was a tough 14/mile round trip hike. I had packed my snow shoes, trek poles, stablicers, thinking I might get to use them. Actually I got to use all of them. The first four miles I did in just my hiking boots. I didn’t come across anyone on the way up. The lower portion of the trail was well used with dry patches, snow and ice patches. Once I reached trail 720A the snow was deep enough for the snow shoes. In addition no one else had been this far up, so it was fresh snow with no tracks. So I stopped, had a bite and put the shoes on and continued up trail 667 for another three miles.

This was probably the last time I will get to use the snow shoes. I only got two trips out with them. We just didn’t get enough snow in the canyon. Today’s trip took longer than it would in the summer. Dealing with ice, snow, adds extra time to the trip. I did 14/miles round trip and it took me 5 hours and 45 minutes. I did have the pack fully loaded with water, food, first aid, gun, and knife, everything you need.

On the way down I swapped out the snow shoes for the stablicers and glad that I did. Coming down you move pretty fast and today they definitely help me stay up. I started running into a few people once I got back to the lower portion of 666. I past about 6 other hikers on their way up. Little late in the day for me as I like to get started early. You have to if you want to cover any distance. You could already tell that a storm was coming. The clouds were rolling in and there was light snow falling.

I am a little sore this evening, but this is just what I needed. It had been a few weekends since I got any distance in. In the month of March I was able to get in 90/miles and so far for this month I am up to 22.65.