Side Tracked

So I don’t talk about this to much but I really like cars. Actually I have way too many, currently 7. Well with the purchase of my latest a 1931 Ford Model A Truck, I have decided to downsize so I can get some extra cash to start my rebuild project of the Model A Truck.

I posted my 1975 Ford Ranchero on craigslist and looks like it is on its way to France. I got what I asked for it and it will be picked up on July 15th. The driver side window is busted out and the new owner is sending me the glass and I will have it put in before it leaves on its big journey over the pond.

Funny enough there seems to be a big market for classic cars oversees and based on the success of this sell, this could be a new little business. I hate to see it go, but I have had fun with the car and it was a driver for my oldest son all the way through high school.

The Ranchero is an acquired taste, not as popular as the Chevy El Camino but I drove a 1959 Ranchero when I was in high school. I was as bad at they come in that ride. When I graduated it ended up being sold for more reliable transportation when I left home. I think you hear that same story from a lot of folks.

Below is a picture of the Ranchero and I hope the new owner in France has a blast with the car as I am sure you don’t see to many of these on the road over there.

Keep on Trucking!

It’s been a decent month for getting some miles in, as of today I am up to 87.5. If I can keep it together, should be able to break a 100 this month. I have been getting out and getting some distance in on the weekends. I need to step up my walking to work but it has been tough with so much going on. Oh there I go making excuses!

I did walk to work and back today, made my way through the Bear Creek Regional Park. If you are new to the area this is a great place to do some hiking and get acclimated with the elevation.

I haven’t been able to get any good photos of the coyotes that live in the park. The best time to catch a glimpse is in the early morning. This year I have only spotted one, but he was gone before I could get to the camera.

You know it is a sure sign of summer when the Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) plants are blooming.  I came across this one in the park on the way home. These will grow anywhere from 2 to 6 feet high. Did you know that Monarchs need milkweed to survive. The butterfly lays its eggs on milkweed plants. The growing larvae (caterpillars) eat milkweed leaves. These leaves contain toxins- poisonous chemicals. These toxins don't hurt the caterpillar, but they do make the caterpillar poisonous to most predators. Because it eats milkweed leaves as a caterpillar, the monarch butterfly is also poisonous. The survival of the monarch butterfly depends on this self-defense system provided by the milkweed.

The Yucca plants are flowering now as well. I came across this one and it had ants crawling all over it.

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

Tunnel Closed

Today Nik, Candy and I headed out to investigate the Oil Creek Tunnel. We met up at 10AM and headed up the 24 to Pikes Peak. Dam they get you with the toll charge, all together it was $36.00, $12.00 per head. So we paid the money and proceeded up the Peak to the Elk Knoll parking lot. It was breezy but not to bad and the temperature was cool. We loaded on the packs and headed down trail #652. There were a couple folks coming up the trail as we started but other than them we didn’t encounter anyone else.

We made our way down and found the junction to take you up to the Oil Creek Tunnel and the old ruins that still remain. We had to make our own trail at one point as the snow banks had it covered. One of the great things about this hike is that you start above tree line and work your way down into the trees and then up against the Peak. So you have a variety of scenery to enjoy as well running water from the snow melt.

As we came around the trail and in view of the tunnel entrance I was getting excited and ready to start digging out the flashlights. All of sudden there it was, a steal barrier that had been installed within the last two years, barring your way into the tunnel. Major disappointment! I am just glad that I had been able to make this trip before and actually get into the tunnel and been able to check it out. So I apologized to everyone, even though it wasn’t my fault but I had built up the expectation of going in. Who knows maybe they were relieved. :-)

We checked out the ruins and snapped off some pictures. Now it was time to start making our way back up the mountain. It is a fairly steep area that you have to go back up and secondly hiking at 12k feet is different than hiking at 6k to 10k feet. You can tell the difference if you are not used to it. The elevation climb is about 900ft and the trail up is about a mile and three quarters. All together roundtrip is 3.5/miles. Not a long hike but a very enjoyable one with a good cardio workout.

I don’t know how many different types of wild flowers we came across but the vegetation was spectacular to look at. Candy really enjoyed checking out the plants and flowers. She got some really good pictures.

Once we got back to the parking lot we drove on up to the Peak. The place was packed! The Cog Railway had just arrived and the parking lot was packed with local and numerous tourists from out of state. I saw license plates from TX, VA, and MS.

All in all, even with the tunnel closed I had a great time.

Happy Hiking

All pictures can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/drobincorvette/20100619#

FORE!

Well I didn’t get out and do an actual hike today but I did get out and play 18 holes of golf. One of the database partners that we work with took me and a coworker out today. Had a great time other than my game sucked. I hadn’t been out on the golf course for over a year.

It was a beautiful day and hey I wasn’t at the office so I guess I shouldn’t complain about how I played. We played at Pine Creek and the course was in great shape. I sliced one and wacked a house. Hey that is the price you pay when you live on a golf course.

Happy Anniversary

I was looking back on the early days when I started blogging about the hiking I have done and realized that at just passed my two year anniversary. Where does the time go! I was a lot more active and more descriptive with my entries in the early days. Because I had a goal and it was all new to me.

I started keeping track of my miles again as well as what I have been eating and drinking. It’s been good for me as it has got me back the trails. With the weather warming up that’s made it easier because you just want to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

Today I did the treadmill for my lunch break and got 2/miles in. I had a 7:15AM call that I needed to do be on so I ended up driving and getting in at 6:30AM. It takes MS Windows a good 10 minutes to boot up and had to do a quick review on some work items.

For the month of June, I am up to 51.5/miles. So far so good, just need to keep it up. But it has been tough with a lot going on at work. I have a big weekend planned. Thinking about doing Oil Creak Tunnel on Saturday and for Fathers day I thought I would head up St. Mary’s Falls and if I have it in me keep going up to Mt. Rosa. This one will be a long one if I do the loop but I think I am ready.

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!

Another Day

Took the long way to and home from work today and managed to get 7.3/Miles in. We will see if I can do the same route tomorrow. I need to make sure to take the camera with me tomorrow as I missed some good pics tonight.

a good week

So far this week I have gotten 21/miles in. Need to keep plugging away!

Seven Bridges

Above are a few pics from today’s hike up the Seven Bridges trail. We had a group of 5 today and were able to get 7.5/miles in. Everyone did a great job and had a great time. I know I did. We started from the trail head about 9:45AM and we back to the vehicles just before 1:00PM. We moved at a pretty good clip up and down.

The trail was seeing a lot of action today. The way up we didn’t really run into any people but on the way down there were several groups of hikers and families. I feel bad, a group of three ladies we passed on the way down asked how much further it was. I let her know that they had about another two miles or so to go. She said they were going to go for it and had some peanut butter sandwiches they could snack on along the way. I commented that the Bears love peanut butter and she about shit! I told her I was kidding and continued down the trail.

The trail is in good shape as are the bridges. The creek was running strong and could be heard through the canyon.

If you would like to see all of today’s photos you can find them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/drobincorvette/20100606#