MistyCastle

Archive for the ‘Trail Journals’ Category

Since all the pictures of the ‘Grand Adventure 2006’ are not through processing, we are writing about our vacation/30th anniversary trip in sections and not all in order. This story begins on day 4 of our trip; we hiked Wire Pass in Southern Utah that day and are searching out a place to camp as we head back to Colorado. One of the visitor’s centers earlier in our trip had recommended Alstrom Point overlooking Lake Powell. This day, we stopped at another visitors center as we approached Big Water, Utah, for a more ‘local recommendation’. A New York couple camped in the center parking lot had just been out to the point and recommend it so highly, we decided to make the 25 mile trek. Map in hand we head out through ‘the moonscape’ as they called it and onto the point.

On the North side of Big Water, there is a gravel road – washboards and all- that has the dubious distinction of being called State Highway 12. We decided it is the only state highway we have seen anywhere that is dirt or gravel! This ‘highway’ is both. The landscape quickly changes at Big Water. It began in the red-orange rock of Coyote Buttes and within a distance no more than a mile became a bizarre moon-like gray dust that was almost completely void of life. Plant or animal with a very limited plant selection as the pictures show.

The buttes on the left were easily 1,000 feet high. The top 2/3rds were simply sheer rock faces and the bottom 1/3 was softened by the moon hills. The farm girl in me had to get out and feel the soil’s texture. It was a great photo op as this was something we wanted to remember. The soil was soft, light, almost the consistency of powdered sugar. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting up to visit Uncle Bill became one of those “we really need to do that” things that somehow kept slipping off the radar screen ever since we moved here. But… we finally made it a priority and scheduled a weekend with Bill and made it happen. It was Mother’s Day weekend in fact.

We drove up Friday night after I got off work. It was about 2.5 hours and would have been less had we not run into construction going through Denver. We got to Ft Collins and decided to go out for supper at Coopersmiths , one of Bill’s haunts, and had a nice time eating out on the patio in “Olde Town”.

The next morning we rustled up some breakfast, got our gear ready and headed up into the Roosevelt National Forest. We followed the Poudre River up the canyon and found a nice trail called Roaring Creek. The trail climbs steeply up a south-facing slope through sagebrush, juniper, Douglas fir, and huge ponderosa pine. Roaring Creek was roaring pretty good with the spring runoff. We had some very nice views of the Poudre Canyon while hiking up this steep slope. After the first mile (and an elevation gain of around 2,000 feet), the trail levels and continues along the creek lined with willows and through a lodgepole pine forest.

It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the diversity of this trail.

Sunday morning was another fine Rocky Mountain spring day and we took Ronda over to The Rainbow and a had a very nice breakfast outside on the patio to celebrate Mothers Day.

Last fall Josh and I went on our first backpacking adventure into the wilderness. I’m a little delinquent in getting this trip report out but… better late than never. The area is known as the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness and is located at the southern end of the Mosquito Range. It is a small wilderness area of 43,410 acres and is the only designated wilderness in the Mosquito Range. We had completed an earlier car camping trip to the area in July and enjoyed a pleasant stay at the edge of the wilderness area. See this article for a report.

We liked the area so much that a return trip was deemed essential. The top of the peaks looked as though they would provide a magnificent view of the Collegiate Peaks (Continental Divide) to the west and Josh was particularly interested in composing a panoramic of the mountain ranges. Labor Day weekend looked promising…..Ronda was planning a trip back to Iowa leaving us boys to play.

In the interim Josh began building a special purpose offset-bracket that would allow his camera to be rotated on the tripod without changing the focal point of the images. He bought some scrap aluminum plate and designed the approriate distances/angles, cut it out and smoothed it down, drilled and threaded the holes, and I put the final bend on it with a sheet metal bender at work.

Gear was another issue. Neither of us had an approriate sleeping bag, a backpacking stove, or various other “lightweight” items like cooking pans. These things take on a whole ‘nother perspective when you have to haul them in on your back. Our last excursion to the area was a good training event though. Lesson learned… it get’s COLD up there at night. Those summer-weight sleeping bags just don’t cut it. We are fortunate that we have a local REI Outdoor store. We both found good deals and I picked up good bag for Ronda while I was at it. I bought a neat little stove that uses several kinds of fuel and a nylon tarp too.

Josh already had a nice backpack he had purchased a number of years ago. The only thing I had was an old-school external frame pack we found at a garage sale for $2.00. I decided that despite it’s rudimentary design there was no reason it wouldn’t work for this trip. We knew we had too much to carry… the camera gear (both of us took our cameras, extra lenses, and Josh needed his big tripod) , the food, water, tent, sleeping bags, and so on. Sure enough by the time we had everything stuffed in or strapped on each of was was toting a little over 50 lbs. I was a little apprehensive about the weight given my previous back surgery but the packs are supposed to transfer a majority of the weight to your hips so I figured one can only but try… Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday we were hiking through the foothills enjoying 75 degree weather and sunshine. Ronda, Josh and I got in some serious cardio-vascular exercise over in North Cheyenne Canyon during what turned out to be a four-mile excursion culminating in one of my famous “shortcuts”.

The trail starts out at the summit of High Dr. and ascends up the side of Mt Buckhorn. High Dr. is open from May to October to vehicular traffic. Key word being “to” not “through” October. as I had recalled. We had to park in the Gold Camp Trailhead parking area and hike up High Dr. before we could actually start our hike. The trail (667) across Mt. Buckhorn delivers some very nice views of the Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, and the wide open prairie beyond. The trail becomes Jones Park trail as you leave Mt Buckhorn and continues across an un-named ridge towards Mt Kineo. It was at this point that “the shortcut” came into my mind.

Going back the way we came was the original plan, however, we were three miles out and the sun had already dropped over the mountains to the west of us. Having become familiar with the geography of the local area, I knew that the Seven Bridges trail was at the bottom of the canyon to our left, and that if we could get down to it we could shave a good two miles off our return trip. The only thing between us and the Seven Bridges trail was about 900 feet- 900 feet down, that is.

Now 900 feet is not really all that far, about three city blocks, but it takes on a different perspective when it’s down. Or another perspective… Des Moines, IA is approx. 860 feet above sea level.

Ronda begins narrating this story….I was not sure whether to trust these two Rambo types and their ‘yee ha – let’s go down the mountain’. Matt has taken me on some interesting and very challenging off trail adventures but to his credit, he has never gotten me lost, so I relented. I have learned that my tax dollars got both of my guys some awesome field survival skills.

Now understand that standing at the top of a very steep incline and looking down has NEVER been my cup of tea. Jumping off a loaded hay rack is my idea of enough height so this view of almost straight down for 900 feet was bit beyond my comfort zone. It is one of the reasons I have not ever really considered downhill skiing, the thought of standing at the top of a steep incline on a mountain and realizing the only thing between me and the bottom is a long ride on a couple of slim pieces of wood or acrylic. Not my idea of a good time. I was soon to learn that my perspective was ALL wrong!

We advanced a small distance across the trail from the high rocky point that this capital decision was made and began the apprehensive (on my part!) descent down. We followed an animal trail that Matt found which worked its way across the the incline, crossing an open scree field very carefully. (We later regretted this decision) The whole mountain is a scree field, actually, but covered by pine needles and grasses so it is possible to navigate carefully. At the point that we had decended approximately 200 feet, Matt decided it was time to go the more downward route. This is where our new sport initiation came in! Now mind you, I said that the whole mountain face was scree. If you are unfamiliar with scree, it is loose granite about the size of pea gravel. We have found that even on Pikes Peak, there are ‘rocks’ appearing to be granite rocks that when touched fall into pieces in your hand. Now imagine a mountain face covered in pea gravel. You are going to just turn and hike down it at a 45 degree angle. NOT!

Hence our new sport. —Scree Sliding. I think there is actually a name for it other than what we deemed it but ours helps you to visualize how we got down that 900 feet in about 15 minutes. Matt led us down. At first, we were all trying to keep our balance and catch trees as we went by to stop and catch ourselves. Before long (not soon enough!) we realized that just surfing the scree and flowing down the mountain was the real way to do this. That was where the ‘yee ha’ comes in!

Josh graciously stayed with me and made sure I didn’t roll down the mountain. He held my hand at one point to help me balance and give me confidence. It was then I caught his technique and realized if I relaxed and flowed with the scree, I could surf it down. I lost my balance at several points and ended up ‘sledding the scree’. Whoo hoo! As long as you missed the trees and bigger rocks, which we did, it was a grand time. Alot of the rocks moved out of the way as there is nothing to hold them in place. It was an awesome ride to say the least, leaving us wanting to go back up the mountain face and come down again. We wished we had not passed by the first open scree flow that we found and carefully manuvered over but just plunged into it. Needless to say, we will not shy away from another opportunity to Scree Slide a mountain face. I think that skiing or snowboarding may now be in my future as that was just too exhilerating to not do on a fairly regular basis. I think Matt has turned me into a rush junkie! He’ll be sorry!

This Scree Sliding experience took us right to the edge of the North Cheyenne Creek, which was a beautiful mountain stream surrounded in trees turning a lovely golden hue. My photographers got busy shuttering away all along the creek. Abby was so thirsty, dusty, and hot that she immediately layed down in the stream. It was a great hike back to the Gold Camp Road along the stream with many photo opportunites. Everyone was in heightened spirits. Truly a great hike!

Hopefully, you will get to see some of the pictures here soon as they are going off to be developed tomorrow. Matt just couldn’t wait to post this story so you will have to endure a pictureless story. We were all a bit jazzed by the adventure for sure and ready to share. On the way back we hit one of our favorite eateries, Jack Quinn, in downtown Co Springs for some hiker nourishment. Highly recommend, and when you come for a visit, don’t let us forget to take you there. Fun Irish pub with FAB food and Celtic music. We never planned to be gone on a 6 hour adventure but all were grateful for the fun and ready to call it an early evening as we rolled into the drive long after dark.

gee… the site has been neglected for awhile. We finally got out and did a little camping last weekend. Josh, Ronda, and I packed up the Jeep and went in search of some 4-wheel drive roads to get away from the traditional campground scenario. We headed over toward Buena Vista and worked our way up some pretty rough roads toward the Buffalo Peaks. It was gettting late and we finally ran out of road around 11,500 feet. Josh got out and started exploring trying to find a good camp site.

He found a real winner but it was a half-mile or so into the woods. We all grabbed as much as we could carry and hiked in. It was a beautiful spot and we left Ronda there to set up the tent while Josh and I went back to the jeep for another load. On the way back we found a jeep trail that looked like we could use to get a little closer to the campsite so we carefully guided the Jeep up this trail. By now it was dark.

We grabbed a bunch more stuff and headed toward the campsite. Or so we thought. It did not take long to become hopelessly lost in the woods in the dark. It’s rather embarrassing to admit but we literally stumbled around for an hour or so dragging along a bunch of gear and getting a bit annoyed. Finally, through a little celestial navigation (North Star) and the ol’ “Marco” – “Polo” trick we made our way back to the campsite. We had a good laugh afterwards and dubbed it our “sherpa training”.

We finshed setting up camp and then enjoyed some very nice stargazing before retiring. It got a bit cool during the night and sleep was elusive for me. We really need to get some decent gear. We had a visitor or two by our tent early in the morning but never actually saw what it was. Most likely an elk. After breakfast we went on a short hike to gain enough altitude that we could see the continental divide which was just west of us. Then we relaxed in camp until we unanimously decided to pack up and go home. The weather was suppose to turn rainy (which it did) and we felt we had enough fun for this weekend.

We finally got back to our mystery hike over Fathers Day weekend. Enough snow had melted that we were able to make our way all the way to Oil Creek Tunnel. Kristina came with us as she was home for a visit. She rode the Amtrak train out from Osceola to Denver and spent the weekend. It was great to have her home and back out on the trail with us again.

Oil Creek Tunnel was constructed in the late 1890′s by a Cincinnati company as a prospecting venture. No, not for gold, but for flourine quartz. The tunnel bores straight into Pikes Peak right at the treeline at an elevation of 11,285 feet. It was not a particulary successful operation and they gave up after boring through 1,593 feet of solid granite. The tunnel is about six feet high and eight feet wide for the most part but there are sections that are lower and it’s easy to bonk your head since most of your attention is on where you are putting your feet.

We had a nice hike into the area and were able to find the cabin ruins without much trouble. But beyond the cabin the snow was still drifted pretty heavily and was not passable in many places. We knew the tunnel was in the rock face so we split up and started looking for it. Ronda was the first to spot it and we all converged on the area. The tunnel itself was still covered by the huge snow drifts coming down off the mountain, although there was a small hole from where the warmer air had melted through. The main giveaway was the old steam boiler that is still intact and the stream coming out of the snow. Read the rest of this entry »

We ventured out on Memorial Day weekend to reconnoiter a new trail that leads to an interesting destination. The destination shall remain undisclosed at the moment since we were unable to complete the trip. The trail begins at the 12,000 ft level on the slopes of Pikes Peak.

At this level you are just entering what is called the “alpine zone”. Another way to look at is “the treeline”. The trail starts out through a wooded area and we soon encountered what would ultimately force us to turn around… deep snow on the trail. Most of the snow is gone but it is still drifted in many places up to 3 or 4 feet deep. Trying to walk over these places in your trail runners can get pretty dicey. We were able to walk over most of them but still sank through in a lot of spots. Abby fared some better as she is a lot lighter but even she had troubles. Needless to say, our feet were soaked by the time we got back to the Jeep.

The trail comes out of the woods and crosses a large scree field, shown in the picture above, and then passes through more snow drifted woods before descending down the back side of the ridge. Here the trail descends swiftly and comes out in a flat area between the two ridges. The trail forks here with one segment going around the opposite ridge and joins up with the Barr trail that many people use to climb Pikes Peak. The other segment (the one we wanted) was buried under lots of snow and we really could not quite pick out where it went. We saw some tracks made by someone with snowshoes but trying to follow those was hopeless. So we turned around.

On the way back up the trail we saw some abandoned mining gear (hint) laying beside the trail. We made our way back through the snow drifts and partway across the scree field and decided to explore an interesting rock outcrop for a good lunching spot. We were successful and had a nice bite to eat and rest while taking in the view down the valley. On the way back up and across to the Jeep a snow squall came along and pelted us with snow! It was short-lived but fun.