Horsetooth Mountain Park

Went for a hike today hoping it was going to be a pleasant day. It was but the weather sure didn't cooperate. It was 35 and snowing (yes, snowing on April 23rd) when I started and 37 and snowing when I stopped. I was dressed for the weather so it didn't make much of a difference except for my mood: Gloomy! I got to use my new GPS watch (very cool) and tried to take at least one picture today but I forgot to charge my battery in the camera (duh!) I did see 3 mule deer hiking and 3 by the side of the road as I was leaving. I really didn't see much else since my hat was blocking the view and my eyes were locked on the ground! Hopefully, my next post will have much better pictures (or at least one :) ).

Horsetooth Mountain Park
Trails Used: Foot Travel Path to Horsetooth Rock, Wathan to Westridge, Spring Creek Trail, Horsetooth Falls Trail
Distance: 7.12 Miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.2 mph
Moving Time: 2 hrs, 13 min
Total Ascent: 2259 ft.
Maximum elevation: 7132 ft.

Bobcat Ridge

What a morning. I started out at Lamar's Donuts w/ the family and my good old standby 'The Glazed Old Fashioned.' (It's possible there might have been more than 1) What better way to cap off eating 500+ calories? Go for a rigorous 12 mile hike. Some people might not jump to that conclusion but I'm telling you this was one of those beautiful Colorado sunny days when you just want to soak the rays into your skin.
What a beautiful day for a hike! It was 42 degrees when I started and 62 when I ended. Sunny w/ a light wind. I started off by going to the historic cabin. It had some cool plows behind it that you can see through the windows if you look carefully.

I thought for awhile that the only 'flora' picture I was going to have was a dandelion but once I made it to Mahoney Park I saw some Pasque flowers just coming up.
I saw all these birds circling in the sky. Something good must have been down below. Maybe they even thought I looked good to eat! Who knows!!
I even saw this pretty pink flower. Just the one over the entire hike.
I did see some prints and poop but no deer.
I was just finishing up the hike when I passed a horse and rider and the horse let out a 'neigh'. It was the perfect end to my morning.

Bobcat Ridge
Trails Used: Valley Loop to Historic Cabin, up to DR Trail, Ginny Trail back down
Distance: 12.25 Miles (GPS crapped out once, so this is an estimation)
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.8 mph
Overall average: 3.6 mph
Moving Time: 3 hrs, 10 min
Stopped Time: 8 min, 18 sec
Total Ascent: 1692 ft.
Maximum elevation: 7003 ft.

Horsetooth Mountain Park

I went for a little hike this weekend. I was planning on doing Red Mountain but we decided that it wouldn't be a great place (plains, very open, few trees) when the 30-40 mph winds arrived. I thought that sticking close to home and finishing quickly seemed like the better option. So we ended up at Horsetooth. We parked at the Soderberg Trailhead. We would have done a longer hike had a storm not been blowing in. Saturday it was 80 degrees (albeit windy) and beautiful. I had committed to tennis already so that left Sunday for a hike. I woke up to it being 52 degrees. The temperature took a nose dive quickly thereafter. The wind and clouds came. The picture below was taken as the bad weather was rolling in. Luckily we got our hike in before the rain came. It turned out to be an okay day for hiking. Some little yellow flowers were just starting to peek out behind the rocks! I'm ready for spring/summer! Lots of bikers and runners were out trying to get their exercise done before the weather turned. There was a ton of smoke from the Crystal Fire blowing down the canyon by the time we finished. We made it back to the car w/ 10 minutes to spare before it started to spit rain and we were safely locked away inside the house by the time it turned to snow. I did do a new route today so that was fun. It started out along the reservoir then crawled up into the hills and back down.

Hopefully I will have my new camera soon and start capturing better pictures. I'm very anxious to get it!

Horsetooth Mountain Park
Trails Used: Swan Johnson, Shoreline, Sawmill, Stout, to Towers, and back on Swan Johnson
Distance: 5.2 Miles (GPS crapped out a couple of times, so this is an estimation)
Difficulty: Moderate
Moving average: 3.5 mph
Overall average: 3.3 mph
Moving Time: 1 hrs, 17 min
Stopped Time: 4 min, 47 sec
Total Ascent: 861 ft.
Maximum elevation: 6126 ft.