Soccer & Football is over!! We can start hiking again!

With the fall sports season over we were able to resume our hiking this past weekend.  We stayed close to home and headed out to Soderberg trailhead.  We followed the Tower Trail, Stout, and Sawmill Trails for a small hike.  There was a little fall color left to be had 

and I even stumbled upon this aster at the end of it's bloom cycle.

We saw a couple of deer (not that this was a great photo of one...it is missing it's head).

  These are my crazy trail running children & hubby.  Apparently they are in pretty good shape since they managed about a mile.  I guess I will have to dress for the occasion next time!

Hike: Horsetooth Park
Trails Used:  Soderberg Trailhead to Tower Trail, to Stout Trail, to Sawmill, and back

Distance:  4.89 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hr, 2 min
Total Ascent: 836 ft.

Boyd Lake

 The bike ride started out at Seven Lakes Park in Loveland.  The flax were out and beautiful.  The playground occupied the kids for quite some time.  They even had some different play elements here:

 

 I thought they had outlawed the good old fashioned merry go round.  Apparently, not!  The kids had fun trying to balance on it.

 

Had a nice tour of the lake.  It was a quiet time of year without too many boats.  I don't imagine there will be many more days like this until the fall.

 

 

 I saw this tree and thought it looked like a great photo op...was I ever wrong!  "It smells like a bathroom in there."  The honesty and directness of children is always refreshing!

 

 Fun trees to walk on and look at:

 

There were 3 different parks throughout Boyd Lake and we stopped at every single one of them!

It seems like this has been a snake year.  I don't think we've been on one hike without seeing one.

  

Bike: Boyd Lake

Trails Used: Seven Lakes Park to Boyd Lake and Back
Distance: 7.31 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 5.5  mph
Overall Time: 1 hrs, 19 min
Total Ascent: 97 ft.