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.

Loooooooooooooonng Hike @ Lory State Park

Well, it was a long one today. I started @ 6:20 a.m. and finished at 11:20 a.m. By the time I ended it was 89 degrees. I don't like heat! It's a good thing I did all the open areas first so the end of the hike was mainly through the trees. I was beat by the time I finished and didn't want to go up another hill if I could help it for the last 3 miles or so. I parked at the Soderberg Trailhead today so that I could do some different trails w/out doing too much mileage. Well, part of that concept worked! It WAS a different trailhead and I did do different trails!

It was a beautiful day and I saw a couple of bucks early on.

The wildflowers were out in force. I even saw some Beebalm today which I normally don't see. The rest of the flowers were pretty typical for the area.


The views of the front range were gorgeous. The boats/hikers/campers were out in full force at Horsetooth Reservoir.

At the end I saw a doe and her baby. The baby was very scared of me and tried to scamper away but wasn't sure which direction to take. I had fun watching!

Horsetooth Mountain Park to Lory State Park
Trails Used: Swan Johnson to Shoreline to Nomad to South Valley Loop to West Valley to Kimmons to Timber to Howard to Mill Creek Link to Logger's Trail to Tower's Trail to Swan Johnson


Distance: 15.3 Miles (I adjusted since I knew the actual time I hiked, the GPS and I didn't get along very well today)
Difficulty: Difficult due to length otherwise moderate
Moving average: 3.4 mph
Overall average: 3.0 mph
Moving Time: 4 hrs, 26 min (adjusted due to defective GPS)
Stopped Time: 32 min, 04 sec
Total Ascent: 2249 ft.
Maximum elevation: 6737 ft.