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.

Trying to run again (trying, being the key word)

  I'm trying to get back into running after a winter of swimming (hadn't done that in 16 years!) due to plantar fascitis (contracted last May).  I've been enjoying the swimming but I'd like to get back outside for the summer.  Last weekend I played tennis, did my hike, and played some more tennis.  My foot really hurt by the end of the weekend again.  I iced it on Sunday and things seemed better Monday.  I decided to give it a try (running) today and see how it feels later.  So far, so good!

Hike: Lee Martinez Park to the West and back

Trails Used: Poudre Trail
Distance: 3.94 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 6.0 mph
Overall Time: 39 min
Total Ascent: 90 ft.

Devil's Backbone to Coyote Ridge

Fast, long hike today.  Had to get home for guests coming over for dinner.  Very bummed that I didn't get any flower pics but I really didn't have the time.  In the last 5 minutes I saw these deer and couldn't resist any longer.  I had to have something to remember this hike by!

Hike: Devil's Backbone to Coyote Ridge

Trails Used: Devil's Backbone to Coyote Ridge
Distance: 9.15 miles
Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult (due to speed not elevation gain)
Overall average: 3.7 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 29 min
Total Ascent: 1476 ft.

 

Little Devil's at Devil's Backbone

 

How many more beautiful days can we have?  It doesn't get much better than this! The kids and I took a small hike today since I have only one more day to enjoy the weather.  My PRK eye surgery is tomorrow afternoon so I don't think I will be getting out and enjoying the 70 degree weather again this weekend. 

Poking, prodding, little devils...that is an apt title for this picture.

Ahhhh.....peace (for a moment)!

 You've gotta love the fashionista's outfit:

60's and beautiful @ Horsetooth Rock

Hiked Horsetooth Mountain Park this morning.  Saw 4 mule deer, one with a rack!

 

 

Had fun experimenting w/ my new camera but didn't take anything very different or spectacular.  Oh well, I still had fun and enjoyed the early spring day. 

Distant views of Long's Peak:

 

Views of Horsetooth Rock:

View of the trail hiked up:

 

Hike: Horsetooth Mountain Park

Trails Used: Foot trail to Horsetooth Rock to West Ridge to Spring Creek to Falls and Back
Distance: 7.05 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.9 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 27 min
Total Ascent: 2027 ft.

 

Snowshoeing & Skiing in Breck

We had an early spring break up in Breckenridge this past week.  Besides the hut trip we went hot tubbing, 

skiing,

 

 and sledding.  

  

A trip to Breck would NOT be complete without a trip to Daylight Donut's and Fatty's Pizzeria (not shown).

 

 

 

Snow Shoe: True Romance Mine

Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, To Ski Jump, to True Romance and Back to House
Distance: 4.79 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.7 mph
Overall Time: 1 hrs, 48 min
Total Ascent: 806 ft.

 

 

Snow Shoe: Whole Loop

Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, Ski Hill, True Romance, Sally Barber, Up, and Home
Distance: 5.53 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.7 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 02 min
Total Ascent: 1087 ft.

 

 

Snow Shoe: Backwards Loop (Some of it)
Trails Used: House to Iowa Mill, to Ski Jump, to Sally Barber Mine, to True Romance, Home
Distance: 5.51 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.8 mph
Overall Time: 1 hrs, 58 min
Total Ascent: 1039 ft.

 

A cabin in the woods...it sounds like the beginnings of a horror story!

 

Instead it was a fun filled day and night!  The family all snowshoed to a cabin in the woods @ Tennessee Pass.  Our cabin slept 8 people and was well equipped (stove, 

 

fireplace, cistern water, solar powered refrigerator, grill, games, blocks, high chair, pack n play, sleds, outhouse).  We strapped on our snowshoes, hefted our heavy back packs, 

 

attached the sled (carrying important supplies),

 

and began our hike in.  It was only about .7 miles to the cabin with a slight uphill tendency.  My little man made it with no problems. 

 

 We melted snow to cook and drink with.

 

A beer or two was consumed that evening.

We took a couple of snowshoes on the Powder Horn trail and the Tree Line trail.  It was very peaceful.

 

It 's a good thing the snow was covering everything and I wasn't tempted to pick up objects from the ground.  Boom!

 

There were two other cabins around us and various other buildings:

 

 

We boiled a lot of water.  Melting snow doesn't equate to much water so we did have to haul quite a few buckets in.  We had sloppy joes and coleslaw for dinner, popcorn for a snack and eggs in a bag for breakfast in the morning.  This was something our friend's had showed us a long time ago on a camping trip.  These were nice since I was able to make each person's eggs to their desired taste.  The day before I read on the web that Ziploc does NOT endorse putting their bags in boiling water but I decided to take my chances since I didn't die the previous time I did it.  The only thing that I needed to remember was to not let the bags touch the edge of the pot (they burn and melt).

I was pleased with the result!

The outhouse was a small walk from the cabin but covered.

Everyone had a great time.  The kids loved rustling around in their sleeping bags and playing in the snow. Everything is always an adventure for them!

Hike: Point Breeze Cabin
Trails Used: Continental Divide Trail
Distance: .73 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 1.3 mph
Overall Time: 45 min
Total Ascent: 181 ft.

 

 

Hike: Powderhorn Trail
Trails Used: Powderhorn Trail to Continental Divide
Distance: 2.91 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 1.8 mph
Overall Time: 1 hr., 37 mins.
Total Ascent: 454 ft.

 

Hike: Tree Line Trail
Trails Used: Tree Line to Continental Divide
Distance: 1.86 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 2.0 mph
Overall Time: 56 min
Total Ascent: 340 ft.