Last Day of Vacation

For the last several days our niece, Laura, and her husband Richard and their two daughters have been staying with us.  They are vacationing from their home in Maryland trying to take in some of the sights and sounds of Colorado.  They have been great guests and we have thoroughly enjoyed their visit and sharing our lives with them for a week.  This morning we visited the Svetsville Zoo outside of Fort Collins.  The proprietor, artist and creator of all things in the zoo is a collector of used machinery and farm implements.  His work speaks more eloquently than I could describe in words.

Carissa with reptile

The girls

Laura and Richard

Family ready for some hiking

The inventiveness of the zoo makes this a must-see for some artistic diversion.  We enjoyed seeing the clever creatures and smiled with their fun names.  We strolled among the 150 plus critters inhabiting the pathways  along the Poudre River.

After the zoo visit we decided to seek out a couple of geocaches along our way in the Poudre Canyon west of our house.  We found one cache across the street from the zoo and another along the route up the Poudre Canyon.  We hiked up Young Gulch in the Roosevelt National Forest and found another cache there.  The girls are excited about finding treasures and understand that if they find something of interest they must replace what they found with something of like value.  In one cache recently Carissa was prepared to trade her bottle of liquid bubbles only to find a cache that contained a different brand of the same bubbles.  Blue bubbles for pink bubbles.  Works for me.

The hike allowed us to cross a stream alternately balancing on rocks and tip-toeing along a logs spanning the stream.  Poison ivy was abundant and we were careful to avoid it.  Fritillaries in  brilliant orange and swallow tails of yellow and black swooped around us us we disturbed their afternoon drink.  Pink wild roses, bright yellow golden banner and other blue-hued flowers vied for our attention.  A boulder couldn’t be passed by without the girls testing out their newly learned skills climbing on rocks.

We had a great time  on our last outdoor outing of the vacation trip.  We look forward to our next visit. Thanks for spending time with us.  Safe travels home.

Crossing a log bridge

Atop a boulder

Snow hike to Flattop Mountain

Richard, my niece’s husband, wanted to hike to a  mountain top during his visit to us in Colorado.  It is too early in the season for trails at very high elevations to be clear of snow.  Checking websites for info about recent trips to 14ers showed only snow climbs being reported.  We wanted to take the family to Rocky Mountain National Park just over an hour away, so we figured that a hike in the Park was appropriate.  I hiked to Flattop Mountain two years ago during the summer and enjoyed the trip.  Snow totals overall are down in Colorado this year, so I thought it was worth the try to summit this peak at 12, 324 feet above sea level.   Richard comes to Colorado accustomed to breathing at his low elevation in Maryland.  He needs at least a few days to become acclimatized to the mile high elevation and prepare to rise to above 12,000 feet during a climb through snow gaining 2,849 feet.  Richard is a fit, young hiker in good shape.

Saturday morning is set for our hiking.  We agree to bring the family into the Park and part company for the day.  Richard and I will explore vertically and the women will explore the Park horizontally.  We drive to the park n ride lot in the Park and hop the shuttle to Bear Lake trail head. The temperatures are warm and the sky was slightly overcast and hazy.  We grab our packs and start out on our adventure.  We have a late start, 11:30 am.  But there is no threat of storms and our expectations are modest.  Our first encounter is with drifted snow.  I hiked on snowy trails before, but this snow is drifted high and wide.  The center track over the snow is mostly packed down, but a misstep into soft snow means a post holing event, that is,  sinking into the soft snow up to your knees and sometimes further.  Not a pleasant experience.  The snow is wet and slippery for the most part.  Twenty percent of the trail was clear  allowing us to walk at a normal pace.  We passed many hikers along the way despite the slippery conditions.  The trail winds its way through a pine forest mixture and lodgepole and ponderosa.  As we got through the woods closer to tree line the trees were shorter and twisted and the sun-exposed snow was wetter and slushy.  Do you like to play in puddles?  If so, this was the place.

Pasque flowers

Wind blown tree

Richard on drifted snow

The wind was more noticeable as we emerged from the trees, so we donned our wind breakers for protection. The vistas could be seen all around as we moved around the west side of the mountain onto an open rocky trail.   Our breathing became more labored above 11,000 feet as the hazy air thinned and our lungs worked harder for the same effort.  Despite the windy conditions some small flowers managed to pop out in sunny, protected spots along the way.  Pasque flowers a mere two inches tall bloomed in a sunny spot on the northwest end of the trail. Snow conditions changed as we moved higher.  Snow became drier and crunchier along the ridge.  As we approached the crest of the ridge a wind gust blew the hard dry snow pellets into our faces.  Ouch!  The march across the ridge to the summit tested our ability to withstand harsh winds.  We managed well.  The view from the summit allowed us to look over the hazy surroundings all the way to Lake Granby.  We later learned that the haze in the sky was due to smoke from a large fire in New Mexico.  We walked over to the Tyndall Glacier and looked down over the snow filled bowl and comprehended why there is an extreme danger warning at the top.  We had our lunch and prepared for the return trip after a quick stop on Hallett’s Peak.  The 360 degree views were breath-taking.  This is an awesome hike even when the snow is drifted.  The return trip was much quicker than the trip up.  We played on the snow on the way down, sliding on the snow with only our shoes as skis.  We encountered some hikers along the way down who were in tough shape.  Offering words of encouragement and snack for energy we continued back to the trailhead to meet our wives and the children.  Phone service was available at some spots on the mountain so we were able to communicate our longer than expected timetable.  If you are in Rocky Mountain National Park, consider the possibility of doing this fun and challenging hike.

Peter at base of Hallett Peak

Snow bowl on Tyndall Glacier

Tyndall Glacier warning

Richard on the Flattop Summit

Crosier Mountain High

Over the past 8 weeks I have been preparing and conditioning myself for an adventure hike that would involve hiking 12 and one half miles in the Roosevelt National Forest on Crosier Mountain and locating up to as many as eight hidden geocaches along the way.  That hiking event happened on Saturday, May 5th, 2012.  The group of six, referring to ourselves as the Cinco de Mayo group, arrived from Fort Collins, Loveland and Colorado Springs at the predetermined time and location and drove into Big Thompson Canyon along Highway 34 toward Crosier Mountain.  Our leader and trainer, Steve, is known to geocachers as Denali41.  He has written guide-book articles about this and other hikes nearby.  His challenge is to take five geocachers up 3200 vertical feet and help us learn mapping skills using and converting measuring units and triangulation to pinpoint the spot of the hidden geocaches.

Our pace is steady and up.  Our route is mostly on trail and our progress is consistent.  Everyone was emailed preparatory instructions so we would know what the challenges were.  Despite an early in the week forecast of rain, our weather was sunny and partly cloudy and temps in the 60s.  Strong winds were only a factor when we reached the summit of Crosier Mountain and when we reached a point known to the caching community as Anne’s Overlook .  My fellow hikers include:  Matevž, Dick, Doug, Karen and Steve.

We hiked well as a group taking turns on lead with Steve at the front most of the time.  Many of the caches were hidden on top of huge outcroppings of rock with trees impossibly growing out of cracks unbelievably small.  Along the hills we saw some flowers and cacti.  I recognized a few remaining Pasque flowers showing their Easter colors on whiskery stems.  Cacti were flowering at some spots.  A few spring beauties could be found, too.

Flowering cactus (photo by Matevz)

The trail was dusty and rocky in many parts, especially it seems, when we were heading down a steep incline.  The scenery was fabulous.  Rising along the trail were doug firs and lodgepole pines and newly leaved aspen trees with their pale green coloration.  Overlooks allowed spacious views of snow-capped mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park.  As we neared roadways on our return green meadows and pastures filled the background of the landscape emerging through the trees.  The deep green of the trees contrasted with the bright clouds under pale blue skies.

The group practiced mapping skills using their GPS units. Even a smart phone was along for the trip.  Distances were converted from statute miles to nautical miles, coordinates were converted from compass directions to UTM settings.  Triangulations were drawn on maps to determine where the caches were hidden along the way.  The steady tutelage from Steve kept us on course and on target.  As the late afternoon sun was hidden from us by the adjacent peaks, the hiking was more focused and conversations tended to be quieter.  The wear and tear of the accummulated steps over miles of rough terrain was taking its toll.  It seemed like the quiet satisfaction of knowing that the end was close at hand kept us going and kept us in good spirit.  We ended our trek on the opposite side of the mountain trail so we shuttled vehicles to get us back into our respective cars and headed back home a little sore but smiling with satisfaction and appreciation for the time spent planning the trip by our leader and the success of each individual’s effort.  Good hike!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmfnBVozujE

Spring Time in the Smokies

For a week in April, Paul and Maris Fried (Old Friends from Milwaukee) joined Peter and I in the Smokies for a week’s vacation.  We went expecting to see many wildflowers and waterfalls.  But the weather was warmer this year than other years and the wildflowers seemed to be past their prime.  It rained some.  We hiked some.  Did some caching and generally enjoyed being with each other again for a time.  Peter and Paul took in a couple of longer hikes while Maris and I took in the shorter ones.  The trip was enjoyable and we hope to meet up again next year in the Grand Canyon.  Peter and Paul plan on hiking to the bottom while the ladies are uncertain of their plans.  Time will tell!

c

For the past 2 months or so, Peter has been planning and preparing for a hike to Crosier Mountain near Drake, Co.  The hike itself will be about 10.5 miles round trip and cover the entire day.  He is going with about 6 other people who are either hikers or geocachers.  The aim of this adventure, besides being out in the wonderful outdoors is to learn some orienteering skills along with finding about 8 caches that have been stashed up in the mountains.

He has been training and now the big day has finally arrived.  Up at 5AM. Best time of the day.  Private concerto going on outside our windows.  The birds are certainly making their presence known.  Looks like the weather will be perfect for the hike.  Here in the lower elevations it will be in the 80′s, but as they climb in elevation (about 3000′) it will undoubtedly get cooler and they will begin to shed their layers.

Anxious for his safe return and the stories that he will be sharing. Will be quiet here today as I am without a vehicle.  I intend to catch up on some painting.

Peter is also out on his maiden voyage with our new vehicle.  A Rave 4.  Picked it up last nite after 2 days of dealing with insurance adjusters and sales people. Our Prius was totaled in a hail storm as we were coming into St. Louis, Mo on our way home from a spring trip to the Smokies.  Amazing what damage can be done to a vehicle with ice balls the size of soft balls and golf balls.  Peter has a large  bruise on his lower arm to show for it.  This size car should be a better fit for our travels and adventures.  Peter is anxious to take it on the back roads where we could not have gone previously.

Hiking Fool At the Top

Over the past couple of weeks I have become known as a hiking fool.  The hiking part of the name is appropriate, but the fool part may be a little over the top.  I have intensified my preparation for a geoteering event planned for the first weekend in May.  The May event promises a long, full day of hiking in the mountains with mapping and geo-orienteering events to get from one place to another.   I will be part of a small group of people attempting the feat.

My training with others started with the mapping and hiking geocache called Swarming the Bobcat.  You can read about that in a prior post.   Since then I have been running and hiking and working out at the gym.  Despite a setback of a cold with sinus problems, I have been getting out with determined regularity.

Dick at summit of Sheep Mountain

With newly found hiking partner, Dick, I was able to hike and find the summit cache at Sheep Mountain in the Poudre Canyon.  On a solo hike, with the prior assistance of Renée in determining the proper coordinates, I hiked to the summit cache known as the Goat Hill Overlook near the Horsetooth Reservoir.  The rocky summit here had me scrambling over scattered rocks to reach a 360 degree view of the Reservoir and an uplifted rock formation known as Goat Hill.

Light snow flurries and 39 degrees greeted friend, hiker and fellow geocacher, Dick and myself at the trailhead in the Poudre Canyon.  We are attempting to complete a cache known as St. Brendon the Navigator.  This caching hike directs us step by step through navigational challenges designed to familiarize us with the power of our GPS receivers and demanding that we key in the proper coordinates to get us from one spot on the trail to the next.  While carrying a 25 pound pack we had to dance along the shores of the Elkhorn Creek navigating by GPS from one hidden location to another.  St. Brendon had us changing navigational systems and measurement units just to give us an additional challenge.  Since this is early spring in the Rockies, the water was flowing at a good pace.  The trail required us to cross the creek about 20 times.  Mostly crossings found us on top of  fallen trees that span the creek in angles so acute and complex my geometry teacher would have smiled with delight.  Using walking poles to assist with balance we bounce and sway like those springy dashboard toys from years past.  To our credit, only once did I fall when an immersed rock rolled under my foot causing my otherwise waterproof boots to fill with water and squishingly remind me about it every left footed step along the rest of the hike.  We proceeded this way to the sixth of eight stages of this multi stage cache challenge.  At stage six we were unable to locate the clue to our next stage.  This required us to return to Dick’s Jeep and call it a day.  Nearly 9 miles of travel along the Creek and up into the mountains.  We will have to revisit this site another day.

Dick fording Elkhorn Creek

After a day’s rest, on my next solo hike I wanted to be the first to find a new mountain geocache in the heights above Mountain Park campground in the Roosevelt National Forest.  At mid morning I traverse along the switchbacks of the WR Kruetzer Trail up toward Mount Mc Connell.  I located two caches on the trail on my way to the  Boundary of the Cache La Poudre Wilderness.    On the sun soaked hill side dozens of purple and yellow pasque flowers bloom amidst the prickly pear cacti and the other resilient plants in this land of limited rainfall.  I locate what should be ground zero, the spot of the cache.  But like the biblical characters on the way to Emmaus, I was prevented from seeing what was in front of me.  I failed to locate the hidden cache.  I am required to come back another time for another 1,000 feet of elevation over another couple of miles.

Pasque flowers along trail

The next outing was the repeat of the nine mile Elkhorn Creek escapade with the previously missing information in hand.  This time we got to stage seven and determined where step eight, the final cache, would be.   The math told us we would be thousands of meters away from our current cache location.  Looking at the map we noticed that the final location will be very near to two other caches hidden in the mountains nearby,  near the top of  Heart Attack Hill.  We drive a few miles along Highway 14 to the parking area that allows us access onto Forest Service property.  A rutted dirt road is gated closed.  Warning signs advise the use of  four wheel drive vehicles with lockable low range gearing.  Our only option is to walk up the roadway to get to the top.  As we progress, storms clouds gather to the south while sunny blue skies guide us further north.  After searching ground zero at the top of  Heart Attack Hill for the very specific site, we scratch our heads and look at our mathematical calculations that brought us to this spot.  Two grown men, albeit tired from miles of hiking, headed west instead of east to get to this spot.  We assess our situation.  It’s late in the afternoon.  We are tired.  Storm clouds are gathering nearby.  What do we do?  What would any other geocacher do but head for the next cache.  As it turns out, another road traveling down hill takes us to another cache accessible only by jeep and by foot.  We determine that we might as well salvage our hard earned miles by getting another cache only a few miles out of the way before returning to the safety and security of the car.   In spite of our failure to get a first to find recognition, we have trained hard for our Cinco de Mayo outing by hiking thousands of feet up and down and traveling about 15 miles in the process.  What’s next?  We need to sleep on this decision.

Mapping Our Way Up Bobcat Ridge

On Saturday my friends Dick and Eric picked me up to complete a complex multi-cache involving mapping and hiking beginning in Fort Collins and ending in the National Forest above Bobcat Ridge Open Space.  Renée helped send us off with fresh cranberry muffins.  Packs filled with hiking essentials were thrown into the back of Dick’s Jeep and away we went.  Eric deferred to my advanced age and allowed me to have front seat privileges.  Dick performed some preliminary work on Friday locating two caches which gave directions to get to the third hidden cache.  Here we had troubles locating the cache and luckily reached the cache owner who gave us some help.  Good thing, too, because my knees were getting sore from crawling around on the ground poking under logs and rocks and bunches of tall grass.  Next came the fun work.  Three of us had to convert coordinates from degrees and minutes format to the metric UTM format and plot locations on a detailed map.  Next we had to draw a distance arc representing a range two miles away on the map.  From another plotted coordinate we had to draw a line on a specific directional bearing.  Where the line and the arc intersected was another hidden cache that contained the coordinates of our final location high in the sky,  beyond Bobcat Ridge Open Space boundaries into the National Forest.  I won’t tell you about our misstep, let’s pretend we were perfect the first time!

The St. Patrick’s Day weather was a treat.  Warm, sunny skies.  Not much wind for this late morning start.  Perfect weather for an uphill hike.  We moved along quickly not exactly sure of our ultimate destination until we moved a little higher on the horizon.  The trail is shared with fat tired mountain bikers and with equestrians young and old.  We yielded to those trail sharers as we progressed.  Pacing ourselves early in the hiking season, we wanted this to be a positively remembered experience, not a forced march.  I was testing out a healing ankle twisted on a hike on North Table Mountain.  Eric was testing his knee, prone to pain on downhill stretches.  Dick was testing nothing.  He was in good shape.  After a lunch break, with the peak in sight we moved out to capture our prize.  Our pace seemed to quicken slightly as we turned left off the trail to bushwhack the last hundred yards.  High-fiving and fist bumping, we were all smiles as we conquered the highly rated mapping and hiking challenge “swarming over the bobcat”  At one point along the way we saw a contrail high in the deep blue sky pointing to a mountain top.  We just smiled and knew that this was another signal from cache owner, Steve, that we were on the right path.  The views from the top were spectacular and sobering.  We saw wondrous red rocks striping the landscape below and we saw once mighty trees uprooted after being burned and blown over.  The experience was one of learning and bonding while enjoying each others company and the beauty we share in this awesome world.  We descended from our perch up high overlooking the open space below and had a lightness in our step that comes from satisfaction and appreciation.