Hitting the Hills

I'm behind on my postings, too busy out playing I guess.

Jonny and I went to Hall Ranch last Monday for an easy day of hiking.  Which turned out to be not so much.  We decided to do a loop, up the hiker only trail, down the multi-use trail for a grand total of about 9.4 miles, 3 hours 50 minutes (maybe 3 hours, 35-40 without the stops).  We saw plenty of critters starting with a bull snake right away.

Couldn't get my camera out in enough time to get his head, he went straight down the nearest hole when he spotted us.

Bull Snakes aren't venomous or aggressive and they kill rattlesnakes so I'm all for them.  Jonny insisted this one was 6' long but I say more like 3'-4'.

Then there was this little guy.

Sporting his camo look.

One of these days I'll get a good picture of an Abert Squirrel.  They're shy of people and always take off before I can get my camera turned on.  Sadly in over 20 years of living here this is the best I've got.

Plenty of nice views.

Not exactly an easy rest day but once we got going it was hard to turn around.

Next day it was off to Golden for the Centennial Cone trail.  We accessed it via the new-ish Mayhem Gulch trail which added on another 4.6 miles to the 12.1 mile Centennial Cone trail.

With a name like Mayhem Gulch it has to be good.

The bike course for Nationals is 17.7 miles with 3400' of climbing and this ride was nearly 17 miles according to my cyclometer but only 16.4 according to this guy.  That link shows an elevation map and claims 1621' of climbing.  Perusing the internet gives lot of different elevation claims - 2600', over 5000' - so it's hard to know which one is accurate.  I'd like to believe 2600' but maybe the 1621' is the right one.  So many gizmos out there these days for measuring routes/elevation, hard to know which ones are the most accurate.  Oddly enough it took me the exact same amount of time to complete the trail as it did the guy in the link, 3 hours 50 minutes.

Edited to add:

There's a cool feature on that website linked above that follows a 3-D satellite view of the route.  So cool, especially to see the crazy switchbacks and exposure on Mayhem.  It shows the measured path and it doesn't exactly follow the trail, cuts off quite a few corners so that would explain why my cyclometer measured .6 extra mile.  Also gives me hope that there was a bit more elevation gain than measured.

Despite the name, the Mayhem Gulch trail was not all that difficult.  Nice smooth singletrack at mostly reasonable grades.  There's a lot of exposure though and steep drop-offs so it's not for folks who are scared of heights.  I was surprised by the amount of exposure, steep drop-offs and tight switchbacks on the Centennial Cone trail as well.  Been years since I've done it and I don't remember so much exposure.  Neither trail is technical, just a couple of places I have to walk on Centennial and even Jonny has to walk down those.

Lots of Centennial is really beautiful though, I'd forgotten what a nice trail it is once you get off the exposed stuff.  I was on a mission though, only stopped for one photo op despite all the fabulous scenery and perfect blue skies.

Looks cloudy in the photo but the skies overhead were sunny and blue.

Did this ride on tired legs from the long hike the day before and some general fatigue left over from the hot day at the agility trial the day before.  Felt good about this ride though and getting excited for Nationals.

Flowers at Hall

Finally got in a good bike ride today up at Hall Ranch.  Felt wonderful to be back on the bike.

Cacti are blooming.

And here are a couple of Yuccas thinking about it.

Trail was relatively quiet for a Saturday thanks to the holiday.  Lots of Boulderites skip town during holidays so it's nice and peaceful for those who stay behind.

I was only about 4-5 minutes faster over 12.4 miles than I was on the same trail 2 months ago but I felt more confident and was able to ride more stuff both on the way up and down.  Still, wish I could see more improvement on my time.

Was hoping to go up to Wyoming tomorrow to pre-ride the Curt Gowdy course for my upcoming triathlon but they're predicting 30 mph winds and I don't want to ride in that nor drive up on the Interstate in that wind.  That highway is already terrifying enough with the semi's on a good day.  So I'll have to wait 2 more weeks unless I go up  mid-week on my own or deal with holiday traffic on Monday, neither of which is tempting.  On the other hand the 40 mph winds that were predicted for Boulder today never materialized.  Hopefully they'll stay away tomorrow as well and I can get one ride in up at West Mag before they close it after Memorial Day.  Forest Service is hacking down huge portions of the forest supposedly in the name of fire mitigation and getting ahead of the pine beetles.  But I don't understand the logic of chopping down all the healthy trees just so the beetles don't get them.  Then again I'm not a government bureaucrat.  Sadly  no-one can ride there all summer and when it finally does re-open it will look and feel totally different.  Don't know where I'm going to ride on a regular basis this summer, not many/any comparable trails only 40 minutes from my house.  Have to get up there sometime this weekend for one last hurrah.

Hall Ranch

Three days on the trails in one week, and in March no less!  Somebody pinch me.

Another gorgeous blue sky Colorado day, this time at Hall Ranch.  Today was like that day in the fall when all the squirrels suddenly go crazy running around gathering their nuts or doing whatever they do except with cyclists instead of squirrels.  The road to Lyons is a popular cycling route and today it was solid with big packs of roadies as well as regular folk riding in smaller groups.  And Hall Ranch?  I've never seen it so busy.  Everybody and their granny and their granny's granny was at Hall Ranch.  Still, was so nice to be back on the trails.

When I stopped to take a photo a hiker stopped to chat with me and he said of the 45 cyclists that passed him (he was counting), 42 had said hi or thank you for stepping off the trail or acknowledged him in some way.  I was happy for that, trail access is a big issue for cyclists and to have positive feedback from a hiker on such a busy day was a very good thing.  Now if only the dog people would learn some manners maybe we would be allowed at Hall Ranch.  Or at least not get banned from any more trails.  But I'm in too good of a mood to start ranting about that.

I'm sure summer, or at least spring, is here to stay.

Hiking at Hall Ranch

Another attempt at photographing a sundog, or perhaps more accurately Iridescent Clouds, but I like sundog better even if it's maybe not precisely correct.

Some beautiful, strange things going on with the clouds today whatever you want to call it.  I only had my cheapo point and shoot though and the two of us struggle with the sky.

Was too windy for biking so Jonny and I decided to go for a hike at Hall Ranch.  Dogs aren't allowed there but not to worry, they had a nice long hike of their own in the morning on our neighborhood trails.

Classic Hall Ranch view before the skies turned weird

We went up the trail that allows bikes rather than the hiker only trail that we normally take because we figured it wouldn't be busy and it wasn't.  I haven't been riding on this trail in probably 15 years and here's why.

I don't have the biking skills for a 'trail' like this and several years ago they opened another trail that's far less technical so that's the one I always ride.  This trail has become way more eroded and technical than when I rode it lo the many years ago and back then it was already too hard for me.  It was fun to hike up though and fun to watch the people with skills ride it though plenty of folks still had to get off and walk.

The prairie dogs are fat and sassy this time of year.  This one had some words for me.

The views at Hall never disappoint.

Some of the residents enjoying their lazy Sunday.

There are actually 4 deer lounging but some were hidden behind bushes so I left them out of the shot.

Jonny was laughing at me for taking pictures of the deer since we see them all the time in our neighborhood, out our windows, etc. but sometimes it's nice to get a picture of them in their natural habitat rather than lounging in someone's front yard.

The hike was only 6 miles/2 hours, 42 minutes but I'd gone for a 6.4 mile trail run yesterday plus the 1 hour 20 minute hike in the morning with the dogs so my legs were tired before we even started.  It was worth it though, can't remember the last time I've been on a hike outside the hood.

Tomorrow I get to meet with an artist that's hiring me to help him with an art project.  It never occurred to me to market hypnosis to artists and I doubt there's a huge demand but this project will be interesting anyway.  Never a dull moment in the hypnotherapy world.

Hall Ranch

I was hoping to make it up to the Blue Sky Trail that we did a few weeks ago in Fort Collins but the weather is hell bent on being scary and unpredictable and I didn't want to drive for an hour only to have to maybe turn around and drive back again in a hail storm or dodging tornadoes and lightning. But I badly wanted to ride so we opted for Hall Ranch which is a mere 20 minutes away. It's a popular trail due to its proximity to Boulder but today the crowds were not bad at all.


The trail goes through loads of meadows that were lush green and bursting with wildflowers due to all the crazy rain we've been getting.



I don't think of Hall as being any kind of big deal but when I take the time to stop and look at the scenery I always find some new view or pile of rocks to admire.


The only bad thing about the ride was that it was done with in 1 1/2 hours. We could have done a second loop or gone up a different trail but I was hungry and worried about the ever changing weather. Sure enough by the time we were settled into a table at a covered outdoor patio at a Boulder restaurant the thunder came and we enjoyed a cozy lunch while the storm raged around us.

The moisture and cool temps. day after day after day have been great but the thunder, lightning, hail and tornadoes are getting old. Poor Lola, it seems she will spend this summer cowering in the bathroom and Strummer will spend it curled up in my lap. And I think I may very well burn out my lawnmower.