The Manitou Incline; Colorado Springs - One of the most intense trails I have hiked.

I have heard lots of things about The Incline, a 0.9 mile hike up the old cog railroad which gains 2100 feet in elevation; its hot, its steep, its hard, its crazy, its feels endless; and its all of those and more!  I kept thinking, how hard can it really be?  It's just under a mile to get to the top, I can do anything for a mile; but it was definitely an intense trail that was so steep in some places that it gave me vertigo to stop and look down and I am not afraid of heights.  The trail reminded me of a roller coaster, when you are looking over the top and you can't see the track in front of you just the track at the bottom because it's so steep; that's exactly what The Incline is like.  
The Incline is a favorite trail for fitness buffs who frequent the trail as part of an exercise regimen, some people will even run up the trail and back down it as well.  Most people however, take the 4 mile Barr trail down the mountain instead.  The entire trail provides amazing views of the foothills and as far into the distance as the eye can see and as weather permits.  

Cupid Mountain, 13,117 ft, Colorado's 555th highest peak

Views and wild daisies in bloom at elevation

 Hiked July 29th, at 27 weeks pregnant.  

One of my goals with pregnancy was to hike a peak at least once before the baby comes, and last week I decided that it was time to do one.  I chose Cupid Mountain, at 13,117 feet; which begins at the top of Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide.   The hike is around 3 miles round trip and you can make the hike into a loop by hiking to the top of the un-named 12,000 peak then turning right and hiking over to Cupid.  Many people curse Cupid as the "hump" on their way to hike Grizzly Peak, but it's actually a ranked peak, 555th highest in Colorado.  
This peak is an easy hike to the top; there are some steep sections, but I knew that I had cell signal the entire hike and there were plenty of people nearby if something happened but I felt confident in my pregnant body that I could do the trail just fine, and it was a beautiful day as I hiked up to the top.  I kept thinking that someday the baby will hear this story of it's mama hiking over 13,000 feet and I wondered if this kiddo will think its cool or weird; hopefully the former?  

Osprey Trail on the South End of Gross Reservoir, Boulder Colorado

Views from just up the hill at the start of hike

Hiked July 21, 2011, at 25.5 weeks pregnant


This summer I wanted to explore Gross Reservoir, an area in Coal Creek Canyon and West of Boulder; the reservoir is very scenic and there are several trails surrounding it.  A few weeks ago I hiked from the scenic overlook on the opposite side of the canyon down to the raging river, you can read my trip report here.  This hike I went to the southwest part of the reservoir to the Osprey Point boat launch and trailhead.  From there I took the 1.5 mile trail all the way until it dead ends at South Boulder Creek where the river meets the reservoir.  At the start of my hike, a two gals came over to ask me where the 'cliff jumping' was on the reservoir, unfortunately, I had no idea where people cliff jump from, but I would like to know so that I can go sometime.  However, the reservoir is part of the Denver Water supply and does not allow swimming, which makes the water even more tempting in my opinion. If you know where this cliff jumping occurs, please post a comment!  This is a great place to canoe or kayak as well as hike and picnic.  

Cataract Campground, White River National Forest - A Small Campground with great hikes nearby

Campground and site #1 with best views of surrounding mtns

Camped over Fourth of July weekend, 2011, 23 weeks pregnant.  


Even though pregnancy has slowed me down this summer, I was determined to camp at least once this season; even with the holidays crowds we hit the road to camp north of Silverthorne Colorado.  After looking into the Green Mountain Res area, I found a more secluded campground southwest of the reservoir which had lots of trails nearby and hoped we could find a site there.  We drove out Friday afternoon, arriving at the campground near 6pm and there was just one spot left!  We felt very fortunate to get a site, although it ended up being mosquito infested and made for a weekend of swatting bugs and spending more time in the camper than usual; but it was worth it!  

Lower Cataract Lake Loop/Creek, North of Silverthorne Colorado

Lower Cataract Lake, Colorado

Hiked July 2nd, 2011; 23 weeks pregnant. 

While I haven't posted many hikes this summer, it doesn't mean that I haven't been hiking!  In fact, I have several posts to catch up on and they are good ones! 

Over the weekend of the Fourth of July, Josh, the dogs and I decided to go camping.  I wanted to camp at least once while pregnant this summer.  We decided to head North of Silverthorne Colorado to the Green Mountain Reservoir area; we didn't exactly know where we wanted to camp, but I wanted to check out the Lower Cataract Lake area, which is just southwest of the Res.  We drove up the bumpy dirt road 3 miles to the Cataract Campground and hiked just up the road at the Cataract Creek/Lake Trailhead.   Josh and I hiked the loop which is moderate/easy and approximately 2+ miles around the loop; located in the Eagles Nest Wilderness, White River National Forest. 

Warren Gulch Trailhead, for hikers and bikers; Idaho Springs, CO

Hiked this trail June 30, 2011, at 22 weeks pregnant. 
Summer hiking this season has kept me closer to home and I have been exploring Clear Creek County trails which give me a little bit of a higher altitude hike, but without the crowds of Open Space trails.  There are numerous trails in Clear Creek County that can be found on their website here. 

I hiked Warren Gulch last week, and while the website gave good directions on how to get to the hike, they left out that there is no parking at the trailhead, the road is a dirt  single two track that continues up the Gulch with no place to turn around if another car comes, or if you want to turn back.  However, once I found the trail and parked, I did end up having a great hike.  It was just a little dicey to get there.  

Gross Reservoir - Boulder Colorado, 30 minutes from Golden and lots of hiking trails!

View from a field along the trail

The summer weather has been beautiful lately, and I wanted to get into the foothills for a hike while all the wildflowers were still in bloom.   Colorado has some of the best wildflowers and I enjoy photographing them and love looking at them lining the trail. 
I decided to hike at Gross Reservoir a place Josh and I found years ago while taking a motorcycle ride one day in the mountains.   Last summer, I spent most of my time hiking in the Indian Peaks Wilderness (use the search tool to the right on blog to find many trails in the Indian Peaks) and passed the turnoff to Gross Dam Reservoir numerous along the way.   This summer, with the limitations of being pregnant, I decided to explore the numerous trails around the dam west of Boulder.   The trails aren't very popular during the week and its a great place to get a taste of high country hiking but staying closer to home.  Gross Dam Reservoir in Boulder County in Coal Creek Canyon off of Hwy 72. 

Upper White Ranch Park, great for hiking, camping, trail riding and more!

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The hot weather and my new found energy during pregnancy helped me to get out of the house yesterday and take a hike at White Ranch Open Space Park.  This is a trail system which I have frequented before, and it doesn't disappoint, especially in the spring/summertime with fields of blooming flowers, green mountains and great views! 
I managed to get out the door by 9am and made it to the trailhead just after 9:30am, I was surprised to see so many cars at the trailhead on a Tuesday morning, but somehow I didn't see anyone during my hike on the trail.  White Ranch is part of the Jefferson County Open Space Trail System and provides trail maps at the main parking lot; I grabbed a map and started out on the trail with both dogs.  We hiked the .25 miles to the restrooms and then started off on the Rawhide trail going north, I took this trail 2.2 miles until it intersected with the Waterhole Trail for .6 miles then back to Rawhide for the approx 1.6 miles back to the parking lot.  The round trip loop was 4.4 miles according to the park maps. 

Fillius Park in Bergen Park-Evergreen; Denver Mountain Parks Trail

It has been way to long since I hiked and posted; being pregnant and trying to get our house ready for baby plus my lack of energy has really made it harder for me to get outside as much as I'd like.  However, I did manage to hike in Bergen Park about 2 weeks ago and I am finally getting around to posting about it now. 
I had passed Fillius Park many, many times while driving into Evergreen for other hiking trails and always thought it was just a park, not a park with trails.   But for some reason, I decided to stop there and see if I could find a place to hike.   When I arrived on an overcast Wednesday morning, there were 2 other cars in the parking lot and I didn't see any people in the park area, with picnic tables and handmade rock shelter.  So, I assumed there was a trail nearby, I  just had to find it.  Directly across the street from the parking lot I noticed a trail with a small Denver Mountain Parks sign; there is no trail map, so I had no idea how far the trail was, but just started hiking and to my surprise had a great day walking along the ridge-back mountain and along the trails. 

White Ranch Open Space - A cloudy day hike after the rain

Signs of spring blooming on along

It's been way too long since I have hiked or blogged; I haven't had much energy this winter/spring.  I am happy to announce that my husband and I are welcoming our first child next fall and I am 3 months pregnant.  Now that my first trimester is coming to an end I am starting to have more energy and I want to enjoy these last few months hiking solo; but even this short 3.4 mile, out-and-back, hike with Josh and the dogs at White Ranch took a lot of out of me.  We took the Belcher Hill trail to Whippletree Trail and continued on the Whippletree trail for .6 miles to the next trail intersection; there we turned around and walked back for a 3.4 mile hike.  It was a cloudy spring day on Wednesday afternoon and signs of spring were coming up everywhere.