Distance: 6.5 miles Rating: Moderate I get a real kick out of the winter people who complain about Colorado’s Indian summer. Most of these people are agitating over the fact that the ski season hasn’t begun yet, which is something I couldn’t care less about. Ever since I became an avid hiker, I’ve come to love the summer and despise the winter. As you might guess, that means I’m not much of a skier. With temperatures still hitting the high 60’s, I took the opportunity to head south to the Pikes Peak area. My destination was Mueller State Park, w [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 6 miles Rating: Easy-Moderate When you are as focused on hiking as I tend to be, you manage to find opportunities in some of the most unexpected places. My sister and I both decided to take some vacation time to go visit our aunt and uncle out in Columbus, Ohio. This was a special trip for Jill and me, as we don’t get to see Karen and Anthony as often as we’d like to. In addition, I was excited to see the beginnings of the beautiful mid-western autumn, which presents leaf colors rarely seen Colorado. Just like back home, Ohio [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 3.75 miles Rating: Moderate After climbing a 14er earlier in the week (see the Mt. Democrat entry), I decided to take advantage of the Indian summer weather and get in another hike. Rather than doing something strenuous, I decided to use this opportunity to do a fairly easy/moderate hike that would allow me to see the changing aspens. While autumn in Colorado has nothing on the colors seen along the East Coast, we are still treated to some nice scenery thanks to the yellowing aspen leaves. The changing aspen leaves generally hit their height around mid-September to early Octob [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 4 miles Rating: Strenuous With winter weather already showing up in the mountains, my dad and I decided to get in one more difficult, high altitude hike before the season ended. I settled on the cluster of 14ers just west of the small town of Alma in the Mosquito Range: Mt. Democrat, Mt. Lincoln, and Mt. Bross. According to several books and websites, these three mountains can be climbed all in one day thanks to relatively straight-forward hiking and close proximity. That said, the hike is no easy task. Remember that it still involves climbing 14ers, the easiest of which [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 4 miles Rating: moderate For the second day of my impromptu Glenwood Canyon mini-trip, I decided to head south and cross over Independence Pass on my way home. This route passes through Aspen (I felt poor just driving through town) along HWY 82 before climbing up into the mountains south of town. Along the way, travelers pass by four different wilderness areas: Maroon Bells-Snowmass, Hunter-Fryingpan, Collegiate Peaks, and Mt. Massive. This area houses the tallest mountains in Colorado, Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive respectively. Oh yeah, and the vistas are pretty incredible the [View Full Entry]

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Distance ~ 8 miles roundtrip from trailhead to junction with the Gulch Trail Rating: strenuous As is usually the case when September rolls around, I found myself realizing that I still had a lot of hiking that I wanted to do and not too much more time to do it. In 2006, the hiking season was essentially over by early October, so I got worried that I didn’t have too much time left. With that in mind, I decided to take a short weekend trip up to the Glenwood Springs/Aspen area to hit a few more trails in places that I’d [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 7 miles Rating: difficult Just off of I-70 near the Continental Divide is a popular and difficult hike that travels through some of Colorado’s highest country. The Herman Gulch Trail leading up to Herman Lake is part of the broader Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, which runs on and off from the Mexican border up to the Canadian border. The trail can be found in five states and runs through numerous national forests, wilderness areas, and three national parks (Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, and Glacier). Due to the elevation, the area around Herman Gulch experi [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 9 miles Rating: Difficult For my third (and what proved to be my final) trip to Rocky Mountain National Park this season, I wanted to attempt a long and relatively difficult hike. The trail to Sky Pond takes hikers past three beautiful lakes, two impressive waterfalls, and passes through some of the best scenery that the eastern part of the park has to offer. This was easily one of the best and most rewarding hikes that I’ve been on this entire season. I was particularly proud of myself for making the short but very steep scramble up Timberline Falls to [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 6 miles Rating: Strenuous Finally, my first 14er! Admittedly, I had never really been too gung-ho about climbing any of Colorado’s 14,000 foot mountains, but after having enough friends and co-workers tell me about their experiences, I decided to give it a try. With my dad in tow (or perhaps I was the one in tow… I’m not sure) I decided to head up to Guanella Pass and climb Mt. Bierstadt, one of the “easier” 14ers. Now, when someone refers to a 14er as easy, it is of course relative to other 14ers. From a day hiking standpoint, even the [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 12.8 miles to junction with Wigwam Trail Rating: Moderate-Strenuous For my first hike back in Colorado after the Wyoming trip, I picked right back up where I left off with my Wilderness Area tour. I’ve mentioned the Lost Creek Wilderness in many of my entries, but this is the first time that I’ve actually entered it. The wilderness area is a vaguely boomerang-shaped, 120,700 acre plot of land in the northern part of the Pike National Forest. Lost Creek stretches over three distinct mountain ranges, the Platte River Mountains, the Kenosha Mountains, and the Tarryall [View Full Entry]

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