Laura M Clark

West Spanish Peak – 13,584

West Spanish Peak – 13,631

RT Length 7.9 miles

Elevation Gain 2400’

I’ve been eyeing this trail for weeks, and was finally able to make the hike! I don’t do well in the cold (or wind) so I’ve been looking for a relatively clear, wind free day. It’s been clear but the wind hasn’t cooperated, so instead of 14ers and 13ers I’ve been hiking 12ers, 11ers, 10ers, 9ers, and 8ers for the past month and a half: I needed to get above treeline again!!!

Today’s forecast at the summit was 38* with 15mph gusts, which I figured I could handle. I’d been keeping an eye on the Webcam, and the peak looked pretty barren from snow: http://www.keno.org/colorado_web_cams/cuchara_cams.htm (side note: If you use this link, know the best time to view for clarity is around 3pm, and the bottom webcam is only updated once a week, the others usually every half hour).

I found several directions to the trailhead, but none of them were ‘exactly’ correct. This is the exact route I took:

I25 South to Walsenburg, Exit 50 (the second 160) turn right

Continue on 160 for about 13 miles

Turn Left onto CO12

Continue on CO12 for 21.8 miles

Turn Left at Cordova Pass CR46

The trailhead is exactly 6 miles on the road, near the campground

The road in was a 2WD road, but iced over in a lot of areas, making it an easy 4WD road for this point in the year. Just be careful: there are 3-foot-deep drainages on either side of the road filled with snow so they look like they’re level with the road (but they’re not), and driving into one of those isn’t fun to get out of, even with a 4WD. It was obvious many had made this mistake.

The trailhead is the West Peak Trailhead. I parked here. There are restrooms but they’re locked. I was told to pay a fee, but all signage and fee envelopes (etc.) were gone, presumably closed for the winter. I gathered my gear and started on the trail at 8am.

A few yards in I came upon a trail register. The last entry was from December 28. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t seen anyone else on the trail today.

I hiked for about a quarter mile before coming to a meadow. I’d seen quite a bit of cow patties along the trail up to this point, and figured there were cattle in the area. When I reached this meadow I thought I saw cows on the saddle ahead of me. I made a mental note to look out for them, and stopped to put on my gloves and hat because I could hear the wind picking up. The wind didn’t stop for the entire hike!

What I thought were cows ended up being bighorn sheep! So cool! They were a bit skittish and ran up and over the hill as soon as they saw me.

When I’d entered the meadow I thought I was out of the treeline, but the trail dipped back down and I walked for about 2 more miles through the trees. Most of the path was clear, but there were a few snow covered areas.

This trail is super easy to follow the entire way to the summit. There’s only one trail junction, and it’s clearly marked.

The trail is also very easy until you get to treeline, but make no mistake, most of those 2000+ feet in elevation occur during the last mile of this hike, so it is still quite a workout. Once you hit treeline you turn right and see what’s ahead of you:

The trail follows the ridge on the left (but stay to the right while on the ridge). It’s all loose rock until it becomes scree, and it’s straight up for over a mile. Since there are so many rocks there are tons of cairns and the route is easy to follow. About halfway up I saw a small wind break made out of rocks, which was filled with snow. There was no other snow on the mountainside.

After hiking for what seems like forever you’ll come to a false summit, but it’s ok to be happy about it because the rest of the trail is very easy and is only about another 100 yards or so. This was also the only spot I saw snow above treeline (besides in that small shelter).

I was able to make that little bit of snow look like a lot of snow…

Here’s a view of East Spanish Peak from the summit of West Spanish Peak

And photo proof I summited. I started at 8am and summited at 9:45am.

The summit was very windy and cold. The weather predicted 38* with 15mph wind gusts, but those winds were actually closer to 20mph and sustained. I didn’t spend much time on the summit before heading down. Here’s a view of the ridge back down. Crazy huh? It’s January 5^th and there’s no snow!!! Check out those dry ski runs…

About halfway down I noticed a very small heart on a rock. It was less than 2 inches in diameter, and randomly caught my eye. At first I thought it was moss, but upon closer inspection noticed someone had painted it on the rock. I have no idea why they did this, or why they chose this particular area: it wasn’t on the main trail and it wasn’t very visible. It made me happy to see it, and I took a picture of it before reminding myself LNT. So, to the person who painted this, it made me happy, but it’s really not cool to do this stuff so please don’t do it again.

Here’s a photo of what it looks like when you get to treeline. See that meadow in the middle? That’s the one that I crossed that had the Bighorn Sheep. The entire hike above treeline I kept that meadow in view in case I got lost (although this is such an easy, well maintained trail I didn’t foresee that happening).

The hike back down went quickly. When I reached the meadow again I looked for those sheep but didn’t see them. Well, that is until I’d made it all the way across. At that point I looked back and saw them about 100 yards away from me. Never one to miss an opportunity, I backtracked and tried to get a few photos. The wind was blowing towards me so I was able to sneak up on them pretty close before they saw me. By pretty close I mean about 15 yards away. I stood in the shade of a tree and tried to get photos of them before they noticed me and ran off (about 3 seconds).

I continued on, and during the last part of the hike I actually saw a pair of birds. They were about 10 inches long, much bigger than this picture suggests (I still need to identify them…)

I made it back to the trail register and signed out.

I reached my truck at 11:40am. I hadn’t seen another person on this trail. It’s funny how it usually takes me longer to hike down than hike up: must be all that elevation training I do everyday…lol!

Working on it

Just checking here

New Hiking Boots

My new hiking boots have arrived! Check out the difference 18 months can make on a great pair of shoes!

That tread though! It’s been an intense hiking season!

Rock Climbing with Rebecca

It’s
been over a year since Rebecca’s been rock climbing. We’d planned on all going together this
break,

but it just wasn’t happening, so this morning I woke Rebecca
up at 10:30am and we headed down to CityRock.

As usual, the place was busy. I’ve never been climbing with Rebecca (I’ve
chaperoned, but never climbed with her) so this was fun!

We spent some time on the climbing wall, and I got a selfie
of us both at the top of our runs!

I’ve been climbing for about a month now, and while I can
climb 5.10, I’m extremely comfortable at a 5.9, so I stick there most of the
time (but keep trying the harder ones as well).

We spent some time bouldering too, which I don’t think
Rebecca’s done too much of. She was
fantastic!

There’s a V3 bouldering route I’ve been trying to master for
a while now, and today I was finally able to get it right! (It’s the yellow route in the middle)

This is one I’ve seen many people attempt,
but no one complete. I’ve tried it once
or twice, but was unsuccessful as well. You
see, I’ve never been able to grab one of the holds. Today I tried the run 3 times and just couldn’t
get it, so I decided to clean the hold.

OMG! What a difference that
made! I was finally able to grip it, and
successfully summit! I did it three
times in a row (so it wasn’t a fluke) and finally had Rebecca take a video of
me to prove I’d done it. I was ecstatic!
This video makes it look easy, but it really isn’t: those moves take changes of body weight that
are difficult to manage!

We spent about 2 hours climbing/bouldering, and left happy
and exhausted!

Mt Esther 9505’

While there are a few twists and turns through the back
roads of Chipita Park to get there, this hike has a very obvious trailhead but
very little parking. I had to drive a
quarter mile down the road to find a driveway to turn around at so I could park
my truck alongside the dirt road.

The first 1.3 miles of the trail begins with some steady
elevation gain and a lot of switchbacks.

I noticed as I was hiking there had been a lot of tree clearing/cutting/trimming
lately. I saw dozens, if not a hundred
of these piles lining the trial.

Once you arrive at the top of the switchbacks you come to a
nice meadow and a trail junction. Stay
right at the junction. I state this
because many people have told me they mistakenly went left, which takes you on
a long loop to nowhere. (OK, it goes somewhere,
but not directly: you’ll need a topo map
as there are several possible trails you can take, leading in many different
directions: just go right).

After crossing the meadow and a very small trickle of a
stream you enter an aspen grove

and then start following a forest road. While I was hiking here I heard the loud
rustle of feathers ahead of me, looked up, and saw 2 ptarmigans jump/glide from
the forest floor to the top of a pine tree.
I was able to get a picture (and video) of them, but didn’t want to
disturb them so I didn’t stay long/didn’t get great photos.

The forest road starts to follow power lines from this point
on.

This forest road will take you all the way to the Crystal
Creek Reservoir, but what fun is that? I
looked at my topo map, and figured the power lines were a straight shot to
where I wanted to go, while the road twisted and turned but eventually ended up
in the same place. It’s part of the Ring
the Peak trail system, which they made wide enough here to accommodate 4
wheelers. I’d rather hike. So I turned left and followed the faint trail
under the power lines (hey, there was little chance I could get lost this way,
right?)

Once I reached a saddle I could see the Crystal Creek
Reservoir, so I knew Mt. Esther must be to my left.

Quite a bit of tree maintenance had been done here as
well.

My directions told me to look for a cairn indicating a faint
trail, but there was no cairn, and no trail.
So I turned south and just headed towards the summit. This is what it looked like:

I headed south and up the mountain for about a third of a
mile before reaching a boulder filled summit with great views of the reservoir!

I had fun bouldering a bit (and jumping from rock to rock where
feasible). I took a few summit selfies
to prove I’d made it, one with a view of Pikes Peak and another of the Crystal
Reservoir (which I’ve taken a paddle boat out in with the kids! Fun!)

Pikes Peak looked beautiful today, as it does just about
every day

This was a fun, quick hike (7 miles in 3 hours including
stops to watch the Ptarmigan and boulder for a bit). I’ve heard it described as ‘difficult’, but I
think that’s exaggerating a bit. Yes,
the initial mile of switchbacks probably would turn many away, as well as the route-finding
at the end if you intend to summit Mt. Esther, but the hike itself is quite
pleasant and easy to follow!

7 miles

1500’ Elevation gain

I followed the red Ring the Peak route, and then kind of made my own trail. This topo shows where the trail should be. I followed this, even though there was no actual trail off the Ring the Peak trail.

Summit View (It was WINDY)

Ptarmigan

Cascade Mountain – 9387′ & Point 9298′

I’ve wanted to take this trail for a long time, but I’ve put
it off because I was working on hiking in another area. The forecast was really cold for last night,
but by 9am this morning the area was supposed to be about 35 degrees, increasing
to 46 by noon. Imagine my dismay when I
left my house at 45 degrees, and headed to the trailhead, watching the
thermometer drop to as low as 16 degrees before settling at around 21 degrees
at the trailhead. I bundled up in my hat,
gloves, and coat, and headed out.

I parked at the Heizer Trailhead, and for updated
information, you can no longer park near the “Snow Plow Turn Around”
signs. You must park about 800 feet
below the trailhead, directly next to the park. There are about 3 available spaces, so plan accordingly.

Once you hike up the single lane road you’ll clearly be able
to see the beginning of the trail.

The trail quickly gains in elevation, with tons of pretty
steep and relatively short switchbacks that continue for just under 3 miles. There
are several game trails that veer off at most of the switchback junctions, but
you can tell they’re not part of the trail because about 3 feet up the branches
cover the path. It could get confusing in
the dark however.

At about 2.5 miles you’ll come upon a large boulder
area. I stopped here for a bit to play, and
then continued on to the left. Cascade
Mountain is another half mile.

The true summit of Cascade Mountain can be difficult to
find, as there are two areas with large boulders very close to each other. I did some climbing and made the “summit”.

Most of the hikes in the Pikes Peak region have great views
of Pikes Peak. This was no different,
but included an angle I hadn’t seen before.

I wasn’t just interested in summiting Cascade Mountain
today, but also in learning more about the trail system. I know the Heizer Trail connects with the
Barr Trail below Barr Camp, which makes it another way to summit Pikes Peak
without paying $40 a night to park at Barr Trail. It adds 6 miles round trip, but takes you through
an area not often hiked. I didn’t intend
to hike all the way to Barr Camp but I desperately WANTED to, my time limitations
just didn’t allow it today. My goal
today was to find the connecting routes that would eventually take me to Barr
Camp. They were much easier than
anticipated! Check out these signs:

It was still early, so I decided to follow the trail for a
bit to see how established it was. The trail
was very well marked, which is great because I plan to hike it in the
dark. At this point the trail was
heading down the mountain toward the Manitou Reservoir, and I stopped to take
out my map. Check it out! I was near another peak! I decided to summit and take a look around. This ‘peak’ has no name, it’s just referred
to as point 9298’

The summit didn’t offer very good views… but I could make
out Manitou Reservoir

At this point I decided to turn back. I really wanted to continue on, but it was
obvious the trail headed down for quite a bit and I wasn’t interested in making
up the elevation on the way back.
Normally I would be, but today I was pressed for time. I was happy with today’s progress and started
the hike back the way I’d come.

When I got to Cascade Mountain I got a different view of the
area, and saw this really cool rock balancing between two boulders! What fun!

Here is a sloppily put together panorama of the hike back to
Cascade. You can see the devastation
from the Waldo Canyon Fire, and the North Pole.

Here’s the route I took today. It ended up being about 6.5 miles, with 2800’
of elevation gain.

Oh, and for those of you studying the map, you take the 638
to Barr Camp…

Christmas Morning Incline Hike

I was invited to ‘do the incline’ on Christmas day, and
since the invite was for 10am I figured sure!
I tend to be an over-planner, so I left my house early and my pack
included microspikes (not necessary).
The invite said we’d all meet at Manitou Park and carpool there. I knew 3 people who’d RSVP’d, so I figured I’d
have friends.

Well, when I got there the group chat started lighting up
with everyone’s whereabouts. There were
a few people at the park, but everyone I knew was already at the incline. Hmmm.
I talked with the group in the parking lot, realized they were the ‘4
hour crew’ and thought it’d be better if I just drove up to the Incline parking
lot by myself.

As I was leaving the park I saw someone I recognized from Villa
heading down. He said there was plenty
of parking in the incline lot. I met Tim
about halfway up Ruxton Ave and gave him a ride to the top. Parking was only $5 (Woot! I’d thought it’d be $10). We met Jill at the bottom. She was super
excited her son gave her a Navy running set for Christmas. She’s so proud of
that boy!

Tim and I knew we’d have different speeds, so we hiked for about
30 seconds together before splitting off.
The trail actually looks great since they re-did it (for the third time…).

About halfway up there was a decorated Christmas Tree

Even though it was brisk when I started, pretty soon it got
warm due to the exercise. I was
sweating! I knew from past experience
most people time their hike, which means it’s a personal competition to do
better each time than you did the last time.
I was exhausted about half way in, but kept trudging on. The most difficult part was breathing, which
I found curious? My body wasn’t tired,
but I had to stop to catch my breath.
This was maddening! Hey, I’m used
to doing hikes above treeline, why was this so difficult? In any event, my time was 35 minutes 35
seconds to summit, which is a great time!
I’m proud to say no one passed me on the way up!

At the top there was a decorated Christmas Tree.

I admired it (and the view) until Tim summited, and then we
hiked down the Barr Trail together. I
drove home, and woke the kids up to celebrate Christmas!

This is the third time I’ve hiked the incline. I usually avoid it on principle, but was
seriously glad I’d hiked today! Being
social is difficult for me: this was a
nice segway into socialization… lol!

St Mary’s Falls and Cascade Falls

RT Length 6.3 miles

Elevation Gain 1400’

I was a little worried it would be too cold to hike
today. When I got to the trailhead it
was 21 degrees. Brrrr! I met Tim at the Starsmore Discovery Center
and we drove up to the trail head at Gold Camp Road and High Drive.

We hiked up Gold Camp Road, past the old tunnel. Tim told me they’d wanted to put a road
through the tunnel, but someone decided to light a huge fire under the tunnel,
making it unstable for that purpose.
Hikers…lol!

This trail had plenty of signs, although some of them looked
like they’d been there for decades (the iron signs). A few were misleading (the iron ones seem to
be at junctions and are usually devoid of arrows) but this one had “Turn Back”
written in Sharpee, which was actually the correct thing to do.

The trail to the falls was easy to follow and devoid of snow
directly on the trail (but there was a lot on the ground). The falls themselves were completely frozen
over and very slippery, so we couldn’t cross.

Instead we hiked around them to the right as far as we
could.

Side note: We saw
someone with their dog off leash that shouldn’t have been: the dog ran away, and kept running and
running and running. We’re not sure if
he ever found the pup? Also, it was
cold, but not too bad. Our jackets and
hats and gloves were plenty.

We hiked back to the truck, but it had seemed like ‘too easy’
of a hike, so we decided to take a side trip to Cascade Falls. It’s located very close to Helen Hunt falls,
and is supposed to be a great place to ice climb in winter. There were a few climbers there when we got
there (Tim knew them). Apparently it
wasn’t iced over as well as they’d have liked, but were climbing anyway.

It was cool to see the way the ice formed over the rooster
tail

Here are a couple of videos of the hike

It’s time to retire my hiking boots…

I’ve had these hiking boots for about a year and a
half. They were a necessity, and I’m so
glad I purchased them! (Graphic details
can be found here: http://lauramclark.tumblr.com/post/146999060199/may-june-july-august-35-new-hiking-boots)

I’ve put a lot of miles on these hiking boots: In the past year I’ve climbed 35 unique
14ers, but I’ve done over 100 hikes wearing these boots, most averaging around
10 miles each. That’s a lot of mileage
to get out of a pair of shoes! So while I’m a bit upset these boots only
lasted a year and a half, I got great use out of them. Most of the tread has worn off the bottom,
and they don’t grasp like they should. I’m
slipping on the trail again

Up until recently they were completely water proof. I could cross streams without worrying about
my feet getting wet. It was awesome! However,
recently they’ve begun to show their wear.
They have several holes both on the shoe itself and on the rubber
sole. That doesn’t help much with water,
not to mention snow and little rocks.
The past few hikes I’ve been on I’ve had lots of sand and rocks to dump out
at the end, and since my fingers have been frozen I wasn’t able to take the
rocks out earlier, translating into sore feet.

They were a bit of an impulse buy, and I paid more for them
than I should have: I found the same pair online for half the
price at several other retailers. That
really made me upset, but now I know better:
I found a great Christmas deal and ordered the exact same pair, so now I
have time to work them in before hiking season begins again! Woot!

CityRock with the kids

I was particularly excited to go to CityRock tonight because
my kids were going with me. Thomas was a
given, but I had to bribe Emily with pizza.
She was tired because today was her first day of Driver’s Ed (8am-5pm
all week!). We ate pizza as I drove,
parked at First Pres, and walked over to CityRock.

Once again, it was packed for a Monday night. I’m not sure when it isn’t packed? I realized when we arrived I’d forgotten my
moleskin again. Oh well, I just prepared
myself to get blisters and put on my shoes.
I got to hold the chalk bag.

Thomas is in Rocky Mountain High, so he has quite a bit of
experience rock climbing. He was
impressed with the belay device we just got, and wanted to try it out. I know he knows his knots (being an Eagle
Scout and all), but it’s really cool to see him just use them. He did a great job! Oh, and I had no problems whatsoever with any
of mine. We’ll see what happens next
week…

We all climbed and Thomas and I belayed. I’m not great at belaying, but no one got
hurt. I need some more practice.

It was funny to see Thomas so serious about using the proper
commands and ensuring we tested the ropes out every time. I’m glad he takes safety so seriously!

Thomas and I raced each other at one point. He won, of course, but in my defense he’s had
more practice, I took the harder route, and he’s taller than I am.

We spent some time on the slackline and climbing rope. I was getting pretty good at walking across
the slackline by the end of the night. Thomas was the only one who could climb this

And balance like this…

I left to do some bouldering, and when I looked for the kids
again I noticed Thomas belaying Emily.
What a nice brother! I decided to
record them and get a view of the gym too, for those of who’re wondering what a
climbing gym looks like.

Remember that run I tried to do last week and failed? The 5.10-?
Well, this time I did it after I’d already successfully done about 4
runs and was successful: so now I can
saw I really was just tired last week!

Yes, I got blisters on my heels, but despite (or maybe
because of?) using chalk I got weird sores on my hands this time. You know when you’re in the pool too long and
your feet and toes get rubbed raw? That
was happening to my fingers and palms. I
seriously need to work up those calluses!
On a positive note, I still have my fingernails…

Towards the end I had Emily take a video of me doing an easy
bouldering wall. We actually spent quite
a bit of time bouldering today. One of
these days I’ll probably just boulder. I
tend to start out rock climbing because the gym gets busy and pretty soon the
belays are all taken, but that means I’m already tired when it’s time to
boulder.

We only stayed for about two hours, ending our night with
traversing. I seriously need to work on
shifting my balance while stationary, but I was able to complete the run
successfully.

One thing I realized was how important the belayer actually
is. Tim was much better at belaying than
Thomas. In other words, Tim was making
me look good (Thomas wasn’t bad, but there was a noticeable difference). It was easier to climb with a good belayer, as
they help lift you up. This must be why the
auto-belays aren’t so popular.

I loved being there with my kids! I’m excited to go back later this week with
all 3!