Pike’s Peak (Again)

A couple weeks ago I was finally caught up on everything and had a Friday off work, so I decided to go backpacking and camp somewhere out in the national forest. I had a few options, but ended up going to the Crags trailhead on the west side of Pike’s Peak and hiking up the trail to Devil’s Playground.

It was definitely a good time for a hike in the mountains:
Nearby Aspens

As I neared treeline the view out across the valley just got better:
Distant Aspens

I camp in a hammock, so I had to stay below treeline. The trail leaves the trees around 11,700 ft elevation (according to my map, I didn’t check it), but there are trees up to a bit above 11,800 ft off trail to the north. I ended up hanging my hammock at 11,838 ft according to the GPS app on my phone.

Once I had camp set up, I scrambled up the rocks to get to a nearby ridge. Naturally, there were more views of the aspens, even if the light was fading as clouds rolled in:
Distant Aspens 2

Here’s a shot of the catamount reservoirs to the right and the crags to the left:
Catamount Reservoirs

Unfortunately, due to the elevation I was at the clouds rolled right in on top of me:
Cloud

The temperature dropped noticeably as that cloud enveloped me, which really made me wish I’d remembered to grab my gloves. I had scouted out a nice flat rock to cook supper on while I watched the sun set, but since I couldn’t actually see the sun setting I found a rather more protected spot to eat. By the time I’d finished eating it was getting dark, my hands were freezing, and I still hadn’t hung the bear bag. Fortunately there weren’t any hungry critters daft enough to be out in the cold: the bag was at most 2 feet off the ground since I just walked the cord around a couple trees not too far from camp and hoped for the best. A motivated raccoon or ground squirrel probably could have gotten into it without much effort, never mind a bear.

By the time I had everything stowed and got back to my hammock it was snowing:
Snow

The snow was really just a light dusting, though it did last through the night and well into Saturday. It was a reasonably windy night, but I was surrounded by enough trees that it was rare that I actually felt a gust. My undercover and sleeping bag were sufficiently warm that I was nice and toasty all night long, though I didn’t get a great nights sleep (partly because I went to sleep at 9:00 pm and woke up in the middle of the night like I’d just been napping).

The low was probably in the high 20s (there was still snow on the ground in the morning, but the water bottle I’d left out wasn’t frozen solid), which is apparently cold enough to affect propane: propane bottles are supposed to make a sloshing sound when you shake them; mine was more of a swish. I couldn’t get my stove to light until I’d warmed the bottle of propane up a bit. I managed to get enough water out to (eventually) cook oatmeal for breakfast, but rinsing out the cup clearly wasn’t going to happen (the water froze to the inside of the cup as I swished it around).

Pike’s Peak sure does have a big shadow at 7:00 am:
Shadow

When I struck camp and started hiking my toes were not quite numb but painful, so I figured I’d just get to the top of the ridge, get some morning pictures from over 12,000 ft, then head back down. After probably half a mile of hauling my pack up the mountain my toes were doing fine, but my hands were cold. I eventually crested the ridge and started walking through Devil’s Playground, so named because of how lighting jumps between the rocks during thunderstorms (which I thankfully didn’t witness):
Devil's Playground

Once I’d made it through Devil’s Playground I got to thinking about it and realized I’d already covered around half the distance and over half the elevation gain, so I might as well push on to the peak. The wind was pretty brutal (and I still didn’t have gloves), but surely it wouldn’t be all that bad. I got a good view of Crystal Reservoir and the south side of the end of Rampart Range:
Rampart Range

Then, disaster:
Frozen Hose
The lines across the hose are where the ice that’s filling the hose cracked as I extracted it from my pack. Once the hose had frozen (it was run across the top of my pack) it took me probably a quarter mile to find a spot that was sheltered at all, then I took off my rainjacket/shell, put the camelback on, then put the shell back on. By the time I got my pack on my hands didn’t even have the dexterity to manage the clip easily. It then took probably over half a mile of hiking before the hose had thawed enough for me to get a drink.

Road
The top half of the trail somewhat parallels the road. On the one hand it’s kind of frustrating to have cars driving by and have so many people on top, but on the other hand, there aren’t any other 14ers that have gift shops serving hot beverages on top.

After spending an hour sitting inside the summit house and eating a donut (they were out of hot chocolate…) I was feeling much better. This is me finally not feeling absolutely miserable:
Sign Selfie

By the time I started back down the wind had tapered off somewhat and it was warming up (enough so that the snow was mostly melted). It wasn’t nearly as miserable as the hike up, but it was still a long hike (especially because I was carrying my backpack the entire way). After nearly two hours I reached the top of the slope I’d camped on and finally got a well lit picture of the valley:
Sunlit Distant Aspens

By the time I got back to my car the afternoon storm clouds were rolling in. It was certainly a longer hike than I’d planned on, but if I hadn’t been hauling my fully-loaded backpack (~25 pounds) around it would have been much faster. I don’t plan on backpacking that route again, but given proper equipment (gloves, a scarf) it shouldn’t be too bad a day hike.

Taylor Park Camping

This last weekend I went camping up Texas Creek from Taylor Park Reservoir. It was a much longer drive than anywhere else I’ve camped this summer, but there were some pretty spectacular views along the way:
Cottonwood Pass

Lake

One of the big perks of camping in Taylor Park is that the sky is so dark that the stars are really visible. Or at least, that’s how it is once the moon finally goes down…

This weekend was the Perseid meteor shower. Even before the moon was down we saw a number of amazing shooting stars, but we still got up early in the morning to get the full effect. Unfortunately night shots are hard to do on my camera so I didn’t manage any pictures worth sharing.

Once the sky was too bright to see the stars we drove up the valley looking for moose. The sunrise was great
Sunrise
and our search was met with success, even if I didn’t manage to get a crisp shot:
Moose
In my defense, everything is white because of frost. I’d been up for three hours and I was a bit cold, so holding the camera steady enough for great zoomed pictures just wasn’t happening.

Before we went back to camp we walked over to a couple lakes. There was still mist rising from the lakes, and it was so still there was a great mirror effect:
Reflected Mountains

Reflected Trees

We were camped just above a bend in the creek, so of course I got lots of pictures of it:

I was helping catch it instead of taking pictures when the big tent tried to blow away (it pulled up stakes and tore off tie-downs), but I did at least get one of the other tents suffering:
Tent Collapse

I also took a hike up the ridge across the creek. There was a great view, but it was so blocked by trees I never tried taking a picture. Overall I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend; it was a trip well worth the drive.

Catamount Reservoirs

I started to write a post with pictures from the three weekends this month I spent camping, but today’s hike was interesting so I’m writing it up while it’s still fresh. Also, I’m playing with photo editing software, so some of the pictures in this post are cropped and/or have the color balance adjusted.

My first choice for a hike today fell through (I couldn’t find parking within half a mile of the trailhead…) so I ended up in Green Mountain Falls to hike up to the Catamount Reservoirs. I parked by the pond, which had ducks in it:
Ducks

From town it was a long hike up the side of the valley. I passed a few groups of people lower on the mountain (including one with a dog that just didn’t trust me, he had a hard time getting past me because the trail just wasn’t wide enough to stay back from me), but once I passed the waterfall (pictures of that later) I didn’t see anybody else out. There were a couple spots with gaps in the trees to look down and see the town:
Green Mountain Falls

Once I hit the top of the ridge the trail descended slightly to follow the creek through a remarkably green meadow (picture not taken by the creek, that section was too overgrown to have any sort of view):
Garden of Eden Meadow

As the trail exited the meadow I passed a national forest boundary sign, and shortly after that the trail dumped me out on a road. The Catamount reservoirs are dammed and used as part of the city water supply, so there are a number of utility buildings and maintenance roads downhill from the dams (which is where the trail from town is). Also, the reservoirs are also accessible to the public for fishing and boating (at least kayaks and such) so there were parking lots and restrooms nearby once I finally found my way to the water.

Last weekend we hiked the crags, which I believe ends up on top of the large diagonal piece of rock to the right of this picture:
Crags

Obligatory picture of Pike’s Peak, too bad the water wasn’t smooth enough for a reflection:
Pike's Peak

During the vast majority of the hike it was overcast, though thankfully there was very little rain. This was one of the few sunny moments
Sun on the water

Public access to the reservoirs stops at 7pm, which was unfortunate because I didn’t actually get there until about 6:30. I didn’t get sent off by the park ranger who was driving around making sure everyone was leaving, but I don’t think I made it back to the national forest until about 5 after.

I took most of my waterfall pictures on the way down. With the fading light the shutter speed was slower, so the falling water is a blur instead of a sharp snapshot:

Eventually I made my way back down to where I parked. That bit of water was still enough for a little reflection, though it would have been better had a duck not swam across right before I took the picture (or if I’d noticed at the time and waited to try again):
DSCN1099.v01