Summer Hiking Report

Gregory Canyon to Flagstaff Trail

 While we only did a few hikes in our back yard, we made 'em good ones.  Molly can't go into Rocky Mountain National Park, which is a bummer 'cause she loves being out on the trail.  So we tried to do a few more in Boulder than we have in the past.  New trails for everyone! 

Our first was Gregory Canyon, at the base of Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder.  It's right off the back of the popular Chautauqua Park area. 

We chose a beautiful day for this one!  It was a good climb - ~1,000 vertical feet over a little over a mile.  We topped out at the Flagstaff Nature Center, had lunch, and headed down via Flagstaff Trail.  Lots of wild flowers on this portion!  All of us came off this one just glowing - so happy to be out on the trail!

Saddle Rock

With the success of the Gregory Canyon hike we thought of doing more in that general area.  Saddle Rock was rumored to have some amazing views, so we tackled that on our next outing.  Well.... it did have amazing views!  To get to them was more of a challenge than expected.  This was the toughest hike I've done.  The boys rambled on, "Ya comin' Mom?!"  Lots of steps built into the trail.  At one point there was a ladder!  (Solution to a portion of the trail being washed out from flooding)  I was very worried Molly wouldn't be able to make it up the ladder.  She didn't.  She jumped up the retaining wall (behind the ladder)!  It took her a couple tries, but she cleared it!  She's such a good hikin' dog.   We got to the top and were rewarded with views of Boulder as well as the Indian Peaks Wilderness on the back side.  Totally worth it.  Again, SO proud of my boys and Molly!!  It was only about a 2.5mi  round trip but it went up almost 1,400'... good climb. 

View of Boulder from Saddle Rock

   

We just couldn't stay away from Rocky Mountain National Park though.  Too much great hiking!  The boys and I got up early one weekday morning and headed up  hoping to avoid crowds at the trailhead and on the trail (Molly saw the hiking backpacks and was decidedly bummed she couldn't come).  Not sure what good our efforts did - so many people had the same idea. 

We parked at the Bear Lake overflow lot and bused up to the Glacier Gorge trailhead.  Starting here allowed us to pass by Alberta Falls before heading up to The Loch, a beautiful mountain lake.  There were tons of people at Alberta Falls but the crowd thinned out after that.  The last stretch of the trail before The Loch was covered in a large patch of SNOW!  The heat had cooled off and the breeze was most welcome as we settled into a great lunch spot overlooking the lake.  The boys had each been given a hammock for the summer.  We'd brought one, and they camped in that to have their lunch.  Mom got a bit chilly, or we could have hung out there for quite a while!   We returned to the car after 6 miles, and the first thing on their mind was ice cream (obviously).  A stop at the Lyons Dairy Bar was a well deserved reward to these awesome hikin' boys. 

Cub Lake to Fern Trail

The only other big hike we did (in Colorado, that is) was with our friends Hamish, Struan and Megan.  The 6 of us ventured up to RMNP, starting across the Moraine and on to Cub Lake.  We made it up to the lake with some really good energy, so it was decided to carry on and make it a loop. 

About half way up Wes took a tumble and skinned his knee.  He was actually more excited to use his first aid kit than anything!  Struan was so sweet and helped his friend put a band-aid on, and make sure he was ok to keep going.  It was a moment I'm sure neither them will remember, but both Moms will always keep. 

The trail at Cub Lake continued on and connected with Fern Trail.  This took us down around to The Fairy Pool and Arch Rocks.  The boys were climbing on anything that was standing still... as boys are wont to do.  Close to the end of the trail we stopped for a while to cool our toes in the river.  The boys said it was COLD water (I left my shoes on)!  It is snow melt after all.  After this big 6+ mile loop, I bet it felt pretty good though.

We didn't put as many miles on our shoes as we have in summers past, but I think that we pushed ourselves a little on the difficulty of the miles we earned.  These two young men of ours impressed us this summer with the stamina and energy they came at each hike with.