The Phantom

It is parent’s week in Colorado. My parents are here this weekend and next. Today was scenic drive day. We drove up the Phantom Canyon Road to Victor and Cripple Creek and enjoyed the sites. It was a real rough day. Pops had to take a nap afterwards. Here are some pictures.




Mom along the Phantom Canyon Rd.









Ditto









Mom & Dad along the Phantom Canyon Rd.








I nearly got stepped on when taking this picture.








Flowers in Victor






The Mall





Pops in front of the Victor Hotel

Magnificent

Since my last post I have watched a lot of soccer, I’ve been sick, and I have done a lot of non-blog worthy stuff. With me being better and the World Cup over, I managed to go for a blog worthy hike on Sunday. I drove up to Brainard Lake Recreation Area in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I have done hikes in this area before. It is close to Denver and is extremely popular for good reason. I decided to hike Mt. Audubon (13,233 feet). I have had my eye on Mt. Audubon for a while. It is a relatively easy 13er that I figured would be good one to do early in the hiking season. As advertised, it was easy. The round trip hike was about 8 miles. There were lots of wildflowers, pikas, and magnificent views. Enough of this writing, here are the pictures.



I believe this is a White-tailed Ptarmigan







Flowers along the slope of Mt. Audubon









Pika on the rock.








Flowers and Longs Peak







The summit of Mt. Audubon






Me on top. Lake Granby is on the left in the distance.






Me on top with Longs Peak in the background







Looking south at the Indian Peaks with Blue Lake down below






Northwest view with Upper Coney Lake below







Columbine




Mitchell Lake

When The Yanks Go Marching In

British Bulldog: June 12, 2010







The wait is over; the World Cup has started. The U.S. is off to a decent start. They tied England 1-1. It is a good result. The U.S. goal was a bit of an English blunder to say the least, but it counts. Overall, I think the tie is a fair result. Both teams had excellent opportunities to win it. I went to the British Bulldog in Denver to watch the game. It was a blast. The place was should have been renamed the American Bulldog. They closed the roads outside and had a street party. From the video I saw on the local news, it was packed despite the wet weather. Here are some videos I took from the day.

When The Yanks Go Marching In

The National Anthem

Here's a guy dancing to a U2 cover band long after the game ended.

The next game for the U.S. is against Slovenia on Friday. I’ll be late getting to work that day.

-MM

Energy Spent

It was a soccer day on Saturday. I watched the U.S. beat Australia 3-1 in the morning at the British Bulldog, and I watched the Rapids beat the Crew 1-0 at Dicks Sporting Goods Stadium. I’m getting warmed up for the World Cup when everyday is soccer day. The first World Cup game for the United States is against England on June 12th. It will be televised on ABC.

On Sunday, I made my way up to Rocky Mountain National Park where I did some hiking. I started my hike at the Bierstadt Lake Trailhead where I hiked up to Bierstadt Lake. I had the lake to myself.




A view along the Bierstadt Lake Trail









Bierstadt Lake








Me, Longs Peak, and Bierstadt Lake





After enjoying the scenery at Bierstadt Lake, I started hiking towards Bear Lake, but I did not go to Bear Lake. I kept on going. I made way to Lake Helene and Odessa Lake. The trail was not steep, but once I got past the turnoff for Flattop Mountain I started getting into some significant snow. The snow made the going slow. The scenery was great though.




Looking towards Notchtop Mountain






A small pond along the way






Looking down on Lake Helene






Notchtop Mtn and Grace Falls







Odessa Lake








Me with Grace Falls in the background






While sitting on the rocks above Lake Helene and Odessa Lake, I decided to make this hike an adventurous loop hike. I made the way down toward Odessa Lake. It was rough going in the snow. I didn’t even bother trying to get to the lakes edge because of the snow. I kept on going to Fern Lake.




Fern Lake








Thankfully, I was through with the snow at Fern Lake. From there, I hiked on down to The Pool. The water level was impressive.

After The Pool, I had a long uphill hike to get back to Lake Bierstadt. This route had some nice views looking down on Cub Lake. I lost my sunglasses somewhere in this section. I had them on top of my hat and must have flipped them off at some point while adjusting my hat. I was tired, but I made it back to my car. I estimate that the round trip was at least 15 miles. I think I’m being conservative with the estimate. I don’t have mileage for all of the connecting trails. The snow hiking sucked a lot of the energy out me. Except for losing my sunglasses, it was a great day.




Cub Lake








Until next time,

-MM

Steam Engine

I hope everyone had a wonderful three-day weekend. I enjoyed a couple of soccer games on Saturday. I did some long neglected chores on Sunday. I did my hike on Monday. I hiked up the Newlin Creek Trail in the Wet Mountains. The trail is about 2.7 miles long. It goes up a canyon to the site of an old sawmill that was run off of a steam engine. The official trail ended at the historic site; however, there was a trail that kept going. So naturally I followed it. The feral trail climbed out of the canyon. The trail eventually disappeared, but a route had been marked by rock cairns. This led me to a high point where I had views of the surrounding valleys, canyons, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.




Looking up








The Herrick Sawmill








A view from the top








Zoom view of the Sangre de Cristo Mtns.






Looking down on The City.

Can't Complain

Things have been a little busy for me as of late, but I can’t complain. Things have been good. Anyway this post is about a hike I did last Sunday. I climbed to the top of South Boulder Peak. (8,549 Ft.) I had done the approach trail up Shadow Canyon a couple of times, but I had not taken the spur trail to South Boulder Peak until Sunday. The view was great and the weather was perfect. I hung out on top for probably 50 minutes just soaking in the view. As I was going down, there was a rush of people going up. I’m glad I got the earlier start. Here are the pictures.

View of Boulder and Bear Peak from the top South Boulder Peak




Looking south from South Boulder Peak. The railroad is visible in Eldorado Canyon



Me thinking about some hikes for later this summer.

I Must Be In The Front Row

I did two hikes this weekend. On Saturday, I hiked the Spruce Mountain Open Space Trail. It is in Douglas County along the Palmer Divide. The trail is pretty easy. It follows along the top of a small cliff that has some nice views of Pikes Peak.



Looking towards Pikes Peak from the Greenland Overlook







View of Eagle Mtn.








Mushroom rock





Flowers are trying to come out despite it still feeling like winter on the Palmer Divide.



On Sunday, I hiked to the top of Mt. Morrison, which is the mountain above Red Rocks. It is a mountain that I have been thinking about hiking for a while. After climbing it, I wish I had done it sooner. The trailhead is less than 10 minutes from my Lakewood estates. There are several routes up Mt. Morrison. I used the trailhead near entrance 4 of Red Rocks. The trail is not well known. None of the trails are marked or have signs at their trailheads. Which is kind of cool, it keeps the number of people hiking it down. I saw several people on the trail, but it was not bad for the weekend and for being so close to Denver. The open space parks nearby are always overwhelmed on the weekend. The hike up was steep. It wasn’t the cakewalk that I had the day before. The view up top makes it worth the effort, and the weather was extremely nice.



A cactus flower near the top of Mt. Morrison




Looking towards Mt. Evans from the top of Mt. Morrison





Dinosaur Ridge and Green Mtn down below








Red Rocks from the Uecker seats.

Outlaw Man

This weekend, the American Outlaws got an official chapter in Denver. It’s about time. For those who don’t know, American Outlaws is a nation-wide supporters group for the US National Soccer Team. The British Bulldog will be home base for the Denver Chapter. We’re trying to rename it to the American Bulldog for the World Cup, but I doubt that is going to fly. It should be an interesting scene in the bar on June 12th when the US faces England in the World Cup.




Outlaw Man








As far as hiking, here are some pictures from a recent hike near Cañon City that I never got around to posting.



Inside one of the tunnels on the Tunnel Drive Trail







The trail goes through the tunnel







Arkansas River