Hiking Incline Trail

Only a week late.. but I had to blog about my wonderful hike up the Manitou Incline trail last Saturday with my friend Keron.  This is some serious hiking and not for the faint of hearts. If the extreme trail warning sign doesn't deter you then the view of the 2,000 feet elevation will.

 

 

 

 

 

 I have done this trail last summer with Jeffrey and we did not know what we were in for then. But this time I was more prepared- mentally and little physically. This trip was Keron's first. Although she is a Colorado Native, I got the joy of showing something really fun and exciting in her home state.

 

 

 

 

 

The incline starts at 6,000 feet elevation and gains over 2,000 feet in approximately 3/4 mile (great info provided from internet), so although the weather was a sunny 55 degrees at base on trail, the snow had not yet melted at the top of trail. I'm proud to say that I have become acclimated to the cold weather here in CO, but I do enjoy the sunny warm days above 50 degrees. Funny that I say that, if it was below 60 degrees in Texas you would have most likely found me bundled in sweaters and bringing out the fall-like boots. But here, when it's above 50 almost everyone is wearing tank tops and capris to soak up those warm rays. I won't say that I'm a Coloradan yet... just better acclimated to it.

We went pretty slow and took lots and lots of breaks, but made it to the top in about 1 1/2 hours . Not to bad all things considered. I'm good with going nice & slow. About 2/3 way up there is a cut off that will lead to the Bahr trail which takes you down the mountain. But I can't ever chicken out once I've made it that far. Just gotta keep going to the summit. The views are so beautiful once you get to the top and can actually enjoy them while you eat a little energy packed snack. I never recommend to go down the stairs, but rather on the Bahr trail that loops back down the mountain. It's much safer this way. I'm to clumsy for that anyways. I do good just to get up those darn stairs.

 

After our energy snack, we headed down the trail. Of course, a few pics and a selfie were required at this point. It was a nice slow walk filled with fun conversations and accomplishments all the way down trail. Glad I got to take Keron along and more than tickled that I got in such a great workout for last Saturday. In fact, it was so fun and I felt so  great about myself so I went again today (Saturday). Flew solo this time, so my time was much better. Shaved a whole hour off (30 mins up and 30 mins down). Great views and a great workout!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Beatiful Saturday Hike

Finally a beautiful day. The weather forecast showed a high of 57 degrees today, so me and the puppies seized this opportunity to get out of the house for a few hours. I've been a horrible puppy mom and haven't taken them anywhere in 6 weeks due to work and bad weather. And to be honest with you, all this bad weather has made me into somewhat of a recluse. I horrible habit I am ridding myself of ASAP. I wish that I was able to get home before it got dark in the evenings so that I could take dogs out more and even go for a run. But with it getting dark at 4:30 or 5:00pm it really puts a damper on things. That to will change in near future though.

 

For our outing today, we headed over to Jeffrey's company area for a little isolation and a good hike.  Although there are plenty of doggie parks locally, I opt to take them to this desolate little hiking area behind Jeffrey's company. This way I don't have to worry about trying to corral two dogs by myself... I just let them off their leashes and let them run free. 

 

I had to bribe them to take a quick picture with me. (also wanted to include the beautiful background)

 

 

Gretel is beginning to plump up, so this little hike has some great hill workouts for her. Poor thing is usually exhausted by the time were up the first hill. To her credit though, the first hill is the toughest and longest with it's false summit.

 

Even thought the weather was nice, there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground in the shaded areas. I was hoping that it was all going to be melted and/or dry so that I wouldn't have to deal with muddy dogs. But I was not so fortunate in that regard. I tried to entice Berkley in a game of ball, but he wasn't having any of it. It doesn't matter how many times I bring them to this same spot, they both are so focused on their surroundings that they don't want to play. Just hike, sniff and potty. Ohh the simplest life of doggies.

I should have thought it through a little better in my planning and brought some towels.. Halfway through this hike and  their paws and my shoes were all caked in nasty mud.

With our gummed up feet, I got both of them running around in parking lot. Even got Berkley to play fetch with his new toy that Grammy got him for Christmas.  I think the toy was a big hit and all that running helped get a little of the mud of both of their feet. Should have had more forethought to take a picture of our nasty muddy feet!!

 

Thanks again Grammy for this ball catapult!!  After all the fun and excitement ended, we drove back to the house to I could begin the process of scrubbing down the dogs, the car and myself.

 

 

Overall it was a great way to spend our Saturday.. a little exercise and getting out of house! We are looking forward to more hiking adventures in a new place next weekend. (Weather permitting of course)

 

 

New to the world of blogging...

I've now entered the new world of blogging for 2014!! YAY Me!! Pretty excited to get started. But like most things with me, this to has started as a challenge. Who knew that creating a blog would be stressful? After agonizing over a title for well over an hour (who does that?) I finally settled on team-santos. Very simple, yet quite fitting.

My blogging journey began with the dreadful and tedious process of copying all of my photos from my laptop to my home computer for better use. Poor laptop is on the fritz right now. So I'm 3 hours strong in my transfer of photos... and another 3-4 to go! Maybe saved for tomorrow. I must admit even the photo transferring isn't waiver my excitement for this new blogging adventure. Sounds silly-- but hey I get tickled over the simplest of things. Here's to my 2014 blog!