Monday, June 15, 2009

Niwot Ridge hike


Sophie and I hiked to Niwot Ridge in the Indian Peaks. We start from the Colorado University Mountain Research Station. After going through the gate at the station we travel along some fairly rough terrain and park in a clearing next to a locked gate. From there we continued on foot up the road for official vehicles.

You can see some dark clouds and rain falling ahead. Oddly the road from here on out was much better than the road between the research station and the parking area. I guess the want to discourage people from using the trail.


Sophie discovers some heavy duty cable. There were several sections coiled near the road so they must be routing some equipement up on the tundra. Probably it is for the TundraCam. When I went to the website and clicked on TundraCam I saw this message:

Sorry, but TundraCam is not working today (again).

"Our problems started out with a faulty router, but the deeper we dig, the more mysterious it gets. It's a complicated network, involving (among other things) several miles of buried fiber optic cable, We're working on it though - no promises as to when, but we'll get it back up eventually... Thanks for your patience!"


God's eye is watching us...

















and I don't think she is happy.



















Saturday, March 10, 2007

Mallory's cave trail

Starting from National Center for Atmospheric Research
off Table Mesa drive in South Boulder, Sophie and I set out for Mallory's Cave.


This is the begining of the Robert Orr nature trail.


Looking south from Table mountain (NCAR).


The NCAR building from the Robert Orr trail.





Sophie finds a rock loaf.


We are almost up to the Flatirons here. You can see the boulder field in the background.








This was a little side trip before we headed up the mountain towards Mallory's cave.


It is late afternoon so the sun is coming from behind the continental divide; only fragments of direct sunlight hit the faces of the Flatirons.





We begin the ascent. Sophie is patient.


After about a half hour of climbing (maybe more), we ran into a couple with a beautiful white dog (looked like a young Lab or German Shepard type), the guy asked if we were heading up to the cave.
"That was the plan"
"Well there is a steep grade up there, the puppy might not be able to make it"
"Oh..."
The girl added "There is still alot of snow, but you get a nice view up around the corner."
I am thinking that Sophie doesn't have a problem with snow, it's bare rock that she can't handle.
So here is the view from around the corner.


And here is the final ascent - it is steeper than it looks.
The sign tells about bats and how these habitats are off limits during certain times of the year.
Sophie immediately climbed about half way - up to the area that doesn't have any snow - then came back down; I did the same but not nearly as gracefully. I try to be a little more cautious when Sophie and I are alone on the trail - particularly when it is late in the day and we might be the last ones on the trail, so we turned around and headed home :-[

Home











Here is our place, with Sophie of course.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

St. Vrains trail Mid-January










There is a rock under there somewhere.

It looks like Sophie questioning the wisdom of following this trail.





It's getting late for Charlie Brown's Christmas tree

The mother of all Blue Spruce - Licoln Center is drooling
Right around here we ran into a guy with 3 hefty teenage dogs and one older small one. We were about to turn around but we decide to push on a little so we wouldn't be following right behind this group.
All of this snow makes it a little easier to navigate in the gloaming of the evening.
It's starting to get dark...
So we turn back after we come to some trees across the trail.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Brainerd lake X-country skiing

Daddy dresses me funny

But he always brings me cool places.