Category — Hiking

Cheyenne Mountain State Park (Colorado Springs, CO) might be expanding! Many residents around the park are trying to sell their land for open space purposes. Unfortunately locals are probably thinking El Paso County can’t afford to buy it all with all of the budget shortfalls facing the area. No worries though, this purchase would be done by TOPS (Trails, Open Space, and Parks). TOPS is a local committee who’s mission is to guide our city in the prudent acquisition, development and preservation of Trails, Open Space, and Parks, thereby creating a legacy for future generations in the Pikes Peak Region.

THAT ROCKS! The addition would bring the park another 120 acres, to it’s already 1600+ acres. Negotiations are still being made over the price. City Council members and the Parks Board will have sign off on the deal. The TOPS committee plans to tour the property for sale on 01/06/10 (this Wednesday). My fingers are crossed.

TOPS Working Committee’s Mission:

• Work together, in accordance with the TOPS Ordinance, to guide our City in the prudent acquisition, development and preservation of Trails, Open Space, and Parks, thereby creating a legacy for future generations in the Pikes Peak Region.

Quick Facts about TOPS:

• July 1997 Colorado Springs established the TOPS open space conservation program
• At City Council?s direction, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board created the TOPS Working Committee
• TOPS is funded through a 1/10^th of 1 percent sales tax for trails, open space and parks and expires in 2025.
• In 2003 voters approved extending the TOPS program through 2025.
• TOPS Protected Open Space Exceeds 6,178 Acres!
• TOPS has built over 32 Neighborhood Parks!
• TOPS has constructed over 46 miles of Urban Trails!

Seriously if you live in the area or are planning a trip to Colorado’s Front Range our newest state park is well worth the visit. With awesome trails and a great chance to ride/run hard during one of the many races/events held there every year which include the Xterra trail run and marathon as well as the 1st race of the PPRR winter series!

Tripping through the interwebs this morning I came across Mountain Khakis’ “Built for the mountain life” blog and was most pleasantly surprised. Now I have been a psuedo fan of their pants for a few years but never really looked into the company. I say psuedo fan because after shelling out almost $70 for a pair I blew through them in a few months and me being the cheap bastard that I am I have stuck to Goodwill clothes, where I can get 25 pairs of pants for the same cost!

Now admittedly most of the Goodwill clothes are not fancy and not nearly as durable or as cool, but I figured since I had such a bad run with my $70 pair I was alright with it. However, now I am rethinking my decision. Sure I can get tons of pants for cheap but where does my money go? With Goodwill industries it goes to a good cause but what about the manufacturer of the pants, do they support what I know and love? NO WAY! Unless I love sweat shop kids and abuses of earth and human rights.

So I will give the MK’s a chance again…when I can afford it. Because I love what they stand for and I love their support of the mountain lifestyle. This is a company that you can be proud to support. In fact if you are wondering about Mountain Khakis please check them out and if you have any questions ask away.

With the sun setting earlier and the temperatures dipping as we head into fall and eventually winter you should be sure and check all of the gear you will be using for your cold weather adventures.

Tune the skis, check the clothing for wear and tear, sharpen the ice axes, and make sure you can find both gloves!!

One of the most overlooked aspect of season change is your survival gear, especially the Ten Essentials. This is the time of year when I like to set it all out, from my personal survival kit to my ditch kit and vehicle first aid. Winter brings new dangers that require a separate list of equipment.

For my personal survival kit I check and change the following:
Signal: Check that the whistle has not cracked, and signal mirror is in working order, and add red Kool-Aid for signaling in snow.

Fire: I check that my lighter is full and still works in cold weather (a lot of gas station butane lighters falter in extreme cold) and that I have adequate tender often I will switch to Vaseline coated cotton balls because the Vaseline can be used for cold and wind cracked skin as well! I also will add a small piece of heavy duty aluminum foil to the pack for a fire base.

Food: I switch out the Powerbars to Clif bars because a frozen Powerbar will easily break a tooth whereas the frozen chunky Clif bar is easier to snap apart. And the Clif bars take longer to digest for more inner warmth.

Tools: I lube my multi-tool or knife and ensure the blades are sharp, and make sure I have 25′ of 550 or parachute cord as well, because I use it for everything I often will have shortened it a great deal over the summer.

Clothing: I add a balaclava or Buff as well as a few hand warmers and wool glove liners. And I sometimes switch out my sun glasses for glacier style glasses to protect my eyes from reflected light off of snow.

I also make sure I reread about land navigation in snowy conditions and try and get out to build shelters in winter conditions as soon as we have some snow on the ground.

For those of you still using metal whistles or whistles with cork or plastic balls in them the cork will break apart and the plastic ball can shatter!! You have been warned!

Be sure and try to use all of your gear with gloves on. Things change rapidly and in cold temperatures you definitely don’t want to have to remove gloves to utilize your survival gear!!

The worst time to realize you are hazy on your survival skills is during a survival situation, so be sure and study up and be prepared.

A new danger lurks in our national forests. Long have people secretly feared things in the outdoors: wild animals, falling trees, inclement weather, injury, the occasional serial killer, now add to that ever growing list spam eating illegal immigrants toting automatic weapons. Yep you read correctly, according to numerous reports hikers are encountering vast fields of irrigated marijuana fields dutifully guarded by gun toting men.

This is very near my house!!

For years I have heard reports of these illegal operations scattered here and there, in fact I have had friends make serious attempts at finding them, always to no avail. But it appears that now it has reached epidemic proportions with millions of dollars of marijuana fields discovered weekly. You might be assuming that this is in areas that see little to no traffic and would be very secluded, in reality some of these fields have been located closer than 1/2 mile from popular and well traveled tourist destinations.

To make matters worse these “farmers” are serious bringing in irrigation systems and motion sensing equipment. Reports lately have linked operations as far north as Washington state with definitive ties to numerous drug cartels based in Mexico.

Another unfortunate side effect is the fact that all of this policing by the U.S. to eradicate these illegal pot farms is costing us tons of cash. Up to $1 million in Sequioa N.P. alone since 2006! Not to mention all of the damage the fields do to the valuable ecosystems disrupted by the operations.

Some of the signs that you may be nearing one of these operations are ( and I am being serious here) tortilla wrappers, spam cans, empty beers cans, blue tarps and irrigation pipes. Officials are recommending if you come across a marijuana field leave the area immediately and call police once you are safe back in your vehicle. Do not stay to investigate as the “farmers” are usually armed and willing to shoot first.

Seriously this is a real problem and it should be a real concern to anyone that ventures into the great outdoors.

This is the write up of the second day of our UpaDowna weekend for the first day check the Monarch Crest Trail ride post.

Fortunately UpaDowna member UTM was on it and had selected a high side camp spot for all of us to camp in just a few miles from the Massive TH, just outside of Leadville, CO. Once we arrived we made short work of establishing camp, by gathering fire wood and setting up a hasty rain shelter for the pending rains. I think everyone would be in agreement that we were thankful for the shelter when the clouds opened up! The only bummer about this site was that apparently our neighbors (somewhere in the distance) decided that Saturday night would be a great time to have a bass blasting rager and we had to deal with the constant thump of their radio. I assume it was because they were afraid of the dark and were trying to scare off the demons. LAME ASS S.O.B.’s!!!

Well after finally getting some shut eye UTM and I drove into town at 530am to pick up some other folks for the hike which fortunately we had made it to the TH by around 815am. Now all be told we had some great folks with us, the main purpose of this trip was to guide Mats from Sweden up to the top as well as our new friend Warren from Wisconsin. Both came from sea level but you could hardly tell, in fact we had named Mats “John Deere” by the summit because he hiked like a trusty old tractor, steady as she goes!

The hike went well as we took the SE route which covered 13.75 miles, 4,500′ elevation again with the summit at 14,421′ not bad for a days work. For those that are looking to hike this mountain you should definitely check out 14ers.com for beta and other trip reports. As for our experience the trail is a nice meandering route through the coniferous forests filled with Pine and Spruce and the occasional Aspen grove. As you hike yo can barely tell you are gaining elevation until right after tree line for a few switchbacks and then when you are heading to the saddle and ultimately the summit. Counting the slight bit of hail and drizzle as well as the sporadic lightening I would definitely implore others to start no later than 7 am to be safe. And remember the exposed summit ridge is no place to be in an electrical storm! Thankfully we made it to the summit with enough time to enjoy our victory PBR and snap a  few picks then bolt down the ridge to the relative safety of treeline.

Check it out!

I just added a link under the “mountains” category on the right side of the page for this great resource. Mapped Trails is run by local mountain biker Sir Rexalot. This joker has put in the hours on the bike with his GPS to provide all the info you could want on some of the best local routes. He adds new routes constantly and promises to let us in on new gem rides as part of his ever expanding database. These rides are concentrated in Colorado but we expect good things and tons of trails pouring in from all over!!

Oh yeah and it is a FREE service, simply log in and check out what he has to offer.

Rockin!!