Tales from Kobi: Skunk Creek Trail

Monday, 3/23/15 ... catching up

We're out hiking more challenging trails now and Mom's having trouble keeping up with letting you all know about these beautiful places. So we're starting with Skunk Creek Trail about a week ago.

This trail is easily accessible and follows a dirt road to the trailhead. It was a great day. Sunny. Blue skies. Puffy clouds. Mom wore her old boots since my new ones broke and she was waiting for the replacement pair. She was reminded what a properly sized boot can do for you. :-)

A bit hard to see here, but in the above photo a trail runs horizontally about center and there are a few people trekking there. This ridge almost looks like a dinosaur's hump.

On the rock in the foreground there is some beautiful lime-green lichen. We are just trekking along. Not too many folks since it's mid-afternoon. Another of Mom's late starts. That's going to have to change when she's on The Colorado Trail! Unfortunately, I won't be going on that trip. She says she needs to focus and will have enough trouble looking after herself, let alone me!

Looking back toward Boulder at a switchback.

Hey, there's me! I got my leash caught in that little bridge there. It took Mom a few minutes to get me unstuck. I guess I can be a little trouble, but I just love hiking with her.

Waiting for her. I do like to run ahead sometimes.

We're standing at the switchback ... the trail on the lest goes back from where we came ... the one on the right continues on Skunk Creek Trail.

This is where Skunk Creek Trail meets Mesa Trail. It's kinda funny how on way is a dirt path and the other is flagstone. We wondered if that was rebuilding after the flood of 2013.

Looking over Boulder again.

Now we're on our way back down. It was a quick trip. Just under 2 hours, 3.27 miles, 748 ft elevation gain.

Tales from Kobi: Flagstaff Trail

Yesterday, Mom and I had another adventure. We hiked Flagstaff Trail with friend Meredith and her dog Toby, called Mr. T so as to not confuse us.
 

The hike was from Panorama Point to the Wood Shelter near Artists' Point. 2.83 miles/1115 elevation gain.

It was such a beautiful day here in Colorado that there were many hikers out, but not so many that it was crowded. Meredith stopped to talk with another hiker as Mom and I marched on up the trail.

There were lots of sweet vista pit stops. With the elevation gain, Mom found herself stopping quite often. She hopes this will ease up as she does more treks like this.

Meredith on the rock and Mr. T hiding in the shadow in the foreground.

The Boulder trails are very well maintained for pretty easy crossing even with the elevation gain.

And on the way back we were blessed with this awesome view of Boulder through the trees. Now we can say we hiked to the top of Flagstaff Mountain!

Before heading home after this pretty short hike, we stopped to enjoy the breeze. Mr. T decided he wanted to climb on the table, but didn't quite make it. Meredith said he was just acting silly. Kobi was enjoying lying down in the table shade.

The good news is I didn't feel like I needed couch time after this hike. I love my new boots!

Oh, and about boots. I went to put on my brand new Vasques (week old with 18 miles on them) later in the afternoon and one of the leather loops broke. Bummer!! The good news is Amazon will replace them at no cost and I will have another brand new pair of boots on Tuesday. :-)

Tales from Kobi: Walker Ranch Loop

Monday, March 16: Mom and I took our second challenge for elevation gain. We'll have to catch up on the first challenge, or maybe not. We'll see. For now, we'll start here.

We hiked Walker Ranch Loop ... 7.6 miles clockwise with a total elevation gain of 1470 ft (920 + 550). Walker Ranch map and elevation graph provided by Boulder County, Colorado.

Mom and I started at the trailhead at 11am figuring it would be cool enough in the mountains. As it turned out it was great when we arrived, but heated up a bit along the way regardless of some latent snow on the the trail (seen later). Headed out on the trail on the left and returned on the trail on the right (above).

Panoramic vista from very early on the trail.

"Kobi, you're going the wrong way. We need to go up," Mom said, but as you can see I wasn't paying much attention. She had stopped to take pictures, so I got confused.

That's the trail we came up, looking back. These kinds of pictures give a great perspective of distance and terrain.

There's the snow! It was a bit slushy and slippery, but Mom kept her balance. She figured we must be on the North side of a mountain here.

"That's one big paw print." Mom always gets a little nervous for me when she sees such big prints, but truth be told she doesn't know how to recognize mountain lion tracks. Figured it must just be a big dog. We did see a Newfoundland later, but not sure they hiked this part.

The sound of the rushing Boulder Creek here was lovely and refreshing.

Crossing the creek.

Here's were things got interesting. Mom must have missed the trail or a switchback or something and we ended up scaling the mountainside there on the left. Rocky and sandy and a bit scary. It was hard for me to keep traction, but Mom kept saying keep going ... up. So I did. Suddenly we made it to the very well maintained trail and that's how Mom realized she'd missed something. I keep telling her to stop looking at her feet ... look up once in a while! She says she knows. OK.

She loves those rocky mountain configurations and look at that blue sky. Wow!

She loves the long shadows. See her walking sticks there? She needed them on this trip. Definitely made it easier to do the elevation, but she still had to stop a lot to get her breath and rest her legs. I'm proud of her though. She kept going.

While she's stopping and taking pictures, I wander ahead. See me there, right in the middle of the snow. That sure helped my little paws. Felt nice and cool.

This is only the fourth person we saw on the trail all day. This guy was definitely not wearing proper footwear. Sandals! But he was trucking a lot faster than we were.

This is what a lot of the "looking down" looked like. Not unusual for hiking a mountain.

More rock formations.

Hiking along Boulder Creek for about a half mile was the most pleasant part of the entire trip. The gurgling song of the water flowing over and around rocks. Shady path. The potent smell of pine. Lovely. But the water level is quite low for all the snow we've had recently.

Almost there. To the right of those trees and rocks on top of the hill is where our car awaits our arrival. Mom couldn't wait, but she couldn't walk any faster. I went on ahead occasionally, but I was tired too.

And I think she was seeing spots. Six and half hours later we finished. We didn't take too many breaks and when we did, not very long. I'm really proud of her and always enjoy our walks.

I slept all the way home and crashed on the couch when we got there. Regardless, it really was a beautiful day.

Thanks for coming along.

Tales from Kobi: Meyer Homestead Trail at Walker Ranch

Mom has a knack for starting our adventures in the afternoon. So, we were traveling up winding Flagstaff Rd. toward the Meyer Homestead Trail about 2:30 when suddenly she put on the brakes. On the left side of the road was a deer. Then she noticed three more just to the right of our car. She got a couple pictures through the open windows and continued. Unfortunately, with all the switchbacks and slow starts, I tossed my kibbles in the back seat. I haven't done that in a long time. Usually I'm a very good traveler. I just curl up and sleep until we reach our destination. Good thing mom had put a towel down. She stopped again to clean up and off we went to the trailhead.

After checking the map at the trailhead, learning it was a 2.6 mile one-way trip, we were off.

Not far up the trail there was an entire herd of deer. There must have been 13 or 14 of them. The sun shone on the prairie grasses and let outlines around the deer, highlighting there bodies. Simply beautiful. Those big guys and gals just stared. I didn't care much, just wanted to move on, but Mom just loves the wildlife. She stops at every chance.

Off to the west of the trail was what she assumes is the homestead. It was a bright spot in the buff meadow as the sun lowered in the afternoon sky.

Oh, that's me. I'm just trucking along. Although the air was reasonably warm, there were still some snow patches and puddles along the way. I love those puddles, but Mom always tries to steer me around them so she won't have to give me a bath. Well, sometimes that works!

Early on there were signs warning of mountain lions. That scares Mom a little bit because I'm just a little guy, but she has never seen a mountain lion or bear so reminded herself of the actions necessary if we did encounter them. We moved on as if in a protective bubble.

Right about this time, I heard Mom exclaim, "Oh, shoot ... the battery's dead." She hadn't recharged her Nikon battery. Well, no worries. She still had her cell phone.

There is a special beauty about the bare aspen groves in winter. They shine a grey-white in the sunlight while standing attention.

I'd love to tell you I took this picture of my mama, but she never lets me take the pictures. It's so good to see some color in her cheeks. I love it when she's happy and somehow nature just nurtures her in so many ways. It's freedom. Introspection. Listening to the quiet except for her footfalls that crunch in the hardened snow in spots and the dirt trail in others.

There was a lot of "up" on this trail and Mom began to question if she could make it to the terminus before the sun set. She pushed it a bit close. Fortunately, a runner who passed her earlier was coming back down. Said the terminus was only about a 5 minute run down. That probably meant a 15 minute continuance up. Whew! We would make it.

Here we are at the bench at the trail terminus. The bench has a bronze plaque with the initials JDW--James D. Walker for whom the ranch is named.

This picture does not do the vista justice. The expanse of the snow-topped Rocky Mountains was stunning. We took just a few minutes to sit and take in the view and rest. If we'd come earlier it would have been a wonderful place to eat a snack, breathe in the fresh air, and contemplate.

On the way down with the sun waning, the Aspens brighten with their white-grey bark.

And the colors of the meadow brush heighten.

We got to the car just in time to see the black silhouette of the Rocky Mountains against the sky. So glad we weren't walking the trail in the dark. Mom gave me water. She snacked on nuts on the drive home. It was a good day. We're back in the groove.

Creative Expressions: Rough day yesterday

Well, every day can't be a red letter day. And that was Wednesday. We all have them. Lousy days. Amazingly, I haven't had a day like that since last year!

The good news is I put my tools to work ... journaling and creative art. After a rough day yesterday and a mind-numbing day today, my creativity came back to life. Admittedly, it's a little dark, but I feel the cloud lifting.

There you go. There is proof that this stuff works.

I promise I'll post some pretty bracelets I've made recently soon. Maybe even tomorrow.

Tales from Kobi: Old Photo New Face

Mom loves me so much she often uses me as her model and muse. This photo was taken last year. I was peeking around the wall with my red ball beside me. Waiting. Just waiting for Mom to play with me. Now, don't take me wrong, she plays with me a lot and takes me for walks, but in this moment she was more interested in taking a picture of my cute face. :-) Sometimes she gets in a hurry to catch the picture ... this one is a little fuzzy, like me.

So today, she decided to work in Photoshop and play with clipping my mug into the K in my name. Then for some who may not know my name (can't be many now) she added the other letters. There aren't many fonts that are suitable for this technique. Today she used Poplar Std.

I guess you could call this a TBT (throwback Thursday). Short and sweet. That's it for today ... I need my nap. Snuggling up beside my Mama.