Indian Creek Part 1

We had planned to go camping last weekend. Then I realized it was the final weekend of Cheyenne Frontier Days and reminded J. The last thing we wanted was to be camping out in National Forest with a bunch of drunk dumbfucks with guns. Been there, done that. Combined with the level of backlash going on around the country because of recent SCOTUS rulings, it just seemed safer to forgo our favorite camp site.

I did some research and suggested a hike on Saturday. J thought that was a great idea and we forced the basement dweller to actually come with us. The drive was about 50 minutes even though we ended up fourteen miles from the southern end of Chatfield. Once we arrived, we put on packs, hooked up the dogs and headed out.

The trail is really nice, but somewhat aggressive. We climbed 2350' in a mile and a half.

Once we got away from the trailhead, I let the dogs off leash.

They were fantastic!!

They did cover about three times the distance we did. Back and Forth.

The scenery was magnificent.

Happy dog tails.

The near constant rain has left our mountains absolutely green.

It was like walking through a bouquet of wild flowers.

And the sky . . . and the distance . . . . and no breath

T refuses to leave the house without his beenie, even in 90 degree weather.

Checking out his heat rash.

The dogs stayed close and returned the first time we called.

Demonstrated they could be trusted.

The scrub oak was every where.

I swear this Aspen was 50 to 70 feet high

Dogs hanging in the shade waiting on us.

Very tall Aspen forests.

He wasn't even breathing hard when we got to the top.

The poor pups had gotten tired and would go ahead, but not come back. They would just stand and wait for us, so I put them back on leash.

More wild flowers. T almost blends in.

T waiting for me to haul my old body up the hill.

The trek back was on a fire road. We kept the dogs on leash for most of the way back.

T and J spent the walk down talking about what they would wish for if they had five wishes.

It was awesome to listen to their conversation.

The hike was just about four miles and we did it in just under two hours.

We missed the turn for connecting from the fire road to the campground and hence to the trail head. We went on for another half mile, with all of us getting more and more tired. We finally reached a point where we were overlooking the parking lot and realized we needed to turn around and back track. When I turned around to go back both dogs stopped and looked up at me with the most pathetic look you would ever see. They were both a bit foot sore and not at all happy that we were back tracking. I had kind of hit a wall too, but found some energy in the bottom of a Gatorade bottle. 

It was a really nice hike. However, I was jonesing to ride those trails on Ashke. J and I made plans to return the next day.