Old Stomping Grounds

Saturday got the spark to head down towards Colorado Springs - a place I lived and loved the summer after my sophomore year of college, doing my first internship.

The area near the Springs is so amazingly beautiful. I always forget just how much I love it down there. All the pine trees and mountains and green - it's just an amazing landscape.

It was time to get outa Dodge and just have a fun day.

One of my favorite trails down there - not long, but fond memories is a trail in the town of Monument, just north of the Springs, that loops around Mt. Herman. The trail is always fun, and beautiful, and never ceases to be an adventure. Typically the adventure starts towards the end of the trail b/c it's always ambiguous how to get back to civilization, and once you figure that out, how to find the car. Getting back is almost as adventurous as riding the trail itself. Although the trail, imo, though short, is well worth anyone's time.

You park on the flats, which already has pine trees. There's a labyrinth of trails, meandering up and down towards the mtn. Lots of fun. Once you get near Mt. Herman, you start climbing on the Rampart Range Rd, which I think goes for at least 25 miles (the road, not the route to the trail) and can take you all the way to Rampart Reservoir, a huge beautiful reservoir that overlooks Pikes Peak. Another place that's awesome to go.

One day I'd like to explore the entire Range Rd. This time I climbed up towards the trailhead and beyond by at least a couple miles, just to see what was at the top of the hill. It was evident the road continued in similar terrain for some time, so I headed back to the trailhead.

Back in the day, the trail started at the location of a small shooting range. You actually had to ask the shooters to stop shooting so you could ride through the range and get up and away on the far hill, which was their shooting barrier. Kinda funny, I think. The shooting range has since moved. :)

The trail is somewhat gravely - small 1/2 inch size broken dirt of sorts. A turf common around Colorado Springs - like lots of broken up pieces of sandstone. The trail starts off climbing in the woods, and then starts the little ups and downs heading towards the backside of Mt. Herman. Each descent is interesting b/c it's a little steep and really lose. I was freshly in my clipless pedals, and being that I was on my own decided to err on the conservative side. Next time I come back I won't b/c this trail is just so fun. It did seem to be more eroded than in the past, seemingly from recent rains.

After some fun climbing and descending, through woods and over roots and rocks, passed streams, you plunge to the valley and things open up to a nice little meadow behind Mt. Herman where there tends to be lots of nice plants and wildflowers.

The trail continues till you climb back out on the north side of the mtn and begin an interestingly loose and long and kinda exciting descent towards the front of the mtn.

This time, found a new trail that appears to head upwards on the mtn, looking like a nice hiking trail. I did not venture far on this as it appeared to be a lot of climbing and hike-a-bike, but would be cool to come back and explore sometime. Also, there is another trail intersection on the backside I'd like to explore. I'm guessing it comes in or starts from further up the Range Rd. Need to get a map of this area.

The venture back to civilization did not let me down, and it still proved an adventure, but I'm getting better at finding my way back out. It seems inevitable that you have to cross private property posted with no trespassing signs - the trails drops you out between two gates, both stating "Keep Out". I've gotten yelled at here before but have no idea what other way you'd exit the mtn. And you can tell quite a few others have done the same.

Enjoyed that ride.

2nd venture was to head down towards the Air Force Academy and see if they still let visitors onto that campus. Apparently yes, although the security is much stiffer than when I lived there.

Decided to hike a trail that was my favorite at the time. A hike up to Stanley Canyon reservoir. The hike is scenic, with some rock scrambling. You get up to a cool little mtn reservoir where I felt the water temps (warm), took off my shirt, and jumped in. The favorite part of my day. I'd have stayed in longer had I not needed to get back to the Fort.

So that was my day Saturday. Made my mood happy.