Another Friday Mornin' Hike with the Vail Branch ladies . . . turns out my Monday Night Hikes have turned into Friday Morning Hikes because of the rain we get every afternoon. It's kind of crazy - every morning looks just like this, and by late afternoon we have a thunderstorm roll through. Definitely no complaining about it from our house - we need the water and the temperature usually drops a good 10+ degrees because of it, plus the thunder is AWESOME - it just makes our little FHE tradition a little more difficult ever since July rolled around.
Anyway . . . the hike this week was Meadow Mountain, which is just a few miles east of where we live, and actually used to be a ski hill before Vail Resorts bought it and shut it down (didn't want any cheap competition!). Now it's used as a tubing hill in the winters. And the trail is heavily mountain biked in the summer - we didn't see any other hikers but something like 20 bikers. Also, a fun fact from my Vail Hiker book (thanks Ryan and Victoria for the gift card!): homesteaders in the Vail Valley area in the 1800s raised sheep, cattle, hay, and even "an abundance of crisp mountain lettuce". Lettuce. Huh.
The stats:
Date hiked: 20 July 2012
Start time: 7:20 am
Rest/eat/explore time: 30 minutes
Back time: 11:40 am
Total round trip time: 4 hours, 20 minutes
Total mileage: 7 miles (according to the book); 9.31 (according to my GPS) - I'm tempted to believe the GPS just because it sound more impressive
High point: 9795 feet
And the pics:
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| Lots of these old cabin ruins along the trail. |
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| Just one of three pretty decent-sized bucks we saw up in the trees. |
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| I know they're a noxious weed, but I still am kind of in love with these flowers. |
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| Looking South towards Minturn and beyond. |
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| Almost to the top. |
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| Chloe and Angie resting inside the little cabin that was our destination for this hike. |
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| Pretty ponds down the trail. |
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| The group with the gore range behind. Kim, Chloe, Aspen, Lara, Angie and Cherish |
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| And another in front of the cabin. |
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| A quick looksie inside - pretty sweet accommodations for a little shack on the top of a hill - it's used by snowmobilers in the winter and is quite well equipped. |
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| Yeah, I'd be okay with waking up to a view like that! |
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| The Gores. |
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| A little locust. |
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| I like it here. Have I ever said that? |
I'm glad you've got a hiking bible! Here's to another fun hiking adventure. It looks like you've got a good group of like minded people. The little shack is cute. Do people use it?
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