Monday, November 28, 2016

Hanging Lakes & Jess Weaver Trail

This weekend Ali and I met up with my parents and headed up to New Castle, CO to visit my sister and her family. We were pretty excited about this since we hadn't been past Beaver Creek on I-70. As you get closer to Glenwood Springs, you start hitting the canyons which is a beautiful drive. It feels like you are in a miniature version of the Grand Canyon, but none the less it is very pretty. Once you get past Glenwood Springs however, things get a little more boring since the mountains are more like big rolling hills compared to what you drive through around Frisco and Vail and I'm a fan of big peaks. Anyway, onto the hikes!

On Friday after a full day of gorging, Ali and I headed over to Hanging Lakes. We'd obviously heard a lot about how pretty it is and were definitely looking forward to trying it out. We started the hike around 9:00 am and it was a chilly 25 or so degrees starting out. The first part of the hike is very pretty as you walk past the Colorado River but doesn't get your blood to flowing like we needed it to that morning. That is quickly remedied as you hit the actual trail head and start your way upwards.


The uphill portion is fairly moderate and there are quite a few picture taking moments as you head uphill. As I said before, I'm a huge fan of water so having a little creek next to us the entire time was very nice. This hike was also quite a bit different from others that we've done. You are basically down in a valley the entire time so it's a different perspective than climbing up a mountain.

Since we were the only ones stupid enough to be hiking that early in the cold, we were awarded as being the only people at Hanging Lakes when we got there. It's absolutely beautiful as far as how clear the water is and the mountains/snow in the background. The pictures below definitely don't do it justice.



After walking around the lake, we then headed up to Spouting Rock. It was only about a 3 - 5 min hike up the left side of the lake and well worth it. It's pretty cool seeing a waterfall come out of a hole in the side of the mountain. You are also able to walk under it.


Overall I would highly recommend this hike. AllTrails says the hike is a 3.2 mile out and back with around a 1,214 feet elevation gain. I would say it's pretty easy overall as the uphill portion is fairly gradual in most places and there are plenty of spots to take a break by the water if you need to. The only downfall for us was that there was quite a bit of snow/ice on the trail which made coming downhill pretty slow and interesting to say the least. I'd highly recommend packing some micro spikes if there is any doubt of snow/ice.

After we got done with Hanging Lakes, we then moved onto Jess Weaver Trail. This is a 5.4 mile high with around a 1,730 feet elevation gain. As you approach the trail head, it's kind of weird as you are walking right past someone's drive way so you feel like you are in their yard but you are not. Just continue to head up the gravel road until you hit the actual trail.

This hike was pretty nice overall as yet again, you are in a valley and you have water along side of you the entire time. However after the first mile or so, the scenery gets pretty repetitive and even though there is a bridge with some nice little waterfalls towards the end, it wasn't anything special.


The last "hike" we did was Rifle Falls in Rifle Falls State Park. It's definitely more of a leisurely walk around to see some pretty waterfalls and also quite a few caves which were cool. Getting to the waterfalls from the parking lot is probably .1 miles but you can stretch the hike into almost 1 mile if you walk all around the waterfalls, into the caves, etc. It's a nice low key place to take your family and maybe grill out.


Thursday, November 3, 2016

Mohawk Lakes Trail


It's almost November and CO is still holding onto the warm weather. Since we're a technically a few weeks away from the slopes opening, we'll continue to knock out the hikes on Ali's "to do" list. This weekend we decided to head to over to Breckenridge and do the Mohawk Lakes Trail.

According to AllTrails.com, this is a 8.2 out and back hike with 2,149 feet elevation gain. I'm a sucker for water so I was pretty excited when I looked at the map and saw at least 5 smaller lakes/ponds along with a few waterfalls. 

We started the hike at the the very bottom which is the Spruce Creek Trail. If you don't want to do this portion, you can drive up a 4 wheel drive road to start at the Mohawk Lakes Trail. The Spruce Creek Trail is a gradual uphill hike through various pine trees and you pass some small ponds. It's a pretty nice easy hike to get you started on a cool morning. We didn't see any wildlife but during the Spring time it looks like a perfect location to see some deer/elk. 

Once we got to the Mohawk Lakes Trail, we started to gain elevation quite a bit quicker than the Spruce Trail. The trail starts winding back and forth going up the mountain as you follow a stream on the right. There are quite a few ways up the path so don't be confused if you see a separate trails. As long as you go up and keep the water on your right, you'll be fine. One small trail deviation led to our first waterfall.


After the waterfall it was more uphill as we got to the Lower Mohawk Lake. While the lake isn't very big, it's a pretty view being able to see the mountains behind it. This is another place that Ali and I slightly deviated from the trail as we started roaming around the campsites here. If you want to stay on the trail, stick to the left of the creek that feeds the lake.


Next on the water list is Mohawk Lake. This was the coolest one in my opinion. As you are hiking up to it, you come eye level with the water and then have a nice view of the mountains behind it. You can scramble up some rocks on the left or the trail continues around to the right which is where the picture below was taken.


After we passed it, it got windy as were were almost at the top of this particular hike and there weren't very many trees. During the Spring I bet it's very pretty up here with wild flowers but for us it was fairly bare as far as vegetation goes. You pass one more smaller lake/pond before you get to the end of the trail. The last lake which I'm not even sure if it has a name or not looks similar to Mohawk but is a little bit smaller. 


On our way back we took the 4x4 road instead of the Spruce Trail to mix it up a little bit and get a different perspective of the mountain. Overall, our GPS said we hiked around 9.47 miles (I think a little less) and had a 2,183 elevation gain. As I said before, I love water hikes so I really enjoyed being able to see a lot of different bodies of water plus some nice mountain views when you got to the top. It was a nice change of pace after Mt. Bierstadt the previous week where there were no trees or water. I'd like to do this one again during the Spring for wildlife and also to see the flowers.



Splunk's Adaptive Response Framework

Before I start this post, I want to give a quick shout out to Splunk. I recently just got back from my first .conf and I have to say, overal...