Country Boy Mine - a gold mine in Breckenridge, CO

Country Boy mine was developed in the 1880s and produced gold at first. Then after the war, lead and zinc to make ammunition and galvanize steel, respectively.

Avits are the horizontal tunnels that are drilled and dynamited into the side of a mountain to get to the gold, lead, zinc or silver.

To blast a hole 1-1/2 foot deeper into the rock, miners had to pound 25 strategically placed holes in the rock. At first this was done with a hammer and puncher. Then the drill took it's place. The drill became known as the "widow maker" because the men who operated the drills died after 3-4 years of dust in the lungs. Then they added water to the drill, creating the pneumatic drill, which kept the dust down.

The only light was candlelight. There were no floorboards underneath. Just rails for the carts carrying stone debris and horizontal logs placed a few feet apart perpendicular to the rails. Men who lost their candlelight would get out by following the rail and the path of the water, which trickled downhill, as the avits are on a slight 2% grade to ease the removal of heavy debris.

There used to be 23,000 mines in Colorado. Now only one is operating, due to EPA and homeowner issues related to the arsenic and other chemicals required to process the ore. Now most gold mining is done in either South Africa, South America or Indonesia.

We didn't pan for gold flakes, though we had the opportunity.

See photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickijbrown/sets/72157622186827646/

French Gulch Road
Breckenridge, CO
$18.95 per person

Don't follow the GPS coordinates on their web site. They lead you up a very poorly maintained dirt road to nowhere.

Willow Lakes hike, Silverthorne, CO

Willow Lakes is a must-do trail to see some beautiful alpine lakes, lots of wildflowers (in late July at least), and great views of Red Peak. I'm so glad that my friend JC urged us to do this one!

The trail climbs steadily at the start. Then levels off a bit. And climbs a bit at the end.

About halfway through, you get great views of Red Peak, which isn't so much of a single peak, but several pointed, jagged peaks in a row.

At the trail junction with Salmon Lake, we took the left trail to Willow Lakes.

Four beautiful alpine lakes. Ate lunch on a rock overlooking the uppermost lake. It started to rain just as we were finishing lunch.

We took the lower path through a camp at the third lake on the way back. This was perhaps a half mile shorter than the upper path we'd taken to get there.

It hailed on us twice. Both times the size of peas. The hail hurt when it hit us -- hands, ears, legs. Charlie's back was covered in hail and he was very unhappy.

Charlie was exhausted. We felt good!

See 19 photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickijbrown/sets/72157622177563308/

12 miles, 2,400 foot elevation gain
Summit: 4th of the 4 Willows lakes, 11,465'
Route: Willow Lakes trail (passing Gore Range trail and Salmon Lake trail)
4-1/2 hrs up; 3 hrs down

Wilder Gulch to Ptarmigan Pass hike, CO

The last two weeks of July are said to be the peak wildflower time in the mountains west of Denver, CO. This hike was visible proof of that. We saw meadows and fields flecked with bright colors of yellow, red, purple, blue, violet. Wildflowers included Indian Paintbrush.

What is a "gulch" exactly? How does it differ from a valley? Both go between mountains right? The dictionary says a gulch is a deep, narrow ravine, especially one marking a stream.

On our hike along the gulch, through meadows and conifer forests, we got spectacular views of the Ten Mile Range, and Ptarmigan Hill was frequently visible in the distance.

We saw several chipmunks, some birds and many butterflies and moths. But alas, no elk or moose, though we did see what we think was a moose print.

The hike is punctuated throughout by a more than a dozen running streams of water, which you pass over. Fifteen streams to be exact. Helpful stepping stones over the water for most of them.

At the pass, Ptarmigan Hill looks like a "scramble" of 500-750 foot. A group of hikers we observed at the house on the top had to walk over a snow/ice field near the summit, and we saw one of them sliding down on his butt for quite a ways! Looked potentially dangerous, but fun. Given our 4pm wine tasting plans, and the fact that we are still acclimating, we opted to skip the summit and just observe it from this nice saddle/pass area.

We're certain that many flowers that weren't open in the morning were open and turned toward the sun by the afternoon when we returned. Beautiful!

See 19 photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickijbrown/sets/72157622178744516/

8 miles, 1,400' elevation gain
Destination: Ptarmigan Pass = 11,765 feet high
Route: trail begins south of the lower parking lot, descends into the gulch and then climbs to the saddle of Ptarmigan Hill
5-1/2 hours in total (including a lot of time taking photos!)

Loveland Pass West hike, Colorado

This was a fantastic hike for our first day at elevation in Colorado. It required some elevation gain, but not too much too quickly. Most of the walk was along a ridge-rimmed bowl, with unparalleled 360 degree views. At the end point, marked by a stone wind shelter, mountains are visible in every direction. The parking lot seemed impossibly far away, though it was only about 1.8 miles along the ridge and perhaps 1.3 miles as the crow flies.

Occasionally a snow field edged with reddish orange appears along the route. Mike suggested the color is from the clay in the area's soil.

Mountains visible from the pass include Keystone and Breckinridge ski areas, the Ten Mile Range, the Saguache Range, the Williams Fork Range and Mt.Sniktau.

At the stone wind shelter, we met an enthusiastic, wide-eyed young man from the Chicago area who was traveling west using his XM-outfitted car and camper, a GPS and a laptop to offload all of his photos. His goal was to make San Francisco and spend time on the west coast, but he was so enamored by the mountains of Colorado that he said he might not make it. He planned to purchase the "Summit Hiker" book by local Mary Ellen Gilliland and start hiking the area. I told him that I could spend the entire summer in this area of Colorado and still not see all of the beautiful mountain ranges and passes.

Loveland Pass was built in 1879 and superseded Argentine pass, which at 13,132 feet was the area's first major east-west route. A must-see for everyone!

While here, we went for two geocaches in the area. The first, a micro cache, we found easily near the parking area. The second, about 500 feet up the trail in a group of boulders, proved more elusive and we gave up pretty quickly. That one will go down as a DNF (did not find).

More photos of Loveland Pass West:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickijbrown/sets/72157622178959092/show

4 miles, 489' elevation gain
Destination: Stone wind shelter = 12,276 feet high (just below a perennial snow field)
Route: trail west from the parking area then north around the ridge around the alpine bowl
3 hours in total

Prairie Dogs at Davidson Mesa Park, Louisville, CO

Tall grasses blowing in the wind. Majestic Rocky Mountains to the west. A big blue sky. Curious prairie dogs standing up on their dirt mounds as you walk by, and then scampering to their holes. Bright sun but no humidity. And several hundred feet below, the McClaslin Road and the houses in Louisville, CO, a quaint community near Boulder.

The prairie dogs were an unexpected delight -- the highlight of the walk along the mesa. A fabulous short walk on our second day in Colorado.

More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickijbrown/sets/72157622187608504/show/

~4 miles, minimal elevation gain
Summit: Mt. Tom = 4,051 feet high
Route: outside trail around perimeter of park
1-1/2 hours in total (including time taking photos of prairie dogs)

Gray Jays meet us on Mt. Tom's summit

What a wonderful trail to Mt. Tom! I was glad to finally make it, as I had attempted this with Mike in the winter and the steep grade about halfway through scared me so much that I turned back. Doing that in snowshoes would have been tricky. And I was just learning...

We had three significant steam crossings, for which I was grateful to have hiking poles for balance. It was heart-rending at one point to watch a large black dog run back and forth along the bank, trying to find a good crossing point. He stepped in twice, whimpering as his paw hit the cold water. Finally, with the coaxing of his owner across the stream, he plunged in and made it across in just a few seconds.

To reach the true summit, you must take the left trail at the junction near the top. Miraculously, we were the only ones there -- except for two bold birds, which I later confirmed were juvenile Gray Jays. Both begging for food, of course! There was really no view at all. We were completely fogged in. At least it didn't rain!

The descent is actually fairly easy -- lots of moderate steps down; no long steps over big boulders as with the Mt. Percival trail on Saturday.

I LOVED this trail! Must do it again. With snowshoes!

5.6 miles, 2,151' elevation gain
Summit: Mt. Tom = 4,051 feet high
Route: Avalon Trail, A-Z Trail, Mt. Tom spur.
5-1/2 hours in total (including time on summit)

Thunder on Mt. Percival

We knew we didn't have much time before the anticipated afternoon T-storms, so we started out to do the popular Morgan-Percival loop on the southern fringe of NH's White Mountains -- knowing that we could abort partway should the weather turn bad.

It was a typically White Mountain ascent to Mt. Percival (i.e., lots of big rocks and boulders to clambor over). Near the summit, we avoided the boulder caves and opted for the cliff ledge approach instead.

It was a race against time as we heard the first clap of thunder just as we had the summit in view. We considered continuing over the ledges to join the Crawford-Ridgepole Trail and make our way to Mt. Morgan, thereby finishing the loop. But with the thunder and lightning, that would have meant some significant exposure both to Mt. Morgan and on its summit. So we high-tailed it back down the same trail upon which we came. It rained and thundered and lightning'ed (is that a word?) for most of our descent. Some of the rocks were very slippery when wet, made all the more difficult because of their steepness. But we made it back safely!

4.0 miles, 1,450' elevation gain
Summit: Mt. Percival = 2,212 feet high
Route: Mt. Percival trail, off of Route 113.