Imbolc Maiden Moon
Tai chi is over and I took my first mountain hike since hiking Upper Maxwell Falls to Lower Maxwell Falls with Ruth last fall. The Cub Creek trail winds up from 8,400 feet, the trailhead only a couple of miles from our house. So, I drove over there about 2 p.m and was back home about 3:20, having spent an hour walking up what I believe is Black Mountain. The trail is in the Mt. Evans’ Wilderness area.
Mt. Evans is a fourteener, the most prominent peak near our home and, according to our neighbors, a weathermaker for our area. There are definitely weather influences by taller mountains on lower ones, especially when the taller ones are in the west as is the case with Mt. Evans relative to Shadow Mountain. Most of our weather comes from the west and Mt. Evans changes its character before it hits us.
This trail runs first through a forest of lodgepole pine, then opens to a burned out area with a magnificent vista to the north. I’ll post the pictures later today. After the burned out area, which is fairly level, the elevation gain became serious, for me at least. The forest thins out, with older trees. When the trail continues up past a service road, it begins to get rocky.
I pushed myself going up the trail, feeling the burn in my lungs and my quads. This was my Saturday workout and it was a good one. Since it’s March, the trail varied, some spots were icy, some covered with snow, other parts bare. This will be the last time I leave my trekking poles behind. Going up is not much of a problem, but hiking down the icy portions was treacherous.
While I hiked a rifle cracked somewhere below, more than once, filling the canyons nearby with echoes. Since this is National Forest land, not National Park, the motto is mixed use, which includes hunting though I can’t imagine what’s in season in March.
This is the kind of boots on the ground experience I want to make a regular part of my life. So many trails and mountains nearby.
