Hiking in Colorado

I have always adored going for long walks in the woods.  In Illinois I knew every trail in the nearby forest preserves and hiked them every chance I got.  Here are some pictures from the conservation area back home:

 

 

 

That place was fun to hike and beautiful in it's own right even though now it seems small to me.

Since moving to the mountains hikes have taken on a whole new meaning.  There are very few level places to hike.  You are always going either up or down.  You feel sore in ways that you never imagined were possible.  (Who knew you had muscles there?)  You learn that sometimes going up is much easier than coming down.

 

About five minutes behind our house is some BLM land with trails that can go down to the Gunnison River which sounds deceivingly simple.  This first problem we ran into was the roads to reach the trailhead.  The main roads through the BLM are decently maintained dirt roads that are passable by most vehicles on most days.  The roads to the trailheads are also dirt roads - one way tracks, not well maintained.  Some of them wind around steep cliffs and are strewn with boulders.  Needless to say my car won't make it to some of the trailheads.  One of the ones we can reach is Duncan trail.  Duncan trail is down hill almost all the way.  Getting down to the river really isn't that bad as long as you leave early enough on a summer day.

 

 

 

It's the getting back out thats hard.  It is all uphill from here.

 

 

If you leave too late in the day you should plan on taking many shade and water breaks on the way back.  The sun out here on a summer afternoon can be brutal.