Pronghorn II

Ten hearty souls faced strong winds on an otherwise beautiful hike on the "other" loop of the Pronghorn trails south of Del Norte.  

We'll walk again tomorrow (WED. at 10 a.m.).  The weather may allow us to get to the top of our own mountain in our back yard.  That's a fairly tough but short hike.

(if the weather changes drastically, we'll have a bailout ready. The forecasts have been rather sketchy, but most say Wednesday will be "improving", whatever that means.)

Up the pronghorn

Rocks and Trees

Vegetation

Pronghorn trail

going down

Big Buck waiting at home after the hike

Fort from early 2017

Here's one thing that we saw today.  Barbara remembered seeing it last year.  This didn't take long, but it is another of the curiosities and beauties of our "town mountain."  I have taken several solo hikes this summer up the lower part of Sentinel Mountain; each is a unique experience.   As you know there are very steep places, Spring creeks, diverse flowers through the spring and summer,  about 8 species of  trees, open spaces, nice views all around the mountain, many kinds of birds,

and jumbles of rocks.  This former volcanic formation is a local "secret" known to a few hunters but we're pretty sure it was visited by Ute people from "way back when."

It's kind of nice to have such a mountain in our "back yard", yet visited by so few.  Thanks to you hikers who have the gumption to take steps upwards, usually when we're off  trail.  

Next Monday we'll hike at 10 a.m. Meet before 10 at the visitor center in South Fork.  Pay little attention to some of the printed or computer information if it has another time. (0ne new hiker missed our hike this morning because he saw something somewhere that said we hiked at 9:30.  I can't remember any time when that happened.)  

I don't know what to do on Wednesdays starting in November.  Few people show up on that day.  These are pleasant hikes and we try to make them informative as well as good for our physical well-being.  But low numbers may indicate a distaste for those mid-week treks.

Thanks to Barbara for the pics! 

Begin forwarded message:

From: Barbara Thiesfeld <barbara.thiesfeld@gmail.com>

Subject: Fort from early 2017

Date: November 1, 2017 7:30:51 PM MDT

To: Douglas Knudson <Douglasfir636@gmail.com>

Sent from my iPad