Monday, February 19, 2007
The weather was beautiful this weekend, which was a nice break from the frigid, snowy weather we've been getting for almost this whole winter. I took advantage of the nice weather by going out hiking on the Waldo Canyon Trail just outside of town. When I got to the trailhead, a hiker couple with British accents told me that going counterclockwise around the loop trail would probably be better because there was less snow and ice on the upward slope of the counterclockwise direction compared to the clockwise direction. Even though the temperature was in the high 50s, there was still a lot of snow and ice on the trail. I went counterclockwise, but I was a little worried because the last time I went counterclockwise around the Waldo Canyon Loop, I ended up getting lost and ending up in someone's back yard. In the bottom picture, the one that has an arrow pointing to the right direction on the trail, that's where I got lost. If you're going in the counterclockwise direction, then you're going the opposite direction of that sign. If you keep on going straight on the trail past the sign, then you eventually end up in someone's back yard like I did. What you have to do is to take a sharp left when you see that sign, which I remembered to do this time, luckily. My friend Catherine told me that you're supposed to get special shoes so you don't slip on the ice of the trail. She said the shoes are maybe called "yaks", but I don't know about that. Anyway, I just had my hiking boots, but I did alright. There was one section where I slid and slid down almost ten feet of trail, but I didn't actually fall. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty nice hike. I even saw some deer on the trail. They were running around and hiding behind trees, but I managed to get a picture of one of them. You can see that picture and all of the rest of my pictures from the hike here.
Update: What d'ya know, it turns out Catherine was right. For hiking on slick surfaces, you can buy the Yak Trax Walker 10814 Spikeless Over Shoe Traction Device.