With all of our big mountain adventures occupying the summer months, I completely forgot the fact that we live two miles from the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills. Sure enough, digging around the county website I found enough trails to possibly fill our winter weekends with hikes. Once the weather settles in for winter (today warmed to 60F), we'll be ready for some 8 hour strolls. So today we took a quick three mile jog to scope out an 18 mile trip. It's called Devil's Backbone and I can see it from my sewing room. (For the big trip I would leave from my friggin' house and follow the front ridge of the mountains nine miles north to Horsetooth Reservoir.)
Not having looked at the weather, 8:30am sounded just fine to head out. The air still had bite to it and a jacket seemed like a must. Then the dogs were loaded in the van and we set off. This place was so close that the heater never reached warm before we got there. Stepping out into the sun made everything different. It was warm outside, but we were only out to gain a view of the overall terrain and objectives for later. Dogs were ready to roll, so rolled we did...



The formations that makeup Devil's Backbone...



Home is off yonder in the distance...

A Forest Service guy we ran into told us the early morning was filled with elk, coyote and deer. We only saw deer...

Doggies focused on them but didn't freak out or make a sound. Not sure I can ask much more from them...




This is a busy area with access shared amongst horses, bikes, people and dogs. Overall I would rate the pack behavior at 8.5 today. They flurried up a bit when a group of almost 30 college students came along, and Sioux jumped up at a guy who baby talked him. Other than that, the heat was the only thing we had to get past. It was a quick 90 minutes this morning.
Fin.