Waterton Adventure

I went for a lengthy bike ride today with several missions in mind. Scenery, wildlife, exercise, and to get a couple of geocaches that I was very interested in getting to because they hadn't been visited yet this year!

I set out for the 29 mile round trip at about 2 pm and headed for Chatfield State Park with the intention of continuing through the park all the way to the end of the road in Waterton Canyon. I like to ride the dirt trails that are adjacent to the South Platte River in the park. However, after doing so for about half a mile, I came around a bend and found myself staring at a little creek passing over the trail about 6 inches deep. I rode through this but about 50 feet further, the whole area was flooded. This was due to the recent snow and rain storm we had less than a week ago. The warm weather lately contributed to a lot of snow melt and high waters. I have never seen the river so high and the same can be said for the lake in the park. I had to backtrack a bit and then found my way through some other dirt trails to get back the the main trail that isn't threatened by the high water. I wonder when those flooded trails will be passable once again. They might need some grooming after these high waters.

I arrived at the Waterton Canyon trailhead before 3 pm and immediately continued up the canyon. There are two geocaches that I was interested in finding. The first one is called "Fore the Cars". This cache is about half way up the canyon and then about 1/4 mile up a steep trail. The person who put it there wrote that he saw a mountain lion 25 yards away right after he placed it! I had my eyes open for one of these big cats.

I didn't want to leave my bike back by the road so I pushed it up the trail a ways and hid it behind some brush so as to be invisible from the main trail below. It is a very steep trail with an elevation gain of about 300 feet in the first 1200 feet of the trail. Then it levels off a bit. It was a tough climb but the view of the canyon below was spectacular. 99.9 percent of the people who ride up that canyon never follow any trails like this.

I followed my GPS receiver closer and closer to the cache. Right before I got to the spot, I heard an interesting noise. It was very easy to hear since it was otherwise so quiet. I had gone far enough away from the rushing river so that its sound had completely dissipated. There was only the sound of a slight breeze blowing through the brush and the aforementioned interesting noise which I believe was a mountain lion cub! This was based on the reports of seeing a lion at this location and all those nature shows I've seen over the years. Now I was a bit fearful so I quickly found the cache, which I had actually passed while distracted by the noise, did my trade and log signing and got out of there poste haste. At least I found the cache - this particular one is not visited all that often. It is almost surrounded by prickly pear cactus but I avoided having an unpleasant encounter with the thorns. About half the people who visit this cache report getting thorns in their hands - ouch! It would have been neat to see a lion but I am glad that I didn't see one in this location!

I continued up the canyon to the end where the other cache is. Finding this one, called "Waterton Canyon Cache", was much less eventful. It was by a rest area near the Strontia Springs Dam. Since the river was so high, that meant that there was a lot of water being let through the dam. The result was a fine mist in the air and about a 10-15 degree lower temperature on this hot day. Very pleasant area to cool my heals, chat with some other riders, and find this other cache. It had been 4 months since someone else had visited this one.

One the way beck through Chatfield, I saw a large vulture that was interested in a nearby deer carcass. I also saw a trio of mergansers which are very interesting ducks - intersting coloring and styling. The males and females are so different looking. I wonder if the two males were competing for the females attention.

Here are some photos from this adventure.

This one is a picture of Plum Creek. Notice the high water. Compare it to this picture of the creek at the same location at normal level from last fall.



This photo was taken on the way to the "Fore the Cars" cache. I am about half way up the steep trail, taking a break and taking this photo.



Water was flowing from everywhere. Never saw any waterfalls in Waterton before today - like this one.



Here is a friendly vulture. He posed here for several minutes before taking off. Isn't he (or she) cute?