Colorado Springs, CO
July 6, 2014
Narrow, twisty and fun...Schubarth Loop is all that and more.Not far from Colorado Springs it's a great moderate 4X4 trail in the Pike National Forest.
From Hwy 24, to get to the main trail, you first travel thru a meadow with private roads and land on both sides.
Its quite beautiful and peaceful...
We also passed thru an aspen regeneration area monitored by the Air Force Natural Resources Dept. These quaking aspen need full sunlight to thrive so logging trucks have cleared areas (mimicking natural disasters like fire, windstorms and other disturbances) for seedlings to grow. The areas are fenced in to keep deer and elk out, but fences will be removed as the trees mature. I'm not sure how many acres were cleared in 2000 and 2002, but the sign states that there are as many as 13,000 new seedlings per acre.
Narrow was fun...lots of "woohoo"s here.
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| Ronnie, Carol and Shannon squeezing thru the rocks. |
Twisty was fun too...tummy tickles here!
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| Jade twists thru the turns. |
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| Air Force Academy from the overlook |
The views were impressive at the overlook.
We found some areas had washed and had deep ruts. Even that adds a bit of excitement!
The rocks...huge outcroppings all along the way.
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| Rocks make a nice backdrop. |
I had my first "up close" with a Columbine on this trail. What a beauty...
And our only wildlife for the day...
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| Turkey Vultures |
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| Shannon and Cooper... |
I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Colorado Springs is expecting thunderstorms and much cooler temps in the next few days. We are hoping to get a couple more hikes and maybe another trail ride in this week. Think sunshine!
So until next time,
happy trails!
