Lubahn Trail, Late Summer

Trail Name: Lubahn Trail
Distance:  2.51 mi (~1 mile of trail, 1.5 mi to get there)
Date: 8/26/10
Length: 1 hr 10 min


The Lubahn Trail is a fairly short but interesting jaunt up South Table Mountain.  It is a quick way to get to the very top, to Table Rock.


Here's a simple trail map, from Golden Trails.

Here's picture of the trailhead, with the obligatory mountain lion warning.

Here's picture of Castle Rock as you're coming up the trail.

The top provides a great view of the Golden valley.  I got a few pictures, but they really can't do the scene justice (so they're not included).

Here's an image of Lookout Mountain from the top.

You can tell it's getting dark.  This image was taken at 6:30ish, so the sun was setting (or was going to set soon).

Alright, I have one more.  I took a picture of soldier beetles in some rabbitbrush.  This was on top of south table, just along the trail.  There is some tall rabbitbrush up there.  These guys are related to lightning bugs, but sadly they are incapable of lighting up.  You often see them in August and into September.

Okay, that's it for this hike.  I really like this trail, especially in the late afternoon.  During the day it can get hot, but it will still be an enjoyable trail.  Short, easy and pretty.

Abandoned Church Hike

Trail Name: CR530
Distance:  5.92 mi
Date: 8/14/10
Length: ?

Alright, this wasn't a Golden trail, but it was a fairly interesting hike.  It started in the middle of nowhere, out in the Wet Mountain Valley (which is between Alamosa and Walsenburg, southern Colorado).

There isn't much to write about; the journey was mostly uneventful.  The area is completely covered in Pinyon Juniper woodlands.  (Pinus edulis and Juniperus osteosperma).  The trail itself is a county road that gets little traffic.  We saw three motor vehicles over the course of 6 miles; a truck, an ATV and a motor home.  It was very hot, but there was a nice breeze.  Not a cloud in the sky, except over the Wet Mountains to the north.  (caused by air rising over them, see Orographic Lifting).

There is a large ridge formation that appears around two miles in.  It was a really handy landmark.

At three miles in, there is an old abandoned church.  This was pretty much the objective of the hike.

We really couldn't ascertain much about the nature of this old structure.  There wasn't really anything that stood out.  No denomination, date, name, etc.  Just a bunch of decaying wood and rusty nails.

From inside, the story was the same.  No clues about the its age... we estimated 20 years, based on the level of decay.  Light coming through the roof; it doesn't provide much structure anymore.

That's pretty much it; the hike wasn't a loop, just back the way we came.  Not a lot of altitude gain, but it was pretty hot.  Bring lots of water if you're going to be walking around southern Colorado at noon.

Hiking 210A at the Colorado School of Mines

I read the syllabus for Hiking 210 and it said you could submit your "Hiking Log" as a website.  This sounded like fun, so this semester I'll be documenting my hikes and runs here in Golden Colorado with my point and shoot camera and posting them here.  I'll start by posting some of my past hikes in the Golden area and elsewhere.