Hygiene - Rabbit Mountain

This is the third and what would be the last pre-retirement hike.  It seemed like a long time since I had been out and I was itching to go somewhere, but didn't want to drive for any length of time.  Well, it turns out that between Longmont and Lyons there is a Boulder County Open Space called Rabbit Mountain.  It is a pretty popular place because it is so close and the trails are not difficult.

I found the trailhead easy enough, although the turn off Highway 66 was well camouflaged.  I hit the trail about 900a with the objective of getting in as much hiking as I could before I wore myself out.  There is a good 6% ( 300ft) climb right out of the trailhead up to the bench on the hillside.  Once on the top of the bench, I turned right on to Eagle Wind Trail.  According to the Rabbit Mountain Trail Map , this is about a 2.4 mile loop through some scrub foothill country.  I found it to be quite scenic with views of the mountains close off to the North and a small stand of juniper full of shade on a sunny day.  Although looking at the picture again, that might be lodgepole.  I really need to learn my trees.

Sunny Day!

The trail soon began it's loop back to the junction, but before I got very far, I encountered some awesome views of the snow topped Indian Peaks.

Indian Peaks

I finished off the Eagle Wind Trail and was not too tired so decided to tackle the Little Thompson Trail.  This is a short, but somewhat strenuous climb to an overlook of the Little Thompson River watershed.  The Little Thompson was the last river to force a US 287 road closure during the September 2013 floods.  In fact, in my adventure to get home from work in Longmont to home in Loveland, I crossed the Little Thompson River bridge just before they closed it down.  The water was very high (sorry no flood pictures, but I do have an overlook picture).

Little Thompson Overlook

When I finished the Little Thompson trail I was getting a little pooped, but there was only one more 'official' trail to tackle; Indian Mesa.  So off I went.  Indian Mesa is an out and back along an old road.  I only made it half-way and turned around. 

More Junipers on Eagle Wind

 As I began my descent to the trailhead, there were many more people starting up the hill.  There were lots of families with little ones tackling the mountain.  I smiled at them all.  I decided there that I liked smiling a people enjoying themselves, because I sure was.

Here are the descriptive statistics.

Length 6.832 miles

 Start Elevation - 5496.53 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 5880.30 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 5494.15 feet

 Date of hike - 01/25/2014 

 Start Time - 906a

 End Time - 1206p

 Total Duration -     3:00 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 1230.88 feet

 Total Descent - 1233.12 feet

 Net Ascent - -2.24 feet

 Maximum Grade - 11.76%

 Average Speed -  3.34 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 1230.88 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  4.23 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) -  5.74%