Lyons - Sleepy Lion

Wow, it has been five and a half weeks since my last hike to Finch/Pear Lake.  Time sure flies when getting ready for a trip to New England and the trip itself.  Also, five and a half weeks with no hike, few runs, and most of the time below an elevation of 1000 feet gets one out of shape fast!

This was a 'getting back at it' hike after returning from our trip.  The Button Rock Preserve had been closed since the September 2013 floods.  It had recently reopened and so I thought I would head out to see what there was to see.

There are two main trails in the preserve; the North Shore Trail which works its way around Ralph Price reservoir and the Sleepy Lion trail which loops around to meet up with the Button Rock trail out of Hall Ranch.  Supposedly the Sleepy Lion trail was so named because a ranger saw a sleeping mountain lion along the trail.  Hmm,  the usual Colorado warning; bears, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes.

Access road & Longmont 'reservoir'

Longs Peak & Mount Meeker from Sleepy Lion

It had rained the previous two days so the forest was wet and there were many low lying clouds which made for neat pictures.

Fog & Sun!!

Meadow in the morning

Foggy Bottom

The trail climbed up to a small meadow which allowed for a nice respite, then continued to climb to the junction with the Hall Ranch Button Rock Trail.

Meadow

Junction with Hall Ranch's Button Rock Trail

Then down, down, down to the Ralph Price Reservoir.  Ralph Price holds back drinking water for the city of Longmont.  Quite an impressive dam way up here.  As you can see the outlet was running hard.  There is a lot of pressure with 200 ft of water on top.

Ralph Price Reservoir

Ralph Price outlet from a distance

Ralph Price outlet up close

Once past the dam I got back on the access road and headed to the truck and home.  A good hike after a long pause in the schedule.  I may come back another day and hike the north shore trail.

North St Vrain

Overall Track Statistics for track Lyons - BtnRock

 Length 5.148 miles

 Start Elevation - 5934.58 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 6602.43 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 5931.69 feet

 Date of Hike - Oct 23, 2015

 Start Time - 08:03 AM

 End Time - 10:15 AM

 Total Duration -     2:12 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 1159.55 feet

 Total Descent - 957.12 feet

 Net Ascent - 202.43 feet

 Maximum Grade - 15.50%

 Average Speed -  2.34 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 557.81 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  3.11 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) -  8.36%