Ft Collins - Soapstone Prairie (Cheyenne Rim)

A storm had rolled through the Front Range earlier in the week and I really am not ready to start snowshoeing yet, so I decided to tackle the Cheyenne Rim Trail in Soapstone Prairie.  This is the second trip to Soapstone this year; the last was in late May.  The wind was howling all day, sometimes better, sometimes worse.  It was especially bad up on the rim overlooking the Red Mountain Open Space.  It wasn't supposed to snow, but it started falling about a mile from the end.  So not too bad.

The Soapstone area is a good wintering ground for a variety of wildlife.  Today I saw several groups of Pronghorn Antelope; each about thirty or forty animals, a few Mule deer, and of course a lot of wintering, grazing black cows.   I saw a few rabbit tracks in the snow, and a few coyote tracks as well.

I'm sure the wind kept everyone else at home, so I was alone on the trail all day.  Kinda cool.  Here are a few of pictures.

Pronghorn Antelope - ready to run!

Looking SSE from trail toward Round Butte

Early afternoon snow

Overall Track Statistics for track Ft Collins - Soapstone-Cheyenne Rim

 Length 15.923 miles

 Start Elevation - 6140.09 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 7193.93 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 6085.99 feet

 Date of Hike - Nov 18, 2015

 Start Time - 07:43 AM

 End Time - 02:07 PM

 Total Duration -     6:23 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 4559.94 feet

 Total Descent - 4512.93 feet

 Net Ascent - 47.01 feet

 Maximum Grade - 15.70%

 Average Speed -  2.49 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 609.88 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  3.37 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) -  6.75%