Beaver Creek Road
A lot of the people in the group had wondered where this trail went. We always saw it on the way to Webster Pass, but no one had ever explored it. We were looking forward to the adventure.
The lake is private, which is unfortunate. It's definitely in a pretty setting. We crossed a nice bridge and went through a small residential area, and then we were climbing up a rocky hill. The rocks were pretty fun, and we hoped for even more of the same as the trail progressed.
When we got to the intersection, the fun rocks stopped. The rest of the trail was pretty mellow. In some ways, swaying back and forth through sandy and muddy potholes is relaxing, and it mellowed us all out.
We saw that there were signs everywhere in preparation for a foot race. At least we hoped that they weren't left over from a race that had already finished. We followed the signs and took the left fork first.
There were a few scenic beaver ponds in the valley we traveled through as we followed Beaver Creek. Otherwise, the scenery was nothing compared to Hall Valley or Webster Pass. When we came to the intersection with the spur that takes you to Lininger Lake, the race signs told runners to take that route. It must have finished at the lake, or the future race would.
We continued on, however, and the trail just ended. We turned around and headed back out without leaving our vehicles. What was this fork for?
Back at the intersection, we took the other fork. Though there was a mellow hill climb with a couple of rocks in it, this side was also pretty tame. It went through trees and never left them, and then it just ended at a large turnaround and parking area.
This is a weird trail! It doesn't go anywhere (did it ever go anywhere?) and there isn't much scenery other than trees and a few hills. We got out to stretch our legs, chat and snack. Steve was hearing something banging on his Jeep but he couldn't find anything, so he just hoped for the best for the rest of the day.
It wasn't long before we continued on and we were soon back out at the trailhead. We probably won't do this trail very often, but we were glad to finally find out what was back there. Mike and Mark F. left us and headed back to town, and the rest of the group headed to do Guanella Pass and see what else we could find there.
