Rankin Gulch
There was a huge network of trails near Lake George, and we were on Day 2 of our Lake George weekend. We met Dorit in her car at the Ponderosa Country Store where we were gassing up each morning, where we chatted with the owner and checked out his vintage 4x4 vehicles parked at the highway in front of his store. It was a great place to meet.
Dorit's car made it to the trailhead without any issues, and we left it there to pick it up later. We aired down near a bunch of people who were camping, and we'd see a lot of campers over the course of the day. We soon headed in, and most of our GPS units said the trail was named Mistletoe.
It was a nice drive to the end, and we enjoyed the first hill climb. The gate at the private property portion was pretty destroyed, but it was obvious that we needed to turn around and head back down.
We did Dutch's Hill on Dutch's Hair next, and that was one of the highlights. It was rocky and fairly long as we worked our way down, shaded by lots of trees. When we got to the bottom, the trail opened up. We could tell that not many people came down that hill, which was nice. It eventually ended at a big turnaround, where we stopped for morning snack time.
The trail used to continue in two different directions, but both were blocked off. We decided to walk up one of the former spurs to get to the top of a hill there, and we saw deer at the top. The scenery was pretty decent, and there was a nice camping spot up there, too. We hung out, enjoying the morning, but then walked back down. We had lots more trail to see.
Dutch's Hill was even better on the way back up, and then we were on Lazy. Walt made us laugh when he announced on the CB when we were on the corner of Nice and Lazy, our next intersection. We went up Nice, and had a nice surprise when we found a rocky hill at the end. Some of us went a bit farther than the hill and down on the other side, finding turning around a bit challenging but not too difficult.
We kept checking out spurs, and we kept seeing the same kids on ATVs with no helmets. They were cruising off trail, and we had the opportunity to tell them it was important to stay on the trail. The last time we saw them they were doing just that, so it was a good educational experience.
The Genuine spur was uneventful, and so was Burma Shave. The Great View spur was probably the best, and when we got to the first flat, wide spot we stopped for lunch. We could see Pikes Peak in the distance, and we hung out there for quite a while.
This was one of the longer spurs, with a fun hill in the middle. The views at the end were nice, and we climbed around the rocks there for a bit, enjoying the sunshine. After a while, we headed back to the main trail.
We got to the big intersection, and then we needed to run Dorit back to her car. We took the short way out on Spaghetti Lightning, dropped her off, and went back to Spaghetti Lightning. All of the trail and spur names were pretty fun!
