Little Scraggy Trail

Re-living the summer of 2008 is a little weird.  But at least it provides an opportunity to get out and do some more hiking, and hopefully get me in shape to finally do Longs Peak this summer.  Today I took Ginny out past Buffalo Creek to the Little Scraggy Trail, another recommendation from "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Denver."

Part of the Colorado Trail, the route was impeccably maintained.  Smooth and wide most of the way.

There weren't that many real "vistas."  There was a lot of tree cover for most of the trail, with the exception of a couple of side paths to rock outcroppings.

Lots of wildflowers in bloom, so that's what most of my pictures ended up being of.  Like this beardtongue.

Nuttall's evening primrose, maybe?  Globeflower?  I'm not very good at wildflower identification.  It was a little sad that by the time I came back past this spot a few hours later the petals were already shriveled up.

Lots of columbines, which was cool.

Funny how one thing can lead to something totally unexpected.  I was taking pictures of an interesting dead tree with a lot of fungus growing on it -- none of which came out especially well -- and when I got closer I realized the tree was crawling with little blue beetles.  I thought they might be pine beetle at first, but further research revealed that they were in fact something called the Pleasing Fungus Beetle.  I'd never heard of them before, so it was nice to learn something new!

Young wild rose flowers, which get lighter as they get older.

Ginny was already pooped when we reached the turnaround at the intersection with the Tramway Trail.

It was a fairly breezy day, so I was surprised this dandelion still had all its seeds.

The trail ran alongside a pretty impressive rock face at one stretch.  In early morning light I'll bet it's pretty striking.  In bright overcast midday conditions, not as much.

Wild geranium with what appeared to be a sleeping wasp.  At least, the insect didn't move while I snapped a few pictures.

We did the 11.5 miles in just under four and a half hours.  About a quarter of the way in, I began to wonder if God had set things up for me to try to do the entire Colorado Trail this summer.  What better opportunity?  Then when I got about done, my legs told me that wasn't God's plan for me at all.  I guess we'll stick with the Long Peak training plan. :)