Chalk Creek Colorado, CO Segment 14a  Chalk Creek to Angel of Shavano Trail Head  

“What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die of course. Literally shit myself Lifeless” Bill Bryson

Carols Got it Figured

June 4, 2005. We get an early start from Frisco this morning, and after dropping off the van at Angel of Shavano Trailhead, we drive back to the Chalk Creek Trail Head which is the beginning of Segment 14. We begin hiking at 9:25 AM and cross over Chalk Creek. We start with a steady ascent through an area of sage, pinion pine, and mountain mahogany. We come to the head of a canyon and climb a series of switchbacks which provides views of Mount Princeton behind us.

We Are Being Watched

At about the 1.5 mile mark, we top out on a knoll overlooking the Chalk Cliffs to our north. The trail soon turns from east to south and descends into the Eddy Creek drainage. The hike is mostly open meadows and ridge walking and is consistently gaining, then losing altitude. In other words, there is lots of ups and downs. We walk in aspen forests and lodgepole forests, depending on the altitude and exposure. On some ridges you can see east down to the town of Salida. Clouds are building to the east, west, and south of us, but so far we are in a tunnel of sun. We take a break because Tims knee is starting to bother him. When we continue, it looks like it is snowing on Mount Ouray and Chipeta Peak to the southwest of us. At one point it snows on us for a while, with the sun out. It is actually snow being blown our way from the west. It doesn’t last long and we hope the storm stays put.

Trail Through Aspen

Just past Squaw Creek, we join a jeep road through an aspen forest. We get ahead of Tim and Jill and wait. While waiting, an older couple comes up, and we talk with them. They have retired in Salida and are out enjoying a day hike. Tim and Jill catch up but Tims knee is really bothering him, causing some distress and a slow pace. After a bit Carol and I start out again. Tim and Jill say they will walk slow and catch up to us. That seems kind of contradictory to me. We meet the lady from Salida again, who tells us we just missed seeing a bear. It was their first bear sighting and she is excited. Carol is excited that we missed the bear! Carol has a fear of bears. I think seeing a bear might be nice or might not! We continue walking and climb the last ridge before we start our downhill to the trail head. Tim and Jill are nowhere in sight. We run into the husband from Salida, who also tells us about the bear. Why he hiked on ahead of his wife after seeing a bear, we can only speculate. Life insurance, maybe!!! As it looks like it may rain, we start descending down the trail. When we are near the bottom, we spot Tim and Jill plodding along slowly. We get to the van and wait there. When they arrive, Tim is really hobbling. And now for the rest of the story; Tim really hurt his knee from running the Boulder Boulder 10K race and then running around later on the Lions Gulch trail near home. So we will wait and see how this affects our future hiking plans. Today was a long day. We started at 9:25 A.M. and finished at 6:10 PM for a total of 8 hours and 45 minutes of hiking. We covered 16.2 miles. Our moving average was a respectable 2.7 miles per hour and our overall average 1.8 mph. We spent 5 hours and 59 minutes hiking and 2 hours and 47 minutes on breaks. The maximum elevation was 10,171 feet, but there was plenty of up and down hiking. Our total ascent was 3,462 feet which is a lot, considering the lower altitude we were hiking at. We will have an update on Tims knee when we get one.                                                                                 Segment 14 Miles Hiked  22.1 miles Segment 15 Miles Hiked  2.9 miles                       Segment 14 + first 2.9 miles of Segment 15 Total Miles Hiked  25.0 Miles                        Total C.T. Miles Hiked 310.9 miles