MistyCastle

old news from the Grimes family

Month: June 2005

Oil Creek Tunnel

6/25/2005 /

We finally got back to our mystery hike over Fathers Day weekend. Enough snow had melted that we were able to make our way all the way to Oil Creek Tunnel. Kristina came with us as she was home for a visit. She rode the Amtrak train out from Osceola to Denver and spent the weekend. It was great to have her home and back out on the trail with us again.

Oil Creek Tunnel was constructed in the late 1890’s by a Cincinnati company as a prospecting venture. No, not for gold, but for flourine quartz. The tunnel bores straight into Pikes Peak right at the treeline at an elevation of 11,285 feet. It was not a particulary successful operation and they gave up after boring through 1,593 feet of solid granite. The tunnel is about six feet high and eight feet wide for the most part but there are sections that are lower and it’s easy to bonk your head since most of your attention is on where you are putting your feet.

We had a nice hike into the area and were able to find the cabin ruins without much trouble. But beyond the cabin the snow was still drifted pretty heavily and was not passable in many places. We knew the tunnel was in the rock face so we split up and started looking for it. Ronda was the first to spot it and we all converged on the area. The tunnel itself was still covered by the huge snow drifts coming down off the mountain, although there was a small hole from where the warmer air had melted through. The main giveaway was the old steam boiler that is still intact and the stream coming out of the snow. Continue reading

Dust Devil: 1 Dust Bin: 0

6/17/2005 /

I was outside for my afternoon walk on Thursday when I saw an interesting phenomena. I try and get away from my desk and computer mid-morning and mid-afternoon to stretch the legs and get some fresh air. There is a lot of parking area behind our building and a number of vacant buildings in the complex which makes for a nice stroll. I had just started out on this nice warm sunny day when I noticed a number of papers swirling around about a quarter mile away. The papers were several hundred feet up in the air going around in a big circle and climbing.

I stopped and watched it for a bit then realized it was coming my way. Immediately, I was faced with one of those annoying decisions… should I go on or turn back? As it came across the parking area it started picking up quite a bit more loose sand and dirt and I could tell I was definitely in the way of it’s path. For a dust devil it was not very well defined but with the sand and dirt it was at least visible. It went up and over the nearest building and as it came down the other side it flipped over a double-size steel dumpster and picked up a bunch more sand.

I was suddenly convinced of the correct course of action. I knew I would not make it back to our building but the parked cars were not too far away so I trotted over and crouched down beside the Jeep and closed my eyes as it went through. It passed by about twenty yards away and I got pelted pretty good with sand. It reminded me of our trip to the Great Sand Dunes several years ago. First time I’ve ever seen or experienced a dust devil. It was pretty cool.

A New Trail

6/3/2005 /

We ventured out on Memorial Day weekend to reconnoiter a new trail that leads to an interesting destination. The destination shall remain undisclosed at the moment since we were unable to complete the trip. The trail begins at the 12,000 ft level on the slopes of Pikes Peak.

At this level you are just entering what is called the “alpine zone”. Another way to look at is “the treeline”. The trail starts out through a wooded area and we soon encountered what would ultimately force us to turn around… deep snow on the trail. Most of the snow is gone but it is still drifted in many places up to 3 or 4 feet deep. Trying to walk over these places in your trail runners can get pretty dicey. We were able to walk over most of them but still sank through in a lot of spots. Abby fared some better as she is a lot lighter but even she had troubles. Needless to say, our feet were soaked by the time we got back to the Jeep.

The trail comes out of the woods and crosses a large scree field, shown in the picture above, and then passes through more snow drifted woods before descending down the back side of the ridge. Here the trail descends swiftly and comes out in a flat area between the two ridges. The trail forks here with one segment going around the opposite ridge and joins up with the Barr trail that many people use to climb Pikes Peak. The other segment (the one we wanted) was buried under lots of snow and we really could not quite pick out where it went. We saw some tracks made by someone with snowshoes but trying to follow those was hopeless. So we turned around.

On the way back up the trail we saw some abandoned mining gear (hint) laying beside the trail. We made our way back through the snow drifts and partway across the scree field and decided to explore an interesting rock outcrop for a good lunching spot. We were successful and had a nice bite to eat and rest while taking in the view down the valley. On the way back up and across to the Jeep a snow squall came along and pelted us with snow! It was short-lived but fun.

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