Cold Day Hike to Cheesman Ranch

The forecasters warned us. They said it was going to be cold overnight. And it was.

When we rolled out of bed at 7:00a, the outdoor temp was reading 27F ... brrrr! But inside the Cruiser we were comfy and cozy. We had breakfast at the dinette and settled down to wait for the temperature to rise. Even with the sun burning off the fog, it was another three hours before we saw the gauge read 32F. Still too cold to go for a hike.

By the time we had lunch, the temp had risen to 43F. We have come to recognize that if the sun is out, anything above 40F is quite comfortable here in Colorado. Especially if there is no breeze. So, we bundled up and went off to do a short hike.

The Grouse Mountain Trailhead is at the top of the Grouse Mountain Campground. That’s one of the campgrounds that’s closed for the season. So is the road that goes up that way. Knowing that we’d be adding about 2.7 miles just to get to/from the trailhead, we settled on a short trail ... Cahill Pond Loop ... 2.6 miles. Hah!

Somehow we missed a trail marker — blended into the trees, I’m guessing. Or at least that’s my story and I am sticking to it 🤪. So, to Plan B we went and created a trail of our own ... kludging several of them to create a loop. The bonus? We got to see the Cheesman Ranch and Cahill Pond, and enjoyed a fairly easy uphill grade on the way back to the trailhead. Had we done the original loop, we would have been huffing and puffing quite a bit at the end.

Overall, adding in the walk to/from the Cruiser to the trailhead, we did 7.3 miles! Not bad at all!

We’ll be going home tomorrow. Though we are still considering a winter trip down south, we have too many hard freezes forecasted next week to leave the motorhome in storage without winterizing. So, that’s the work that awaits us when we get home.Read more