Getting in a Hike Before The Weather Turns Cold

December 6, 2021

The temperature on Sunday was in the 60s degrees F, with cold weather predicted for the rest of the week. To take advantage of the wonderful weather, we decided to go for a hike. We had been talking about trying the hiking trails from the parking lot from Heritage Road. We can see the Heritage Road parking lot from Stegosaurs Ridge.

That lot turned out to be the trailhead for several trails in Apex Park.

We walked along the trail below.

We headed up the trail, and we came to a split-off. We could continue on the paved Kinney Run Trail to downtown Golden, CO, or we could go left on the dirt hiking trails. We choose to go left on the dirt hiking trails.

We came to a gate, that had a Stop Sign with a warning that you needed to know the date before continuing on the trail. On odd number days, people and dogs are allowed on the trail. On even number days, only people with bicycles are allowed on the trail. I thought this was a very clever way to do dual-use and make the trail safer.

As we hiked along the trail, we came across the sign below. It was a fun bit of history.

We stopped on the way up the trail to give Nox some water. She didn’t want a lot of water, but she seemed happy that we offered water to drink.

Here are some more pictures of the trails. Most of the pictures are of the Magic Mountain Trail.

Nox was a trouper. When she got tired and started asking for a pickup, we turned around. I only carried Nox a short distance. I put her down, planning on putting her into the dog backpack when Bruce told her we were going back to the truck. The completely changed Nox’s opinion of how tired she was. Nox was raring to go and I gave the leash back to Bruce. Nox started trying to get ahead of Bruce so she could go faster. She wanted to get back to the truck!

Once we got down to the parking lot, I took this picture of Nox.