A couple of DUD hikes.

1st snow of the season 11/1/10

Today was our first snowfall in Monument. It was just a light dusting that was melted by noon.
Arn and I decided to check out an area south of Castle Rock that I've always noticed from I-25. It wasn't repeatable! Evidently some Colorado Lottery money was used to make a trail beside the interstate in a preble mouse habitat. Lots of money was probably used to make a couple of loops between the highway and the railroad tracks. We could hear and see traffic the entire time and the loops weren't
even in a very scenic area. Definitely won't do that again. It took us about an hour to do both loops. From there we headed to Castle Rock and hiked the rock (about 1 mile) and it was also kind of dissapointing. Again we could see and hear traffic the whole time. After reaching the top Arn did a little rock climbing and went up on top of the rock. The whole thing took about 30-40 min. We drove east and south and took some roads we hadn't traveled before. It was all ranch land with pretty views. Not very good hikes but pretty weather and at least maybe 4 miles of exercise.